Author: Michaela Fontenot

This week was a really fun one! I guess they saved a lot of the best for last. My favorite thing with week was the day trip we took on Wednesday! Saw the absolute best church ever!

I love how MUCH this is. There is constantly something new to look at when you look at this building. The inside is incredible too. The churches we have visited on this trip are my favorite architecture features for sure. They feel awe inspiring, with how big and ornate they are. I definitely feel like the impact of religion benefits from magnificent buildings such as these. It makes me feel like the point is: if people can build stuff like this, what could Heaven be like? I definitely feel like I would’ve correlated the two as a kid. I wish we had stuff like this in America.

Just 3 girlypops admiring the cathedral!

The Wrought Iron museum was so interesting. I loved how excited Dr. Smith was over the knives. Above is an imagine of her gazing at them lovingly. France is just so cool y’all. Even far away from Paris there is so much to do. This town in the Normandy region had so many cool museums that we didn’t even get to. I feel like at every turn there is an opportunity for education. And it’s promoted! That’s the difference I think, in America there is also a lot of opportunity but I feel like it isn’t promoted as like a fun thing to do in the area where you live. You only go to museums in a place where you are visiting, never in your home town. Here in Paris I saw just as many Parisian’s at these exhibits as tourists. I like that education is a big focus for all ages.

Carter in his Romeo era 💀

TOTAFOT FOREVER

I would like to make the statement that we were the best team ever, and all the other teams were lame, and we were the coolest, and the other teams were dorks 🙄 All jokes aside (I’m not joking) this scavenger hunt was so much fun! It was a great way to put all the things we learned in class to use, and one last grand adventure across Paris. Below is video evidence of the coolest person in the mall yesterday. Sorry, no one else compares.

Because we were such a cool an amazing team 😎 we finished sooooo early that we went and saw the Barbie Movie. It was amazing, so thought provoking and emotion. I give it a Ken outta ten. Honestly this movie is a cultural reset.

Honorable Mentions:

First and foremost, I would like to state something: METRO LINES 12 AND 13 ARE THE MOST BUMPY! How dear reader, might I know this? Because not ONE but TWO times I have been thrown into a group of men standing on the lines 12 and 13 while HOLDING on to bars for dear life. This is your PSA: Constant Vigilance (+stronger grip??)

Other Metro mishaps include but are not excluded to: Being sardined (mid experience) Metros being so full that the group has to split up (S tier experience) COUPLES MAKING OUT NEAR YOU or in Poor Ellie’s case RIGHT BESIDE YOU (—–S tier) Taking funny pictures of classmates squished in the metro that you were too late for, or of the poor lost souls left behind as the metro doors shut (suckers)

I also want to mention again how much I love the art in Paris, it is simply amazing how much time and effort is put into these pieces. Even the graffiti is beautiful. I really enjoy seeing glimpses of it on the metro or walking around. While some is just lettering and symbols, I have seen some beautiful graffiti murals around. Another thing I adore are sculptures, especially some of the amazing one of a kind sculptures found here in Paris. I love how thought provoking these works of art can be.

Unpopular Opinion: Vive la r^esistance des rats (pretend that e is accented) Did we learn nothing from Ratatouille? Save. The. Rats.

Another interesting bit from this week is the conversation during class about the average French person potentially being on the shorter side. Enclosed in this post is a video of a short person caught out in the wild on the Paris streets.

The weekend was really cool! It was so fun seeing a beautiful chateau and later on learning about the wine making process. Visiting the inside of the cave where the wine is stored was really fun, so was the tasting process. It was delicious wine!

Another fun trip was the day trip we took to Giverny, where the Monet gardens are. That was so incredibly beautiful. Monet is such an inspiration to me, so I am so thankful we got to go. The flowers are unreal, highly recommend it!!

In conclusion: It was amazing week, and I haven’t even shown a third of the activities that we did! Paris is an amazing place because of how much there is to do! It’s something that is so enviable in a city. I understand so much more why it’s always been THE city to be in. The design is amazing, down to how the sewer was created. While every city has pros and cons, I do believe this city definitely has the best pros.

I still can’t get over how much beauty is in Paris. Yesterday we went to the museum d’Orsay and there was just so much to take in. I notice this all around Paris, there is beauty in almost all of the buildings. From a preservation point of view, I know this is all by design, but it is really so interesting to see it in person. All the pictures and videos I had seen from Paris never gave it justice. This is a very special city.

It also strikes me how big everything is, especially the ceilings. You see vaulted ceilings in America, but not as commonly as you do here. It definitely gives you the feeling of being small and in awe of the architecture around you. I love how beautiful the ceilings are. Me, Ellie, and Emma were talking about yesterday how in a lot of these buildings we just wanna lay down on the floors and spend time looking at all the details of the ceilings.

As a human being, today I have consumed enough chocolate to literally become an Oompa Loompa. That being said, I enjoyed every minute of it. Other than being astonished by chocolate, I am in awe of the beauty in Paris. Everywhere is so rich in aesthetic visuals. I love how colorful so everything is when you walk inside buildings, such as the Opera house we visited today.

The grandeur of these buildings is just shocking to me, I find it to be a stark contrast to the styles of buildings I’ve found in America. While there are amazing aesthetic features in America, I don’t find there to be a lot of ornate-ness in the same, even with super fancy buildings like the white house, it tries….but doesn’t come close to what I’ve seen in Paris. I’ve witnessed so many beautiful things in this wonderful city.

Honestly this week has been incredible. I seriously am doubting that any of this is real at this point, because so much has happened in such a short amount of time. Even on the off days I have been doing so much, like going to the Louvre today and seeing the Mona Lisa in person.

It’s crazy to think that people just live here and experience similar things on a regular basis, (at least the outside monuments and stuff). In a way its overwhelming because of how much we are going to be doing in this month.

To expand more on my main character moment I mentioned in my previous post, it’s so surreal to be experiencing stuff I’ve only read in books and seen on TV. It almost feels like I’m watching myself experience this stuff from afar. Like seeing the Eiffel tower from up close today really humbled me, as many times as I’ve seen it on TV, nothing prepares you for how ginormous it really is when you are standing on the ground below it. I’m starstruck by this city.

Friday was my birthday, and I got to spend it in the most magical city on earth! Went to the Picasso Museum, and it was amazing. It fulfilled a childhood dream that I’ve always had. Picasso is my favorite artist of all time. I used to walk down to my neighbor’s house who was a museum curator and read his books on Picasso all the time, to the point that he started giving them to me.

This was the best birthday I ever had! Not only did we go to the Picasso Museum and the Victor Hugo house, we also got to go back to some of the places that the class visited and get some cool photos! It was really nice to return to these areas and reflect on what was talked about during class, but on my own time frame.

We ended the night by doing the most french thing over, having a picnic! We went back to the park behind the Cite Universitaire and enjoyed an amazing meal! I love the eating culture here in France! It is so much fun to just slow down and enjoy your meal with your friends. Being able to have a couple hours to just vibe with your friends is amazing! Thank you so much Ellie and Evan for spending the day with me!

Welcome to Sites@UMW. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!