Not much going on here, really. I spent Friday at the Louvre - it was the third time I'd been there since I've gotten here, but I hadn't done a really comprehensive visit until this weekend. I rented the audio tour for 6 euros, and managed, in the course of about 3 and a half hours, to get through the 2nd floor of two of the wings. That's it. The Louvre is giant.
Honestly, the Louvre reminds me a lot of my paternal grandmother's house. It's full of very pretty things, that are fun to look at because they are very pretty, but there are really only a couple things among the pretty knicknacks that are really interesting, and you definitely need a guide to tell you which is which. I took the Louvre's audio guided tour of the French Painting collections, and there was a painting that was mentioned on the tour every 5 or 6 rooms. Between the masterpieces were just an uncountable number of pretty, but minor, works. Historical reason of that being that the kings of France had too much money, and so would buy, you know, 38 paintings by Boucher or Watteau, well-known Rococo artists, but not exactly Michaelangelos. It is, however, a great way to spend a rainy parisian afternoon, wandering around pretty paintings. And, then, of course, I really can't stop going back to Winged Victory and the Venus de Milo. They are exactly as spectacular as they're supposed to be - I'll admit, I was shocked by my reaction to them, just because visual art usually isn't something that moves me deeply. The Mona Lisa, however, I will be a downer and say I find underwhelming, especially behind the bulletproof glass they've got up. So that's the Louvre.
Other than that, spent a week ago friday at Versailles, which was also a mixed bag - we had a great time in the gardens, but the chateau itself was really unpleasantly crowded, and our guide was not very good. The links to the facebook albums of Versailles (which you can see even if you don't have facebook - Dad, Nana, MJ, Beth, that means you) are here:
The chateau: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2007723&l=ddc60&id=1092510100
The gardens, complete with ridiculous pictures of my friends:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2007724&l=34ce9&id=1092510100
And then also, I went up to Pere LaChaise cemetary sometime last week, can't remember when. This was a very cool thing - it's this giant cemetary with a huge number of famous people buried there. Also absolutely gorgeous on a fall day. We went and saw the graves of Rossini, Chopin, Molière, Beaumarchais, Appolinaire, La Fontaine, Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde - quite an eclectic bunch. It was really absolutely beautiful - some quick pictures:
I was super sad to miss halloween in America - the french don't really do it at all, so the day passed pretty uneventfully. I missed lots of great Halloween fun in Chicago, I know, and I miss you all terribly!
Anyway, that's Paris for the moment. I'll get back now to reading election blogs...erm, I mean, writing a paper about Pascal's take on political order. yes. That.
Salut!
Sarah
