Monday, April 19, 2010

Crazy Days

I hope you haven't begun to think that I have forgotten you; because I haven't. The truth is that the last couple days have been absolutely crazy! Especially this weekend. The weather has been fantastic; sunny days, warm temperatures, and it hasn't rained in days. However, there's one little thing. VOLCANIC ASH!


I'm sure you all know of this thing called a volcano. It's a big, rocky, mountain type thing and every couple hundred years throws a temper tantrum better and more successfully than any toddler on the planet because no one can do anything about it.

Well several days ago one of said beast decided to do what I just described spewing all kinds of ash into the atmosphere. Of course the wind took it and gave it to northern Europe. What does this mean? What it means is that this past weekend, last Thursday and Friday, and today all the airports of Europe have been shut down. No flights in or out leaving thousands of people stranded across Europe. To top things off every major college in France went on spring vacation on Friday. Some people can leave because their flight goes to North America. I have friends in Italy who are stranded there until at least Wednesday. My friend's flight to the UK is canceled and my flight to Ireland is canceled. Well why not take a train? Because there have been strikes on all the trains in France. The train stations have been almost as bad as the airports with hundreds of thousands of passengers waiting for their train that is late because of the protesters spread out randomly on the tracks....


It's been a very interesting several days. The funny part is that since these two major transportation systems are tied down everyone has taken to the streets in cars, bikes, metro, and trams. The metro lines have been absolutely crazy! Now that the trains have begun running some trains the last several days (not many) there have been less people on the metro. If you own a car and want to drive in Paris you might want to reconsider because everyone else has the same idea. Friday between the train strikes and volcanic ash raining havoc, the increase of vehicular commuters brought more accidents and adult temper tantrums on the roads and streets. Although I have to admit the temper tantrums are rather entertaining to watch.


On the up side one my friends who has been studying abroad at St. Cyr in France came to hang out for the weekend and we had a good time walking around and seeing stuff. Although it's been exhausting walking all over the place, more so than usual. Last night he and I and some of my friends here in France went out last just to get out and relax and ease our frustrations on the transportation situation.




Well that's about all that's happened the last couple of days. Sorry I don't have any pictures of said grievances but if I did it wouldn't be pretty so I'm throwing some pictures of sunsets and flowers on here for you. Take care all and enjoy spring!

















Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The Loire Valley Trip


This weekend, the 10th and 11th of April, the ISA group went on an excursion to the Loire Valley to see some Chateaux and get out of Paris for once. There were 66 students, from the Institut Catholique, the Sorbonne, and the American Business School of Paris. Fortunately, this time the bus wasn't too crowded and, though uncomfortable at times, was rather quite a nice trip through the countryside of France. But first I am going to give a quick history of the Loire.


The Loire is a relatively flat area of France. For the most part it is just rolling hills but along the rivers one can see some cliffs and very small mountains. "Mountains" is probably the wrong word. Hills would be better, very large hills with some cliffs; so it's easy to confuse the two then. Anyway, there is one principle river that runs through the Loire Valley and it is, yep you guessed it, the Loire River. The one thing that the Loire seems to be known for however, are chateaux. Chateaux dot the river on both sides for the entire length of the river. This came about because of the 100yrs war when England and France duked it out to see who could get the crown of France. Of course we know that France won that war (no comments please). The result of 100yrs of fighting was that the Loire River became essentially a fortified wall with the river being the wall and the all the Chateaux on either side being the fortifications. Many of these Chateaux are still privately owned today and only a few actually allow visitors. The Chateaux that are privately owned are still in the hands of some of the families who had them after the 100yrs war and before that. While others have been bought and sold periodically throughout the time since the French Revolution. Well there you have it.




