Well hope you enjoyed looking at my PARIS: TAKE 1 Blog, In April I will have a TAKE 2, so keep posted! RECOMMENDATION: IF YOUR JUST STARTING TO READ MY PARIS TAKE 1 BLOG, SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM THEN READ AND SCROLL UP TO FOLLOW IT IN ORDER:) THANK YOU.
This makes me look really big, but I think it looks really cool.
I'm not good at taking my own picture:)
Day 8: Thursday was a free day for us, which was pretty relaxing for us because we were busy all week visiting stuff. So, we made another stop at the eiffel tower. Sat on a bench in a park nearby and watched people, it was fun. We then headed toward the Latin Quarter.
Here and above is some of his sculptures.
Here is an advertisment for his art, he seems to be pretty popular in Paris.
This is one of his drawings, it shows what it is like to be in one of the camps.
Next, we walked to Schlomo Salinger's home. Once we met up with him we walked to his art storage area. This guy is 80 years, in good health, lived a terrible teenage life, but he was the happiest man I'd ever met. He told us before we left to make sure we enjoy life and live a humane life. He was in a Holacaust camp from the age of 13 to 17 years. He said he missed death five times. At his camp they would hold hanging ceremony's were the soldiers would pick so many jew and hang them. He said he was on the list 3 times to be hung, but either they ran out of rope to hang him or did not do hangings that day for some reason. He would of died if a Russian soldier wouldn't of found him once they had control over the Germans. The german soldiers thought he was dead already on the ground, so they didn't shoot him, but he was somehow still alive. The Russian soldier put him in a hospital and he had amnesia for seven years where he forgot everything about the Holocaust. But during the seventh year all his memories came back and that is when he started sculpting and painting. They resemble what the people went through. He mentioned that he had to watch his father die by being gassed to death. Very terrible memories.
Here is the "gates of hell"
Dan the man and the thinker. This is his thinking pose... (I don't understand it either)
Leah...
Jess..
Colin...
Here is Eric's thinking pose. (we all got our picture with it of course!)
Then the famous "thinker" statue is this one. I must not get out much, b/c I didn't really know about this statue, but all the other kids in our group recognized it. Valerie is posing below with it.
Am I close to the pose?? :) Well I can tell you for sure that I was thinking, maybe not as hard as the statue, but pretty close:)
Here is the original "THINKER"
Day 7: We went to the Auguste Rodin Musuem- which is of his life time and he's well-known for his sculpture of the "thinker". Then we met an amazing man! His name was Schlomo Salinger, he was a holocaust survivor, so he is currently 80 years old and is an artist. He said he somehow survived five deaths, like at his camp... or I'll wait till I get to that picture to explain.
This is Val's pretending to be asleep pose, I'm just trying not to laugh. Sally: today we ate at the same place we did last summer:) It helped that I knew where it was, b/c we only had a little time to find food before a more detailed tour.
Then Jess...
Here is the train ride back... he was the first one to conk out.
The gardens. French gardens are very different than American style. The French are particular I guess you can say, just take a look at my pictures and you'll see, they put cement in between the plants. (awkward)
I was trying to take a picture of us as we were walking by the mirror, but it didn't turn out so well. Colin does a better job at this.
"The Hall of Mirrors"
Day 6: We rode a train to Versailles to see the palace. Gerry wasn't able to go with us, so it was just Dan and us. Somehow we made it there and back:) That took up most of the day, then once we were done checking it out, Colin, Jess, Val. and I headed back and went to a movie for the night. It was the OR. Original version, so it was in english and just had french subtitles. Felt like we were in America for a change.
I believe this is the tomb of Napolean, ( I forget which one) but the top is made out of gold.
Here is the Moulin Rouge, pretty popular place.
Aw... heres the good one of me and the basilica, although the tip of it is missing.
Do you think he made it to the next poll???.... well he did, this is what Ian does in his free time. jk
This is a good one, it looks like Dan is taking a picture of Colins but! haha
Right up at the entrance.
I was trying to get me and it in the picture, well.. I did, although I'm just covering it.
I was hoping for more of the city to show than me just standing there:)
Me, Jess, & Val with Paris in the background.
Looking down from the Basilica, some famous french films were made here.
Doesn't is look neat??
The lovely city of Paris.
Eric waving to the camera.
Then here is a side angle picture of the Sacre Coeur.
Here is a cool house located right at the top of the stairs, I just like how it looks.
Gerry is slowly coming up the stairs, they sure were a work-out going up.
Here is the way we went up to it, the back way.
Day 5: We went to the Sacre Coeur Basilica. Here is a side view, so you probably do not recognize it yet. But it was built for the people, kind of in forgiveness. This areas people were killed under another power and the new power wanted to do something for them in return for all the horrible things that has happened to them. I'll have to check this information to make sure I'm correct, but I'm pretty sure it is. You cannot take pictures of the inside so you cannot really have an opinon of it, but some people in Paris hate the architecture of it and some hate it, so it really depends on the individual's taste.
Very beautiful inside.
Day 4: Which was Sunday so we toured all around the Latin quarter, first we stopped at the Sainte Chapelle, it was another church decorated beautifully of stained glass, the pictures I took don't look as good as it did in first hand. Then we went to mass at the Notre Dame de Paris. That was really cool, we attended the international service, so a little part of it was in English. I felt like I was in a church service in the 1800's, they played the huge organ that is built into the church and when you sang it was neat because of how high the ceilings are and its gothic arched style.
This picture was taken for you Sally! Since you seem to love bridges.
