Ok before I talk about the past couple days, please excuse
me while I go on a rant about public transportation. Paris has one of the best systems in the
world, but personally I think it is the most complicated one, or maybe it is
just because I have seen the metro tunnels more than I have seen the city. Our hotel is located outside the city center
pretty far away; therefore, everywhere we go we have to take the metro… or a
train… or a bus… or most times any combination of the three. I appreciate the fact that I could get
virtually anywhere in Paris if I wanted to, but it also takes a lot of time and
planning to figure out. And I will spare
you all from talking about how expensive it is.
I will say this though; in the past 4 days I have used 2 days-worth of
my budget just on transportation. Paris
is nice, but it comes at a high price.
Ok, rant over!
Yesterday began with a group trip to the Palace of
Versailles. It is at the top of the list
of the most amazing mansions and gardens in Europe. So you think that I would have enjoyed it
much more than I did. The main reason I
did not enjoy it… the crowds. There were
so many people, almost worse than day 1 of Paris! It was beautiful for sure, but my experience could
have been better.
After Versailles Dan, Devin, and I headed to the city center
where we walked around the Arc di Triumph and shopped on one of the most
expensive retail streets in Europe. We
all found the gifts we were looking for with little trouble, ate dinner, and
headed to see the Eiffel Tower at dusk.
I think I have already talked about how beautiful it is in my last
entry. It was the perfect way to end a
great afternoon.
Today we visited one of the most famous museums in the
world, The Louvre. It was as impressive
as I thought, and I thoroughly enjoyed I.M. Pei’s pyramid of an entrance. It is a pretty awesome addition to the
museum. I can say though that I was a
little disappointed in the Mona Lisa. I
turned the corner in the museum and saw a huge blank wall with hundreds of
people crowded around it. Upon closer
inspection I spotted the small legendary painting just above eye level and
immediately chuckled to myself about the size of it. Most famous artwork is much more impressive
in person; the Mona Lisa, however, is not.
I spent the whole morning wandering around the Louvre viewing the best
collection of art in the world, and I still cannot really fathom it. I got lost several times trying to find the
Egyptian exhibition. Sadly, I gave up
after a while and never found it.
This afternoon Rod took the architecture students out to visit Villa Sovoye, probably one of Le Corbusier’s most famous buildings. It was more than a pain to get out there because we had to take the metro, then a train, and finally a public bus. As bad as it was getting there, it was one of my favorite places in Paris. Today I got a whole hour to observe one of the most influential and important houses designed in the 20th Century. Again, I am reminded of how incredibly fortunate I am.
This afternoon Rod took the architecture students out to visit Villa Sovoye, probably one of Le Corbusier’s most famous buildings. It was more than a pain to get out there because we had to take the metro, then a train, and finally a public bus. As bad as it was getting there, it was one of my favorite places in Paris. Today I got a whole hour to observe one of the most influential and important houses designed in the 20th Century. Again, I am reminded of how incredibly fortunate I am.
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