Chateaux and Gardens and Moats- oh my!

Ok, so I'm really trying to catch up on this thing! Two weekends ago, ISA took all of the students from ABS, Sorbonne, and Catho to the Loire Valley. For those of you who don't know, the Loire Valley is in the middle of the country and known for its grand chateaux. After a two hour bus ride (which was very necessary since I had to be up at 6am), we first visited the Chateau de Blois:

Honestly, I didn't really like this one too much. It was first built by Louis XII and over the centuries, the kings of France continued to add on and make renovations, so there is no cohesive style- it just looks like a hodge-podge of architectual styles.

Next up we visited the Chateau Chenonceau:

So the chateau and the tower look connected, right?

Funny story- they're not. Nicely played, tower, nicely played...



Chenonceau was so much better than Blois. The grounds were gorgeous- and in full bloom, so it was even better. And the story behind the place is pretty scandalous too. King Henri II offered it to his mistress (not his wife), Diane de Poitiers, as a gift. After he died, his mother Catherine de Medicis acted as queen and threw this Diane chick to the curb (in actuality, Diane just moved to another castle- lucky bitch) and took the chateau for herself. When Catherine died, the chateau was passed on to her daughter-in-law Louise, married to Henri III. Upon learning her husband was killed, she fell into this extreme depression and changed some of the decor of the place to reflect her mournful mood, seen here:

Now I wouldn't exactly choose black and skulls with cross bones as the design scheme for my bedroom, but hey- whatever floats your boat.

After we left Chenonceau, we were told that we were in for a little surprise- a local wine and cheese tasting :) First, we learned a little about how these particular wines were crafted...

 ...and then we drank some. And when I say some, I mean a lot- it's not our fault if they kept refilling our glasses. Of course, we tried to counteract some of the effects of the wine with a little bread and goat cheese. It wasn't all that effective.

(The table after we destroyed it)

The next day we visited Chambord before, which was my favorite chateau, by far, before heading back to Paris. Fun fact: it served as the inspiration for Beast's castle in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast."

(double-helix staircase)

The story behind Chambord is a bit scandalous, as well. King Francois had this place built as a hunting loge, but probably only spent about 40 days here in total. A double-helix staircase is located in the middle of the castle; it's rumoured that Francois would have one mistress going down the staircase at the same time another one would be ascending. (Notice a pattern of infidelity with the French royals?) Also- fun fact: the chapel at Chambord seen above was used to house and protect treasures from the Louvre during the time of occupation during World War II.

Some of you may recognize the name Chambord- yes, there is a liquer by the same name and yes, it origniated here. So naturally we got to have a tasting.. And this time, we actually had a TASTING and not a "let-me-see-how-many-glasses-of-free -wine-I-can-down-in-an-hour" type of deal. And they gave us cookies, which were delicious.

Absolute Brilliance

Poire au vin

My dessert tonight = deliciousness. Whoever came up with the idea of cooking fruit in wine is a genius. Major props to Louise for being an awesome cook and sharing her culinary secrets.

Lost?

I think they're a little far from home:

Random Musings

1. Jersey Shore continues its quest to take over the world:

(Paris metro- just one of MANY posters. It's like I can't get away from Snooki and Pauly D)

2. It's amazing how much nicer the French can be when you're persistent and actually speak their language. This past Thursday, I needed to get an extended physical done to basically establish my temporary residency here. Anyway, the nurse called me in and started speaking to me in French, and then when I didn't do something right away, she got a little impatient and used broken English to tell me what to do. (Side note- she asked me to read some letters off a board. All well and good, but she pointed to the last letter of the line- leaving me to wonder if she wanted me to read the whole line or just the letter or what.) So I kept a polite smile on my face in spite of her snippy attitude and kept answering her in French. Surprisingly, she finally warmed up to me and we ended up having a small conversation about my studies, with her smiling and wishing me good luck at the end of the exam. Lesson of the day: persistance pays off.

3. Sometimes it pays to take a chance. I got my haircut this week by some random French girl in the salon down the street from my apartment. She spoke no English, and my vocabulary regarding hair styling wasn't exactly up to snuff, so it was a bit interesting communicating with her. Add in the fact that the same person has cut my hair for the past 10 years and no one else, and I was more than a bit nervous about this. But, somehow she understood what I wanted, plus added her own twist (by layering the shit out of it when I actually only wanted a few), and I love the end result, seen here:

(Please note that I never take these kinds of pictures, but it was necessary for illustration purposes. Thank you.)

Busy, busy, busy...

I'm such a slacker on this whole blog-update deal; my apologies everyone. But I've actually been doing quite a bit in the past week(s)! Last Wednesday, I went to the Centre Pompidou, where I had my Contemporary Art "class." I may have said this before, but I am going to use the term "class" loosely here because it's moreso just going to a museum/gallery, looking at the art, the "professor" asking if we have any questions, and then heading out for the day. Not that I have any complaints, because I love doing that sort of thing, but I was just under the impression that the class would have more structure to it. Anyway, like I was saying, we went to the Pompidou to look at the modern-contemporary collection, which I absolutely love- I even managed to see a few of my favorite American abstract expressionists :)

Kandinsky

Oh, Marcel Duchamp...

Pollock<3

I found a set of Barnett Newman lithographs. Do you know how excited this made me? Granted, they're not as good as his actual works, but still...BARNETT NEWMAN.

Rothko<3

El Anatsui- I remember writing an essay on him for my Contemporary African Art midterm- oh the memories...

Friday, I visited l'Orangerie for the first time (shoutout to GP). OH MY GOD IT WAS AMAZING! Monet's Nympheas are absolutely beautiful, and I didn't know that there were two rooms of them (one room to show the daytime-version, one room for the nighttime-version). I think I sat in the rooms for about 40 minutes just staring at the canvases. See for yourselves:

I then went to visit the rest of the museum, which is a cute little museum that includes the works of some Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, like Renoir, Cezanne, Rousseau, etc. And I now have a newfound appreciation for the painter Maurice Utrillo and a continued indifference for Chaim Soutine.

Weekend=Loire Valley (so special it will get its own post- soon)

Monday was class in the afternoon at the Louvre (which has become a regular occurrence), and Tuesday, I had a bit of free time after my morning class (where we just watch French/English movies?), so I visited Sainte Chapelle, which is something I've been wanting to do since before I got here, but I just got the chance to do it now since it was such a nice day! And this chapel, built under the orders of Saint Louis to house relics from the Passion, is absolutely amazing! The walls are non-existant; instead, stained-glass fills the windows with stories from the Old and New Testaments.

(It's hard to get a full shot of everything because the ceiling of the chapel is so tall)

And Friday, I finally got to go up the Eiffel Tower (it's not like I haven't been here for two months or anything...) While a bunch of us originally planned to climb the 704 stairs to the second level (not the very top, but the one below it), we changed our minds and figured we should go to the very top by way of elevator- my leg muscles and feet were thanking me for that decision :)

And after, we headed over to Le Marais (the Jewish quarter in Paris) for an inexpensive lunch of falafel- and it was delicious :) And apparently Lenny Kravitz thinks so too?

Things aren't going to slow down too much, either. Spring Break- which is 2 weeks here :) - starts next Friday- I'll be in Germany for 8 days with my brother and I think I'm going to the south of France for the second part. School will continue to chug along, then some friends are coming to visit during the third/fourth weel of May (whaddup Michelle and Potus?). Then I'm going to Italy to visit my Art History girls (and Vinny) in Rome during the first week of June, and I don't have too much time here after that. I'm really trying to figure out where all the time goes, because it's rushing by a lot faster than I thought it would...