Paris, Day 22: Latin Quarter and Bateau Mouche Tour

For the second to last day of class, each one of us had to write a paper and give a presentation on a historical place. There were three monuments that were presented in class--Monica chose Mont. St. Michel; Misael chose Chateau de Chantilly; Sara chose Versailles--but the rest of us presented at our sites located within the Latin Quarter.

We started with Kelly's presentation at La Sorbonne, then moved onto St. Étienne-du-Mont with Linda, the Panthéon and St. Sulpice with Jackie.

Montagne's statue in front of La Sorbonne. If you look at his right foot, you'll notice it's quite worn--students touch his foot for good luck before exams.

La Sorbonne

We walked through Les Jardins des Tuileries and Le Palais du Luxembourg on the way to the other monuments to see La Fontaine de Medicis. It's strange that this was one of the first places we went and we revisited it the last day of class...

St. Étienne-du-Mont

Fun fact: This door was featured in Woody Allen's movie Midnight in Paris

Le Panthéon. The dome is currently undergoing a restoration process. Because of the lack of air circulation and the level of humidity inside, the dome and ceiling are starting to fall apart...

St. Sulpice

If you've seen The Da Vinci Code, chances are you've seen this copper line. On every summer solstice, the sun hits this line and it reflects light in the church.

We had our last excursion provided by AIFS in the afternoon: a boat tour on the Seine. We had already walked past all of the sites over the past three weeks, but seeing everything from the river gave a new perspective.

Pont Alexandre III

Place de la Concorde

Musée d'Orsay

Le Louvre

Academie Française and Pont des Arts

Le Louvre and Pont des Arts

Pont Neuf

The grotesque faces are rumoured to be Henri IV's friends

Notre Dame

Hotel de Ville

I hope you know what this is by now.

Bir Hakeim bridge (aka the bridge in Inception where Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page are experimenting with the architecture of a dream)

Paris, Day 20: Morning in Le Marais and Musée d'Orsay

I went for a morning walk in Le Marais. Our group had gone there so many times towards the evening that I wanted to explore the area in a different light.

I came across a local market while I was searching for the All Saints store for my brother Adam. There were booths for everything--bouqets of fowers, piles of fresh fruit and vegetables, bottles of wine, homemade sweets, rows of meat, and most importantly, a seemingly infinite selection of fromage.  Theoretically, you probably could do your grocery shopping for the week.

It's unfortunate that these pictures cannot capture the market's sweet and savory smells...  

It was realy hard walking away and not buying anything. Apparently it's illegal to bring some cheeses from France to the United States because they exceed the FDA's bacteria guidelines.

Needless to say, it was also heartbreaking to not bring back bottles of wine. I might have managed to bring two, but the risk of the bottles breaking in my luggage between two flights was too high.

Ever since I went to Matsu Sushi in Westport, I've had a craving for sushi in Paris. I found a cute sushi place nearby the market and had miso soup, a salmon and avocado roll, and a hot cup of green tea. 

I met Baptiste and his friend Auddray, and her friend Sonya, met at Musée d'Orsay later in the afternoon. Musée d'Orsay was my favorite museum I visited--this was in part because of the layout of the exhibitions, the beautiful architecture and its traces as a former train station, but it was mostly because of the Impressionist exhibit. After taking a course on 19th century history of Paris, I became enamored with Monet and his water lilies.

I ate a crêpe from a stand across the street while I was waiting for everyone...

Musée d'Orsay

A view of the Louvre from one of the clocks

We tried finding the café featured in Inception, but apparently it was closed... I don't think the GPS was giving accurate directions, because the café we were in front of was not nearly like I remembered it in the movie. Also, the building we were in front of was more of a cooking homewares store...

At least we got this awesome view walking around looking for it

I said goodbye to Auddray and Sonya for the night and went back to the hostel to change for the night out with Baptiste. While we waited to get into a wine bar, we went to the restaurant next door for dinner. I not only had the best dinner during my trip--magret du canard and crème brulée--but I got a mini lesson from Baptiste on French food and wine. The last time we had dinner together, last May at the Clarke Cooke House, I asked Baptiste to teach me how to use utensils properly...it didn't go over so well. Thanks to Monica and Kelly, they taught me one morning at breakfast, so I didn't look too much like a clueless American.

Pont Alexandre III at night