Un court voyage à Paris

My painting of hands- a work in progress!
My painting of hands- a work in progress!

I apologize for the late post! Sunday night when I usually post, I was on my way back to Florence from Paris, and yesterday I had class all day. Last week was wonderful! Classes started to pick up pace during the week and I had an amazing trip to Paris over the weekend.

In High Renaissance art history this week, we had 2 lectures, one on the rest of Leonardo da Vinci’s life and one on Michelangelo. We went over multiple pieces of art from both of these artists. It’s wonderful being able to not only learn in depth about these works but also go to see them in person- everything is so close.

In painting, our class is really coming along with this first project. Since we have to create two pieces- a painting and a drawing of the same subject- I worked on the painting on Monday, and I worked on the drawing on Wednesday. The drawing is definitely easier for me right now, because I don’t have nearly as much experience with painting as I do with drawing. However, I’m feeling good about how far I am in the process, especially since we still have 2 weeks to finish the project.

one of my blind-contour drawings from class
one of my blind-contour drawings from class

On Monday in drawing class, we took a walk as a class to Piazza della Signoria, where Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi gallery, and many beautiful sculptures stand. Our professor had us walk around individually to the difference statues and sketch them quickly in the way that he’d taught us gesture drawing. This exercise helped me practice my gesture drawing, and I really enjoyed it! We stayed in the Piazza for about an hour sketching, and then returned to the classroom to draw from a live model for the remainder of class. On Wednesday in class, our professor gave us a presentation on the haptic sensibility in drawing, which has to do with tactile drawing and the sense of touch in how we draw. With that in mind, we did some exercises, one of which was Blind Contour. This means that we drew our subject looking only at the subject and not at our paper. The drawings aren’t meant to be perfect, they’re just meant to train your eye to move as fast as your hand and vice versa. It was definitely an interesting exercise!

A sneak peak at my color photo project!
A sneak peak at my color photo project!

In color photography, we looked through the photos that everyone had taken over the weekend. It was great to see everyone’s style of making photographs and what they chose to photograph since it was a very open project. I took my photographs while I was walking home from class one day past the Florence Cathedral. I caught a glimpse of the Duomo in a puddle on the ground (there are plenty, it has been raining here nonstop!), and snapped a few pictures. The pictures went over well with my class, and I would like to continue this idea of reflection or possibly the idea of monumental pieces made small or less significant.

The beautiful Notre Dame cathedral
The beautiful Notre Dame cathedral

The highlight of this week, obviously, was my trip. I bought a single round trip ticket to Paris weeks ago, because I knew I would want to travel this weekend and I didn’t want to miss a good deal! I went by myself because I love to explore and I don’t mind doing it alone- it gave me an amazing sense of independence when I could plan exactly where I wanted to go and navigate there successful on my own. I spent last week and the week before researching places that I wanted to visit in Paris in the short amount of time that I had and I used a few different websites to map out and organize the order of my trip.

a very French snack at the Musée d'Orsay cafe
a very French snack at the Musée d’Orsay cafe

On Friday, I took an 11 am train from the train station in Florence, which is right near SACI, straight to the Pisa airport. I didn’t fly out of Florence because the flights are much cheaper from Pisa. From Pisa I flew to the Beauvais airport in France. This added another leg to my traveling, because I had to take a 1-hour shuttle from Beauvais to downtown Paris. Although it was cold and snowy in France when I arrived, everything with the flight and the shuttle went smoothly, so I was in Paris by around 9 pm. I was super tired from traveling so I took the Metro to my hostel and went to sleep! I really recommend staying in hostels when traveling- I spent so little money and I used reviews online to research which Paris hostel looked nice and clean- mine was wonderful.

Saturday was my only full day in Paris so I had to make every bit count! I woke up early and had my free hostel breakfast (french bread, a croissant, cereal, juice, and coffee!)

view of the Eiffel Tower from the banks of the Seine River
view of the Eiffel Tower from the banks of the Seine River

before taking the speedy Metro to the Notre Dame Cathedral. I walked around inside and out before walking down the bank of the Seine river. I wanted to check out the architecture of a building my photo professor told me about: The Museum of the Arab World has a building that is designed completely with apertures like in a camera. These lens-like windows expand and contract to let in more or less light according to the sun hitting the building. It was amazing!

 

the view from inside the Louvre museum's glass pyramid
the view from inside the Louvre museum’s glass pyramid

After walking around that area for a bit, I took the Metro to the Musée d’Orsay, a museum with hundreds of beautiful impressionist paintings, famous Van Gogh paintings, and plenty else to explore. I spent a good chunk of time exploring there and grabbed a snack at the cafe before heading to the Eiffel Tower! I walked around admiring the tower for a while and took some pictures, then I crossed the river and walked along it until I reached the Champs-Élysées, which I walked all the way down on until I reached the Louvre Museum. The Louvre (which was free for me since I count as a European Union student!) has so much art that I could’ve spent a week there and still not have seen everything, but I tried to squeeze as much into my visit as I could! After the Louvre, I took the Metro up to Montmartre, which is a neighborhood on the edge of Paris with a basilica, Sacré Cœur, up on a hill. Once I took alittle train up to the top, I got to go in the basilica as well as enjoy the view overlooking the city from its steps; it was truly breathtaking. I was exhausted after that, and grabbed the Metro train back to my hostel for the night.

The Mae West Installation: a recreation of a Salvador Dali piece
The Mae West Installation: a recreation of a Salvador Dali piece

On Sunday, I only had time to do a couple of things so I got up early again. After my breakfast at the hostel, I took the Metro to the Centre Pompidou, a contemporary art museum with a super funky building. I got there an hour before it opened and there was already a line! It was also raining, so when the line finally moved from the rainy cold to the toasty museum I was very happy! I was also super excited because the Pompidou is currently having a huge Salvador Dalí exhibit, and he is a favorite artist of mine. It included many of his paintings as well as some sculpture, theatre, movie, and installation work! It was an amazing exhibit and I would definitely recommend the trip to the Pompidou. After the museum, I only had a little time before I had to catch my shuttle to Beauvais, so I bought a quiche lorraine and some French macarons for a delicious French lunch!

Lovely, delicate, and delicious: my chocolate, coffee, and raspberry Macarons
Lovely, delicate, and delicious: my chocolate, coffee, and raspberry Macarons

This trip was a lot of different things to me. I had never been to Paris before, so I knew that I wanted to visit there, but I had no idea the effect it would have on me. Paris was beautiful and lively, everything ran smoothly and lovely in every way, even in the freezing rain. Not only did I fall in love with the city in only a few short days, I also learned a lot about myself. I know now that I do enjoy traveling alone; I can choose exactly where I want to go and since I put the work into the whole trip, I’ll remember it that much more. If I had any nervousness about traveling alone when the trip started, it was replaced with more and more confidence as the trip went on. I especially loved the independence and the liberating feeling of figuring out a new city and public transportation system all by myself. I can’t wait to go on more solo weekend trips in the future!

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