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 17: Les Jardins des Tuileries, Le Petit Palais and Le Louvre

Between walking around several major sites in class and visiting exhibitions in the Louvre, this class wins for the most amount of walking our group has done in one day.

We started the morning in class at Pont Neuf, then worked our way through Pont des Arts, Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, le Louvre, les Jardins des Tuileries, la Place de la Concorde, le Petit Palais, and le Grand Palais. We also stopped at the beginning of les Champs-Élysées to talk about l'Arc de Triomphe, but to the relief of our feet, we didn't walk down one of the longest roads in Paris.

Pont Neuf

Pont des Arts

Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois

Le Louvre

Les Jardins des Tuileries

Musée d'Orsay

Pont Alexandre III

Le Petit Palais

Like I had said earlier about Versailles, it's hard to imagine how large some of the museums and monuments are in Paris until you visit them in person.  Because it was my first visit to the Louvre, I decided to wander freely through the exhibitions to fully appreciate the museum--the imagination doesn't quite capture how rich and beautiful every corner of the Louvre is.

Also, there is so much to see that it would be a shame to ruin the spectacle by rushing through everything. I made sure to see the major artifacts and paintings--the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo,etc.--but for the most part, wandering was the best strategy. 



Coming back to the Louvre to see the exhibitions

I would have posted the picture I took of Mona Lisa, but someone else's green flash reflected off the protective glass, so there's a green speck on the picture