normandie || normandy

first of all, you should all know that this song was stuck in my head all weekend :

normandie by the shout out louds

[yes, this is a bakery song, and no, i am not ashamed to admit that i actually liked some of the songs played at the bakery.]

on to the important choses || things.

this past weekend, my paris family took an amazing weekend trip to normandie. normandie is the region in northern france that we all know for it's importance in wwii (jour j || d-day), but it is also know for its fantastical dairy products, bien sur! (can you say cheese-and-milk-lovers paradise? because that is exactly what it is.)

just a side note : this post is going to be long. i was only gone for three days, but it was such an emotional roller coaster for each of us. i want to be able to describe what i was thinking and feeling as accurately as possible and i want to remember everything, so forgive me if this becomes too long for you to read all of it. this will be organized by events. skip around as you please. also, i won't be too offended if you just look at the photos. i do that too, sometimes.

another side note : if some of the things i say don't make sense, please forgive me. you see, this week is french challenge week (fcw), which means were are only allowed to speak french (there are exceptions, of course, like blogging). right now i have the most confusing mix of french and english in my head...so i'm sorry if i say things that don't make sense.

fashion week in paris

yes, it's true. it was fashion week in paris this past week (good thing i knew that, right? sarcasm, i had no idea). i was definitely a participant. as you can see, i traveled in style. no way was i lugging around my duffle bag again, especially on the metro, so i opted for a backpack. good choice. i also remembered that i love backpacks more than i love purses, which was great because i happened to have my trusty camelback daypack with me. so i used that, too. i ended up wearing two backpacks at once. and no, i didn't get any weird looks. i have no idea what you're talking about.

giverny

giverny was claude monet's home and gardens. i kid you not, this is one of my new most favorite places in the entire world ever of ever the end. when we got to giverny, it was grey and a little bit rainy. but i love that we were there in the rain. i think gray skies make colors pop more. the waterlilies may have been my favorite part. they weren't in bloom, but the pond, the bamboo, the bridges, the weeping willows...it all made for one of the most beautiful gardens i have ever been in. the gardens closer to the house were all color coordinated. i'm talking rainbow effect, here. i loved it. (ocd? of course not. i just like color coordination.) walking around giverny, i can see why monet was so inspired. being surrounded by nature and so much color will do that to a person. after not nearly enough time and after spending way too much money on a print and a nifty "claude monet" tshirt, we got back on the bus and headed off to rouen.

heather, me, cori

waterlilies

me & alicia

rouen

rouen is a medieval town in normandie that is known for being the town where joan d'arc || joan of arc was burned at the stake. we stopped here for lunch and to walk around and explore a bit. cori, heather, nate, the hurlbuts, and i got kebaPs (it was spelled wrong at the restaurant) and then adventured in the rain a little bit. cori and i got separated from the group at one point and found ourselves in a fish market...barf gag. but then we all got to go to the wax museum that told the story of joan of arc's life. have i told you how much dr h loves joan of arc? he says she was his premiere amour || first love. "i was ten years old and saw a film about a girl with a sword. of course i fell in love." then we explored the city a bit more...and we found this building (why can't i remember what it was called?) that was built on the place where 2/3 of the population of rouen were buried during the plague. on all the woodwork of the building, there were skulls and bones. that was pretty sobering. then jennie and i ran to monoprix to find a cake for nateybabes' birthday. after finding a "cake" and some birthday candles (who knew birthday candles were so hard to find?) we ran to the bus. phew. hurrah for bonding time in monoprix with sister h! :)

dr h and a wax figure of joan of arc

l'abbaye de jumièges

this old abbey was so cool! it was in ruins. i'm a big fan of ruins, especially this kind. it was basically just the skeleton of this benedictine chapel. jennie explained to me that this was from the gothic period, but it lacked the ornate decorations that classic gothic cathedrals have. she explained that whenever there is a new movement, there is always a counter movement. while classic gothic was moving towards flamboyant, saint philibert, who built the cathedral, followed the counter-movement and wanted his cathedral to be as beautiful but as simple as possible. i loved all the old stones everywhere and that when we were "inside" the cathedral, we could look up at the sky. it was so fun to explore and climb and play ring-around-the-rosy.

