I’m writing to you safe and sound from Rockville, Maryland. It was a long, uncomfortable plane ride, but a long, comfortable night’s sleep in my own bed :) Still have more pictures to post and more to say about my last few weeks in London, and I guess fall break updates as well? But for now, it’s time for some epic unpacking…
December 12, 2008
FREAKING OUT
Seriously? I’ll be back at Heathrow Airport tomorrow? I AM NOT READY FOR THAT!!!! Besides the madness of packing, it’s really awful around here thinking about saying goodbye to everyone and making the most out of our last 24 hours in this amazing, amazing city.
I woke up extra early this morning and made a pancake breakfast for the flat–and yes there is photographic evidence of this, I actually cooked for people! Not in a microwave! Then I went down to Leicester Square to get tickets for Twelfth Night tonight (Derek Jacobi as Malvolio). I decided to splurge on a seat in the stalls instead of standing for my last show in London … :’( … happy Christmas to me! It’s pretty much my ideal last night, going to see my favorite Shakespeare play, and then spending time with everyone at the goodbye party BADA is throwing us.
Before that, though, we have another masterclass with Sam West, this time with actual scene work. Should be interesting- we’re all so nervous about acting in front of him!
Ugh. I don’t really know what to say, I just can’t believe I’m leaving tomorrow. I decided to walk back from Leicester Square instead of taking the tube, and on the way I stumbled on a place I’ve been meaning to go to forever, Fortnam & Mason. It was absolutely delightful and so completely London-ish I couldn’t handle it. Shiny gold railings and wood paneling and plush carpet, stocked floor to ceiling with chocolates, jams, coffees, teas, soaps, perfumes…everything! Lovely.
Umm…ok…I should get back to packing even though it’s horrible and I don’t want to. Wish me luckkk oh and good luck to everyone who’s still in the middle of finals! See you soon!
December 8, 2008
Brighton
What better to do on a bright Sunday in December than head down to the seaside for the day? Most of my friends here had already been to Brighton (one of the acting teachers who I don’t have invited them down to his house one day), and I’ve been wanting to go foreverrrr…so I just up and went. It ended up being absolutely lovely going on a date with myself for the day, even though I had tons of work to do otherwise…
Went down to Victoria station and hopped on an 11:30 train, getting in to Brighton by 1. I walked down through the town, past the architecturally crazy Brighton Pavillion, to the water. The town was absolutely adorable, and for December, the weather was actually great. I mean, I was wearing a wool coat and everything, but I wasn’t cold whatsoever, and the sun was out the entire time. I walked out on the pier & along the beach past all the little seafood joints, then sat down in the rocks (yes, the beach is rocks, not sand) for a while and read a play *gasp* for fun, and not for class! Delightful.
After that, I went back into the Laines, which are tiny streets closed to traffic that are jam-packed with shops and cafes. It was totally overwhelming and I loved it. I exercised an incredible amount of restraint and only bought one thing (a hat, at an enormous Christmas market / antique shop / random junk in stalls place). Finished off the day sitting in a cafe with a pot of tea, another play, and a damn good veggie burger. Hopped off to the 5pm train, back at the flats by 6:30…all in all, it was a perfectly relaxing little day trip & some much-needed time with myself.
Today was back to business- presentation on the performance history of Henry V, so now I’m officially done with my Comedies & Histories class. I still have two papers to write before I go home on Saturday. I don’t even want to think about the teeny tiny amount of days that is. Terrible. To clarify: I am excited to BE home, but I am not excited to GO home. Packing and papers do not mix well. Actually, packing just never really goes well for me. Wish me luck! See you Maryland people in a week…
November 29, 2008
Meet Me at Platform 9 3/4
This update is coming to you live from my best friend the British Library! I came here to get some work done, but lo and behold, the (free) wireless internet works about seven thousand times better here than in my flat ;) Hence, I’m on the internet and NOT writing the paper about Richard II that has been calling my name all week. Par for the course, clearly.
