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Published: June 12th 2008
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notre dame up close
front facade right before we went in sorry i havent been able to blog! we have been so busy so i will catch you up on about a week!
last thursday my "family" of friends decided to make dinner in the dorms which was so fun (and cheap) we had a little dorm party afterwards and that was WAY to much fun 😊
friday my class visited Notre Dame and that was really exciting! i got to light a candle in the cathederal and i felt all "catholic-y" it was cool. we are going to attend mass on the last weekend we are here in paris at notre dame. how many people can say they went to church there?! im excited and not even catholic! we hung out at the louvre for the rest of the afternoon and i got to see the da vinci collection!
saturday morning we got up bright and early to get on buses and head to the loire valley. the castles and gardens were beautiful. we visited four of them including the big Chambord castle, which was my absolute favorite to study in school! unfortunately a lot of the furnishings and paintings were taken by nazi germany during ww2 (those damn germans!
chenonceau chateau
jena and i infront of chenonceau chateau haha) but it was still amazing to see leonardo da vinci's double helix stair case! so cool! saturday night our group leaders took us on a surprise wine tasting! we got to see how the wine was made and then sample QUITE a bit of it afterwards! this was my favorite part of the trip because the entire group was together having the greatest time with these insane french people who owned the vinyard that didnt speak english! they were what you would expect someone to be like that owned a winery, constantly drunk 😊
my second favorite part was the bus ride. my group of friends out here are amazing! we decided to create an official family tree and geneology of how we are all related in this ridiculous way. it helped the 3 hour bus ride go by. we didnt stop laughing and i think that is helping burn off all the carbs we eat over here..
monday night my friend jena and i went to dinner with a family friend of her's that lives in paris. it was a father and his daughter who is 24. they are a very wealthy family, and took us to this
Chambord!
my favorite castle!! AMAZING restaurant! i had the most expensive meal in my entire life that night. as soon as we sat down he ordered us champagne just to look at the menus! he then ordered us fillet mignon and all of these other delicious vegetables to go along with it. and of course a fantastic bottle of red wine to go with our meat. then he got us this amazing chocolate melting dessert and coffee. the meal lasted for about 3 hours and it was one of my favorite nights here! plus i didnt have to pay for this ridiculously expensive dinner! it was so great to be in fine company and the waiter not judge us because we had french friends with us. jena and i missed one of our metro exchanges and had to walk home from a scary part of town. but we made it back in one piece thank god!
tuesday i started my second painting of notre dame. it is very difficult but i am totally kicking butt! one of the professor's wives really loved my first painting even though it isnt finished. if i were to sell it i would technically be a professional artisit, but
family photo
family photo in the gardens of Chenonceau i dont think i could part with any of them. oh well i have a fan and that is cool!
wednesday we visited Invalides where napoleon's tomb is located. man he was so full of himself! then we went to Rodin's museum and saw my absolute favorite sculpture by him "the kiss". pretty exciting news-- we had our first celebrity run in with stanley tucci from "the devil wears prada"!!!!! it was so cool that i was like standing right next to him while we looked at art. wednesday night our group took a boat tour on the Seine river. it was so pretty to watch the sunset and see the sights from the river. it was a lot shorted then i expected and we werent on it late enough to see the tower sparkle! oh well next time.
today painting class was cancelled so a few of us decided to visit Musee de l'orangerie. this museum has two rooms completely dedicated to Monet's "waterlillies" they were so beautiful i just couldnt believe it when i walked in the room. we walked around and glanced at some Renoir, Picasso, and Cezanne's work...no big deal!
well i am off to
boat ride on the Seine!
the girls on the boat ride!! make taco's tonight in the dorm with my family! i will update after our trip to normandy this weekend!
au revoir!
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Mom
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like a cat
you are like a cat - always landing on your feet - rich french guy takes you to a fancy restaurant - pays the bill - taylore, you have been touched by greatness! and in my book - your are an artist - i think i've already paid for your paintings - with the tuition bill! so bring those pieces of artwork home, honey. i've cleared the frig door and bought some new magnets") they ought to fit nicely! love ya bunches - dad and i are off to florida - call for father's day - mom