Heading for home

Last day in Paris started with a trip to the Grenelle market right outside our door underneath the elevated rail tracks of Metro line 6. It's interesting to see the way the merchants display the different kinds of food--very artful. Students found bargains on scarves and jewelry. After that we visited the Museum of the Decorative Arts. An amazing collection and sequence of the history of furnishings.

We'll be heading for the airport tomorrow morning at 10:00 am Paris time. Itinerary for our flights is below:

Delta Flight 8572 (Air France AF378)
Depart Paris 1:50 PM
Arrive in Detroit, 4:35 PM, EDT

Delta Flight 1465
Depart Detroit at 7:55 PM
Arrive in Kansas City, 9:01 PM

Hope you have enjoyed the blog!

Au Revoir from Paris!

May 29 in Paris

Another busy day over here across the Atlantic. Started off at the Eiffel Tower. A big skating show was setting up to go for the weekend. Someone going for a record vertical drop. We went on up to the top of ET for a great view of the city as you can see from the pictures below. The French rugby league had it's championship game out at Stade de France this evening. The crazy rugby fans were all over town all day wearing their team colors. A very festive atmosphere.

Our next stop was the Marmottan/Monet museum where we saw a great selection of works by the Impressionist master including, "Impression Sunrise," the painting that coined the movement's name (actually meant to be a derogatory label by a critic of the era). Sorry, no photos allowed in the museum.

We continued the afternoon by taking an architectural walk in the Marais district, taking in St. Pauls/St. Louis church, the largest surviving remnant of the Medieval city wall, Hotel de Sens (one of only three remaining great medieval mansions remaining in Paris), Hotel de Sully, Place des Vosges (the first planned square in Paris, built by Henri IV and scene of jousting tournaments during the 17th Century), and Hotel de Sourise, which boasts some fabulous Rococo style interior decor (Dr. Stevenson was absolutely giddy about discovering these rooms). :^)

We also encountered a French Bachelorette party on the street. The bride to be was required to solicit signatures on a t-shirt and carried a baguette "purse" on a string over her shoulder. They also carried the frame that you see around the group picture. Another unexpected cultural experience. I suggest you ask about the kazoo incident when students return.

At an evening meal, all who were brave enough sampled Escargot--Yum.

One more day in Paris. Tomorrow, the Grennelle market and then the Musee des Arts Decoratif.

Au Revoir

Friday, May 28- Paris

Today we hit three museums. Fabulous weather! The Orangerie was first on our list. It is home to Monet's 360 degree waterlily cycles, as well as a small but quite wonderful collection of works formerly belonging to the art critic and dealer, Paul Guillaum and Jean Walter. It includes works by Renoir, Cezanne, Modigliani, Rousseau, Picasso, Matisse, Andre Derain and Hiam Soutine.

Our second stop was the architectural museum, Monuments of France. this wonderful museum exhibits a large collection of plaster casts of architectural features of cathedrals across France. It illustrates the architectural evolution of style, particularly Romanesque and Gothic.

We then moved on to the Pompidou Centre, home to the French National Museum of Modern Art. This unusual "inside-out" building provides an excellent setting for the collection of art from 1905-1960, as well as a thematic show dedicated to showing art created by women artists. The view from the top is spectacular as you can see by the shot of Sacre Coeur.

We have seen a lot of groups of Parisian school children and adolescents in the museums. There's a group in one of the photos below being shown a work by Kandinsky.

Finally, we walked by the beautiful St. Eustache cathedral not far from the Pompidou. They were getting ready for a concert so unfortunately we couldn't go inside.

Tomorrow the group goes up to the top of the Eiffel Tower and visits the Musee Marmatton/Monet.

Two more days in Paris then back to the USA.

Wednesday in Paris

We started today at Hotel Biron (hotel, in French, refers to a residence), one time home of the sculptor Auguste Rodin. This wonderful jewel of a museum combines a beautiful chateau and gardens with the sculpture of this great master: The Burghers of Calais, Le Pensur (The Thinker), The Gates of Hell, and The Kiss are some of the major pieces we saw today.

After lunch at the outdoor cafe at the museum, we crossed the street to tour Les Invalides, the golden domed church that stands out in the architectural profile of the city. It was designed by Jules Hardouin Mansart, architect for Louis the XIV, and adjoins the Hopital des Invalides, built in the late 17th century as a home for old and disabled soldiers. It also serves as the resting place for Napoleon I, the "little general" who nearly conquered all of Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. You can see his sarcophagus in the pictures below.

We finished up the day returning to the Louvre to visit the Sully wing to trace the history of French painting and the Richelieu wing where we followed the sequence of Northern Painting (Dutch, German and Flemish).

Tomorrow is a free day. Most of the students have rail tickets to visit Versailles where their museum passes will give them free entry to the chateau and the gardens. The weather has turned nice and cool and it should be a great day for them.

Signing off! ML

Musee D'Orsay and Arc de Triomphe

We started the day at Musee D'Orsay, French art from 1848-1914. It is a beautifully remodeled train station, transformed into an art museum. The museum is undergoing renovations and so things were a bit congested. A wonderful collection of impressionist and post-impressionist work is the core of the collection which covers all movements and styles within this time period.

In early afternoon (another hot one!) we walked over the Sein to Place de la Concorde, a beautiful plaza and central point for the north/south and east/west axes of Paris. This is the site of the Egyptian obelisk and also historically the site of the guillotine during the French Revolution's reign of terror.

We took the Metro up to Champs Elysees and then walked up to the Arc de Triomphe. You'll see some views from the top amongst the pictures below, and if I was successful getting it to load, at the bottom of the post, a video that shows a view plus some crazy traffic in the round-about that surrounds the Arc.

Today was Stephanie Cunningham's birthday so this evening Stephanie B, Jordan, Samantha, Rachel, and Megan surprised her with candles on ice cream and cake. They had to settle for "virtual" flames on the candles when neither a lighter nor matches could be located.

It rained this evening and has cooled off nicely. Tomorrow (Wednesday) promises to be more comfortable than the last two hot sticky days. Our itinerary: Auguste Rodin Museum, chateau and grounds, Les Invalides (Church of the Golden Dome--Napoleon's tomb), and then back to the Louvre in the afternoon. Thursday is a free day and it appears most everyone is going to Versailles.