I’ve had a lovely week since my last update- my first visit to the BFI with Meredith was highly enjoyable (and of course we made a stop to meet up with friends at Porterhouse afterwards). On Saturday, Mer and I had another date. We went to the British Museum, which was pretty cool. Would have probably been better if I knew anything about Egyptian history, but the sheer number of ancient artifacts they have there is stunning. Silly British imperialists, just up and taking anything from Egypt that they liked… It’s really amazing how well-preserved most of it is. The Rosetta Stone was actually not disappointing at all, unlike other “big name” items (cough mona lisa cough). It is just as cool to see three different languages written out on a big hunk of stone as you’d think it would be. Plus, it’s in astonishingly good condition. Upstairs, they had a huge collection of mummified…things… people and turkeys and cats… I guess that was cool too but it actually really creeped me out. Dead people taken out of their tombs and put in glass display cases, not really my thing. After that, we hit up a little bit of the Greek stuff, but there’s just too much to see in one afternoon without getting tired!
Afterwards, we headed out for a walk around Bloomsbury. Ended up on this really cute road called Lamb’s Conduit Street. Organic grocery stores, little art galleries, and a fabulous bookstore called Persephone. They print their own books, little-known works mostly by female authors (though they currently have one by Leonard Woolf in stock) bound beautifully with plain grey outside covers and art/wallpaper patterns on the inside. At the end of the street, there was a park called Coram’s Fields where there are “no unsupervised adults allowed.” Too bad we didn’t have any small children to chaperon us. We had some decent tapas at a Spanish cafe and then went home.
That night, a group of us went to see “War Horse” at the National. It’s totally sold out, so some of our friends went early in the day to get standing tickets. That was the third show I stood for in London, and it totally had the best view. There’s really not a bad seat in the Olivier, but I would argue that the standing tickets are actually the best view. I really did like the show, but not nearly as much as everyone else did. Probably 75% of the audience was crying at some point. If it had been a movie, and I’d seen the trailer on TV, I definitely would not have gone- a tear-jerker animal movie about a boy and his horse…yeah…not something I’d get really excited about. I was really excited about the design. The horses are represented by puppets that really aren’t puppets by the end of the show. They are so beautiful and so evocatively moved that you really do believe they are characters. However, the story was too sentimental for me to really get into it. There were definitely parts that gave me chills (the war scenes were AMAZING) but overall, I’d say it was just pretty good.
On Monday, Ashley and I went down to Embankment to get tickets to “La Cage aux Folles,” which most of our friends had already seen. It was pretty much exactly what I needed to see. All the things we see for BADA are all “THIS IS SERIOUS THEATRE! SOCIAL COMMENTARY! CONCEPT!” and…well… La Cage is a big ol’ Broadway musical. Loves it.
Tuesday was a BADA trip to the Gate Theatre in Notting Hill for the UK premiere of a modern German play, “State of Emergency.” I wasn’t sure how I felt about it at the time, but the more I think about it, the more interesting it gets. The set was amazing- you’re ushered into a skinny room with long benches, and you’re looking through a glass wall into a room in an apartment. It was like a psych observation. Veeery interesting.
Annnd then Thursday of course was Thanksgiving! I was getting jealous all week looking at my friends’ Facebook statuses that said things like “going home today” or “back in MoCo”, but BADA’s Thanksgiving party ended up being SOO much fun. The Shakespeare kids had a very long day- two masterclasses after regular classes ended.
Oops! The Library’s closing, gotta run. Maybe finish the update later if the Landward internets decide to stop hating me so much.
EDIT: Okkk back at the flats and time to finish. So BADA kept us Shakespeareans super late, first with Susannah Clapp, theatre critic for the Observer. She was awesome! Her career sounds so super amazing, and she had some great stories. Then we had a short lecture with Michael Dobson, aka M-Dobs, our “academic dean” who stops by every so often to see how we are doing. He was in top form, speaking about Hamlet and such.
After that finallyyyy was the Thanksgiving meal! For some reason, everyone decided it was a good occasion to get all dolled up (though my Thanksgiving finest usually includes nothing fancier than jeans and a sweater). Dinner was actually really yummy, and it was so fun being all together and as obnoxiously American as we wanted- culminating in a glorious rendition of the national anthem. Some of our favorite professors graced us with their presence as well. All around, it was quite well done.
