I'm getting worse at this updating thing. I'll do a quick recap.

Bastille Day- I'm glad I was here for this. Bastille Day is most closely related to our fourth of July. Anyhow, the two main events were the morning parade and the fireworks at night. The parade was held on the Champs Elysees. THe French government is required to show its citizens all the military has to offer, and that's what the parade is for. They bring out portions of every branch of the military, all the trucks, guns, and even the tanks. The grand finale is a flyover of every single type of airplane they have. It was really pretty cool to see. Unfortunately, this was the first day we had really bad weather. It started raining toward the end of the parade, and when it started to pour we left. The rain kind of prevented us from enjoying the holiday, but it stopped raining just in time for us to head to the Eiffel Tower and grab a good spot for the fireworks, which were fantastic. They were choreographed to music, and were a backdrop for the eiffel tower. There couldn't be a better place to see fireworks.

Bibliotheque St Genvevieve- This was the first public building using exposed iron. Very pretty, a cool space to be in. It's a nice reminder that iron can still be elegant.

The Pantheon- although not quite as awe inspiring as the Pantheon in Rome, the Pantheon in Paris is larger and very cool. We got to go up to the dome, which gives an awesome view of the city.

Opera Garnier- I had really been looking forward to seeing this, because of my love of Phantom of the Opera. The building is extravagant and beautiful. The entry staircase is especially spectacular, full of color and grandeur. It was a bit disappointing that the underground river doesn't flow through the opera house, but instead the foundations of the house are kind of boat-shaped, and the entire building sort of floats, which means there is no problems of structural shifting and settling due to the ground moving under the foundations. That's pretty cool.

Fondation le Corbusier- and so begins the Corb stuff, with Villa laroche. Turns out I like Corb more than I thought. We also happen to have two buildings on our campus that he worked on.

Villa Savoye- more Corbu. I really loved this house, more than I thought I would. It's this clean, modern building, set away in the corner of a little French town. My favorite part of it was the roof garden, Corbu's "5th facade."

Centra Pompidou- the modern art museum, where the mechanical and electrical systems are exposed as part of the facade. The museum is kind of a run-down of the history of modern art, and has a lot of the super modern stuff that I really don't know how to understand. There was also some performance art piece going on the the entry, with 6 or 7 women dressed as snow white with a banquet table and machine guns. I won't pretend that I understood it, but it was interesting.

Maison de Verre- a modern house built into the existing buildings, with its exterior walls made completely of glass block infilling the steel structure. The house was amazing, every little aspect of it was considered and designed. All the stairs were different, designed for the space, the doors changed with function, it was like a designer's dream. Unfortunately, they didn't allow cameras, so I have no pictures to show.

Ok, so that's the quick recap. Last weekend I went to London. We only had about a day and a half to sightsee, but we made the most of it, walking all around town. We started with the millenium bridge, then went to Norman Foster's egg/gherkin building, the tower bridge, Big Ben, Parliament, Wesminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, War Rooms, British Museum, King's Cross (for a platform 9 3/4 Harry Potter geek-out), the London Eye, and Tate Modern. London was great, especially since I got to speak English for a weekend. The city struck me as a cooler version of Milwaukee, with better architecture. It didn't feel very European , not like Paris anyways.

Ok, so that was the really quick version, but that's what I've been up to!

It's been a while since my last post, I have a lot to recap. The busy schedule of class continues as usual, and I've been seeing so much every day.

Last week we took a two-day trip to the Loire Valley to see some chateaus. The first day we saw Chambord, Chaumont and Blois, then we stayed overnight in the city of Blois and went to see Azay-le-Rideau and Chenonceau the next day. The castles were all fabulous, of course. Its hard to find a castle that is not fabulous. Chambord was a good castle to start with, it was one of the biggest, even though it was never fully completed. One of its features was a central double-helix staircase, which was designed (I believe) by Da Vinci himself. It was surprisingly graceful and airy for a stone staircase. Another wow-factor of Chambord was the fact that you can go on the roof and walk around between all the towers. The views from the roof were fantastic, nothing but French wilderness. Chambourg has a cool history too: during the German occupation of France in WWII, it was used to hide art evacuated from French museums. There was a resistance against Hitler's destruction of any art that contradicted his ideals. There were images of the castle rooms filled up with boxes and canvasses. I'm a little surprised that it was never discovered, since the castle isn't exactly discreet, but it successfully hid and protected artwork from destruction.

Chaumont was even more beautiful, it sat on a cliff overlooking a river, it the view went on for miles. In front of the castle was an enormous garden, and even the stables were picturesque. The castle itself was considerably smaller than Chambourg, but it was still rather large. It felt much cozier than Chambourg, because the rooms were mostly wood, not stone, and the grounds were covered in trees and flowers, not just green lawn. It was a more intimate version of grandeur.

Blois was....confused. That's really the best way I can describe it. It is a castle that was added on to over the centuries, and each addition was done in the latest style, so they don't go together at all. It was pretty big, and ornately decorated. The evening we spent in Blois was night, it is a relatively smaller town, much quieter than Paris and quite relaxing. We didn't have much time to spend there, but I got the impression that outside of the castle there isn't much to see.

The next morning we went to Azay-le-Rideau. This castle had a full moat, which was kind of fun. It was like something out of a fairy tale. As far as the actual castle goes, it was more along the lines of Chaumont.

