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Fin

It is so crazy to me that it is already time for me to return home to the US. In a lot of ways, I feel like I am such a pro at a lot of things around Paris, but also in so many other ways, I feel as though I have barely scratched the surface. Just this afternoon I went up to the top of Montparnasse Tower to get some good panoramic shots of the city before leaving, and it was very validating being able to find so many of the landmarks of Paris and understanding so much of the history that I wouldn’t have been able to recognize or appreciate at the beginning of this trip. I had been trying to use this last week to hit a bunch of the last things I hadn’t completely finished exploring yet, and I think I found a good bit of gems. First of all, I finally got into the Opera Garnier, which was long overdue. I knew the outside of that was pretty great, but the inside of it was incredible! The people I was with said it was better than the palace at Versailles, which is a pretty heretical ide...
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Lasts

It is hard to believe that I am getting so close to finishing my semester in Paris. It seems so much like I just live here now, but I am also hitting so many “lasts” that is hard to ignore the end of my stay here. The biggest last was probably the last travel weekend, which I passed in Scotland. To be honest, I didn’t have many expectations for Scotland, and really didn’t know anything about it except for the fact that in the United Kingdom. I was blown away by how much history and personality Scotland actually has, and how beautiful (albeit cold) it is there. I went on a bus tour of the highlands, which featured a tour of a whisky distillery, a trip to Loch Ness, and a wealth of history and culture from our driver. The most fascinating thing I learned on that trip was the fact that many of the cultural icons that we know for Scotland, including bagpipes, kilts, and speaking Gaelic, were made illegal after the Jacobite rising in 1745, and the revival of Scotland as a distinct and inde...
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Museums

I have a lot of mixed feelings about how soon my return to the US is. On one hand, I really miss a lot of my classic American comforts, and having no school for a month sounds wildly appealing. On the other hand, I am going to miss so many things about life in Paris. The city is so saturated with amazing art and inspiring locations that it is constantly overwhelming to try to absorb it all. After already having walked through much of the Marais last week, I thought there surely couldn’t be all that much more to see of it, but after spending the day in 4 different museums in the area, I learned that I was sorely mistaken. There was such a wealth of art and history, including a huge collection of Picasso’s works, elaborate renaissance manors, and even the Constitution of the Fifth Republic. There were a lot of strong moments in the Marais, and I am eager to explore even more in the area when I get the chance. Some of the other museums that I ended up at this week in different ar...
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Landmarks

This week, my friend from BYU’s study abroad London group came into Paris, which meant that I got to serve as his tour guide while he was here. It was really exciting getting to visit so many of the locations I hadn’t returned to in the last little while, as many of the places had gained new meaning since the beginning of the trip when I first saw them. For example, at Saint-Denis, I was able to tell stories about several of the kings that were buried there, who I had not even heard of prior to coming to France. I was actually pretty proud of how well I knew my way around the city and its historical and cultural sites. I even got my friend to order food in French by the time he left the city. It was a pretty exciting mark of my progress in French that I was able to help someone else with the language when I used to be in a pretty helpless state not too long ago myself. In thinking about how I want to spend my last month in Paris, I am quickly realizing that I have done most of the...
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Standing Idols and Hidden Treasures

This week I took the metro from my apartment to my morning class without looking out to see which stop I was at or counting, so I guess you could say I’m starting to feel like a local. I was a little worried that after spending an entire week outside of Paris that I would have to take some time getting back into the rhythm of things and to relearn the metro, but more than anything, coming back to Paris felt like coming home. I may still be really bad at the language, but coming back to Paris was so familiar and comfortable.  The weather even stayed warm for a bit, which was a pleasant mid-autumn surprise. I took the opportunity this week to finally catch up on a few of the locations that I had been putting off visiting, mostly all around the Place de la Concorde, and I was really blown away. Almost all in a straight line from each other are the Palais L’Elys é e (home of the current president of France), the Luxor Obelisk (symbol of Egypt’s relationship with France), the locatio...
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Height and Light

This week was a little rough since I spent most of it sick, but I still saw some pretty great stuff. I felt like I finally got to really kick off October with a visit to the underground catacombs. I was a little claustrophobic but the thousands of skeletons was definitely worth the trip down through some old tight tunnels. The walls were literally made of human bones. While that kind of macabre doesn’t really spook me out, there is a super unique atmosphere to the catacombs that doesn’t really match anywhere else I’ve been. A little dark, and a little reverent at the same time. The big trip of this week was to Reims, which was actually really cool. I keep thinking that eventually every new church I go into is going to start looking exactly the same and I will stop being impressed at some point, but that has not happened yet. The cathedral at Reims was amazing. The variety of stained glass from so many different centuries was so incredible to see, as was the more flamboyant gothic...
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Even the McDonalds Have Macarons

This week I got to spend an afternoon in Chartres, and it was a really interesting reminder that most of France isn’t Paris. Paris is so true to basically every stereotype it has, including being fast paced and quite presumptuous. However, from my experience so far, you don’t have to leave all that far for that to change. The obvious destination in Chartres is the cathedral. It is on a hill in the center of the town, and you can see it from basically any location in the city. The rest of the city was just like something out of Beauty and the Beast. While Paris has a lot to offer, it also has a lot of expectations. And don’t get me wrong, I love being in Paris, but it was really relaxing to be out of that for just a bit. I have been dying (get it?) to visit a cemetery since I have been in France, but I hadn’t made it out to one before this last week. I think cemeteries are the coolest places, and the older the better. The P è re Lachaise Cemetery was easily the most inter...
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