I went to Paris and left my camera in London

The past four days I went to Paris with the group here. We left at the crack of dawn, ok not really, and made our way to St. Pancras Station and hopped on the EuroStar to Paris, that's the train that goes through the chunnel. The train ride was about two hours. 

Chartres

Once we got to Paris we jumped on a coach and headed out to Chartres. Chartres has one of the world's most famous cathedrals. It has the longest nave of all medieval churches. And it was huge. A nice british man was there to talk to us about the cathedral, he had been doing so for the last 52 years. He spoke into a little microphone and we wore headsets and listened. The earphones hurt my little ears and the church was freezing. But it was pretty to look at and the stain glass windows are huge and intricate. There's a relic in the back, it is supposedly a piece robe that Mary wore when she gave birth to Jesus. Its tiny and in a huge glass box behind a velvet rope so I couldn't really see it.

Dinner and Eiffel Tower

Once we got back to Paris we checked into our Hotel. I was hotel buddies with Allyson, and we only had one bed- I think that was a mistake. But we had a good time. Nearly immediately after checking in we headed out for dinner. A whole bunch of girls ended up at an Italian place with delicious food. The Italian men loved us pretty american girls. After food we eventually found our way to the Eiffel tower ( London Underground far superior to French Metro). It was dark and the tower was all lite up. We wandered underneath and out to the park in front of it to take pictures.

[ can can ]

Once we were leaving these two Spanish/Portuguese boys came up to us saying they could tell we were American and tried to chat us up hardcore. This is the first instance of being hit on in France.

[ french guy ]
 After that encounter we went across the street along the Seine and ate a crepe while riding on a carousel. It was pretty much amazing. Then we went home and slept in big beds.

[ carousal ]

Versailles

The next morning the whole group, after waiting around a lot on train platforms, made it out to Versailles. I've been to Versailles before but the gardens were closed (it was December) so this experience was especially nice. ( It was sixty and sunny in France the whole time we were there) I went through the house with the same girls I hung out with the night previous.

[ versailles steps ]

Caitlin and I have the new habit of talking in accents and at Versailles we named our characters. First there is Iris and Joan, they're from Minnetonka, Minnesota. Then there is Lyla and Barbera Sue, one from Dallis the other from San Antonio but they get together for lunch all the time. We spent most the time being from Texas. It was really fun to play loud obnoxious Americans vacationing in France. I hope no real Texans heard us. 

After going through the fancy palace we headed out to the gardens and got paninis and sat and marveled at the landscape, soaked in the sun and fed our ever unsatisfied stomachs.

[ versailles gates ]

Moufftard and Champs Ellyses 

After that pleasantness we headed back into Paris and went to Moufftard which is like the Portobello Road of Paris. We wandered through some market stalls and little shops. We stopped at Nicholson's Chocolate and I got a bag of little chocolates, which I have-with great self control- have not eaten all of it yet. At the end of the street was our main event. There is a little Italian ice cream shop with the tastiest ice cream ever, but that's not it, they scoop it to look like a flower on your cone. Pretty and delicious.

[ flower ice cream ]

Then we went from that quaint little market street to Champs Elyses- the high end fashion shopping street. There we perused shops full of things I will never be able to afford or even really want to for that matter. Then at the end of the street was the Arc de Triompf.

[ arc]

We hiked up the three hundred some stairs to the top and looked all across Paris's skyline. We sat up there for quite a while to make the hike all the more worthwhile.

[ top of the arc ]

 After the arc we went and got dinner at this little French place and I got a hotdog. It was the fanciest hot dog ever. It was on a baggette and it had fancy cheese melted on top of it and it was delicious. Dinner ended and after some more shop perusing we headed back to the hotel kinda making it a short night. But once back I took a bubble bath while listening to French music. Then Allyson got home and we went to the bar in the hotel for some cocktails. Alcohol free mom. The French barman gave us lots of free snacks too. 