bayeux

in bayeux, we went to dinner at this great little restaurant. our first course was raw salmon. i'm pretty sure it was raw. i drenched it in lemon and ate it as quickly as i could. lucy cheered me on. she's just so great. then we had duck and these amazing fried potatoes. je l'aimais beaucoup || i loved it a lot. it more than made up for the salmon experience. i find that i'm eating a lot of fish here...i figure it's a great growing experience? or something? for dessert we had baked apples with this cinnamon flavored ice cream. delish. after dinner, some of us walked around bayeux with the hurlbut's and we stopped in front of a statue of alain chartier, who wrote the poem "la belle dame sans mercy" || the beautiful, merciless woman. we got to hear all about him, as well as dr h's quest to find out who actually wrote l'hôpital d'amour || the hospital of love, which wasn't chartier's poem, but was attributed to him. i'm excited to read it when i get back to provo! dr h has a copy of it in his office on campus. that night, we had a girls night in our hotel room. alicia, olivia, lucy, cori, heather, corine, annie, and i did our nails and laughed so hard. i don't think i've ever laughed so hard in my life. i'm not even exaggerating when i tell you i looked like a raccoon. look at my photos to see why. maybe you have to know olivia to get the full effect...but it's a beautiful thing.

bayeux part ii

woke up, went to breakfast, and had a wonderful experience. at our hotel, there was a british wwii veteran who fought on the beaches of normandy. i typed out my experience on my phone (i didn't have my computer with me) while we were driving to gold beach later that day because i didn't want to forget it. here's part of what i wrote:

this morning at breakfast in bayeux, there was a british veteran from dday. i watched him and his wife eat their breakfast while i ate mine. i didn't want to approach him because i thought he wouldn't want to be interrupted. he was in his uniform, a navy coat decorated with pins and medals from the RAF. 

i finished my breakfast and realized that if i didn't thank him, i would kick myself for the rest of my life. how many times do you run into a veteran from normandy while you're in normandy? not often. i walked up to him and shook his hand while i said, 

"thank you." 

he locked his eyes with mine through his thick glasses while he spoke and said, 

"we couldn't have done it without you." his hand held mine the whole time. it was rough and worn and warm. "it was the americans who made all the difference." 

he proceeded to tell me a little bit about his experience in the war, and about how he was so grateful for roosevelt and the american soldiers coming to the aid of the british. he smelled like coffee, and in the hand that wasn't holding mine, he was holding a sugar cube. he asked me why i was in france, and i told him about our study abroad. he told me to cherish it because it is an amazing experience to live abroad. i told him i would. 

he smiled. 

i loved him and his british accent and his faded ribbons on the lapel of his jacket.

bayeux tapestry

the bayeux tapestry is such a cool piece. it is 70 yards long and tells the story of the battle of hastings in 1066. we got an audio guide that narrated the entire tapestry for us. i loved it. i was super impressed and entertained by the embroidery. we also got to watch a 15 minute video on the tapesetry, and we watched in once in english and in french. good thing i fell asleep. (thanks for letting me use your shoulder, nateybabes. i owe ya one.)

me & my audio tour

gold beach

our first stop on our tour of dday sights was gold beach. this was where the canadian armies began the offensive on the germans on june 6, 1944. when we arrived, the thing i first noticed were the flags. there was a flag for each of the allied countries, as well as germany. i really liked that. we got to go down on the beach for a few minutes, then we got to explore a little bit while we ate our lunch. some of us decided to explore the giftshops for a minute and i totally scored and found some sweet-awesome rings. don't be jealous because my rings are cooler than yours. jokes. but really.

