Halfway point

As of today,  I've been here for exactly half my stay.

THATS CRAZY. I've done so much here, but have so much left to do!

I need to start optimizing my time better.

OR it can just be an excuse to come back here in the future.

I went to Versailles today, and I'll get to that, that has to be a whole post of its own.

But for now, here's a silly picture of me and a nutella crepe with hazelnuts.

Ro <3

Vaux le Vicomte

I'm going to write this post through the captions of the pictures. This place was amazing. It was a chateau commissioned by Nicolas Foquet and then designed by Charles Le Brun, Louis Le Vous and Andre Le Notre, all three of whom eventually worked on the Palace of Versailles for Louis XIV in his desire to be the most lavish person, and have the most magnificent garden. He recruited them after seeing their work at Vaux because this chateau, Louis XIV thought, challenged all of his collection of chateaus and places in which to live.

Facade of Vaux

Nicolas Foquet built this chateau with the intention of gifting it to Louis XIV but because he was not clear with his intentions, and threw a magnificent party that made the king jealous, Foquet was falsely accused of embezzlement and went to jail for life. He had made Louis XIV jealous because this chateau was able to combine a mastery of air, water, fire, and earth. Louis was threated by this because the only person who was allowed to master the elements was God and Louis as an absolute monarch saw himself as the only person who was entitled to master such a feat, therefore, when he saw Foquet challenge this, he was not pleased.

Regardless, this chateau was the primary basis for Versailles, and in some ways, I think it was even more impressive.

ALSO, SIDENOTE: Eva Longoria and Tony Parker got married here. Just...WHAT. They rented out the chateau and closed it off to the public for their wedding. Its a shame that they are divorced but that must have been one lavish and fantastic wedding. Using an old chateau for a wedding as picturesque as this one must have been a night to remember. But I guess that's what you can do when you are wealthier than you desire to be. You can afford to spend money on such lavish destination weddings. I can only wish.

You have to visit this place to love it as much as I did.
Ro <3

THEY HAVE A MOAT
for decorative purposes, but STILL
I wanted to see a moat all trip

Inside, they had these hand drawn books
depicting Aesops Fables. So much detail!

This is the story of the mouse and the Lion
about how the lion is trapped in a net one day
and how he needs help getting out and the
little mouse saves the day by gnawing through
the rope of the net. It shows that even the king
(of the jungle) can use help from those
who initially seem like they aren't good enough to
help someone so high on the hierarchy. 

with the french writing on the left!

just some handwritten letters, i think the
penmanship is entertaining

a wee little desk to write correspondances
upon

view of the garden, look at all the arabesque swirls
in the lawn! This idea has come over and been adapted from
middle eastern art and adds to the luxury of the garden.
Somewhat replicated at Versailles but not as impressive
as here. 

I'm a sucker for libraries

Restoration was taking place on the dome, ruining my pictures

me and my friend Mike!
we got the chance to see the gardens by riding golf carts
around! weeeeee! It was fun!

back of the chateau

this is from a point all the way behind the chateau
this you have to visit Vaux to see, but where
I am standing to take this picture, cannot be seen from the
chateau itself. It is an optical illusion that Le Notre
had created and installed into the garden. Its
a little secret and adds to the magnificence of the garden.

Statue of Hercules, symbolizing the fact that
Foquet has put lots of effort into building this
chateau, that it is comprable to the twelve
tasks that Hercules faced. 

Fountain area that cannot be seen from the chateau. 

Breezing through

HI,

sorry that I have not posted in a while. Things are hectic here in my third week (i've already been here about half my trip!) and I have a presentation on Friday so I am going to quickly catch up on some things from last week.

