3 Great French Men: Rodin, Napoleon, and Pompidou

On Saturday, I had originally planned to go to Versailles with Eric. But this was a particularly rainy weekend, so we decided to go to the Rodin Museum and le Centre Pompidou instead with Abby (another Hoya who was visiting Paris that weekend).


The Rodin museum was great. I had to pay, even though they didn't make Eric or Abby pay. The one thing I learned about museum admission policy in France is that it's arbitrary, which can be great or frustrating. We went through the sculpture garden, finishing with the Thinker:

Then we went to the indoor part of the museum, which had smaller sculptures and paintings and sketches. One of my favorite things inside and outside was the art from Dante's Inferno. I took a philosophy class on the Divine Comedy at Georgetown last fall and it was amazing to see Rodin make parts of the Comedy come alive. This was The Kiss:

This reminded me how excited I am to go see Dante's Florence in December!

Les Invalides was right nearby so we headed there. It's actually Napoleon's tomb connected to the army museum, but we only wanted to see the tomb. Eric and Abby had no problem getting a free ticket, but they refused my Scottish ID again. I refused to pay 9 Euros just to see one tomb so I asked the woman why I had to pay here but not at other museums. I thought the fact that I was conversing in French might help, but she wasn't budging. When I gave up and just walked away from the counter, she took pity on me and called me back to give me a free ticket (confusing me even more about what the actual rules were). Napoleon's tomb was as big and ornate as everyone said, so I'm glad I saw it (but totally not worth 9 Euros or about $13):

We crossed town to go to le Centre Pompidou, which was one of the highlights of the trip in my opinion. They had no problem giving me a free ticket, so that was fantastic. Outside we passed by a clown and Eric pointed out that clowns become creepier when they're speaking French:

Half the reason to go to this museum is the building, which is incomparable. You can see the exposed skeleton of the building, giving it a very open and accessible feeling, which is dramatically different from the other French museums with their traditional and aristocratic appearances. Despite being so different from the other major tourist sites, it still manages to fit in and feels like it belongs in Paris. 

The top has an amazing view of the Paris skyline:

There are two floors of permanent exhibits and I only had time to see 1960 to present, but it was very enjoyable. I preferred it to the Louvre, partially because of the atmosphere. People spend time looking at the different works of art and their descriptions, whereas the Louvre is filled with people taking pictures of paintings. While there were people with cameras, there were much less and they still took the time to actually look at the art.

Classic Paris

Friday morning started with a free tour that Fran recommended. While there are a lot of different tours, I figured I would take one of Classic Paris and learn more about the iconic monuments. We met at Place de la Concorde, where there was originally a monument to Louis XV. When the Revolution started, they tore down the statue. It then became the site of the guillotine where hundreds of noblemen and royalty were executed. Today, it's the site of an Egyptian obelisk that was a gift from Egypt after the discovery of the Rosetta stone by a French archeologist.

The tour went down the Champs Elysee, going near Sarkozy's house, different palaces, and replica of the Flame of Liberty. It was given to Paris by the Herald-Tribune to celebrate 100 years of their office in Paris and it is in honor of everything Paris has given to the United States. Unfortunately, it right next to the spot where Princess Di died. The flame is often the site of many memorial flowers and most Parisians actually think it is in her honor.


We ended at Place du Trocadéro, which was originally a palace built for the world fair and has the best view of the Eiffel Tower. The esplanade in front of the Palace de Chaillot is called the esplanade of human rights because the UN Declaration of Human Rights was signed there (referencing Paris's inspiration for the document with the Declaration of the Rights of Man). 

I was supposed to meet Eric after, but he was running late so I went to the Pantheon by myself. The ticket policy was supposedly the same as the other museums, but the woman working at the counter made me pay this time because I was not French. It was still worth it though. 

Foucault's pendulum greets you as you enter, a sign of the Pantheon as a secular place:

All the greatest men and women (mostly men) of France are buried here--Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Rousseau, Marie Curie, Alexandre Dumas, etc. 

I met up with Eric and we walked through les Jardins du Luxembourg. They were beautiful, but not much of an attraction on a rainy day. We decided to go to Père Lachaise Cemetary, where Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde are buried. By the time we got there (it was further than we thought), it was closed. In retrospect, I had already seen enough burial sites for one day. 