sage, annie, alicia, & moi

moi! yes, that is a toothpaste stain on my pants. it wouldn't come out, ok?

mon bague || my ring

bunkers, aka "pill boxes"

our next stop was at the german bunkers. these bunkers were so interesting - these weird cement mounds in the ground that looked like pill boxes. these houses cannons that could shoot out into the ocean at ships that were up to five miles away. kinda blew my mind. it was actually a really beautiful place, and it was hard to imagine that this was once the sight of one wwii battles. i was standing on top of one of the pill boxes, looking at the ocean with noah and i told him, "i can't even imagine what the germans were thinking when they were standing here." he said, "are you kidding? they must have been scared out of their minds!" sometimes we forget that. in our minds we think of the germans as "the enemy" during wwii. i realized that we put a label there, and sometimes we're able to forget that the germans were human, too. thanks, noah, for the insight on top of that pill box.

american cemetery at normandy

there is a sign at the entrance of the cemetery refers to this place as "hallowed ground." i don't know how else to describe this place. of course i had seen photos. everyone sees them in text books. but i don't think anything could have prepared me for seeing it in person. the cemetery is actually right on the coast. it's about a half mile away from omaha beach, where the worst casualties were experienced during the normandy invasions. to get to it, you have to walk along a little path that curves along the coast. it is all lined by trees. when we were there, it was beautifully sunny. we followed the curve of the path and suddenly, after views of the beach and trees, all i could see was white.

9,387 blindingly white crosses and stars of david.

the organized rows went on forever. i really couldn't breath. it's hard to imagine that there are even more men who could have been listed there, but aren't. our entire group dispersed - we all wanted to be alone. i took my time looking at the crosses and stars. each were inscribed with a name, state, rank, death date, and dog tag number. some of the crosses were inscribed, "here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to god." what i really wanted to do was stop in front of every single one of them and say a silent "thank you." i wanted to thank each of these boys - because for the most part, they were my age and younger - for all that they did. on the chapel at the cemetery, these words are inscribed : "these endured all and gave all that justice among nations might prevail and that mankind might enjoy freedom and inherit peace."i can't think of better words to describe and thank these boys. the certainly deserve this beautiful place dedicated to their memory. even writing this is making me tear up a little bit.

while at the cemetery, i'm pretty sure i was on the verge of tears the entire time. i was doing pretty well holding it all in until i ran into nate. i had to leave asap because i was going to break down. i ran away and had my own little moment, thanking heavenly father for all of my blessings and freedoms. i thanked him for the men who gave their all to the cause of justice and freedom and peace. i thanked him for my country and for the opportunity that i have to live abroad. i thanked him that living abroad not only has helped me to appreciate other cultures, but also to appreciate the united states and all of our blessings there even more. it was one big fat cry fest. and i kind of loved it.

the chapel at the cemetery

after wandering the cemetery, alicia and i decided to visit the beach. we were quiet the whole time, neither of us felt like talking really. i collected a couple of sea shells. they were all broken. i liked them that way. it felt appropriate. is that silly? anyway. omaha beach is one of the most beautiful beaches i have ever seen. it was so hard for me visualize it as a the site of a wwii battle. (don't worry. that comes later. and you'll get to read about me crying again. excited? you should be.)

as cori put it in her blog, after what seemed like not nearly enough but entirely too much time, we left the american cemetery. 

that place changes people. i'll be the first to tell you.

omaha beach

after a short bus ride, we were at another spot on omaha beach. there was a huge memorial sculpture that i actually loved. it was made of steel and it reflected light all over the place. this part of the beach is a little bit more open to the public and we felt like we could play. we took some jumping photos...i was a sherpa because i have waterproof boots...it was great.

nateybabes & moi

annie, nate, carine, & moi

my new rainboots are great.