Notre Dame and Saint Chapelle 

The next morning the group gathered and ventured over to the island, yes there is an island in the middle of the Seine I've been to Paris and didn't know this, where Notre Dame rests (please do not call it Norter Dame like the people from Indiana do).

[ calvin and i like to ruin caitlin's pictures ]

The inside of the church is rather similar to all the other gothic churches around but what is cool is getting to stand on the tops of the towers. It was quite the climb up there though, 300 something steps. We got to walk all the way around, we were fenced in on all sides including above us as to not jump off and kill our selves. The gargoyles are just like in the Hunchback movie, except these ones didn't come to life, although they looked like they could.

[ top of notre dame ]

 Once we got around to the middle of the tower we got to go up to where one of the bells is housed and touch it. Its a pretty big bell. I'm glad it didn't ring while I was in there. The view from up top was gorgeous because the church sits right on the river. 

Once we finished we walked over to Saint Chapelle, another really famous church. On the way to the church I stopped and bought a beret, my French souvenir. Its grey, I didn't actually wear it in Paris so I wouldn't look too touristy. Now of course Saint Chapelle was under construction when we got there. Only a little portion of the nave was open to the public. At the church you enter the lobby and then off in the corner you go up a little spiral staircase and it opens up into the nave. The walls consist nearly entirely of stained glass. Its an architectual feat. What holds up the walls? Flying buttresses that's what does. That art history degree isn't going to waste.

[ windows in saint chapelle]
It was a sunny day so the light through the glass lite the entire space with all sorts of colors. Another neat thing is that the walls and ceilings are painted, just like they would have been back in the day. Most churches these days just keep the bare stone where the paint has worn off so seeing this was pretty awesome. The ceiling was bright blue with little stars. I'm just so accustomed to seeing white limestone or marble. 

Monmarted and Sacre Couer

That afternoon we hiked, literally up a bajillion stairs, to the top of the hill in Monmarted (a part of Paris) where the church called Sacre Couer sits. It is the coolest looking church. It looks like the mix of some middle eastern temple and a French gothic church. And being up on top of a hill makes it that much more awe inspiring.

[ sacre couer]

The inside was just as gorgeous. There is a huge apse painting of Christ. Easily a restoration from the twentieth century but still a great piece. It was so spacious inside. It rivals with St. Paul's. But St. Paul's has a much better dome. After leaving the church we wandered down the other side of the hill and through a market shop. I ate a crepe. I had I think two crepes a day. From that point we made a quick pit stop at the Pompidou.

[ me pushing cameron out of my picture ]

It's a modern art museum but we didn't go inside, mostly because the building itself is the coolest part. The building is inside out. All the pipes, air ducts and mechanics are on the outside. Plus I learned about it in my architecture class so it was a must.

[ the pompidou ]

When we were there this asian dude came up to Calvin and said you have a funny face can I draw it? It was a charicature man. So he drew Calvin like king kong climbing the Eiffel Tower. The dude was hilarious plus he gave Calvin a mullet. Calvin did not buy the picture. 

the Louvre

[ louvre with caitlin ]

So going through the Louvre was pretty fun. All the people that were with me, Brit, Cameron, Calvin and Caitlin immediately made me their tour guide and said show us what's good. Luckily I could still actually remember some things from the last time I was there. I grabbed a map and only got us lost once. It is THE most complicated museum floorplan I've ever been in. Not going to lie I loved the attention from the crew. It was really fun to lead them to each piece and teach them a thing or two about it.

[ me waving the crew over to teach them about caryatids ]

 At each stop Cameron and Calvin would ask, Why is this famous? And being an art history major I could either tell them why or make it up and like I know why. It was great. We saw Michelangelo's Dying Slaves, Venis de Milo, Winged Victory, the Code of Hammorabi, Estrucan Couple Sarcophagus, Reclining Hermaphrodite (hilarious), of course Da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Madonna on the Rocks,

[ my mona lisa smile]

Delacroix's Liberty Leading her People and the Death of Sardanapolis, and countless Raphael's. So I basically gave them a highlights tour of the Louvre and of pieces I could really talk about. I loved it. It was a testament that I want to work for a museum.