Back at the Landward, I got to Skype my whole family at my house for Thanksgiving, which was wonderful! It will be really nice to see them all in person at Hannukkah and Christmas in 3 weeks (omg I leave in 2 weeks, WEIRD).
Yesterday I attempted to stay in and work, which sort of happened, actually. Last night, I met up with a friend of a friend, who goes to college with one of my friends from HS, and happened to be in London alone this weekend. I took her down to the south bank for dinner (duh, my favorite place), and then we went out with a rather large group of BADA kids to Koko. I had a great time! There were two bands (one that I’d heard of & liked) intermixed with DJs. It really is an awesome venue, and I liked being out with that big group.
I hope the next two weeks will be successful… I have a lot of work to do for finals, as well as a LOT of London to see before I leave. I’ll really have to budget my work time vs. play time.
I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving!! This year I am thankful for the amazing new friends I’ve made in London, and the amazing family I’m so lucky to be coming home to :) bye for now!
November 21, 2008
keeping myself busy…
Lots of London happenings… I’ll keep it short today :)
- Tuesday night’s show was State of Emergency at The Gate in Notting Hill. Really really good production, not sure how much I actually liked it…but the more I think about it, the more interesting it gets.
- Wednesday night was The Winter’s Tale done by 5 people. As a play text, it was a wonderful surprise, having never read it before, but it was really a horrible play to do with only five people. We had to walk past UCL to get to the theatre (which was in RADA) and I’m really glad I came to BADA instead :)
- Another lovely Thursday afternoon spent with myself- this time I decided to go down to the National Gallery. Most of the art is from periods I’m not really interested in / don’t know very much about, but I did enjoy their Dutch collection, which included 2 of Rembrandt’s self-portraits and a curious peephole box. Also was totally blown away by Delaroche’s “The Execution of Lady Jane Grey”, and they had some nice impressionist stuff as well (surprise surprise, I liked the Renoirs ;) )
- BILLY ELLIOT on Thursday night omg. Getting there was a mess, as I forgot my glasses, had to turn around on the Tube which took forever (HATE HATE the Circle line as usual), and then took my first London cab so that I only got to the theatre 5 minutes late. Oh and I dropped one of my new gloves somewhere on the way in, boo. BUT it was so worth all the extra expense and stress, because it was totally fabulous. I missed seeing musicals (a little bit). It was just…ahh I don’t know. Even with all the cheesy-ness, it was still really moving and oh, the little lad dancing…he was wonderful. I’m glad I finally saw it!!
- Todayyy Ashley and I did a quick half-day trip to Windsor! Really quick train ride from Paddington, & we ended up essentially having a private tour of the grounds because we were the only ones who showed up for the 11:15 tour. However, the weather finally decided to be seasonal, aka all of a sudden very cold. This meant that we didn’t explore the grounds as thoroughly as I would have liked. The indoor stuff was very nice. My favorite was St. George’s Hall, where all of the coats of arms and names of the members of the Order of the Garter are put up. It’s totally gorgeous. Funny to think that the Queen actually lives there…and there are just tourists running around all the time…well, very nice place she has anyway.
I’m still very jealous of every single person in America who is celebrating Thanksgiving at home next week. No doubt BADA Thanksgiving with all of our professors will be mega-fun, but it just won’t be the same as being home. Lately I’ve been feeling not homesick but America-sick, I guess is the best way to put it. I don’t think I’ve done a very good job explaning that to people on the phone, but it’s like… it will be nice to be in a place where people care about NFL standings, and I’m not judged for my tacky accent, and I can buy things without doing quick math to figure out how much it “really” costs, and I can turn on the TV to watch my favorite shows instead of trolling around the internet for them, and I don’t feel stupid in shops when the sandwich lady asks if I want “spread” and she really just means “butter”. I want big tacky ads featuring people wearing pilgrim hats, Hallmarks filled with cards with turkeys on them, and grocery stores stacked with cans of pumpkin filling. But then, I just think about mince pies and cream tea and being able to take the Tube anywhere I want and walking along the Thames and I get sad about leaving all over again.
The BFI at Southbank is currently having a Tennessee Williams festival, so tonight I’m going with my lovely flatmate Meredith to see A Streetcar Named Desire on the big screen. Very much looking forward to a warm night in a movie theatre after that collllld day up on the hill in Windsor.