point du hoc

point du hoc is the outcropping of rocks that separates omaha and utah beaches. it is covered in craters from cannon balls. i don't think there was a single place there where the ground was level. there were amazing views of the coast and atlantic ocean, but what really got me was the damage the cannons did. it has been almost 70 years and these craters are still at least 4 people deep and maybe 6-8 people wide. crazy.

maddie, olivia, alicia, me, noah, sage, annie, & nate

caen

after point du hoc, we drove off to caen, where we had dinner and spent the night. that dinner...oh it was a hilarious night. kayla and alicia both got some raw egg yolks with their dinner on the side and just left them there. i made some comment about how gross they looked. i was sitting next to noah, who turned to me and said, "hey, if you eat those egg yolks, i'll give you 30 euros." and do you know what? i did it. and do you know what? he gave me 20 euros and a pastry of my choice here in paris (he didn't have the full 30 on him at the time). and i'm not even mad about any of it. alicia and i couldn't stop laughing...that was funny. and i had the best dessert in the world. it was french vanilla ice cream with a strawberry purée, fresh peaches, and chantilly (vanilla whipped cream). it was divine. after dinner, we had a laughing fest in the hotel and were then told to be quiet...oops.

noah, 20 euros, moi, & the cup the egg yolks were in

heaven on earth

wwii museum in caen

so the next morning after eating my weight in toast and nutella (i love hotel breakfasts) we went to the wwii museum. it was super interesting. and we got audio guides (I WAS SO HAPPY). i love audio guides, in case you didn't know. especially when the narrators have british accents. anyway, it was a super cool museum. it was very interactive, with an overwhelming amount of information about france during wwii. my favorite (and least favorite) part of the museum was at the very beginning. we were looking at posters and information about europe after wwi. it was really hard to listen to the audio guide and process the information because in the background there was a continuous drum beat and cheering. it wasn't super loud at first, but it got louder and louder as we approached this dome inside the museum. when you entered the dome, you were standing, facing a projection of hitler. it was just you and him. and german chanting and drum beating. it was so loud and i had no choice but to listen and stare. it was so creepy. but it really helped me to understand why the nazis believed what they did. it was all they heard. crazy.

we also watched a video on the dday invasions at the museum. it was actual footage of the attacks. it was so hard to watch. men unloading from pontoons and running through the ocean up to the beach. at the end of the film, the screen was split in two, with footage of soldiers being shot down on omaha beach on the left and footage of the beach today on the right. the juxtaposition of the footage made me cry once again. (i told you it was going to happen.) it was so hard to watch but i couldn't take my eyes away. once again, i was reminded of how grateful i am.

loved my neato audio guide

fromagerie

so then we went to a fromagerie. it was stinky and wonderful. we got to watch these silly little videos about how cheese is made and then we got to try some. free samples! it was like costco, only not so big and there was only cheese and...i guess it wasn't really like costco. but it was fantastic.

we share pretty much everything.

the end

then we had a 2 hour bus ride back into paris, where we ate american cereal for dinner and then we returned to our host families.

olivia, me, & alicia

normandie was such an amazing weekend. way too many emotions, but i wouldn't have had it any other way. i'm so glad i got to experience that. after weekends like that...you look at things differently. i appreciate things more.

if you made it to the end of this post...you deserve 6 sparkle points. :)

jardin du luxembourg || luxembourg gardens

date: 2 octobre, 2012

i met up with alicia, annie, sage, nate, and noah at the montparnasse-bienvenue station. from there, we walked down boulevard du montparnasse, where we were able to see all the cafés were people like hemingway, fitzgerald, picasso, and others would hangout. that was pretty cool. it had me thinking about midnight in paris...i might just have to go to the hurlbut's and watch it again. definitely a good one.

from there we wandered down rue vavin. it was such a fun little street with boutiques, food, art, and at the end of the street, le jardin du luxembourg.

