Errr...

Sorry I pretty much failed in the end with this blogging business. And I am double sorry that I haven't had the chance to blog about Rome (which was FANTASTIC by the way). I've just been swamped with studying for my lame finals. I will get it up sometime though, so ya'all can see the pics. I figure that to keep me sane in Provo I am going to be blogging past Paris activities a lot.

For today, I really only have time to say that Marseilles is an amazing place and I love it. Look how unbelievably beautiful this sunset is. The sad thing is that this picture doesn't even come close to doing it justice, but it's the best I got.



P.S. I went to Marseilles on Saturday! :)

Arrivederci!

I'm off to Rome tomorrow! I am so extremely excited and you all should also be excited! Because when I get home, I shall dazzle you with my fantastic Italian adventures! A presto!

Auberge Nicolas Flamel

So I had a French cuisine experience today! And a good one at that. Some girls in my group had mentioned some restaurant that they had heard about, and two girls and I decided to go today. It was AMAZING. Such good food. It is this nice, little restaurant in Nicolas Flamel's old house. It's called Auberge Nicolas Flamel and I highly recommend it to anyone traveling to Paris. It is little and hard to find unless you know it, but it is a fantastic place! It actually turned out to be like five minutes from my school. Score!

For my "Plat," I ordered the Parmentier du Lapin. I did not know what Parmentier meant, but I thought I should try it because I've never had Lapin (rabbit). So I got it! Random choice? Definitely. Good choice? I'm gonna go with yes. It was different than I expected, but it was fun trying it and it WAS good, even if it did not cause me to become a major fan of eating bunnies. The flavor is just not really my kind of flavor. I'm more of a fish/duck kind of person.

I should mention that I am sorry I do not have pictures of this fantastic food because it was a nice restaurant and I do sometimes care about being polite and all that jazz.

We then decided to splurge and get dessert. I got this INCREDIBLE chocolate molten cake. And it was served with Violet Ice Cream on the side. And yes, that would be Violet as in the flower. I think you would be very surprised by how much the French love to make their foods taste like flowers. I know I have been. But even more surprising is that it actually tastes good! The Violet ice cream was quite yummy and it set off the chocolate cake very nicely.

Now that I have made you all hungry (I hope - perhaps you are the type who can't imagine eating a cute little bunny or something that tastes like a flower), go treat yourself to a yummy peanut butter sandwich or peanut butter cookies. Appreciate peanut butter! Because someday you might go to France where peanut butter is essentially nonexistent and you will be sad that you didn't appreciate it more. Rabbit is good, but it's not peanut butter. Thank goodness . . . that'd be a little gross actually.

Wow I am Just So Lucky

This week has been one of those weeks where I am just wowed by what I'm doing. I am living in PARIS. I am taking an Art History class where we do lectures in the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay. It's amazing. I am so lucky - no blessed - to be here. It's an incredible opportunity and I can't even tell you how much it has like changed my life. But this week I did some things that made me especially start thinking about how incredible it is that I am here.


Thursday

We went to Chartres as a group. Chartres. I saw the cathedral that you learn about in classes. The cathedral that is famous and amazing. And I went there. I saw it with my own two eyes and I had a guide by the world's like best tour guide when it comes to Chartres. Malcolm, the tour guide, is so stellar that he even made it into Rick Steve's, which tends to really be saying something. I was completely in awe of the cathedral and especially the stained glass windows (of course). It was definitely my favorite cathedral I have seen here. The sad thing is that even though they are all incredible, when you are going to your fifth or sixth one, they all start looking a little the same. They're "just another cathedral." (Oh how that mindset will quickly vanish when I'm back in Utah with no super old, beautiful cathedrals to go to whenever I want. But Chartres was different. It was beautiful and I loved it. (Sorry the pics aren't very good)


The town was cute too! And here's a pic of the view from behind the cathedral.




Friday

For my third day on my Eurail pass (of 4), I decided to take a day trip to Normandy with some girls. A group had done this trip a few weeks ago, but I wasn't able to go with them. But they said that it was amazing, so we asked them for their itinerary and decided to do the same stuff they did. That was SUCH a good decision!

It's time for a little story. Once upon a time I was a little Freshman in her first semester of college. She had an amazing French teacher and she loved French. For that class, she had to go to three cultural activities during the semester. It was the end of the semester and she was running out of time, so when she heard that there was a lecture on some French tapestry she decided she should probably go. So she did. At that lecture, she became fascinated with the Bayeux tapestry. She had never heard of it before, but after learning about it, she decided that she really wanted to go see it someday. Then, a year later, SHE SAW IT.