An Introduction to Paris

I left for Paris last Wednesday and came back on Sunday. For my own sake, I'll break up the posts. The first element of adventure was RyanAir. I had heard so many different stories about them rejecting carry-on luggage or charging forty pounds to "reprint" a crumpled boarding pass that I was freaking out about just checking in. I brought almost nothing, no computer, no cell or camera charger, just clothes. The light was actually fine. I was surprised to see real people using RyanAir, not just students.


The RyanAir flight landed at Beauvais, which is actually in the Picardy region of France and is fairly northern. It's three times further from Paris than the Charles de Gaulle airport and you have to take a special bus to get to Porte-Maillot in Paris. The bus can take anywhere from an hour to three hours, depending on the traffic. Luckily, it took about an hour for me to get there. 


Fran (Aunt Leah's aunt) and Bob were my gracious hosts for the evening. Fran picked me up from the bus station on Wednesday evening and walked me back to their apartment in the 17th arrondissement. Fran made a delicious dinner and then we took a walk to L'Arc de Triomphe. They live about ten minutes  away, so we got there just in time to see the Eiffel Tower twinkle, which it does on the hour at night. 


This is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc, looking out on the Champs Elysee:

The next morning, I met up with Eric. He needed to get hair cut so we went to Space Hair in Le Marais. It was definitely the most unique salon I had ever been in. Catered towards gay men, it had disco balls and suspicious magazines. Oddly, the TV was playing "Little House on the Prairie" on mute. 


After that, we went in search of food. We were trying to walk towards a cheaper area, but got caught in a flash storm so we just ran in to the cheapest creperie we could find. After lunch, Eric had class and I wanted to go to the Louvre, so we started walking in that direction. We went by Hotel de Ville, the city hall, which is extremely ornate, and Notre Dame. I was in awe of the building...and the line to get inside. 

Once inside, I went up to the ticket desk in hopes of getting a student ticket. It turned out that if I showed my University of Edinburgh ID, they would give me a free ticket! This ended up saving me a significant amount of money throughout the trip. Fran had given me a pass for a free headset, which was really amazing. I just walked around the museum, listening to experts talk about all the art. It was great to see things like the Mona Lisa, but it's hard to enjoy the really famous works of art because of the crowds. My favorite part was the Mesopotamian section, which was nearly empty. The best part was, obviously, Hammurabi's Code. 

After the Louvre, I wanted to go to the Musee d'Orsay. I figured I would walk through the Tuileries Gardens, which proved to be a small challenge. Even though it should have only taken a couple minutes to get to the other side, I couldn't find the exit. I ended up trapped for about twenty minutes which was pretty hilarious. The gardens looked pretty much like a park because of the crisp fall weather, but it was still beautiful

After the gardens, I crossed the Pont des Arts. There are bridges all over Europe with locks on them and this is the one in Paris. The idea is that couples put the lock on and then throw the key in the river.  

Once I walked on to the bridge, I saw this older couple walking around. This is my favorite picture from all of the Paris trip (I don't think it needs much explanation):

On the way back to the apartment, I spotted a statue of Thomas Jefferson. It was in the Place des Etats-Unis. There are lot of small monuments to America/Americans in Paris and I was so excited to see my favorite president in France! I have to admit, one of the reasons I started French in middle school was because of how much I loved American history and Thomas Jefferson. 

The Musee d'Orsay was great, but I barely had the energy for it. There was an exhibit on "Oscar Wilde's England," which was fantastic. A lot of the building is being renovated now, but it was worth going.

British Television

Most of my impression of British television before coming here is BBC News and Doctor Who, neither of  which I actually watched. After watching a lot of TV in the common room, my image of British television as more refined and mature has been destroyed.


First of all, the system is set up bizarrely. Because it is a public good, you need a TV license to watch TV alone in your room. Every student got a threatening letter ordering them to register for a license online. It is only for live transmissions, but it's quite expensive. 


Luckily, the house has a license for the common room. The first thing I noticed is how much American sitcoms are. The Scottish impression of America seems to be a combination of The Big Bang Theory, South Park, and How I Met Your Mother. For some reason, The Big Bang Theory is on all the time.


The best British shows are obviously on BBC. Most people are huge fans of Doctor Who, which I have yet to get in to. I do highly recommend Sherlock, which I decided to watch since I am living in Holmes's birthplace. It's beautifully done and there only three ninety-minute episodes in the first season. Another great show is Merlin, which I'm watching right now. It's definitely better than Robin Hood and it's really fun to watch the show while visiting castles and places that make it come alive. 