we made a detour to see the statue of alfred dreyfus, who was a jewish officer in the french army. he was convicted of treason in 1894 (falsely) and was finally pardoned after three trials. the dreyfus affair is still a touchy subject in france. this statue was originally intended to be placed at the école militaire, but was placed in the tuileries garden instead. later it was moved to this location. interesting story. it illustrates the pride of the french government, definitely.

we also made a detour and stopped at jean-paul hévin, one of the top chocolatiers in paris. and i was in heaven. seriously, this place is just gorgeous. i may have never been quite so happy as i was when i walked into that little chocolate shop. :)

after our stop at jean-paul hévin, we got to the jardin du luxembourg. i love this place. it was the perfect day; the sun was shining, the air was crisp, the leaves on all the trees were changing color, and there were still flowers in bloom. there are so many people who just spend their time in this garden (which is really more of a park - it's enormous). it's easily one of my favorite places in paris.

we got to see a mini statue of liberty, chestnut trees (one of the chestnuts fell on alicia's head...i may or may not have cried from laughing so hard), we saw statues, fountains, and p e o p l e. so many people, doing all kinds of things. my favorite people were the little old ladies and men, sitting in the chairs near the flowers or the fountains, just talking, reading, and soaking up the sun. what is your life, when you are free to spend your afternoon sitting in the jardin du luxembourg? i would very much like that to be my life, too.

the only bummer is that the orangerie wasn't open. ah, well. such is life.

in conclusion: i loved this place. i think i say that about every place i've been in paris, but seriously. if any of you readers (do people read this blog? haha) find yourselves in paris...go. don't ask any questions. just go. you will not be disappointed!

and don't forget to stop in jean-paul hévin. you won't be disappointed in that either.

the fancy little packets our chocolate came in

sage, alicia, annie, nate, noah, me

alicia, annie, sage, me. we're the cutest friends probably ever.

mon jour || my day

flamboyant gothic at the cluny

unicorn tapestries

i saw a real live unicorn horn. don't tell me otherwise.

winged triumph at the louvre

broke in the new boots

les adventures dans le pluie || adventures in the rain

today's forecast called for rain. lots and lots of rain.

dun dun dunnnnn.

so this morning i got up extra early so i could go to a print and copy shop before class started. i wasn't sure what time it opened, so i figured i may as well go earlier rather than later just to be safe. it was sunny when i got on the metro.

so at 8:45, i got to the self-copy. didn't open until 9:30. what's a girl to do? get hot chocolate, of course! i picked up a cup at starbucks (it was easy and fast...don't judge) and sat inside while reading my art history packet. i looked up at one point and what had once been blue skies were sheets of rain. good thing i brought my shell and umbrella! :)

so then i walked in the rain to the copy shop and got my handouts printed for my religion presentation (which went very well, thank goodness!). after that, i walked to notre dame, where we were meeting at 10 am for our art history class. (how cool is that?! to learn about gothic architecture, we actually met at notre dame. gahhhh so good.)

the rain while i was walking there was RIDICULOUS. like to the point that it was so bad, i had to put my umbrella away because it was breaking. i never thought i would say this...but i think target let me down. triste.

i finally got to notre dame after a few detours and i was soaking wet, even in my shell with a hood! somehow i ended up being early...so i just stood in the rain for a while until i found dr h! that was a happy thing. he let lucy, mallory, and i go inside while we were waiting for everyone else to show up so we could dry off a little and warm up. we did not dry off or warm up. in fact, i was so wet, my fingers were pruned.

took this of myself while waiting for the group because i'm so cool...ha.

found this one on my phone this evening. i feel like this describes my morning so well!

lucy, mallory, me. attempting to get dry/warm in notre dame.

see my french dictionary? the super warped book? that was the casualty of the day. turns out the kennedy center backpacks aren't waterproof.