Happy Birthday to Joe yesterday and Pappy today!!
November 16, 2008
Day Tickets & Night Buses: Another Week in London
It is horrifying to think that I only have a month left in London. Yesterday officially marked four weeks left, which is a frighteningly short amount of time to accomplish all of the things I have left to do here! I’m forcing myself not to travel outside of the UK (even to Ireland) during these last 4 weeks, because as amazing as my travel has been, I feel like there is WAY too much in this city that I haven’t done yet! This week, accordingly, was a total rush of running all around the city having as much fun as possible (while still going to classes, of course).
Sunday night everyone returned from break, and Monday was back to regularly scheduled class for the first time in three weeks. After arriving at BADA Monday morning, we found out that our 9am acting class was canceled, so I went out for coffee with my classmates Alex and Molly. We sat in a little cafe on the Camden lock, drank lattes, and watched it rain… pretty much an ideal slow start to the week. That night, Alex and Sam called me up and we ended up going out to the Porterhouse, my new favorite place to go at night. It’s a great pub/bar in Covent Garden that’s three stories of cozy wood tables and amber lighting, with the best beer selection I’ve ever seen- their menu is a huge book that lists their beers by country. The last time we went, it was a Friday night, packed, with live music. Monday night was much more low-key, and we managed to get a table for ourselves (me, Alex, Sam, Meredith, and her friend visiting from Scotland).
After break, for some reason, our BADA theatre outing night switched from Monday to Tuesday, so Tuesday, we went to the National to see To Be Straight With You, a modern dance/theatre piece by the group dv8. I liked it alright. They presented their issue (extreme homophobia and violence against gays and lesbians in the Middle East, Jamaica, and from the Jamiacan & Muslim communities in the UK/London) well, but it didn’t feel like much I hadn’t heard before. Some of the visuals were just stunning…hard to even describe some of the things they did with lighting…but the dancing wasn’t really my style. All in all it was ok.
Wednesday was another night at the London Philharmonic :) This time, Sam and I were in the second row, which was pretty bad in terms of being able to hear and see the whole orchestra, but it was fun to be up close and personal with our crushes (the conductor, Vladimir Jurowski, and the second violin whose name we have yet to learn). I really enjoyed the pieces this time- Debussy’s Jeux, a Stravinsky violin concerto (AMAZING soloist, Kolja Blacher), another Stravinsky, and Rachmaninoff’s amazing Symphonic Dances. Lots of families visiting this week- Alex brought his sister and Chris brought his mom & grandma. Sam and I stopped in Pain Quotidien afterwards for some delish strawberry tartes, which we ate while walking back across the Thames to the tube… crossing over from the South Bank to Embankment at night never fails to be the most gorgeous part of my week. I missed it a lot over break!
Thursdayyy…hmm what did I do Thursday? Went to class…oh! and registered for next semester at Tufts…so I’m officially taking classes next semester. Woohoo! Only one English class (as opposed to the three I have this semester) which is going to be weirddd. I’m pretty pumped for all of my classes:
ENG 135 Virginia Woolf
MUS 59 Psychology of Music
MUS 143 History of Western Music II
MUS 185 Women & Music
PSY 9 Intro to Cognitive & Brain Sciences
plus Gospel Choir and voice lessons :) Hooray for knocking out my last distribution requirement (science) and being like….preeetty much done with both of my majors.
After class, Molly and I went on a wild goose chase through the West End trying to get day tickets for a show that night. Tickets for Creditors at the Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden were gone, as were those for No Man’s Land, and at the National, the only show they’re playing that we haven’t seen, War Horse, wasn’t even on that night (it shares a theatre with the newer Oedipus). So…we got a nice little tour of London and put the monthly Tube/bus passes we just bought to use. That night, Sam and I thought about going out to Porterhouse again, but ended up staying in & watching some movies, plus catching up on The Office, which was much needed.