I absolutely lost faith in British TV after seeing their reality shows. I realized they were just as bad as American shows after watching their version of Cops and The Jersey Shore (The Jordy Shore). A lot of it seems to be British versions of American shows. For example, they have their own version of The Hills. But some of it is worse, in my opinion. I was shocked to see Border Control, where government officials film immigration raids. While obviously immigration is a problem here, the dramatization of expelling undocumented workers seems like too much for public television. Another show centers around patients who have waited too long to get medical care and ended up in emergency situations. One episode was about a girl with a cyst in her ovary. The catch? She was only 17 years old, but her lack of money to treat it early on meant her case would be aired on national TV. 


My favorite program that I've watched live was Live at the Apollo, which is stand-up comedy. We watched a Scottish comedian Danny Bhoy on a rerun from last year. 

Glasgow

Alexander, Molly, Ted, and I decided to go to Glasgow for a day trip on Sunday. The trip was primarily motivated by the 7 quid round trip megabus tickets. The bus left at 8:30am so we left David Horn around 7:45am. The megabus tickets said "St. Andrew's Squre Bus Station." I looked up how to get to St. Andrew's Square and we got there successfully, but that's when we ran into a bit of trouble. We weren't exactly sure where the bus station was. Alexander asked one of the people cleaning the park (at 8am on a Sunday morning) and it turned out we were standing next to a very large building that said bus station.


In the UK, megabus is owned by citylink and is just discounted tickets to citylink buses. The bus was actually pretty nice, except that I could not figure out how to turn off the AC. It was pretty cold, since the weather outside was so dreary.


Once we got to Glasgow, we tried to find the visitor's center, but, alas, it was closed on Sundays. We tried to find a place to get a full Scottish breakast. Everywhere seemed to be closed until noon. We finally stopped at a chain coffee shop. At 11am, we went to the Glasgow Modern Art Museum--the only tourist spot we had found thus far. We were not huge fans of the Museum, it was small and some pretty absurd modern art. They didn't have descriptions of the art near the pieces, so I wasn't really sure what was going on at all. Sometimes, it was hard to figure out if something was a piece of art or trash since there was no label.


The museum guard gave us a city map and directions to the cathedral, which was the highlight of the day. Once we got to the cathedral, we found out we could go inside for free at 1pm. 


This is a picture of the cathedral that Molly took:

We went to get lunch until the cathedral opened. The best-priced pub we found was actually Irish, O'Neill's. We all got full breakfasts with Guinesses. I opted for the vegetarian breakfast, which included toast, beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, fried eggs, and Quorn sausages. The regular Irish breakfast also had sausage, white pudding, and bacon. We happened to be there during a Hearts-Celtics game. The Celtics and the Rangers are the big football teams in Glasgow (the best part of Glasgow is definitely football). There is a lot of conflict between Celtics and Rangers fans because the Celtics fans are Catholic and the Rangers fans are Protestant, so matches bring up a lot of underlying tensions. The game was at the Hearts stadium in Edinburgh and the Hearts ended up winning (we left the bar before any goals were scored, though). 


After lunch, we went back to the cathedral and headed inside. It's the only cathedral in Scotland that survived the Reformation untouched and you can tell as soon as you walk inside. It's gorgeous! It's also huge because it had so many different uses. 


St. Mungo's tomb is in the lower part of the church. It's not labeled at all so I didn't realize I had seen it at first. It's covered with cloth and used as an altar. St. Mungo is the patron saint of Scotland, salmon, those accused of infidelity (interestingly, it does not say those wrongfully accused), and against bullies. We're still trying to figure out how this connects to the magical hospital in the Harry Potter books.


The cathedral was the highlight of the trips, but the winter gardens were also beautiful. We saw the world's largest terracotta fountain. It was pretty interesting because each side of the fountain pictures people from a commonwealth (India, Australia, etc.).


Molly's photo:

We tried to walk to Hampden stadium, but it was too far. Instead, Alexander and Ted decided to visit the Glasgow necropolis while Molly and I grabbed coffee. After that, we were out of things to do and headed back to the bus station.