On Tuesday, we talked about the urban and city planning methods in Paris by visiting many different squares. Like Piazza's in Rome, here, they are called "Places" not pronounced the way you think, use an extended short vowel form of the letter "a" and you've got it. So we visited a couple of those open urban spaces and it was really interesting to me because I took a course in the fall of last year where we discussed the planning in New York City. Urban Planning in NY is based on the movement of people, and typically, what areas would people like the most? By analyzing factors such as sunshine, shade, chairs, benches, fountains, and other urban structures it was found that people generally like sitting in the sun, around areas with water, and like sitting anywhere (i.e. steps, slanted edges of things) most notably, moveable chairs. People don't generally like sitting at stationary chairs or benches because of personal space. It was interesting to watch a video and watch a time lapse and see how people moved about.But back to Paris. Here, urban planning is not for the people, rather, it is for an architectural benefit and to display the wealth that the patron has amassed. For example, most of these spaces end up being private gardens that only the wealthy can aford and in the past were not open to the public. However, King Henri IV created a place, Place de Vosges, where it was a square right outside his residence. Therefore it had the function of being a political ground and gathering place when the King would like to speak to his citizens. It's an interesting concept that i enjoyed learning about.

Following the Squares, we went to the Eiffel Tower at Trocadero to watch the France Sweden soccer game on the big screen that they have set up there. But because it was raining, we didn't stay too long. It was still cool to see, maybe i'll go see the eurocup final there.

The next day, on our way to Vaux le Vicomte, we stopped at an old castle like structure to look at the dry moats and thick walls and the medieval type architecture which I have been wanting to see. I love castles!

Hope the pictures are enjoyable,
Ro <3

Trees in Place Vosges

ME

Place Vendome and Napoleon's tower
which is modeled after Trajan's Column
which is in Rome. I made the connection!
Basically, Napoleon was trying to show
his dominance of power by saying that
he was equal to Trajan and was of that
high military stature. Though he was short. 

LOOK AT THE SCREEN

Our group who went

The old fortifications. And all the green that you see
is part of a dry moat which is for an aesthetic appeal.

More of the fortification of the structure!

Louvre and random wanderings!

Well,

I had my first visit to the Louvre of this trip and it was...amazing. We were able to see the medieval architecture and the ancient foundations that made up the building that was once a dungeon turned palace turned museum.

from inside the pyramid!

old foundations

dungeonsss

One of the first things we saw was hamurrabi's code. It was awesome to see such a fundamental concept being displayed and its fascinating to see all the script carved onto the stone and the fact that it was deciphered...is amazing. We discussed french art from the early 16th century and then were allowed to wander the vastness that is the museum. For this course, I have to give a presentation of a piece of art, either a sculpture or a painting. I have to present on Eugene Delacroix's "Death of Sardanapalus" so I wandered looking for it. It was a success! The piece is massive. I'll take a picture next to it when i present so that i can show you the scale and vastness of Delacroix's masterpiece. I'll also elaborate the story once i'm done putting my presentation together which should be tomorrow.

the code!

LOOK AT THAT!

top of the stone

My painting! "Death of Sardanapalus"

The Louvre is fascinating. Its huge and I ended up stumbling into the Mona Lisa which is much smaller than expected and into the Italian art gallery. There is this one painting of David and Goliath where the artist has painted two versions, that when placed back to back, you can see both sides. From one angle, you can see David's face and from the other, you can see Goliath's face. Its really really cool. 

one side

now the other!

I plan on visiting the Louvre more often on this trip. It has a lot to offer and I have to make the best of being an art historian and being able to get in for free. Its cool! I get a card provided by Rutgers with my face on it, and it says that i'm an art historian studying in paris! I was able to use it in Belgium to see one of my favorite paintings "Death of Marat" by Jacques Louis David (I will write all about that trip soon I PROMISE) and the cherry on top was getting in for free! Woot woot! finally rutgers coming through for me.

look at the view!

Well, I hope to catch up on this past week soon because I did lots of cool things!

Please keep reading!
Ro <3

Time

TIME is FLYING BY over here.

I am doing so many things, but am also so busy with my classes here and the homework assigned, and trying to live it up as much as possible.

I will catch up on all the fun things that I have been doing soon. However, not this weekend because I am going to BELGIUM! I am going to go to Bruges, Brussels, and Ghent!

Thats for this weekend, so I leave tomorrow at 3:30 PM and get back on Sunday at 9 PM. I have a presentation to write out so I will probably update the blog with everything on Tuesday or Wednesday. That's how I'd like that to play out.

So,
Talk to ya'll soon!
Ro <3

Crepes and Creme Brulees and Cathedrals OH MY!

Today, I have officially been here for one week. crazy.

This was my first weekend!