Friday was a sloooow day. I took my time getting out of the house and going back to Covent Garden to get tickets for Creditors (got them this time!). That accomplished, I met Katie at the National Portrait Gallery. It was highly enjoyable going through from the Tudors to 2008 Olympians and seeing how many people I recognized (answer: a lot). Basically, it was like every illustration from every history book I’ve read, except real and on the walls. Pretty sweet. I decided to go home and nap for a bit before heading out to the show that night with Ashley and Sam. Creditors was alright- most of the people on my program have seen it, and a lot of them loved it. I thought the production was very well done, but I think I’m just not a huge Strindberg fan. Afterwards, we walked over to (where else) Porterhouse, which was ridiculously crowded, but had a really fun classic rock band in the basement. From there, we headed out to the East End to meet Sam’s friend Jesse at a place on Brick Lane. It was an enormous place, with outside tables serving mulled wine, a big loud room with a stage, and a slightly less loud room with alt-rock dance music. The dancing was super super fun, and about half of BADA eventually showed up. After it closed, we walked up the road to the 24-hour dirt-cheap bagel place we’d been to before (Brick Lane Beigels, 90p for a bagel with cream cheese). Successfully navigated the night bus back to Oxford Street & walked home past Selfridges to the Landward.
Our flat was a MESS this weekend… to escape the dirty dishes and clothes drying everywhere, I went out to the Victoria & Albert Museum on Saturday. The Circle Line, bane of my existence, was simply not running this weekend, so getting to South Kensington was kind of a mess, but we got there. The V&A is a little overwhelming- they just have a lot of STUFF. Like, a LOT. Everywhere. Rooms of silver table settings, cabinet upon cabinet of musical instruments, 19th century garden statues, Japanese swords, wrought iron fences, Restoration punch bowls, just…stuff. The best rooms were the jewellery. Exquisitely lit and arranged by decade, the pieces lining the walls and filling spiral display cases ranged from ancient Greek gold necklaces to tiaras to pocketwatches to confusing modern necklaces. My favorites were the spiral of jewels taken from the Hope collection (sans the famous diamond of course which is home at the Smithsonian in DC) and a delicate Art Noveau orchid hair ornament from the early 1900s. After those rooms, I hit up the musical instrument collection, which was pretty cool, and then finally the fashion room.
Since we were in the area….of course we had to go to Harrod’s :) Johanna and I finally gave in and got matzoh ball soup from the Harry Morgan counter. So expensive and SO worth it. Mmmm. Capped off the trip with an ice cream sundae….clearly the food halls are the best part of Harrods. That and the Christmas lights already up outside.
From Harrods, Joe and I met up with Katie & walked around her neck of the woods for once. Passed Hugh Grant’s house on the way to her dorm to hang out for a while. It was weird seeing like…single family homes in the middle of London. Gardens and non-apartments? Just lovely. Hung out in Katie’s dorm and then went back home before heading out to Camden to meet our friends, who were already out. In between arriving at home and heading out again, I lost my Oyster card and totally tore up the flat looking for it. It was really frustrating because I had JUST bought a £64 month pass and it wasn’t ANYWHERE. Extremely cranky, I eventually left without it, and Joe and I found Alex, his sister, Ashley, and Pat at Proud Camden with no problem. My foul mood slowly disappeared and I had a really good time at the venue. The band we went to see, Alex’s sister’s friends from college, was really high-energy, and the dancing afterwards was great because the music was just SO different- one room was more DJ-mix stuff, and the other room played sixties dance music (Do You Love Me, The Twist, etc) for a solid hour, in between random burlesque stuff. Ohhh Camden Town. Way to make me feel more hipster than I actually am ;)
Today, five of us went down to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden to see a neat event that was part of the London Jazz Festival (which is totally glorious and going on all week in venues all over the city). London jazz singer-songwriters chatted and sang songs that inspired them, composters they borrowed from, and some of their own originals. I was really, really happy that we went- beautiful space and beautiful music.
Dinner was also wonderful- I had my first Sunday Roast since being in England, at the Duke of York, the pub a block down the road. Roast beef, potatoes, veggies, Yorkshire pudding, and happiness. Really satisfying way to end the week.