Dinner and a Boat Cruise

As we were rounding off the Renaissance Hall in the Louvre we ran into a few of the other girls and we all went to dinner together. I ordered something in French that I didn't know what it was. Luckily it turned out to be quite tasty. It was some sort of cooked meat, most likely pork but maybe veal? Marinated in something lemony. Then there were noodles in a creamy sauce. It was delightful. It's a good thing I know what snails is in French so I knew not to order that. After dinner we split off, boys and girls. The girls headed back to the Eiffel Tower and hopped on a boat for a cruise down the Seine. It was pleasant and pretty and all lite up. Unfortunately there were some obnoxious kids from Canada behind us. Stupid tourists. We got off the cruise and got another crepe and then went home and had a good sleep. 

Musee d'Orsay

Best museum ever. We got there right as it opened so the first hour there wasn't really anyone there. The museum was put inside an old train station so the building has huge arc shaped windows and a really high barrel vault ceiling. This lets in a ton of light and with a mostly white interior the place glows. There is still the giant clock on the wall that all train stations have. The museum houses 19th and 20th century art which is my favorite. I have a map from the place covered in notes of artwork I loved and new artwork I found. There were some new names and same really famous. There is an entire room of Degas's ballerinas, one of Monet's lilies,  and one of Renoir's portraits. Some really key works were there too. Luncheon of the Grass by Manet, we spent two weeks on this one piece in my thesis class. Manet's Olympia is there too, which was much more painterly looking that I had assumed. There was a self portrait of Van Gogh, the uninjured one. There was an entire exhibit of Hector Guimard's furniture, that's right Mr. Paul Anderson. But by this point there were tons of people inside and I got really frustrated and I can't look at art all angry like. 

Orangerie, Cafe and Musee Rodin

After getting completely turned around Brit and I made our way to the Orangerie. A tiny little museum on the same plot of land as the Louvre. We really only went there to see one thing. There's a white oval room that has its entire wall plastered with Monet's lilies. It was pretty and then we left. 

We walked across the street and went into the first cafe we found cause we were starving. It was an open front cafe, meaning no front wall so we could people watch. I had an omelette du fromage avec jambon. No kidding that's what I got and it was tres bon. Upon exiting the cafe I ran into someone I knew. In Paris. Weird I know. It was Ann Frances. She's an art history major. She and her husband just made their own spring break and came to Paris. We chatted a bit. I felt really cool. 

Next was the Musee Rodin. And if you know anything in French than you know that means the Rodin Museum. It was what I expected. It was better. It was a garden with his statues placed all around it. It was very scenic and pretty. As we were pondering with the thinker, Brit struck up a conversation with professors from BYU I. Mormons are like magnets, they are always drawn together. Its funny how easy it is to pick out Americans, especially Idahoans. 

There Brit and I did become confounded. Inside the Hotel (which means big house) Rodin's the Kiss was in there, but the Tate Modern here in London has Rodin's the Kiss. We saw both of them with our own eyes and now someone has got some e'splaining to do. 

The Paris Opera House and the Pantheon

Our final afternoon in Paris consisted of architecture. The Pantheon was a really cool building that was really freezing inside. Nothing too spectacular to report back. But the Paris Opera House was amazing. Now if you have heard of a little story called the Phantom of the Opera then you know this place. This is the Phantom's playground. And if you have seen the most recent movie, this is where the entire thing was filmed. So I walked down the grand staircase singing Mascaraed, I found the Phantom's box-number 5, I danced down one of the ballrooms and searched for a secret door but didn't actually find one. And there is actually a river underneath the Opera house just like in the story, we asked (flirted) to go down there but the guide man said  only firemen are allowed down there cause its so dangerous. Yeah right, the phantom probably paid him off to say that. The building was gorgeous of course. Gold filigry and mirrors everywhere. I kept expecting it to be the phantom and not my reflection. The opera house was probably my favorite building in France. 