when we were finally all together, i'm pretty sure i snorted. we all looked so sad and wet and cold. such the pathetic little byu group. how could you not love us? :) we then got to explore notre dame and hear from dr h and bernie about the architecture, the stained glass, and the high relief carvings. it was so cool to see these things in person and not just be looking at a powerpoint slide. i think i am the luckiest girl in the whole wide world. scratch that. i am the most blessed girl in the whole wide world. i do need to go back (obviously), but on a sunny day when i can get the full effect of the stained glass and light in the space.

by the time we headed outside to learn about the three portals on the façade of the building, the rain had stopped. buuuut the wind had picked up. we that we thought we were going to fall over, it was so strong. ah! such an adventure! looking back, i keep laughing at how ridiculous it was. i'm pretty sure i've never seen weather like that that cleared up so quickly. by the time lunch was over, the clouds were all gone. and i thought utah was bipolar. ha.

after notre dame, we went to a little cathedral that i can't remember the name of...but it was the site of the infamous flying buttress comment.

"does this make my buttress look big?" -dr h

then we wandered over to l'église saint-séverin again to learn more about the architecture. i talked about that a little bit in a previous post. it was so pretty, even in the rain.

flamboyant stained glass window

in religion, i gave a presentation on brigham young and early missionary efforts of the church around the world. (that's what i needed the handouts for, you see.) i think it went pretty well. cori and were talking about how we loved the powerpoints we learn from in that class because they are such a funny mix of french and english. there isn't really any rhyme or reason about what parts are in french and what parts are in english and it's kind of awesome.

then we had a small fhe. dr h brought us lemon gaufres from pierre hermé. oh. my. goodness. my quote of the day : "pierre hermé is the only man i will ever need in my life."

died.

alicia and i then tried to find boots. soaking wet toms for the rest of the semester just really aren't going to cut it here in france. ha. we really did try. honest to goodness we did. heaven knows we searched. but...to no avail. however, we did find some other good things. i got some flowers for my hair and alicia got some sweaters. and! good news everyone! i got a sketchbook and pencils.

tomorrow morning i'm going to the louvre before class to do some sketching. i am so excited. i don't think you understand. i can't WAIT.

until next time, mes amis!

mon week-end || my weekend

this weekend was great! in included : 

homework and rain

a much needed movie night

sleeping in

exploring la défense and reading at a café

stake conference (stake's conference, if you ask carine ♡)

seeing zach adams (and recognizing a missionary from efy when we were 15 cause i'm creepy like that)

adventures with public transportation - buses are great if you catch them on time! :)

grocery shopping and eating the most delicious apples of my life

discovering the goodness that is speculoos

picnicing with the paris stake at versailles

it was a wonderful weekend.

alicia and i found these bad boys in auchan, the french equivilant of walmart or target

elder adams on saturday...

and elder adams on sunday! his tie and my scarf are matching. kinda precious.

picnic at versailles.

versailles

last night before sunset.

le quartier latin : à la mode de carmela + gene || the latin quarter : carmela + gene style

on friday after french 202, a group of us decided to do another walking tour, this time of the latin quarter.

after eating another delicious falafel (yes, i had falafel two days in a row, and no, i am not ashamed) on rue de rosiers, we headed to our starting point at fontaine saint-michel.

as we were crossing the seine just before notre dame, an older couple was walking beside us and turned to me. they said, "are you american? where are you from?" i told them i was from california, but was in paris through a study abroad program with brigham young university. they said, "you must be voting for mitt. that's okay." i laughed. they asked what we were doing, and i explained our walking tours class to them. gene then asked me if they could join us. they seemed friendly and we were in a group, so i said, "why not?"

gene replied, "well thank god for brigham young and his students!"

and thus began our adventure through the latin quarter with carmela and gene sheridan of "boston. well actually cape code, but we're originally from new jersey, if you can't tell from our accents."

