Marie-Antoinette Just Can't Catch a Break

Thursday, June 21, 2012


The Biggest Culture Shock:
French army men randomly walking around (always 3 together) at the museums, airport, or even sometimes on the metro with guns in hand, not stowed away on their belt. Apparently the French don't mess around... I would snap a picture but I'd rather not piss any of them off.

Person with the Best One Liners of the Trip:
Maddie Wolfe: "I saw a drunk girl dressed up as Marie-Antoinette in Athens this year for Halloween, walk right in front of the horse cops. They told her to get out of the way and she said, 'well, excuusee you!' ... she got arrested. I guess Marie-Antoinette just can't catch a break!" [quote from her at Café au Richard].
(Tied) Aly White: "Come on guys, it's always free to talk to Jesus" [Said this when we were discussing how we plan to go to different beautiful churches in the city each Sunday for mass, and someone asked if there was any kind of fee to get into Notre Dame]

Best French Conversation so Far:
Woman at Zara (a store we were browsing in before dinner today), came up to me and asked me in French, to help her choose between two shirts for un cadeau (a gift).
"Pour quel âge?" I asked her. [For what age?]
"Vignt ans" She replied [20 years old]
"Je pense que j'aime ça" I said as I pointed to the blue one. [I think I like that one]
"Oui, c'est plus simple. Merci!." She agreed. [Yes, it's more simple. Thank you!]
"De rien." [You're welcome]

No, thank you Madame for mistaking me for someone who is not American and making my day! But seriously!

First Cup of Coffee:

Café au lait at Café au Richard

Favorite Art Pieces at La Musee D'Orsay: 

Levy-Dhurmer Lucien (1865-1953), Portrait de Mlle Carlier ou La dame au turban

Favorite Pictures of the Day: (Couldn't Choose Just One)

On the balcony at Musée D'Orsay

Trying to sneakily get a picture of the adorable old french couple holding hands while resting at Musée D'Orsay, but instead just have an awkward picture of Katy and Danielle.. sorry guys!

View of the city from behind the clock tower.

View from the balcony of

Musée D'Orsay

More views from the balcony

Day 3: More Sightseeing & Picnic at Night in front of the Eiffel Tower

 Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Bon Anniversaire Julie!!

The weather was absolutely beautiful today! Sunny and warm! We had class and lunch at St. John's University and then headed to La Conciergerie, where Marie Antoinette was held before she met her fate at the guillotine.  After a slight mishap with getting the tickets, (waiting for our poor TA, Aly, who had to run a few metro stops down to the French version of a Stub Hub), we were finally allowed inside. The inside of the prison was beautiful, you'd never know it was a prison, honestly.

Katy & I in front of La Conciergerie

La Conciergerie 

Eye spy Kevin and Leah at a little café

A little flower show we found on the street.. so precious!

Inside La Conciergerie... pretty nice for a prison, right? It actually used to be the French Royal palace, but was converted into a prison in 1391.

Some sights we saw on the way.

Group photo near Notre Dame
(Maddie, Morgan, Danielle, Leah, Iesha, Alicia, Katy, Me, Angela... just missing Kevin who was kind enough to take this photo for us, and Aly).

La Conciergerie

A homeless man and his dog with puppies. Heartbreaking.

Napoleon's request for a pedicure at La Conciergerie.

The court yard of La Conciergerie

Oh you know, just the French city hall... one of the most fabulously ornate buildings I've seen so far.  Just doesn't quite compare to Cleveland's city hall, haha.

While in L'ile de la cité, we walked by so many cute little shops. Katy and Danielle called me over as they started walking into what they told me was a wine shop. However, when we got in there we quickly realized it was not a wine shop. The young Parisian girl working there, said "Bonjour! So sorry if I look tired, it is because I am very tired!" We told her oh don't worry, we're very tired as well. "Do you know where you are?," she asked, surprised to see us 3 American girls in a spice and oils shop. We tried to play it off like we had meant to come in here interested by all the spices and oils, but clearly that wasn't working for us. But she was very nice and asked us where we were from and we said "Ohio.. in the States." "Yes I know where O-I-O is," (they don't pronounce the H in French) she said joking with us. Then she said, "You wouldn't believe, so many Americans come her from Caleefornia and they even say 'we're from California, in the United States'... yes I know of California, I'm not stupid. It's quite popular." So far all the French people we've met have been so incredibly nice!