This week looks to be similarly busy. BADA is taking us to two shows, a premiere at the Gate Theatre, and Winter’s Tale at the Gielgud. Additionally, I’m going to try to see No Man’s Land and/or Billy Elliot. Annnd then I have a lot of reading to do for classes. Ohh how I love this city… I am getting a little homesick, though, now that my friends in the US are talking about going home for Thanksgiving. It’s my favorite holiday, and this will be the first time in my life I’m spending it away from home :( BADA’s throwing us a dinner party, which I’m muy excited for, but still…. it will be nice to get home for the December holidays.
Oh! and I almost forgot what I did Tuesday before class- the bus to school goes right past Primrose Hill every day and I’ve never been there, which is silly. On Tuesday, the disgusting rain cleared up, and it was wonderfully sunny and clear (though a bit cold). I hiked up to the top of the hill for some killer views of London- I’ll leave you with a 360 compilation of some of the pictures I took:
View from the top of Primrose Hill- click for full size
I made that a little too small to really see- but you can see the tops of Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, St Pauls, and the London Eye from up there!
Oh and PS I found my Oyster card tonight thank goodness. It was like…wedged up between my bed and the wall. Weird.
November 12, 2008
Paris
So this whole catching-up-on-blogging thing is clearly not going so well. Though I *still* haven’t written about Grenoble, here is the Paris entry I started writing before going on fall break but never posted.
PARIS
October 24-27
Louvre at Sundown
As there was no class Monday and Ashley and I never have class on Fridays, we decided the time was right for a 4-day excursion to Paris! We left Friday morning (oct 24) from London City Airport, which is a nice cheap tube ride away (£5 round trip) as opposed to £17.50 RT to get to Stansted or Luton (hooray!). Our plane was really tiny and thus the ascent was a little scary, but we arrived safe and sound at Orly and took a painless 20min bus ride into our neighborhood, the 15e arrondissement near Gare Montparnasse. I was worried about the hotel situation just because I’m a nervous person about those things, but there was no need to be- it was a really nice place, especially for the price we were paying. Nice private room, clean, good neighborhood, literally across the street from the metro at Pasteur.
After playing on the balcony (yes we had an adorable little Parisian balcony with wrought-iron railing) and getting ourselves together, we decided to go for the most touristy thing possible and take a walk to the Eiffel Tower, grabbing a crepe along the way. The weather, unfortunately, was horrible- as grey and dreary as could be. At least it wasn’t rainy, I guess, but we were really not impressed with what Paris calls a “jardin”- where was the green space?? We’re probably a little spoiled from walking through Regents Park every day. Anyway we were SO excited just to be there, and every time the Eiffel Tower peeked out from around a building or above a tree, we of course freaked out and took 7 pictures. Tourism is GREAT! At the tower, we decided to only go up to the first level, from which we could take the steps to the second level for free if we wanted. Well…it turned out to be even colder up there, so after we’d had our fill of the (wonderful) 360 view, we headed back down and out toward the main street to find a warm cafe. We settled on a brasserie that was probably too expensive, but so is most of Paris. We confusedly ordered some hot drinks and two extremely large cheese plates- one would have been sufficient for the two of us, but as it was, this meant I had more than my fill of ridiculously delicious cheese. All the English and Welsh cheddar filling the stores in London is great and everything, but seriously….mmmmcheese. Chevre, brie, bleu, camembert, suisse… it was definitely a strong choice, as was the teeny tiny “cafe expres,” aka NOT coffee, but one shot of some extremely good espresso. All in all a much-needed leisurely afternoon break.
After leaving the brasserie, we walked down to Les Invalides, the enormous gold-domed building in which Napoleon is buried. Across the street from that is the Musee Rodin, at which we unfortunately arrived three minutes after closing. To make up for it, we took the metro to the Louvre and waited around the entrance (which is pretty much a shopping mall) until 6pm, when it’s free for 18-26s on Friday nights! Sooo… we did the Louvre for free! I love pretty things, and free things…so this was pretty much the most amazing thing that could have happened. Mostly what I remember of the Louvre from when I was 10 is that it was big, we were lost, there was one da Vinci portrait I really liked, and the Mona Lisa room was really crowded. This time was much better. I felt like we generally knew where things were, plus it felt less crowded at night except around the big things like La Joconde and Venus de Milo. Of course it’s impossible to really “do” the Louvre in 2.5 hours, but we certainly tried- some of the highlights were ancient Greek jewelery, Napoleon’s coronation, a special exhibit on Picasso’s Femmes d’Algiers, rooms decorated in 18th century French style (kind of creepy at night actually), an enormous column from Darius II’s temple, and pretty much the building itself. It is a truly magnificent palace. The paintings on the ceilings, the grand halls, the sculpted mouldings- the museum is a work of art. Looking out into the courtyard with the Pyramides and the marble statues on the exterior all lit up was really breathtaking.