After that brit and I headed back to the train station where we met up with the whole group and rode the train back to London. It was good to come home. 

[Second half of the blog related pictures are on brit's camera still, check back in a little while and see them when I post them]

Remember how I like to see live theater?

So I've actually done a lot between last England post and Spain and Spain and Wales but blogging is so time consuming and I give up easily. I have dedicated this post to all the shows I have seen during the two specified time period previously stated. So I think that the last show I discussed with you was The Woman in Black, really it was that long ago? That's sad. Let me look real quick. Whoa it is. That is sad. Live theater is seriously my favorite thing to do. Previous to this it was watching movies and it will be back to seeing movies once I leave London, cause unless you're in New York, theater is hardly ever worth it. Ok I'm going to give you the rundown of what shows I have seen. 

Les Miserables

[ Mary, Cameron, Me and Brit at Les Mis ]

So I've never read Les Mis ( that book is like 1500 pages, geez Leo) and I did see the Heidelberg Community Theater perform a shortened version when I was twelve there for I was asleep the whole time. Because of this Les Mis was awesome. I think coming into it mostly blind really added to whole experience. First of all we got sweet seats. I love my international student card. Only students in London can get standby about an hour before the show. Four of us, out of the eight or so who came, got tickets in row G in the stalls, that's on the ground floor for those of you who are theater illiterate, for 27 pounds (roughly fifty bucks). Those tickets actually cost over a hundred pounds. They were really really good seats. 

Second, the set was pretty spectacular. The entire middle was a giant lazy susan making scene changes seamless. You just gotta see it. 

Third, the actors were awesome. Not only did they have great voices but they can actually act. And it is a feat to pull that off in live theater. Les Mis is a pretty depressing play, you know people dying, war and revolution, you know, it was quite moving. So much so that big ole Calvin shed a tear. 

[ These guys, awesome ]

39 Steps

[ This is from their website, it shows some of the actors ]

The 39 steps is a spoof of Hitchcock movies. Now I haven't seen very many of those but the play is still hilarious without it. The show only has four actors, three guys and one girl. All but the main guy (dude with the pipe up there) play tons of roles, like in Monty Python. There was a lot of slapstick humor and things of the like. We got kinda crappy seats, on the extreme right of the stage in the second row. The actors were great, I wouldn't have been able to keep a straight face. The story is about this man who meets a mysterious woman who turns out to be a secret agent with a big top secret, she ends up getting killed and the main guy has to go stop the bad guy, getting framed for the woman's murder in the process. The set was very simplistic, just different furniture brought in for each new scene by the actors. All in all the play was hilarious, I give it two thumbs up. 

Oliver!

[ Best character, kid in front, the Artful Dodger ]

Ok we went to go see this show as a group because the brit lit class read Oliver. With so many people, we got horrible seats; we were in the very very back of the stalls where the balcony overhead blocked the view of the stage. Now I was comparing this performance to the movie I used to watch and it was not so good. The best character was Dodger, he got really into and had a great cockney accent. But Oliver's voice was lacking and even though the character of Nancy is a prostitute that doesn't mean that others of the same profession need to be motioning and displaying their "trade" on stage while Nancy sings Oom Pah Pah with a big smile on her face. It was too much. All in all, I'm glad it was free. 

The World's Wife

[ the book cover ]

Carol Ann Duffy is a pretty famous poet here in the UK, she's the equivalent of the US poet laureate. Calvin, the poetry grad student, had to read this collection of poems for class and as I try to feel intelligent and cultured I too read the collection. I really liked the premise of the collection. Each poem is writing from the point of view of world famous people, for example, Pygmalion, Shakespeare and Faust. Some of the poems are really witty and funny while some are deep and thought provoking. 