(oh, and it was raining so there won't be many photos...sorry guys!)

so after our stop at fontaine saint-michel, we headed to le théâtre de la huchette. it's such a little hole in the wall theater, i might not have noticed it unless i was actively looking for it. um, la cantatrice chauve and la leçon have had more shows than cats! or les misérables. did anyone even know that? because i haven't heard of either of those plays...i feel uncultured. but i didn't feel too bad, carmela didn't know them either.

after that, we we saw the narrowest street in paris, rue du chat-qui-pêche || fishing cat. gene took a photo of carmela here. i think this was about when they gave me their card.

then we found ourselves heading to l'église saint-séverin. this church is an awesome example of gothic architecture, not just because it has rose windows, pointed arches, and higher relief carving. it shows the transition between classic gothic to flamboyant gothic. i actually do have a photo of this to show you what i mean.

not a great photo, i was planning on just using it for myself to study. ha.

flamboyant gothic is the super duper fancy gothic - it was designed to look like flames. everything starts out larger and then decreases as it rises up, a technique to raise our eyes and also look like flames. awesome. in the first set of arches (left), you can see classic gothic. in the second set of arches (right), you can see flamboyant gothic.

from l'église saint-séverin, we headed down cour du commerce saint-andré to see le procope, the oldest café in paris. we took a group photo here. carmela took it for us. then she took one of all of us with her group camera. it cracked me up.

le procope. excuse the awkwardness that is my shirt. photo stolen from annie.

we got a little turned around and missed out on going to the recommended patisserie in the walk...but have no fear. i plan on finding that place and trying their chocolate religieuse.

then we browsed by some small art galleries on rue de seine for a little while until we found l'ecole des beaux-arts, the most prestigious fine arts school in france. it reminded me that i still needed to buy a sketchbook (which i ended up doing today, but that's another story).

then we found the institut de france, which houses l'académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, l'académie des science, l'académie des beaux-arts, and l'académie des sciences morales et politiques. it also housed the academy française, which strictly maintained the french langauge for years.

we also explored the pont des arts, a bridge across the seine onto the île de la cité. it was a nice spot for viewing the île, but it was rainy and we were all tired so we moved on.

then we got to walk along the stairs and see pont neuf || new bridge, which is actually the oldest bridge in paris, dating back to 1606. it was completed under the rule of henry iv. the original was melted during the french revolution to make cannons, so this was recast in 1818. when we walked underneath it, we all made a wish. including carmela and gene. i will not be sharing my wish, because as we all know, that ruins the fun. :)

pont neuf. photo stolen from sage.

it was so fun getting to know carmela and gene. i think that was my favorite part of this walk (don't get mad, dr h!). they told me all about their children and their 19 year-old granddaughter (who had her passport stolen in paris last summer, dontcha know?). i learned about their bed and breakfast, and how they had been in paris only once before, and only for half a day. they were finally back for three weeks as a 25 year anniversary celebration. ("it's actually our 26th anniversary, but we're pretending we made it in time." i hope you're reading these quotes with a super thick jersey accent because that's how they definitely need to be read.) they were the sweetest couple! alicia and i are planning on sending them a postcard, for sure!

as for the latin quarter, i loved it. i loved the winding streets, the little shops, the art, and the vibe there. i'll definitely be back for some in depth exploration. i have my eye on a couple vintage jewelry shops that i'd like to play in!

dans lequel je mors et je vais au ciel || in which i die and go to heaven

today might have been one of the most perfect days of my life. i had 202, which was a bit of a doozy, i'll admit. we had 2 1/2 straight hours of french verb conjugation. phew. but it was actually really interesting and i'm glad we did it. i feel like after mapping it all out, i have a better handle on it.

now on to the really good stuff.

for our francophone culture class, we are doing a series of walking tours from a compilation of tours put together by byu professors. i did my first one today and i was so excited.

we started out our tour at hôtel de ville, which is the mayor's office. being the mayor of paris is a huuuuge deal. the building was originally built in the 16th century but was reconstructed in the 1800s in the same renaissance style. it's a really great building with a large square in front of it where there are all kinds of activities depending on the weather and season.