After we’d had our fill (and the museum was about to close), we took a walk down the Seine and across the river for some wine with a view of Notre Dame. Later, we moved on into the St-Michel area for dinner. It was super crowded, full of tourists and students alike (it’s the neighborhood closest to the Sorbonne). We ended up at a Bretagne-style restaurant for an extremely filling three-course meal. Ashley semi-successfully taught herself how to eat escargot, while I stuck with some French (obviously) onion soup, some sort of potato/cheese/etc pie, and apple tart, accompanied by some cidre doux. By the time we finished, it was pretty late, so after a brief walk past all the nightlife, we went back to the hotel for some much-needed rest.
The next morning, it was off to the lovely 5e arrondissement to see the Saturday food market on the rue Mouffetard, which Cassie had told me was a great area. It did not disappoint. Once we found it, we were surrounded by enormous fresh fish, other sea creatures that were still alive, fragrant fruit, fromageries, and most importantly, patisseries. We stopped in one that looked crowded and I got two of the best pastries I’ve eaten in my life (I couldn’t decide between them, so logically I got both). The pain au chocolat was perfectly buttery and flaky, and the tartelette framboise was out-of-this-world amazing. To paraphrase William Carlos Williams (cough Christina I hope you’re reading this cough), it was delicious…so sweet…and so cold. The best part of the market was that it was actual Parisians getting their groceries there, not so much like the extremely touristy areas we generally stuck to by default.
From there, we made our way to the Seine through the rest of the old but well-kept neighborhood (nice and quiet on a Saturday morning). On the way, we encountered the Pantheon and the Sorbonne, among some other beautiful marble and limestone buildings. We crossed over on to Ile-de-la-Cite to begin our Day o’ Churches with Notre Dame. Of course, it was packed, but beautiful nonetheless, especially since there was some sort of service going on, complete with Gregorian chanting. The line to go up the tower was enormous, so we skipped that and moved on to Saint-Chappelle. Saint-Chappelle…what can I say? It’s totally stunning. My jaw literally dropped as we entered the upstairs chapel. Seriously, who needs walls when you’ve got stained glass? It’s the height of French gothic architecture, with enormous panels of stained glass pictorially telling different books of the Bible. It’s truly amazing that it has remained intact since the 13th century, surviving the Revolution (when the holy relics inside were melted down) and WWII. Wherever there wasn’t stained glass, the walls, columns, and pointed arches were covered with gold castles and fleur-de-lis. No picture could really do it justice… definitely one of the more amazing places I’ve been in my life.
With Ile-de-la-Cite done with, we went back to the hotel for a quick mid-afternoon nap before our big night out in Montmartre! It was a relatively long metro ride (25 min), but so worth it. We hiked up from Lamarck to Sacre Coeur (raising our giant church count to 3), which I loved. It’s really majestic from the outside, and the inside with its enormous graceful dome is so calming. The views of Paris from the butte were foggy, but wonderful. The air was really much clearer up at the top of Montmartre, as evidenced by the BLUE color of the sky up there versus the grey we could see down below. The steps in front of Sacre Coeur were totally packed with people sitting enjoying the view, picnicking, and listening to some crazy German street band that did a (probably drunk) rendition of “Roxanne.” We walked all the way down the hill and strolled around the neighborhood’s narrow hilly streets. Of course we had to stop outside the Moulin Rouge and Supermarche Erotique for some pictures, in addition to being classy and finding the Moulin de la Galette (subject of Renoir painting). Once the sun went down, we found our way to Refuge des Fondues, a crazy fondue place that had been recommended to us by several people. Basically, the fondue is ok, but they serve you wine out of baby bottles. It’s so strange, and so much fun!