Calvin found out that there was a one woman show that was closing soon that dramatized this collection. So Calvin, Cameron, Laura, Susan Howe and I all got tickets and went to see it. The show, as I said was a one woman act and it was in a tiny U shaped theater that seated 100. 

[ Linda Marlowe, said one woman ]

The show was very simple, minor costume changes and props were used at the change of each poem. In the picture is Mrs. King Kong. This poem was a little different from the rest because the author switched it so that the character of King Kong was a woman, and that's her tiny little man husband in her hands. One of my favorites was Mrs. Freud. Linda put on a fur stole and cat eye glasses and spoke in a great German accent and you can imagine what she spoke about....

Another good one was this:

Mrs. Darwin

Went to the Zoo.
I said to Him—
Something about that Chimpanzee over there reminds me of you.

That one was the shortest, nice and simple. 

Phantom of the Opera

[ Alyssa, Rachel, Reesa, Me, Brit and Calvin and creepy mustache ]

Now I saw this very show at this very theater when I was twelve. Frankly, all I really remember was the Phantom's Lair set, the ice cream I got at intermission and that it was good. So coming back was definitely a must. They don't have student tickets so we actually had to pre plan going to see this show. We got great seats:

[ Her Majesty's Theater ]

Ok I didn't take this picture but our seats were on the very front row of this balcony, right in the middle. It was perfect because the chandelier fell right in front of our faces and the all the effects are so much cooler from above. Of course I can only sing praises about this production and I'm sure you don't really want to hear it. One critique is the awful coordination of the ballerinas. I mean come on, its not that hard to keep time and its not like the choreography is too hard to stay in sync. I must say though, the best part is the live orchestra, it totally makes the show. And sitting up above I got to see down into the pit, it was really great. 

[ I don't think this was the Christine when I went but I'm pretty sure that's the same Phantom, hard to tell though....]

PS There is a sequel to Phantom that just started, Love Never Dies, I refuse to see it. It's set in Coney Island. 

Twelfth Night

We went to go see Twelfth Night as a group because the Shakespeare class read it. I like the story of Twelfth Night, thus my love for She's the Man. The production seemed a little lacking, some of the characters were old and dry and I didn't like them very much. The best scene is the one shown on the poster, Malvolio and the box tree. It was hilarious. Another downside was that we again had horrible seats, way up high and way on the side, I could only see the top left corner of the stage. So I listened as best I could with out being distracted by....sleep. 

War Horse

Ok a picture for this one won't load but here's the gist of the play: There are these really cool puppets, they kinda look like a wooden frame of a horse, life size, and underneath them are two dudes who make them move and walk and stuff. That was pretty cool to watch, the puppeteers did a great job. The plot line on the other hand was pretty dismal. Its about a boy who gets a horse, Joey, and he has a weird love relationship with the horse. The horse gets sold to the Army for WWII. Some German guys find him. Farm boy joins the Army to go find the horse. And they do and live happily ever after. It was weird. If you want a pretty honest review, check out Calvin's, mind you he hated it. 

Macbeth

[ poster for Macbeth ]

So the Globe Theater puts on a free show for students before the actual theater season starts (its an open air theater so shows usually start the end of april). This year was Macbeth and through a couple lucky circumstances I was able to get a ticket. So on a Saturday afternoon we made our way down to the Globe and we were the first ones in the theater for the first show of the 2010 Globe theater season. That was a great feeling. Our tickets were for the yard. Which means we got to stand in the yard between the stage and the seats, kinda like a mosh pit at a concert. This is called being a grounding. It's really the best place to be minus the fact that you have to stand the whole time. So being the first people in the theater we got the best place. 

