Boat tour of the Seine!

Salut!
With AYA (the organization bringing me to Paris), we did a lovely tour of Paris by boat on the Seine yesterday.  As it has been quite hot and sunny lately, it was quite nice to be out on the water!!  I did a similar tour when I was here with my high school, but it's always fun to see Paris from the river rather than the streets.  And of course many of its most famous icons are along the Seine, so it's a great way to see a lot of the monuments that are rather far apart by land transportation.  I don't think I have anything new and profound to say about these monuments, but they are always pretty to look at, so I'll cut right to the good stuff: photos!

The Louvre...

 

still the Louvre...

And of course these two photos only capture a very small part of it!!  It's apparently the third-largest museum in the world.  I have no idea which two museums are larger!  Although the Louvre wasn't big enough for King Louis XIV, who commissioned Versailles to be built as the new royal palace to replace the (too-small!!) Louvre.  There is no way either of these buildings will fit into one camera shot except from the air, as far as I have been able to tell.

Part of the Musée d'Orsay, a converted train station that's home to many Impressionist works.

Assemblée Nationale, one of France's chief govt. buildings

La Tour Eiffel behind Le Pont Royal

La Tour Eiffel again!

 steeple of the first American cathedral in Paris

Notre Dame!

Notre Dame from the side

detail of the Pont Neuf*

Hôtel de Ville (city hall)

*Here are two interesting factoids about the Pont Neuf:

• Although it's called the Pont Neuf, which literally translates to New Bridge, it's actually the oldest (remaining) bridge in Paris.
• Take a good look at the heads in the photo above.  They're just a few examples of the heads that line the length of this bridge, on both sides.  Supposedly when this bridge was built, the first stone (not wooden) bridge in Paris, people (including some courtesans) were worried that stone would be too heavy and that it would fall into the river.  Thus people were reluctant to use the bridge, so the king had someone carve the heads of the nay-sayers into the side of the bridge...  it's not a very flattering likeness, I think!  But kind of a fun form of revenge!

First Days--Premiers Jours

I have been BUSY so far!!  We've had some orientation activities already, and I already feel quite at home in the city (thanks in large part to the Metro), so my friend Alex (also from Bard) and I have been out exploring a bit.  Friday evening, we had a picnic of Camembert, baguette, and un petit peu du vin, in the park behind Notre Dame (4th arrondissement), and then we walked to the Louvre (1st arrondissement), which neither of us had ever been to before.  It's open late Friday nights, and it's not as crowded then, so it was perfect.  We were rather tired after dinner and all that walking, though, so we just saw the essentials: Mona Lisa (La Joconde, en Français) and Venus de Milo (same name in French).  I'm sure I'll go back again and see more as it's free for us, because we're officially enrolled at the Sorbonne as art history students.

outside the Louvre

It was hard to take a good photo without a flash, but Alex and I thought she was smiling.

She's taller in person...

This afternoon (Saturday), Alex and I met up for some shopping and walked all over creation!  Well, mostly just around the Seine, in the same areas as last night, but with different objectives.  First, we went to an H&M on the rue de Rivoli that we spotted last night on our way to the Louvre.  (I didn't end up buying anything.)  Right across the street, at number 59, there was a building advertising 30 artists' ateliers open to the public for free, so we went in and saw them all, and we saw a lot of very strange art there as well.  It was interesting to see some contemporary work, although I don't think it's the kind of stuff I'd want in my home (but then, neither are the Mona Lisa or Venus de Milo).  Next, we decided to walk towards the Sorbonne, become a bit more familiar with the area, and we stopped at a patisserie along the way, where I got a delicious pain au chocolat for not too much.  We walked along the Seine quite a bit, as during the day there are used book stalls all along both banks.  We had a lot of fun looking at the books and posters!  Eventually, we crossed the river on the Pont Neuf, looked at more book stalls, and headed towards the Sorbonne.  About a block from the river, (5th arrondissement) we were snagged by a very-discount book store, where both of us were sucked into buying a few books.  I mostly bought French translations of some of my favorite children's books, although I did buy one French children's book, which I've started reading and am enjoying so far.  When we finally pulled ourselves away from that librarie (French for book store, not library, which is bibliothèque), we went and read in the Jardin du Luxembourg (6th arrondissement) for a while, before wandering back towards the Metro we wanted.  Along the way, we stopped for some delicious looking ice cream, which we shared--we had black currant flavored, and it was very good, with an interesting kick to it, and thicker and creamier in texture than the ice cream in the States.  And I had a crepe au fromage after, for dinner.  It was quite an eventful day, but a lot of fun!  Tomorrow I hope to check out the Canal Saint Martin, which is near my house, as well as some local parks, before Monday, when some of my classes start and when I have some more orientation activities with AYA.

pain au chocolat... yum!

statue of Henri IV, on the Pont Neuf

black currant ice cream... yum!

All in all, I've been having a blast so far!!!