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WELL IM HOME

and i need to catch up on these blogs dont worry i didnt forget...

ill get around to them today or tomorrow and post all the pictures since i have better internet here!

hope you guys have enjoyed everything so far :)

Ro <3

week recap

This past week has been rough.

why?

well

1) its my last week here, and i'm homesick, but i dont want to leave here at all
2) class has been BOOOORING.
    - but this is only because we've moved into modernism. and i don't get it. modern art confuses me to no end. We've been to Villa Savoye, which is Le Corbusier's work and its the foray into a modern home style. We also discussed Gustav Moreau who is not really modern, but a very eccentric painter, who's work I actually enjoyed. We also went to the musee Rodin which was nice because I got to see the Gates of Hell, and The Thinker, and the Three Slaves, and a plaster cast of The Kiss, which has a bronze interpretation outside of the Orangerie, where Monet's Water Lilies are. Today we went to the Centre Pompidou...which was the most ugly building in the world. it was terrible.

also, we had a guest speaker today. She was supposed to talk about the movement of women artists, but somehow, it ended up being a whole recap of art from the whole 20th century which a thematic focus on sex. everything we saw was related to phallic symbols, and wow, lots of sexual themes. it was a little much.

however, because class started late today (330 PM) i went back to musee d'orsay this morning to go look at a couple seurat's and van gogh's and courbet's. i ended up finding corbet's origin of the world which is an explicit painting of the female, which had I known in the moment, would have been an excellent foray into the theme of the day.

So over looking at naked people. also, it doesnt help that france does not censor things shown on TV. so women are literally naked on commercials and tv shows which are seen by families. LITTLE KIDS WATCH THESE THINGS. also, little kids have the life here. they get to go to all these national monuments with school as a part of their curriculum, but at the same time, i dont know how i would feel if my child one day in the future was looking at naked bodies, albeit painted, from a very young age. not sure about that.

regardless, it was a swell morning.

i will add pictures later because my internet is being terrible right now.

Weekend: Catacombs and Parc Asterix

Hey Y'all

Well, this past weekend was my last full weekend in paris...and how did i spend it? by doing a majorly creepy thing and by going to something which is not anywhere else in the world.

On saturday, me and a couple girls decided to go to the Paris Catacombs. This is the largest ossuary in the world having, and holding, the remains of more than 6 million people. outdoor temperature was about 25 degrees celsius and inside, below ground, in the 2 km path we had to walk, it was about 14 degrees celsius. I also got pooped on by a bird. apparently thats good luck.

Sunday, I went to Parc Asterix with one of the girls here. Its pretty much a theme park, and a very mellow amusement park. Its based off of this french comic strip about this one little town in Gaul which was unable to be conquered by Caesar prior to 52 BC. Its a strip that i grew up with because its popular in England and India so my dad and uncle introduced me to its dry wit, intellectual humor, and comic genius. It was a spectacular thing to go to since I will never be able to enjoy asterix with as many people at once in the states. I wish everyone knew about asterix, i love it so much hahha

ASTERIX

magic potion from the story

asterix's house

getafix

passage way to get to the bones
this was creepier than seeing the actual skulls
we didn't know what would pop out at us

catacomb skulls. creepy as all hell. 

HOPE YOU LIKED IT

RO <3

GIVERNY

Giverny is absolutely beautiful.

This is the place where Claude Monet spent most of his life until his death.
It is about an hour and a half out of paris by bus and is a hectare of land. Here, he has his country family home, three studios, and his vast gardens, both for his home, and those that are strictly the water lily ponds.

The place is fantastically picturesque and the japanese bridge and water gardens are stunning to see in person. Its the opening scene in Midnight in Paris and the subject of many of Monet's later works including the huge waterlily panels present in the orangerie and MoMA. The japanese bridges and their reflections in the lily ponds are also prominent subjects in his paintings.

There are flowers, and different forms of greenery everywhere making this phenomenal. Simple, and elegant. If I had a land like this, I would be obsessed with it and paint it all the time as well.

 

 

 

 

Orangerie/Arc/OPERA. busy day

this past thursday was one of the longest days of the trip.

We began by going to the Orangerie, which is a museum in the Tuileries gardens. Its is a big impressionist museum which houses eight of Monet's waterlily paintings. Its set up in two big oval rooms, which join to look like a figure 8 or an infinity sign to symbolize that his waterlilies go on forever. Before entering the room, there is an antechamber in which he expects(ed) visitors to let go of all their current problems, so that they may enter the exhibit with a calm, and clear mind.

The exhibit is beautiful and you have to visit paris to know what i am exactly talking about, and so that you may experience it for yourself. its absolutely incredible. and i am not a huge fan of impressionism and i was blown away. however, if you cannot make the trip to paris, there is a different water lilies exhibition at the MoMA and if you get a chance to go, you should. I know I want to go sometime.

after this, i went to a place called Angelina's and had the best hot chocolate EVER. it was like liquid chocolate and pure amazingness. it was expensive, and I will never pay that much for a hot cocoa again but that was just too good.

then we met everyone at the arc du triomphe, discussed its importance and architecture, and then went to our tour of the opera house. which was. incredible. its a building with very ornate, baroque style, over the top extravagance to a point where it was overwhelming. So much adornment. I can't even explain it and I think that the pictures need to do their own talking.

Ro <3

Filming of smurfs 2! 

rodin sculpture outside orangerie

me with one of my fav renoir paintings

HOT COCOA WITH FRESH CREAM

so intricate 

SO MUCH GUILDING

beautiful staircase

balconies were used to show off girls
of marriageable age to society members

so much crowd