Bastille Day

Given the fact that France was never dependent of any other country, they don’t have an Independence Day. However, the French are known for their revolutionary spirit. Hence, they have Bastille Day, the day when the bourgeoisie took over the city, and the series of events that lead to the beheading of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The following are pics of the events leading to an amazing fireworks show.

Ignore the first pics hehe ....

From France Trip

From France Trip

From France Trip

From France Trip

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From France Trip

From France Trip

From France Trip

From France Trip

Wanderings

Le Marais

For my French writing class I had to choose a Quartier, neighborhood, localized between the 3^rd & 4^th districts; the former is among fancy & expensive districts in Paris. Back in the day, around 17^th century, it was the place to be for anybody that wanted to be somebody: the French noblesse. I chose this nice square: Square Louis XIII. Unlike Luxembourg, there are no flowers here; it’s mainly trees with some grass. And compared to Luxembourg, most of the visitors of the Square are in their late teens.

Pictures also include:

L'Arc de Triomphe

La Tour Eiffel

Le Musee Carnavalet - Paris History

First Excursion

Honfleur, Normandie (Norther-ish France)

Our first trip outside Paris was to the picturesque port-town of Honfleur, northern France. It's in the department of Normandy, tho it's not part of the D-Day landings. The former glory of the town was trade with Canada & England; it's sort of the Boston, in its colonial splendour, of France. (I might just be messing up my US history, though)

In any case, I really liked the drive there. Despite the tiresome 2.5 hrs bus ride, I sat next to a French student, from la Sorbonne, who's among those helping out with the course: Paul. What interesting conversations we had. Topics ranged from the difference & similarities in the school system, to anything I saw on the road. There were also many awkward silences changing from topic to topic. One thing I've noticed about the French is the ease with which they abruptly end conversations, or maybe just the time it takes me to formulate sentences. He’s Asian, and it’s kinda odd to hear him speak French; however, there are PLENTY of Asian individuals in Paris that speak fluent French, there’s a mini China Town not far from the hotel.

Pickpocket Paradise

Musee du Louvre

Our first group excursion was the Louvre. To get there, ~40 individuals took the metro at once. If you know me well, then you'll know I'm not a big fan of travelling in a big pack. I’ve been all over Paris, taking one metro line after another, so I’m pretty acquainted with the system; others aren’t as adventurous as me, though. However, the ride wasn’t too bad; it was only me, my roommate and the French TA in the same wagon. So we got there. The guide was this nice, grandma-like woman that thought the tour was gonna be in English; in the end it helped ‘cause she’d say words in English that weren’t too obvious in French.

The museum is… breathtaking & overwhelming; It’s HUGE! [hehe… that’s what she said] There are so many paintings, sculptures and the like. Yeah, yeah, I’m not the artsy, museum type but with a nice guided tour I can learn quite a lot; otherwise I take pictures of stuff and move on. I don’t do much admiring. So basically, I got a myriad of pictures and now you’ll enjoy the Museum just as I did.

Some interesting info about museums here is that most of them used to be palaces. The building is the Palais du Louvre, and the Palais du Luxembourg became the senat. Old castles become historic places, and so on. Bottom line, Paris is one big museum filled with old buildings and tiny streets and ornate gardens.

PS. One of the french profs said that the Louvre is "pickpocket paradise", as the rest of Paris.