Finally, my favorite, Chenonceau. This castle is actually built over a river. Perhaps not as secure as a full moat, but way cooler and much more beautiful. It also had two huge gardens, one which belonged to the queen, the other which belonged to the queen's mistress. The two gardens were sort of a competition between the two women, they both tried to one-up the other's garden (whoever decided it was a good idea for them to share a getaway castle was seriously deluded). There was also a hedge maze in the grounds, but the heges were only about 5 feet tall, so it wasn't much of a challenge. I suppose it may have been designed for kids though....

Back in Paris, my favorite thing I've seen in the past week in Parc Citroen. It's a large public park on the site of what used to be the factory for Citroen cars. A bunch of landscape architects collaborated on the project, so there are a lot of different types of spaces, from grassy fields to pruned gardens, to nature-like forests and bamboo groves. The main feature of this park are greenhouses. There are two large ones in a prominent space that are more public, and 6 smaller private greenhouses. The private ones are really cool. They are raised up one story, and are reached by a long ramp that slopes up between the various gardens. Despite the fact that they are glass boxes, they feel private due to the fact that they are obscured by foliage and relatively secluded by hight and the long ramp. It's a simple and brilliant idea. The park is also full of water features, most of them very subtle and elegant. However, when I was there they were all off, either due to construction or the current heat advisory. I'd like to go back sometime when they are on again.

Today was our day trip to Versailles. I didn't get to see the interior today (though I will definitely return to see it). The grounds were large enough to keep us busy all day. They're enormous of course. At the time of his ruling Louis XIV was the wealthiest man on the planet, and his gardens reflect it. We rented bikes so we could see more of it in the short time. It was like we were all kids again, cruising around the grounds on bikes and using our little bells way too much. After biking we went to the petit trianon, which is best known as the home of Marie Antoinette. Le petit trianon is much more intimate and pleasant that the rather ostentatious palace. We finished off the day with a soccer game on the grounds. It was so much fun to play soccer again, and really cool to play at a place like versailles. We'll get a few more games in over the course of the summer.

Tomorrow is Bastille Day, which should be fun. We'll get up early for the parade and spend the day enjoying the festivities, which will end with fireworks at the eiffel tower. I am really excited, this seems to be the be-all and end-all of French holidays. The entire city closes down so everyone can celebrate. I'm glad I'll be here to experience it!

Venice, Seville, and Paris once more

Well, I am back after a busy, exhausting and amazing 10 days. Venice did not fall short of expectations. It was beautiful and relaxing, which was appreciated after hectic Rome. There were a lot of cool shops. Murano blown glass is really popular in Venice, and there were many stores full of beautiful hand-made glassware. There is so much I would of bought, but it was so expensive. Some of the vases and sculptures I saw were over 600 euros. Venetian masks were also very popular, and very cool.

Our hotel in Venice was cool but not very hotel-y. People looking for a continental breakfast and a concierge may have been disappointed, but I loved it. It was basically an apartment, but very clean and very cute. We had a key to the outside door so we came and went with no interaction with hotel staff.

After Venice we went to Seville. This also is not a touristy town, but it was fun to visit. It felt at times like a smaller, Spanish Paris. It was also very very hot, somewhere between 90 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit every day. To make the streets more walkable in the heat, any kind of shade was a must. Since the streets are relatively narrow and the buildings usually 4-5 stories high, the most common solution was to stretch strips of fabric from one building to another across the street, which created a very nice, unique atmosphere. This was done the most on shopping streets, and in courtyards. Another neat way they created shade was to grow vines on metal frames, they grew thickly enough that they created a solid green roof that was really pretty. Usually they completely hid the frames, so it looked like the trees and vines just grew that way.

The only really touristy thing we did in Seville was go see the Cathedral. I was told it was the 3rd largest cathedral in Europe, but I'm not 100% sure that is true. It was very very big though. It used to me a mosque, and was converted into a cathedral in the 1500s. The only part of the mosque that it retained was an orange tree courtyard, which was really cool. The courtyard was paved, with the trees placed in a grid and a big fountain in the middle. The trees were watered by an irrigation system sunk into the courtyard, which brought rainwater straight to the trees, and created a cool pattern in the stone pavers. The Cathedral itself was really impressive. It didn't have statues like Notre Dame or Chartres, but it had lots of intricate, curly ornamentation. The organ was particularly cool: the pipes stretched almost floor to ceiling, and they were encased in intricately carved wood. It was all incredibly beautiful. Another neat thing about the Cathedral: Christopher Colombus's tomb was there. It was very big, a 4-high rectangular base with four larger-than-life statues carrying what was either a chest or a coffin.

One cool thing I forgot to mention about Rome: Raphael is buried at the Pantheon. I had no idea until I went there, so that was a cool surprise. Also, the engraving on this tomb translates to "here lies Raphael, by whom the mother of all things (Nature) feared to be overcome while he was living, and while he was dying, feared herself to die."I wonder if he chose those words himself...

Anyhow, back to Seville. We only had one full day there, but by that point in our travels we were getting pretty burned out. Aside from the stress of travel itself, it was kind of exhausting to switch languages every few days. I went from France, where I spoke a little French, to Italy where I only know a handful of Italian words, to Spain, where I know a little Spanish but mostly got it confused with Italian, which is very similar. Today I was relieved to return to Paris, where I can at least say and understand a little.

All the places I traveled to had their own claim to fame, and a unique appeal, but I didn't in fall in love with any of them the way I fell in love with Paris. I was happy to return, and I still think Paris is my favorite city.