Saturday:



Saturday began pretty early for my roommate and me. We got up at about 6:30am and got ready and out the door by 7:15am. The meeting time was 7:30 at the ISA which only took us eight minutes to get via the Tram. Well I guess it wasn't too early since I know of people who had to get up at 6:00 or just a little before. Of course we weren't going to leave until 8:00am anyway but one has to say 7:30 just to make sure that everyone is there by 8:00am. Otherwise people won't get there until 8:30 and you won't leave until 9:00 anyway. It's really great how human nature works, right? We rolled out of Paris around 8:00am. The ride itself wasn't very long, only about 2:30hrs. The countryside was really pretty though. It's a very agricultural area with green fields that expand for miles on either side of the highway.



We arrived at Chenonceau at about 11:00 am, give or take a couple minutes. Now the Chateau de Chenonceau itself resides across the River Cher and not the Loire River. Chenonceau was built by Thomas Bohier and his wife Katherine Brconnet in the 16th Century, well after the 100yrs war. They demolished the fortified Castle and the mill that were along the river belonging to the Marques family. However, they kept the tower or keep and the well. The courtyard is an island surrounded by a moat on three sides and the river on the fourth. It is roughly the same layout as the castle before.



The Chateau de Chenonceau is known as "the ladies' chateau" for a very simple reason, six very important ladies lived there throughout the last 500 yrs. The most famous of whom was Catherine de' Medici, the wife of wife of Henry II, and the mother and regent of three other Kings of France; Francois II, Charles IX, and Henry III. However, the Chateau belonged first to Diane de Poitiers, the mentor and then latter the lover of Henry II. Upon the death of Henry II, Diane gave Chenonceau to Catherine de' Medici in exchange for Chaumont-sur-Loire. Catherine made one very important change to Chenonceau. She had the Gallery built over what was the bridge of Diane de Poitiers. It is 60 meters long, 6 meters wide with two very large fireplaces at either. However the one on the south end is the decoration surrounding the South Door, which opens onto the Left Bank of the River Cher. In effect the Chateau itself is a very elaborate bridge.



During WWII that is exactly what it was used for. The River Cher marked the line of occupied and unoccupied France. Therefore the French resistance was able to smuggle quite a large number of people into the Free Zone. However, the Germans had some clue as to what was happening and had a battery of artillery zeroed in on Chenonceau ready to destroy it at anytime. Thankfully that never happened.



The Chateau de Chenonceau is decorated in a wide variety of time periods. For example there are several rooms that have been decorated for Catherine de' Medici; her bedroom, the green study (from where she ruled France as Regent), the gallery, and the library. There is also a room called "The Five Queens' Bedroom" of the two daughters and three daughters-in-law of Catherine de' Medici; Queen Margot, Elisabeth of France, and the daughters-in-law: Mary Stuart, Elisabeth of Austria, Louise of Lorraine (to whom the ownership went after Catherine). There is the bedroom of Diane de Poitiers, the guards' room, the chapel (attached to the guards' room), and the main hall, Francois I's bedroom, and the drawing room of Louis XIV round out the first floor. The kitchens compose the lowest floor; the butchery, the dining room, the larder (store room), the bridge to the kitchen, and the pantry. There is a hall decorated to Katherine Briconnet, several exhibition rooms of Madame Dupin (owner after Louise de Lorraine), Cesar de Vendome's bedroom (uncle of Louis XIV and owner in 1624), Gabrielle d'Estrees' bedroom (mother of Cesar de Vendome), the second floor hall (decorated for Madame Pelouze; owner in the 19th century), and Louise de Lorraine’s bedroom on the second floor (actually the third floor in the U.S.).



The grounds consist of two very magnificent gardens. The larger of the two belonging to Diane de Poitiers while the smaller of the two belonging to Catherine de' Medici. There is also a 16th Century Farm located on the grounds containing the vegetable garden and flower garden where all the daily flower arrangements come from. There is also a donkey pasture. The Domes building used to be the stables and is now a self-service restaurant. Next door (in the same building) is the Wax Museum. Not too far away is L'Orangerie and the tea room. On the other side of the boulevard is the Italian Maze, designed by Catherine de' Medici. She had 2,000 yews planted there covering just a little more than one hectare.