then we walked to a little park that i thought was going to be the mémorial de la déportation, which is a modern crypt that is dedicated in memory of the jews and other groups who were deported from france to concentration camps in wwii. but it wasn't. we played there for a few minutes and then went to the mémorial. i didn't take any photos here. it didn't feel right. it was such a dramatic place. the whole thing is right next to the seine and it is below ground level. we had to descend down a very narrow staircase into a central courtyard area. we were enclosed in high white walls with one little grate where we could see the river. inside the crypte there were little pearls (that's what they looked like) lining one passageway that stood for each person who lost their life. there were other passages that had cells we could look at. in the center of the crypt was the eternal flame - the light that will always burn in their memory.

after that we went to the notre dame. we didn't look around too much because dr h is going to take us on his own tour of it soon. i'm excited for that. it's such an amazing cathedral. no wonder it's such a popular tourist destination. i loved watching the people around me, seeing their jaws drop. paris really is a different place. i did not love watching the gypsies try and get money from the tourists. but that's life, right?

then we went to the crypte du parivs. this was an underground museum that showed some of the existing structures from the ancient city. the buildings there date back to the romans. crazy.

we also walked past a flower market that we went into and then past the palais de justice. this building is huge with this really ornate and gilded gateway. very impressive.

from there we went into the most amazing place. i have been waiting for years to see these cathedral in real life. sainte-chappelle. i heard of this cathedral a long time ago, and i had seen photos, but it was in my first semester of freshman year that i really learned about it in my art history class. i was so excited about it, i went so far as to spend an hour taking virtual tours of it after class. and sometimes i still do it. yep. i was obsessed. so when i tell you that walking into this cathedral brought tears to my eyes, i'm not even kidding one little bit. everything is painted. the entire chapel is filled with stained glass windows that soar above your head, easily 20 to 30 feet tall. cori and i were having the same problems. we could not even believe that we had actually made it to the cathedral that really made us interested in art history in the first place. it was kind of unreal and completely magical. it was the best date i have ever been on in my life :)

this walk really made me reflect on the value and importance of architecture here in paris. it is something that is cherished. it's a part of life, something that the people take care and effort to preserve. despite all the work it takes to maintain these buildings - all of them! - they do it because it's what makes it paris. i love that about the french culture - the importance of preservation of history. i think it's also a source of national pride for the french. it's that deep rooted pride i was talking about in my previous post. i love that difference between french and american culture and architecture. i've noticed it in my host mom's apartment, as well. everything has is so neat and tidy and well maintained because it is vintage. she works so hard to keep it all in working order, even though she could definitely modernize the entire place if she wanted to. it's the pride and the love of history and architecture that keep her doing what she does.

and sorry i'm not sorry about all the pictures.

hôtel de ville

fun graffiti

there is a lot of this around notre dame

on the roof of a building near the notre dame

sainte-chappelle

the altar at sainte-chappelle. i can't even.

dream come true.

examples of the painting.

angels holding christ's crown of thorns

the floor was even decorated. so fancy. they thought of everything.

so pretty.

me and cori. best date ever.

from inside the palais de justice.

liberté, égalité, fraternité || liberty, equality, brotherhood

now i'd like to move on a share a funny story. because it is funny and makes me laugh. ready? here it goes.

today at dinner, we had tuna with our rice. (i know, i'm eating way more fish than i bargained for.) anyway, olivia said something to madame about how her cat loves tuna. madame was so bewildered by the fact that cats in the eeuu (états unis || united states) eat tuna that she gave some to "petit chat." s/he ate all of it. i say "s/he" because no one knows. i don't even know if madame knows. anyway. moving on. about 10 minutes later, we were sitting at the table finishing our salads when the cat starts to throw up. s/he threw up all over the kitchen. and i had the hardest time controlling my laughter. how awkward and unfortunate. i almost peed my pants. the end! good story, right? maybe you had to be there, but i was (and still am) dying.