Just thought this was a beautiful sight of the vine-covered building and a bright little café.

After La Conciergerie, we went to Berthillion to have some la glace. It's the best ice cream I've ever had! You'll never have more creamier ice cream then this. I tried the salted carmel ice cream and mocha ice cream.. yum! I wish I could box it up and keep it frozen long enough to send to everyone at home!

Best ice cream ever!

After walking around some more, we stopped at The Great Canadian and had a beer. Katy and I got Stella Artois :)

Later that night some of us from the group decided to have a picnic by the Eiffel Tower and watch the lights turn on. So we went to the market and bought a bottle of champagne and some wine, a baguette for only 45 centimes, and a bag of the French version of sour patch gummies in the shape of cacti (Katy's pick of course, haha). We navigated our way through the metro stops very well for our first time alone! When we got on one of the metro trains, we noticed some French guys talking about us... or more specifically, Kevin, the only boy in our group, but I won't repeat what I was able to translate, haha. We arrived at the Eiffel Tower after the lights had already gone on, (we took a little too long deciding on which wine we wanted), but the view of the Eiffel Tower all lit up was stunning! We poured our bottle of champagne and toasted to new friends and the memories we will make on this trip! At 11:00pm white twinkling lights on the Eiffel Tower came on... we were all surprised, it was absolutely beautiful! We had to leave  the Eiffel Tower before 11:30 because the metro stops running during the week at 12; it was hard to leave so soon. Laughing the entire way home, we had to compose ourselves outside the door to St. John's, so we didn't disturb the retired priests who live there as we walked in. Not feeling too tired, everyone came into our room and watched funny youtube videos for another hour or so.. [Tony, I introduced them to Impractical Jokers.. I think they're hooked]. It was a wonderful day.

Our picnic

Love this candid shot of everyone!

The Eiffel Tower with twinkling lights. I'm sorry pictures just don't do it justice. You'll all just have to come and see it for yourselves.

I have decided to take a picture of every bottle of wine we try on our trip.

Sightseeing in the City

Tuesday, June 19th, 2012

Today's Events:

• Took a bus tour of the city. We saw just about everything! The Eiffel Tower, Champs Élysée, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, La Concergerie, The Louvre, La Place de la Concorde, Musée Dorsay... I have pictures for days! Here's a few of my favorites:

Leah, Morgan, and Danielle in front of Notre Dame.

Leah and Morgan posing in front of Notre Dame

La Musée D'Orsay

• In the evening we took a boat tour on the Seine. Unfortunately the weather wasn't the best; it rained a bit. But to view the entire city from the Seine River was still incredible!

Katy and I on the side of Notre Dame

La Conciergerie

The Lover's Lock Bridge... put a lock on one of the railings and throw away the key while making a wish.

Musée D'Orsay again. It used to be an old train station.

• After the boat tour we decided to walk around the Latin Quartier and find a place to eat. We walked around quite a bit before deciding on a place. The waiter at Saint Germain Café obviously noticed how indecisive we were, so he spoke to us in English... "Ahllo!" "Come een" "Seet, seet" ... After some more indecisive looking about we decided to go in. They sent us upstairs but there weren't enough seats.. "Pas de problème," the waiter told us, as he asked a couple to change tables and moved some other tables around for us... it was so kind. We ordered some food, some croque madames (ham, cheese, and egg sandwich) and crêpes, and split a bottle of wine. The bathrooms there were communal bathrooms. One of the girls on our trip went to the restroom, but she was not aware they were communal, we saw her walk in and right back out.. "There was a man in there. I was like 'Oh! sorry, sorry!' I didn't know what to do so I just turned around and walked out. He's just like.. huh?" We were laughing for a good ten minutes.