Can you believe that? I saw the BAYEUX TAPESTRY? Last year at this time I thought that I probably wouldn't actually end up seeing the tapestry. I hadn't decided applied for the Paris Study Abroad yet, so I never would've imagined that I would be seeing it within the next YEAR. Wow. It's just so incredible to me. And the tapestry is amazing. It's sooo long. Like 70 meters or something. And I knew that, but I was still just so surprised at just how long it is. It like wraps around a huge room. And it is just so cool. It tells the story of the battle between the Normans and the Anglo-Saxons and how William the Conqueror becomes King of England. It's fascinating and I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. If you're unfamiliar with the Bayeux tapestry, you can go here to read about it if you'd like!

We took a bus from Bayeux to Colleville-sur-mer to go to the American Cemetery there. Wow. Just wow. One of the most incredible experience I have ever had. I wasn't all that familiar with the details surrounding the Battle of Normandy and D-Day there and everything (I am horribly ignorant with History - which is dreadful, I know), so I didn't realize what a moving experience would be. I had heard it was, but I was still shocked. It was so . . . just wow. I want you all to promise that if you ever get the chance, you will go there. The Visitor's Center is amazingly well done and I was like verge of tears the whole time. And then you go out to the actual cemetery and it's just unbelievable. There are 9, 387 headstones there. And they are all lined up perfectly. It's incredible and incredibly touching. And you are right there where it all happened. It is a beautiful place, one of the most beautiful I have ever seen, and it was just hard to imagine the horrors that happened there. Really, this experience was just amazing. And I am sorry to say that I was feeling really touched and whatnot and didn't take out my camera like at all. It just didn't feel right. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but for me it just wasn't going to happen. Finally I made myself get over myself and take some pictures on the beach so I could at least show you that it's a beautiful place. But I still couldn't take any in the cemetery or anything. Sorry. I highly recommend looking up pictures or info if you're unfamiliar with it. It's truly an incredible place and it was an incredible experience.

Behold the beauty. And just what it looked like.




Saturday

I started the day off by going to a fantastic photography exhibit at the Bibliotheque Nationale. I officially have a favorite photographer - Michael Kenna is amazing and I loved like all of his photos so very much. I met up with Dani there and we stopped for some lunch at a creperie. We both got this special with raclette cheese. It was SO good. Best non dessert crepe I've ever had. And it had strips of actual cooked bacon on top! That made me happy, even if it wasn't as good as good old U.S. bacon (which I miss terribly). The only bacon I've had here is raw bacon. Which is actually really good. It's not just raw bacon like in the U.S. haha. Don't worry.

So after lunch was when I did the INCREDIBLE thing that I still can't believe. Guess what it was? Okay, I'll tell you. I went to a ballet at the OPERA GARNIER. THE Opera Garnier. Like the "The Phantom of the opera is there . . . inside my mind" Opera Garnier. It was incredible. The building is gorgeous and just so amazing. And then the ballet. Wow. It was just so so great. It was like three mini ballets in one, each by a different choreographer with different dancers. The first one honestly kind of bored me. Except this one man and woman who were SO good. The second one was so so so so amazing. It was intense and creepy and deranged and so perfect. I loved it. Obviously. The third was the best though. It was twice as long as each of the others had been and it was amazing. I can't even tell you. But I can tell you that if you ever get the chance, go to a ballet at Opera Garnier. I feel like I say that a lot. "If you ever get the chance . . . " Oops. But I mean each and every one of them.

Look how cute my little box seat thing is. I was so excited when the usher dude led us to a little door that he had to open with a key and that opened to this cute little area.



After the ballet we did a walk (for our Walks class). The Opera Garnier was part of the walk so we figured it was a good time to do it! Plus I just had to anyways. During the walk we walked by Printemps and saw the fantastic Christmasy window displays. We also saw and went into Galeries Lafayette. But it was a pretty quick in and out. We barely were able to take the time to admire the amazing dome and the huge Christmas tree. I'm going to have to go back. Saturday night during Christmas season with all the Christmas decorations up is NOT a good time to go to somewhere like Galeries Lafayette.

So really, I just can't believe everything I'm doing here! I am in Paris doing incredible things and I am so grateful for the opportunity. What a rockin' life.

