Les apogées de mes Voyages.

It's been so long since I've had the time to post anything. I can't believe an entire three weeks has almost passed. It's bittersweet, you know - I miss everyone at home and six weeks seemed like an eternity when I first arrived. Now it seems so short-lived, and I still have so much to accomplish!

We had our first Critique on Monday. Jeff is a very tough critic. On Monday I also presented Moreau's Galatea for my Art History class, so I spent the entire weekend glued to my computer screen and wasn't really able to go out until last night. There is a cool restaurant/café near our apart-hotel called Les Artistes. It's fun to hang out there and converse with people in French - it helps me a lot to speak with people more intimately than I would with "serveurs" (waiters) or employees of grocery stores and boutiques and whatnot. When I am able to have actualy conversations with local residents of the neighborhood, they help me to pronounce things correctly and correct my grammar so that I learn from mistakes. Anyone else will generally just wrinkle their nose or ask me to repeat myself, or start speaking to me in English. But my grasp of the language is improving so much - I often think about how I would say a particular phrase in French just while thinking about it or speaking it in English.
Oh, and on Monday I was also turned down by Agnès Varda for an interview because she is working on a documentary right now. She took the few minutes I needed to get a quote from her to personally reprimand me (in English) for even asking her secretary if I could speak with her. It wasn't a great day for me, and I had just spent the entire weekend stressing about the crit. Mais, c'est la vie, n'est-ce pas?

I figure I will have to post some photos chronologically in order to do some catching up. I won't get it all in, but I will post again soon after this to finish up the most recent information.


On FRIDAY, 23 Mai

we had a picque-nicque at Pont des Arts, the bridge over the Seine that is in front of Paris' lovely art school. Lots of young people drinking wine, eating cheese, and singing and playing guitar in large groups. Sounds stereotypical, but it was one of the most exciting places we've been as a little group of American students.

Before heading to the bridge, we all split off and picked up baguettes, cheese, bottles of wine, nutella, fruit, and anything we wanted to eat.

On the way there, somewhere in the 6th or 1st arrondissements, I started to notice a ton of tourists and some scattered beggars. Thus began the lead-in to what became a small semi-conceptual study of people in each place I went, which is what I presented for my first assigment on "Public Paris".







On the bridge:


Cassie, Colleen, Nicole.


Sippin' on some Schweppes.


The spread.


Maggie.


Cassie, Katy.


A bunch of French art students.



SUNDAY, 25 Mai.

The Market at Bastille.























Hanging out in Le Marais (3e & 4e Arr.) - the Latin quarter of Paris, and it is as well consiered the gay sector of Paris.


A bird scavenging my gyro.


Lots of sweet street art.





We hung out in this alley forever - there was a lot of graffiti, and a boutqiue of three combined artists - a hat-maker, a jeweler, and a man who makes clothes and bags of out old mail sacs. You can see the strange hats at www.mino-delavictoire.com


A mannequin wearing a jacket made of letter sacs.









On the way home:



Some sweet old musicians playing for change in the metro station.



Since my last post, we have also been to Notre Dame, Musée D'Orsay, Jardin du Luxembourg, a few famous cemetaries, Les catacombes, and lots of other things that are probably slipping my mind right now.

Some other images from last week that I took in a shopping district:







I will post the rest of my photos as soon as I can! It is difficult because I work with NEF files for my classes but I post JPGS on here, so that is twice the work if any of them need editing or fussing with.

Hope all is well in Indiana with the storms and everything. Be careful, mes amours!

Love,

SARA