The Chateau de Chenonceau was very nice. It was a quick visit for us. We only had three hours to see it via the guided tour, eat, and explore the gardens. Needless to say it wasn't enough time. The facade of Chenonceau was also under renovation so pictures in a way were almost pointless (of the chateau). It was a beautiful day so that made up for all the downsides. It wasn't my personal favorite probably because of all the people there; it's one of the most visited Chateaux in France. I'm glad I was able to see it though. I do have some good pictures I am happy with. Mainly these pictures are of the gardens and grounds.



Our next stop of the day was Leonardo De Vinci's House; the Chateau du Clos Luce. It is a very nice house. The grounds are the more fascinating part I think though. The house has quite a nice collection of antiques but not many are from that time period. It is a Renaissance House but there are rooms that have been decorated in the 18th and 19th centuries, long after De Vinci passed away. The grounds however are quite fascinating. There are replicas of a lot of his work that are interactive. There is a model of the first tank, a pulley system, the life preserver, the paddle boat, and a bridge he designed. We only had an hour or two at the most so we spent the time just looking around and playing on all the stuff. It was very much like 4th grade recess again.



Surprise! The ISA staff took us to a winery not too far away where we had the wonderful opportunity of sampling some very fine wine. Some of us sample a little too much of this very fine wine, but at least they were happy... It was very good. I've had small amounts of wine since I've been in France and this was some of the best I've had. I bought a bottle of very nice white wine called Cuvee Gabriel. I haven't opened it yet but the sample was very good.



We spent the night in Tours; a very old and historical town. ISA had gotten us a Holiday Inn to stay in. It was a very nice hotel. Although it is directly beside the Train Station so I could hear the low rumble of trains all night. I took a few pictures once I got there while the sun was setting. It's a very pretty town because all of the buildings are made of limestone so the stone reflects light quite nicely. Therefore the city seems to take on a warm glow in the setting sun. A group of us went exploring for food. There is an old section of town very close to the river where all the buildings are from the Renaissance or before. It's about a 15 minute walk but it's worth it and after spending almost two months walking all over Paris none of us seemed to mind the walk. We got some food and then walked around town some more headed for the hotel. However when we got to the town center, near the city hall, we decided some ice cream was in order. Since the night was still relatively young we headed back for ice cream. The ice cream shop was very cool. They had at least 50 flavors and that's no exaggeration either. I had amoretto. It was superb. We headed down to the river, only five minutes away, eating along the way. It was a little breezy but a very nice night overall. The main bridge was lit up and of course made of limestone also. It was very pretty. After that we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.





Sunday:



Sunday began with breakfast at 8:00. It was a very nice breakfast. The novelty of the day were these little individual jars of jam and packets of Nutella shaped like jars. Of course everyone had to get some. We left at 0930 and headed to the Chateau de Chambord about an hour down the road.



Chambord was inspired and created by Francois I. He began the project in 1519 when he was 25 years old; four years after he acquired the throne of France in 1515. In 1515 he began to reconquer the province of Milan lost by his predecessor Louis XII. By the time he returned to France, Francois I had been influenced by Italy's Renaissance architecture and a victory at Marignano. Being a very keen hunter himself he undertook the project. However he did not see the completion of his hunting lodge. It was Henry II and Louis XIV who made Chambord what it is today.



Chambord is a very large and extravagant Chateau. Its architecture almost resembles that of a medieval fortress with a central stronghold and four large flanking towers and two wings with a curtain and another four towers enclosing it. To top all of this off there is a moat surrounding it. Francois I intended Chambord to be a hunting lodge but over the years it grew to become a large chateau with 77 staircases, 282 fireplaces and 426 rooms. It is 156 meters long and 56 meters high. It is built mainly from tufa, a freshwater limestone. Though it was used to build many other chateaux in the Loire, its implementation in the architecture at Chambord is really quite striking.