P.S. You should check out my "Decisive Moment" photo. I'm actually quite fond of it. See it here. If you want to actually understand what "Decisive Moment" means, read about Cartier-Bresson and the decisive moment here. Sorry for so many "go here" links today!

Belgium!

Sorry it's taken me so long to get this up here! I have so much to tell you about. But I will keep this post to just Belgium! Which is a lot in and of itself!

So last Thursday morning we went to Brussels. We got there at about nine that morning. We worked our way through the city over to The Grand Place, where everything is. The architecture was beautiful and like amazed me.



We went into the Museum within the Hotel de Ville de Bruxelles. It was pretty cool. My favorite part was that they had a room with replicas of the Manneken Pis statue wearing TONS of different outfits. At first I was disturbed haha, but then I just found it so funny and interesting. It was fantastic. But I shall never understand why a peeing statue has been able to become such an iconic image of Belgium. I had never really heard much about this statue, but one of the girls I went with, Ashley, knew about it and really wanted to see it. It was one of our only priorities in Brussels, and luckily we were able to find it! It was a LOT smaller than I expected. Like wow. The models in the museum were like twice its size! So I have to admit I was a tiny bit disappointed. Then again, I didn't have that high of hopes - it's a peeing statue.



Overall I liked Brussels, but I didn't love it. It wasn't that different than Paris to me, except that I didn't love it anywhere near as much. But! I did have the best waffle of my life there.



And look how good these look. Oh I love Belgian waffles.



I also had my first Belgian frites in Brussels! For some reason I got their "house specialty" sauce - which was really just ketchup, mayonnaise, and onions. The sauce was not good. But the frites were fantastic! Yummy. (Ignore the fact that they look very unappetizing!)



A few more pics.



That night we went to Bruges, so we would only be using one day on our Eurail passes. It was actually really funny - we ended up getting on the wrong train. It was not funny at the time mind you. One of the girls asked someone when it was getting to Bruges, and the person was like this train isn't going to Bruges. Haha. It was not cool. But it wasn't a big deal because we had our Eurail passes so it's not like we had to take a specific train or anything - we just got off and got on the right train and it wasn't a big deal. Luckily Dani had been sitting by a very nice man who helped us find our way to the correct train. Funny funny. The best part was when, just to be sure, Dani asked a young man getting on the train if he was going to Bruges. He said, "I AM going to Bruges. This train is ALSO going to Bruges." He said it so funny and it cracked me up more than I can say.

Eventually we made it to Bruges (it was only like eight thirty or so). Bruges is such a cute, little town that it was like already asleep pretty much. Even in the dark with all the stores closed, I fell in love with Bruges as we walked to our hotel. It is so amazing. Speaking of amazing, our hotel was SO great! I loved it. If anyone ever goes to Bruges, I highly recommend Hotel Nicolas. It was inexpensive without being a yucky hostel. The man and woman who run it are so extremely nice. And it's just so quaint and adorable and wonderful! But also comfortable and had plenty of space. Plus, breakfast was included and it was a decet breakfast. Plus, it was in an incredible location. Seriously, go to Bruges and stay in the Hotel Nicolas.



So as I mentioned before, I fell in love with Bruges. Really, I fell completely and utterly in love with it. I don't know if I have ever been so enchanted by a city before. Dani put it perfectly one day when we were speaking French. She said, "J'aime Paris, mais j'adore Bruges." I don't think I actually like Bruges better than Paris . . . it's just a different kind of love. Bruges was just so cute and friendly and amazing. It was beautiful and small. It was little but alive. I loved it so much. I can't even tell you. Just trust me on this one.

So most of our time in Bruges we just spent walking around enjoying Bruges. It was wonderful. I liked not having to DO so many things. But, don't worry, we did do things. The first thing we did on our first morning there was climb to the top of the bell tower. The spiral staircase was even more narrow than Notre Dame or Arc de Triomphe! It was really cool.



We also went to the chocolate museum, which I loved!

My favorite thing though was probably our tour of the city by boat. It was amazing. The city is just so beautiful. Did you know it's called the Venice of the North?

I adore Bruges and AM going to figure out some way to go back someday (or live there - I'm game with that). To end this lovely post, here's the picture that I took that I think is the epitome of the beauty that is Bruges.

Sigh. So . . . ten points for whoever can correctly guess which pic of Bruges is my favorite! (I love it SO much! Hint: It's one in that long series of pictures.)