Overall, Glasgow is not somewhere I plan to return to. I know that we did not see all the best parts, but there were not many places to see. 

Stirling

Last Tuesday, I waited in line for two hours to make sure Lane and I got tickets to go to Stirling. It's an hour outside of Edinburgh and is strategically the most important city in old Scottish warfare. Alexander Smith, a Scottish poet, said, "Stirling, like a huge brooch, clasps Highlands and Lowlands together." It has a lot of history because of the different Scottish and English kings who have tried to conquer it. Mary, Queen of Scots, and all the Stewarts spent time here. Her son James was born and baptized here. 


We got there around 10:30 on Saturday morning. Our castle tour time was not until 12:30, so we wandered around the old town, which still has many of its medieval buildings. We spent the entire day in a slight drizzle and all our views were of fog, but Stirling has been my favorite trip thus far. 


The old church had an exhibit on the importance of the King James's Bible. This is the Church where James IV of Scotland (aka James I of England) was crowned King of Scotland. It was called the Church of the Holy Rude:

Bowling greens were common in medieval Europe:

We went by the old town jail, where you can pay over ten quid to "be a prisoner":

Then we got lunch! We stopped at the Old Town Cafe, which advertised a pancake special. Lane got potato pancakes, essentially latkas, and I got regular pancakes, essentially crepes:

So delicious! I can't wait to get to Paris to eat more food like this.

We headed to the castle after lunch. This is me with a statue of Robert the Bruce:

Once William Wallace resigned as guardian of Scotland, Robert the Bruce took over and continued the fight against the English.

Inside the castle, we first saw Queen Anne's garden:

All the plant life here is so bright from all the rain! It was a beautiful garden, despite the dreary weather.

The cloud of fog surrounded the castle and had a magical effect. This was the view from the Ladies' Lookout:

This castle was full of unicorns! The Scottish kings used lions for bravery and unicorns for purity and nobility on their coat of arms. The king and queen's chambers were full of painted and woven unicorns:

 

I actually tried to find a unicorn souvenir at the gift shop, but I soon realized how tacky unicorn souvenirs inevitably are. They were all pictures of the tapestries or stuffed unicorns covered in glitter with butterflies coming out of their head. 

We went through the kitchens, where they were making a feast for the re-enactors. The most interesting thing I learned? 1 Scottish pint is equal to three English pints. This was mainly important when measuring ale:

Next, we took a bus to the William Wallace monument. Once you get there, you climb a fairly steep hill. Then you have to climb the tower, which has a 246 step staircase. The challenge is that it's a spiral staircase and people are going in both directions. Not a good idea!

The exhibits were somewhat underwhelming, except for the Wallace sword:

The view from the top was mainly fog, but we could see the city of Stirling, the battlefield, and countryside:

The next thing we know, the cloud of fog has moved through the tower and we can't see beyond the edge of the stone:

While the tower wasn't that great, the city and the castle were. It's the best castle I've seen by far!

Portobello Beach

Note: I forgot my camera today so I'm going to borrow other people's pictures!


Edinburgh might be on the water, but I never expected to enjoy a day at the beach. Luckily, a heat wave is hitting the UK. This is not the unbearable DC heat wave I am used to, but an Indian summer which means sun and breeze and shorts (though the Brits all wear tights under their shorts). Unluckily, it's ending soon.


Still, Molly, Alexander, Lane, Ben, and I headed to the beach to take advantage of the summer while it's here. Portobello is a suburb of the city and we were able to catch a bus outside David Horn and take it there. It's about 20 minutes past Leith, where I visited last Friday. 


First, we got got sandwiches and fish and ships on the main street and then headed in the direction of the water. It turned out there were real chippys (real fish and chips shops) on the water so the boys regretted getting their fish earlier. We settled down on the sand to enjoy our picnic.


This is a picture Alexander took:

It was about 70 degrees F, which meant it was gorgeous outside. People were swimming and playing on the beach. After eating, Molly, Lane, and I waded in the water. 

A picture from Molly's camera:

Little children and dogs were playing in the water. This is a picture Ben took:

After we put our shoes back on our sandy feet, the guys said they wanted to walk home. It was about 3 miles, so we decided to race: bus versus walking. The guys actually won by about ten minutes (I attribute this to an unplanned bus transfer). 

Maybe I'll have pictures of snow to post soon! Hopefully, not too soon...