[ sarah, laura, mary, kalyn, brit, me and calvin ]

As you can see we were right up on the stage as close to the middle as you can get. It was fantastic. The actors were right there, I could have tripped them if I wanted too. They looked at us when they spoke, they accidentally spit on us, dripped fake blood on us, etc. It was great. 

Now if you don't know the plot of Macbeth I'll give you a quick rundown: There is a big battle going on in Scotland, Macbeth ends up getting promoted because of deaths of other people. When coming back from battle he and his buddy Banquo get visited by three witches who tell Macbeth that he is going to be the next king and tell Banquo that the royal line will be from his posterity. They get a little freaked out. macbeth tells his wife about it and she says let's kill the king and blame it on the guards and since you got promoted you'll be king. So they did. And then Macbeth is King and he gets all worried that Banquo's kids are gonna take his place so he kills Banquo. So on and so forth, lots of people die, there's lots of blood and spooky hauntings. In the end everyone dies but Macduff, another high up dude, and he becomes king. That doesn't really do it justice, at all. 

This production was set in Scotland, but in modern times, so all the soldiers were wearing camo. What was great about the Globe is that the actors interact with you. They perform all over. A character will pop up in the stands somewhere, or a procession will go through the yard. This play had army men repelling from all sides of the stage. 

[ Thats Banquo, he's awesome ]

The actors talk to you and interact with you, they would make little adlibs to make fun of the audience or something. It was really cool. 

[ I found this online and since there was only one show i'm one of the little pale faces on the other side of the middle plank] 

The actors did a really good job of being compelling. They were all really passionate about their characters and you could tell by how they acted. There was live music and really cool stunts and "special affects." It all kinda sucked you in to the story. My favorite was the guy who played Macbeth:

[ this is from a rehearsal ]

He was astounding. He did a phenomenal job. He had great facial expressions and a real intensity in all his lines. I had a little crush on him, too bad he dies. 

All in all this was the epitome of my London experience. It'll probably be the best play I'll ever see.

An Inspector Calls

It's really hard to write a review for this after talking about Macbeth. I even saw this the same day that I saw Macbeth. This is a play about a family that gets ripped apart when an Inspector comes knocking on their door. He tells them of a girl who killed herself in the infimory that night and the family discovers how they are all connected to her and how they all lead her to her suicide. The entire play is one scene. It took a little to get use to because all you do is watch them talk in the same room. But the plot was pretty interesting. Then there's a twist at the end when you find out the inspector doesn't really work for the police and I got really confused. But regardless of my confusion, the actors did, of course, a great job. The mother in the family was pretty back bitting and witty and that was funny. 

[ the set ]

The play centered around this little house. Its like a doll house, the door is not full size but still big enough for an adult to crouch down under. The front half of the house opens up like a doll house. It was pretty cool. At the climax of the play the house rises up and tilts forward causing all the dishes and chairs and things to come crashing out onto the stage. That really put the point across that this family's world was shattering, quite literally. I enjoyed the show, but it was no Macbeth.

The Royal Ballet's Romeo and Juliet

[ not the same dancers, but same choreography ]

On a whim I skipped class and went to the Royal Opera House box office and got the only tickets available for that night's production of Romeo and Juliet. One of the other girls here, Laura, has done ballet her whole life too and we were really excited to see the Royal Ballet do pretty much anything, but Romeo and Juliet was just a happy surprise. 

So on a Tuesday night, we got all dolled up:

[ brit, me and laura ]

Our tickets were standing tickets back we still got a pretty decent view. I did however had my shoes off the whole time. The production was spotless. All the dancers were pretty much amazing, as they should be to get into the Royal Ballet, but Juliet is my idol. Later we found out that the Juliet we saw was the alternate, but we are so glad it was here. Juliet was flawless, she melted across the stage. Every move was so effortless. Her par de deux with Paris and then again with Romeo were the best dancing I have ever seen. I can  not say enough how elegantly she flowed.

Being a dancer and knowing how much effort and strength is actually involved in those movements makes all the more impressive. She is my idol.