So since I had no class, this was time to have fun and do what I wanted! 

Friday after coming back from Chantilly, I stayed up late while everyone else went out and did some of my required journaling. As a result, I woke up very late the next morning. I woke up at 10 AM (yes, that's late for me) and I failed at making myself oatmeal with raisins. Something just didn't taste right, even Busch DH makes better oatmeal than what I made. So then i had a piece of baguette with nutella and then made a sandwich, the usual with pesto, tomatoes, and mozzarella and chomped on that as I talked to my roommates about their night out. 

In that moment, I knew that it would be one of those days where nothing would satisfy my hunger. Nothing at all. So a couple hours late, Cami and I went out in search of more food. We went to this little cafe down the street and had a caprese salad and I ordered a creme brulee. It was...divine. The bruleed sugar top was perfectly crunchy to break with your spoon into the cool custard layer. I'm in France, so I have to enjoy all the classis desserts! I have yet to go and buy a macaron, I'm slightly ashamed of myself. I just keep thinking of macaroons from Financier in New York. If you can get a chance to go there, get the assortment box of macarons. You get all the flavors in a good sized macaron which is amazing. Absolutely decadent. Hopefully I can wrap my fingers around a macaron soon. 

Creme Brulee!

After cafe hunting, I came back to my room and lazed for a bit, didn't get any work done whatsoever, when everyone started talking about dinner. Cami and I had passed this really cute Thai place and we ended up going there. It was finally food that hit the spot. It was flavorful and great. But obviously, that wasn't good enough for me because a few of the girls and I walked down the arrondismont we are in, into the next district with this really cute street and got street side crepes (cheaper than sitting down at a restaurant). I had a standard nutella crepe and I love chocolate even though it is SO BAD for me. I guess i'm on a mission to get my nutella fill for a lifetime on this trip.

So that was my Saturday. My Sunday was a lot more interesting and productive. I went to the church of St. Chapelle today. The story of that church is that it used to be the private chapel for the kings of France. What is special about it is that the entire chapel, well, one room is stained glass from wall to wall pretty much with 14 panels of intricate glass work. Half of the panels are under restoration so they look dark and dirty, but the windows that are easily viewed are magnificent. Especially on a sunny day, the colors that stream through the windows create a beautiful scene of dancing light.

Following St. Chapelle, we wanted to climb up Notre Dame and see the view. I have yet to go inside, maybe I will tomorrow in my free time. We climbed up a never ending set of spiral stairs at Notre Dame and it was an incredible sight. We were able to see the entire city from end to end as we circled around the pathways above Notre Dame. We were also able to get up close and personal with the gargoyles. They were amazing to see because these gargoyles aren't visible in their beautiful form from the ground looking up. Its hard to differentiate them. There was even one that looked like an elephant! It was very cool. I had the best moment when we were able to go into the bell tower at Notre Dame. I felt like Victor Hugo's story of the Hunchback was alive and that he would be there to ring the bell every hour. 

Continuing on the literary theme, after looking at all of Paris from atop Notre Dame, we went to the Shakespeare and Company bookstore. This store is not the original store (which was the hangout place of Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, and other prominent writes) but rather a tribute type of store. This store is in honor of the original store which closed down in the 1940s I believe. They are pretty legit here. If you buy a book here, they stamp it with their seal that shows that you got it from the one and only Shakespeare and Company store in Paris. I bought myself a cute little copy of Romeo and Juliet because I love me some shakespeare and I need it for my collection. This was also the same bookstore that is filmed in the Woody Allen movie Midnight in Paris starring Rachel McAdams and Owen Wilson. It is one of my absolute favorite movies and I am so happy that I get to walk the land that great minds have traversed through as well. It's nice to visit historical places and think of what happened here in the past years, decades, centuries, and millennia. 

After that, we went to go get the best ice cream in Paris at this little shop named Berthillon and I got a mango ice cream. It was delicious and I intend on going back to try hazelnut, blood orange, chocolate, tiramisu, salted caramel, and all the other flavors that they have. 

It was a busy day! I came back and sat down and banged out another journal entry and am now writing hoping that you guys are keeping tabs on me. Hope all of your summers are going well! I miss you all very much. 

Ro <3