Thursday, May 6, 2010
Day 8
So after class we grabbed some food from the boulangerie around the corner (where I'd gotten my poulet a l'indienne the other day). I had a croque monsieur---really good, especially since it was warmed up. Then Paige, Betsy, Marissa and I decided to do the Seizieme Arrondissement Walk in a nicer neighborhood full of nouveau d'art buildings from the early 1900s. We had a bit of trouble at the start finding the right platform for the metro though. We went to the wrong side which had the wrong line and we couldn't find how to get back to the other quai. As we went up towards the exit there was a gate and then a half wall that stood about four feet high that divided us from the side we were looking for. Since the gate was locked and there weren't many people around (and we didn't want to walk around the metro again) I made the executive decision that "hopping the fence" would not be such a bad thing. So hurriedly put my bag on the ledge, hopped up (in my dress no less) and swung around to the other side. It was very Three Musketeers...or something epic like that. Betsy and Marissa followed after me, but unfortunately Paige hesitated too long for fear of ripping her new Parisian jeans, and some guy came along and indicated to her that he could open the gate down the hall for her. Ha. Awkward. I think the couple that had passed us coming out realized what we were doing and told him...because I thought we were being rather sneaky. I mean, loud, boisterous American girls making a fuss of hopping a barrier in an echoey metro tunnel...no, there's no way he would have noticed!
After that exciting adventure of getting turned around inside the metro and then improvising a way to go to the desired platform, we finally made it to the correct stop. We began our walk by crossing the Pont de Bir-Hakeim, which is the only bridge in Paris for cars, the metro and pedestrians and getting sidetracked by photo ops. The Tour Eiffel is just across the river and it is a really pretty view from the bridge. So as we walked along it we took quite a few pictures. It was really funny because a random French guy who was alone asked Paige to take a picture for him with the Eiffel Tower in the background. He ended up having her take about three on his cellphone, and it was an interesting interchange because she misunderstood him a couple times and was about to take a picture without him in it, haha. After that we kept walking along the bridge, and a few minutes later he caught up with us again and asked Paige to take a few more pictures in several different picturesque spots. It was pretty random but really funny and kind of awkward. I mean, usually when you ask a stranger to take a picture for you you only take one or two...well, he spent about three minutes with us taking pictures of him on just his cellphone camera. Oh my. But who am I to judge? We asked a nice Frenchman to take our picture later on the bridge. And that was funny too because I was stupid and spoke in kind of franglais with him and he ended up taking three or four pictures for us. He would take one and then decide it wasn't good so he had us wait as he fixed it and took another--which was actually a good thing because the last one he took was the one that was good so I guess he knew what he was doing. But it was funny because I felt like we were modeling or something. He was so nice though. Sometimes the French are really snotty towards us, but I've discovered that its usually the people who work in stores or tourist shops. I guess that's understandable, I wouldn't be too happy having to deal with idiotic rambunctious foreigners every day either, but then again, I'm not going to work in a souvenir shop. Problem solved. But in general people have actually been incredibly hospitable towards us and so willing to help.
I'll jump ahead here to add that later on our walk we went a little too far and weren't sure how to find the Marmatton Museum so we asked an old lady walking up to us and she was sooo sweet. It was a little hard to understand her though and there was another lady who was on the sidewalk listening to this exchange and after the other lady had given us directions she asked us in English if we had understood. She was like, "Did you understand her ok? You have to go up there and turn left to cross through the park...etc...I know sometimes it is difficult when we speak quickly. Good luck!" It was so sweet of her. It gives me such a better impression of the French. I think in America we tend to classify the French as cold and aloof, especially towards foreigners and most especially towards obnoxious American tourists. But that's not the case. When you stop to talk to them, and especially when you speak to them in French, they are so friendly and helpful and cheerful. In many ways they are more cheerful and willing to help than most Americans!
So we spent a good half hour taking pictures along the bridge and then along this nice garden path at the end of the bridge. That was when we realized we had gone to far and we weren't on the pathway that the walk had mentioned. So we backtracked and walked down this really pretty parkway that goes down the Seine called the Allee des Cygnes (Avenue of the Swans). Even though we went down the wrong walkway initially, it was really pretty and at the end there was a lovely memorial to those who died and suffered during WWII under the racist and anti-semitic persecutions. It was a beautiful tribute.