Perhaps the most famous piece of Chambord is its central, double spiral staircase. When people take the either stair case they will see each other through the windows of the staircase but will never meet until they reach the top. On each floor there are four hallways, forming a cross, meet at the stair case. It's a very innovative layout with a popular suggestion that Leonardo de Vinci, who came to France by request of Francois I in 1516 had helped design this part of the Chateau.



Since Chambord is a hunting estate there are 5440 hectares of free roaming land for wildlife (a hectare is equal to 2.4 acres or 13,056 acres). This is said to be the same area as Inner Paris. It is surrounded by a wall that spans 32km or 20 miles. It is the largest enclosed park in Europe and is a national game reserve containing quite a few different kinds of animals. The most commonly seen are wild boar and deer. There are 800 hectares or 1,920 acres open to the public with many paths and trails traversing the land.



Some of the most popular activities, besides seeing the chateaux, are taking a Land Rover and driving through the game lands on a mini safari, riding an assortment of bicycles, and boating in the manmade river.

My friends and I chose to go biking since it was part of the program and bikes can let one see more or the area. We rode around the edge of the forest eventually making a loop around the chateau. It was an absolutely perfect day for biking too. We all had a fantastic time. Finally we ended up taking a break in a field on the other side of the road.



We had another surprise today before we left. More Wine! Only this time it was less in quantity than last night although it was enough to put everyone to sleep for the bus ride back to Paris. Chambord though was my favorite of the two. There were less people or maybe there was just more space to put everyone. It didn't feel as crowed and the bikes were a big hit. However, both places almost require a day each to do them justice. We rolled into Paris at 5:30 pm, early enough to study and eat dinner. On the whole it was a very nice trip that I enjoyed a lot. I hope you all enjoyed reading. Please send your thoughts and questions.









Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Picture Page Udate





The "Palais du Louvre" picture page is up finally.  There are quite a few pictures that I found in my archives for the Louvre.  I think this page is actually one of the largest.  So, enjoy! 

I am planning on a page for Rouen, the Loire Valley, and then the Ireland trip and Giverny in the near future.  I hope everyone can stand the wait.  The pictures here are from the last two days.  The first one is from last evening and the second picture is from this evening.  The first one though I think is one of those shots that you just have to go to that spot to be able to take it all in.  Oh and the Loire Valley Post will be up tomorrow morning.


Thursday, April 8, 2010

Some Answered Questions


The town that I went to visit is called Notre-Dame-De-Bondeville. At one point in time I am sure that it was its own entity, but now it's part of the urban sprawl around Rouen. In fact there are probably 20 towns around Rouen that were once their own but if one drives through it all looks like part of Rouen. The town that has the Jardins des Plantes is called Sotteville-Les-Rouen and is on the opposite side of the river from Rouen proper.





Architecture from that time period was all basically the same. In fact the Francs, who became the French, came from northern Germany and northern Europe. They were driven out of that part of Europe by the Huns and then settled in Northern France, Belgium, Luxemburg, and parts of Holland. Also France and Germany have traded ground on numerous occasions so I imagine that a lot of architecture is the same, especially in Alsace and Lorraine. A lot of new houses and sub-development houses are basically the same style and have hints of the older architecture. That's basically standard throughout France and Germany. I don't know about other countries but from what I remember about Germany from 2006 the new houses look very similar.



The chairs in Cathedrals aren’t folding chairs, but basic wooden chairs with weaving for the seat. They are connected in rows by boards that run along underneath the seats. It’s rather quite interesting. I’ve often wondered the same thing myself as to why they don’t have pews. If or when I find out I’ll be sure to pass that information along.















It’s crazy for me to even imagine that you all have 90 degree weather back home. It’s 50 to 60 degrees here with rain, clouds, and the occasional sun. In fact sometimes it feels like sun is a special treat for being good. Although the weather says it will be sunny for this weekend but I’m not holding my breath.


