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!