Our original after-dinner plans were to go to the Lapin Agile for a low-key night of wine and cabaret music, but we got there way before it opened. To kill time, we went to another little bar for some kir, but when we came back to L.A. at its opening time, they already had too many reservations for the night to let at-the-door people in :( Also…everyone else there was like 20 years older than us. Took the metro back to St-Michel to try our luck with the student scene. We bounced from place to place, taking advantage of the extra hour from daylight savings, and ending the night in a salsa club in what looked like a medieval stone hall. It was a lot of fun- Ashley and I travel well together. We pretty much made friends everywhere by talking about the election. It’s fun at first to talk about in broken Frenglish, but then it’s like, ok, I’ve had this exact conversation with the last three French people I’ve met, don’t any of you want to talk about anything else? It’s so crazy thinking that the entire world is focused on this American event that I won’t even be in America to witness…
Sunday morning we rolled out of the hotel around noon and went to the Musee d’Orsay. We spent a LONG time there- an hour more than at the Louvre, which is not proportionate to its size at all. However, it focuses on probably my favorite period of art (late 19th-early 20th century), and because of the museum’s size (compact but not tiny), it feels very do-able in one afternoon. It’s pretty much the place to go for Renoir, who I love. Their Degas collection is also great, and the huge open middle area with all the sculptures. Had a snack in the cafe next to the giant clock, and then walked across the Seine, through the Jardin des Tuileries, and through the Place de la Concorde to the beginning of the Champs-Elysees. At that point, Ashley started feeling sick so we went back to the hotel to rest. We had a low-key dinner at a restaurant near the Gare Montparnasse (in our neighborhood) and wrote some postcards.
For our last morning in Paris, we went out to the Champs-Elysees again, walked around the bottom of the Arc du Triomphe, and sat at a classy cafe for a melt-in-your-mouth crepe breakfast. From there, we took the metro out to the 20e arr. for a short walk through Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise. A ridiculous number of famous people are buried there- Moliere, Balzac, Bizet, Chopin, Seurat, Proust… We hit what are probably the biggest three: Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, and Jim Morrison. It felt kind of weird going around finding people’s graves, but wow, what a beautiful place. The rest of Paris definitely felt out-of-season, needing the blooming flowers and bright sunshine of spring to show it at its best, but Pere Lachaise seemed built for fall. Its dark cobblestone paths and elegant leafless trees perfectly enclosed the fallen leaves and mossy marble monuments, inscriptions barely legible with age. It was so peaceful, and so strange.
Unfortunately, we had a plane to catch. Metro to RER to Charles de Gaule to London City Airport to DLR to tube…and we were finally back in London. While of course it’s impossible to to Paris in 4 days, I’m so impressed with how much we managed to fit in. It was a fantastically successful trip, and a great way to kick off the craziest/most enjoyable 2 weeks of travel in my life :)
November 10, 2008
Back from Break
Soo I’m back from a very successful fall break! Kept a massive journal the whole time, not sure how much of it I’ll end up posting here, but for now, pics are up:
Enjoy!
November 1, 2008
Putting my passport to work
I’m horribly behind on updates and pictures, but I’m leaving in 3 hours (eeeek!) for fall break in Venice, Vienna, and Prague! I finally put up a small fraction of my Paris pictures here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034145&l=a7b14&id=1230930052
and Stratford pictures here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034148&l=1d8c7&id=1230930052
Stratford was fantastic!!! I kind of didn’t want to leave. Who knows, maybe I’ll end up back there working at the Shakespeare Centre / RSC one day :D
See you guys in a week!!
October 28, 2008
Location: Shakespearetown, Middle of Nowhere, England
I know I’m awfully behind on this as I have yet to do a Grenoble post or write about my wonderful weekend in Paris, but this is important:
FIRST SNOW OF THE YEAR: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, ENGLAND
Yeah. It’s ridiculously cold here….cold and WONDERFUL! Way to go BADA/Shakespeare Centre. This is totally the academic highlight of my abroad experience, and we’ve still got two more days. Holler if you want a nerdy Shakespeare postcard!