I just thought this looked really cool.
A distant picture of the Louvre.
You can tell that it was a train station by the structure, and the famous clock. Some one told me that this train station was one of the stations that Hitler used to ship the jews to the camps. That could be false data, but their is a good chance it's true.
An example of the new trend, the outdoors.
This one just looked so real!
Val & Colin are just very excited to be here.
Name of the painter: Jean-Francais Millet- 1875
This picture shows what we think, two potato farmers, husband and wife who are morning for their children. The painting shows three graves dug, and we assume it is for their children, but we do not know why or how they died. It was very interesting, it reminds me of the picture above Grandma Cummings TV. When you read this mom, you'll have to check.
Here is Gerry explaining the meaning of this picture.
DAY 3: We went to the Musee d'Orsay: it was a train station and was transformed into a museum. I visited it last summer so I don't have many pictures this time to show. But this museum mainly consists of 19th century paintings, and shows a new trend of painting and that was the paintings of outdoor seens. They slowly became popular, the nature paintings.
Me, Val, & Jess.
Here is me, Colin, Val, & Jess. The whole group went to a discotheque.
And from looking across the le seine river.
And another...
Here is another part of the Louvre.
What Jess does in her free time.
What Val does in her free time.
Part of the Louvre! Its so big that I could not fit it in one picture!
Here is one of the biggest pictures on the Louvre.
Me & Mona.
" The Mona Lisa!"
I don't really know who the statue is of, but I got a picture with him last June so I thought I would again:)
Just to show how huge the halls were. We were headed to the Mona Lisa.
Owen, Mr. Toast, & Lindsay.
Eric, Staci, Cat, and Leah waiting also.
Here is Colin, Valerie, & Jess waiting for our tickets to get in.
After the Eiffel tower we walked to one of Gerry's favorite places to eat,which was good and we had the rest of the day free! So we walked around, got use to the metro and went out later in the night. DAY 2 the next day we went to the Louvre: a landmark and the world's largest museum. Above is a picture of the inside: the upside down pyramid.
Here shows the construction of the eiffel tower, the purpose of it when being built wasn't to be the symbol of Paris, actually the parisians didn't like it at first, they had to get use to it.
Here is just picture of a busy street in Paris. I like how the building angel between the roads, their really cool.
We stopped by at the opera house, pretty cool building.
Here is the eiffel tower, above is a couple of pictures for you to see. Shows how huge it is!!
From the same location we could see this bridge which is suppose to resemble love (I think) and it is popular due to the shape of the arc underneath, it nearly breaks.
Here is our teacher Gerry and me. He is a very intelligent man, he gave us all the tours and taught us a lot of history about Paris.
Along the way to the eiffel tower, we stopped and saw the Le Pont Mirabeau. Yes, it looks like the statue of liberty but is not the one in New York. This is a replica of it. The French gave us the huge Statue of Liberty and this one is from the fellow americans that live in Paris as a gift of thanks. It is located beside one of the bridges across the seine river.
Here is me with the le seine river with the eiffel tower in the background.
The day one we toured Paris around the Seine river. Can you guess what this is?? Well you'll be seeing many pictures of it through out this blog. The eiffel tower!
Okay day one in Paris!! This is really funny, our first time using the metro, well for some, some of us already used it before, but when the metro comes you kind of need to hurry to get on, like you don't wait around and if theirs not much room you just have to push or squeeze in. Well five of the group didn't make it on at time! lol As we leave I see five of them starring at us, on the cement. It was no big deal, they would just catch the next one. But they learned fast :) The picture above is Jessica getting of the later metro, she was one of the left behinds :) Later in the week she has a metro situation too! lol.
Later the day we arrived after supper we went out to walk around and to learn our surrondings. We were really close to a metro and could walk to shops. We checked out the movie theaters, we would look for VO listed on the movies. VO stands for original version, most of the movies are made in America so their all gona be in english and will just have french subtitles. We didn't watch any that night. Above is a cool advertisment. This cow seems to be pretty famous. This add is located in a metro. I was teaching some of the group about the cow breeds, so this was an example of a holstein for them:)
Above is me hiding in my closet waiting for the others to come in our room so I can pop out and scare them. Some how I fitted in that closet, they were pretty cool. I did scare some of the guys I think.
Here is Lindsay coming in through the door.
Next is our lovely outside window view.
Below is the layout of our room. A bunk-bed with two other beds. I got the top bunk of course. The matresses are as small as they look in the picture. (not to compfy, but they worked)
Okay, now for my nine days in Paris! Sorry to take so long to write this blog;). We flew into Paris Wednesday Feb. 11th. The flight was quick and easy, fun for me. Then we flew back to Toulouse Friday Feb. 20th. The Wednesday we got there was a slow day. We didn't do too much other than get settled into our rooms at the fiap. Below or maybe its above is some pictures of the fiap. The fiap is a international college dorm. Their were people from spain, great britain, & from other parts of france there while we stayed there.
Here is my groups picture of us and our wine in a bottle crate. They can hold up to 600 bottles per crate.
Geoffrey on the left, is here pouring out to everyone the next wine to taste, he was in my group.
This is the botte/kind that my group chose, again the pink/dry.
We have some white wine here to taste.
Jess and Val with the Brens English school teacher.
The wine in my glass is the one that my group chosen. It was Pink/Dry wine.
This is the group of all of us, including the Brens students.
Friday night we invited the Brens Wine school student over and tried the wines that we picked out Thursday from the wineries we toured and visited. Here is our glasses and spit buckets.