After correcting ourselves we went along the Allee des Cygnes which was a really pleasant walk that ended with the mini Statue of Liberty on the Pont De Grenelle. Auguste Bartholdi used this small-scale version as a model to create the large one that is now in the United States. We then walked towards La Maison de Radio-France, a big dome-like structure that holds the main offices for Radio-France as well as studios and a museum. We didn't stop in there though. Instead we continued on the walk past Cafe Antoine which we went into really quickly to look at the glass painted ceiling and wall ceramics that were designed by Hector Guimard, who became the symbol of Art Nouveau in France in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Art Nouveau influenced architecture, interior design, lighting fixtures, furniture, jewelry etc. and is characterized by highly-stylized, flowing, curvilinear designs that often include floral motifs. This was evident all over the Seizieme Arrondissement as we continued on looking at all the beautiful architecture. The apartments were beautiful, and it is easy to see why the Seizieme is considered such a nice and somewhat snoody place. One of the buildings our book directed us to was at 14 rue de la Fontaine (which is the name of the French author who is famous for retelling Aesop's fables) to look at Castel Beranger, considered a masterpiece of Art Nouveau architecture. The entrance was really whimsical. The gate was a kind of light green turquoise color and very twisty and curvy with inlaid copper/bronze plating, characteristic of Art Nouveau, and it reminded me of the entrance to a theme park ride in Disney World. It didn't look like the entrance to someone's apartment home. The inside entryway was also crazy looking, even more so than the gate itself. The walls and ceiling were covered with curvy bars and metal plates. I'm not really sure how to describe it other than whimsical and theme park-esque. It almost had the look of a large old-fashioned, somewhat creepy, elevator. It was cool though, I really liked it. A girl opened the door to go in while we were looking at it too and I was tempted to stop the door from closing behind her so I could go in and look. But I didn't want to be awkward/have her wrath directed towards me...so I didn't do it.
After viewing the architecture we passed a patisserie on the corner and admired the window display. After a minute of hesitation we decided it would be in our best interest if we went inside and bought a treat. I bought a really big tarte framboise (raspberry tart). Betsy and Paige each bought a yummy pastry whose name I can't remember (but its somewhere in the book so I'll find it later) that was basically a vertical eclair (looks a little like a snowman fluff) stuffed with a lot of light chocolate cream filling. And Marissa got a classic chocolate eclair. Yum!
After having our fill and feeling ourselves reinvigorated, we continued the walk through the neighborhood. We passed by the Maison de Balzac (the author Balzac's old home) but didn't go inside because it was closed, so we just looked. It was a really cute little house that looked kind of funny sitting lower down on a plateau next to the "newer" apartment buildings. Paris is such an interesting city because of all these contrasts and juxtapositions. On one street you can pass by several didn't centuries of architecture, its really incredible.
We then walked through Passy Plaza, a long street filled with interesting market stands and a mall inside one of the buildings. The fruit looked so good! We went on through there towards the park area past Place de Passy and walked on a street that paralleled it. We got a little confused by the directions and ended up going a little too far, at which point we asked several people for directions. All of them were so friendly and helpful, including those two older ladies I mentioned before. We finally figured it out and were able to find the Musee Marmatton, which houses a nice collection of Monet paintings. Luckily we got there with an hour to look around, which was just about the perfect amount of time to see everything. I was surprised because I had originally thought it was just a Monet museum, but it had so much more. It had a few of his contemporaries but also an exhibit of medieval art with amazing triptychs and illuminated manuscripts dating back to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries I believe. It was really quite amazing and I was in some ways more impressed with that than the Monets! Of course I did enjoy the Monet exhibit too, especially when I stood back and squinted my eyes at each of the paintings. It really helps you to distinguish what he was trying to paint sometimes! Then at the end I bought a cute painter's palette key chain for 8euro that I probably shouldn't have, but it was really cute and I wanted it, so I splurged.
By that point we were all tired and I know that my feet were killing, so we decided to end the walk at the museum and take the metro back home. At home we had dinner that night with Frederique. We ate spaghetti with a chicken stew (chicken and carrots--the carrots were sooo good, which is rather surprising because I'm usually not so taken with them even when they are in a tasty stew). Over dinner we discussed some interesting things including comparing abortion policies in France and the U.S. and our opinions on it, as well as driving laws, traveling and our plans for the week. Frederique also quizzed us on French presidents...yeah I'm not on top of that. I only know about Sarkozy and Chirac as the last two and then of course Clemenceau and de Gaulle. But then we asked her if she could name the U.S. presidents backwards and she got only a little bit farther than us, so I don't feel as bad. Quite an array of topics though for dinner. We've covered a lot in the past week with her including all the topics were warned to be wary of before coming, namely politics and religion. Ha. Yeah, we've talked about religion, religion in terms of politics, abortion, gay marriage and others. Frederique doesn't tiptoe. But that's okay because she's Catholic and we're LDS so we have similar views on these issues so we don't have heated debates over dinner, but rather nice thoughtful discussions and comparisons that are actually pretty interesting! One funny thing that happened at the end of dinner was when we were talking about some of the places we were going to see as a class and for some reason I had a lot of trouble getting the French words to come out. I was trying to say a simple short sentence in French--I was going to say "We are going to go to the Fontainbleau Castle next Saturday." I had to put out every effort to say each word though with pauses in between. It came out something like this: "Nous....allons....a-l-l-e-r....au chateau--La Fontainebleau....samedi, n'est-ce pas?" Haha, I have a huge disconnect between the French in my head and the French that comes out. I can form sentences with relative ease in my head but when I try to speak it comes out awkward and haltingly. I guess that will improve with practice, which I should be doing more regularly. Anyways, that was the day. It was a good day, and I really liked the Seizieme walk. The walk itself was pleasant and the Art Nouveau was really interesting. It helped that it was warm out for once. I miss the sun!
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