Another thing I noticed was that in the towns there are cats everywhere.  I didn't think it would be strange but it is.  I guess because I haven't seen so many cats since home.  People only have dogs in Paris.  If they cats one doesn't see them.  I just thought it kind of interesting.  That in the country people have cats instead of dogs.













Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Rouen

Rouen is a very interesting town for a number of reasons. It’s about the size of Harrisburg including all of its suburbs and towns that have morphed into part of the city. But if those towns and suburbs aren't included is about the size of York or Carlisle. First thing that I noticed when I got outside of the train station was that the city was practically dead, this was Saturday morning too. By the afternoon though there were more people around. However, both Sunday and Monday was same story as Saturday morning. Now this could just be because of the Holiday, which I imagine that it was, but it was still a very large contrast compared to the hordes of people in Paris.



Second the architecture is very different from that of Paris. Paris generally has one or architectural time periods, that of the 1700s, 1800s, and early 1900s. Rouen spans a 1000 years of architecture within one city block. My belief that this is because on May 31, 1944 Rouen was bombed in a pre-D-Day invasion bombing. Over 6000 bombs were dropped on the city. That being said, much of the city blocks along the river were completely destroyed. In fact it is still possible to see the shells, towers, and walls of bombed out churches which have recently been turned into playgrounds. The church that Joanne of Arc was burned at the stake by was completely destroyed and only the foundation remains today. A memorial church has been erected just yards away. The Cathedral was also damaged but has since been repaired. Although one can still see holes and blown off corners on the Cathedral and on the Palais de Justice as well. The city blocks along the river all have been replaced with hotels, office buildings and businesses, so the architecture is all from the latter half of the 20th century. It’s kind of strange to walk from one section of town and see nothing but houses from the 1200s and then cross the street and see something that screams 1990s.



Third is that Rouen seems to thrive solely on tourism. However, Rouen is an inland port so I imagine that importing and exporting goods and commodities becomes the main source of revenue during the tourist off seasons. There are enough historical landmarks in Rouen to keep people occupied for about three days. Then there are enough historical places around Rouen that can keep people occupied for about another three days or so. The nice thing is that getting around Rouen is really easy and if you have to take the bus or metro (yes Rouen has a metro; although it's more of a glorified tramway that just goes underground every now and then) you can get anywhere within the suburbs and city for about 2 Euros. But since you can walk to everything around the historical part of the city, all of the clothing stores, electronic stores, and such have seen fit to set up shop along the way so that now one basically walks through a giant outlet mall between the different historical sites. Therefore instead of the walk taking 5 to 10 minutes it now takes 20 to 30 minutes; 40 minutes to an hour for the pour guys who have a wife and daughters to tote along...I saw a whole bunch of guys just waiting outside clothing stores for hours on Saturday looking about as happy as a dog chained to the dog house on a warm spring day.



Saturday began with me forcing myself out of bed at 5:30 am so I could shower, eat, do last minute packing, catch the Tram, then catch the Metro, and finally catch the Train by 7:50. It all went smoothly. I got to the train station, Gare St. Lazare, by 7:20. Although I had a bit of trouble finding my train at first, things weren't exactly marked very well. Nor did I know what to do with my ticket because there wasn't anyone taking tickets. I found out later that it’s electronic and you have to stick it in a machine which then registers that you are there. So I did that and go on the train. The train itself was an ordinary train and quite nice. It was very fast and only took an hour to go from Paris to Rouen which is about the distance from maybe York to Allentown...I think. Don't take my word on that. I got to Rouen at just a little passed 9:00 am. I walked down the street to the cathedral which took about 10 to 15 minutes.

The tourist office wasn't open yet so I waited. The next three hours I spent just walking around because nothing was open yet. I took pictures and explored. It was really pretty watching the sun come up over the all the old houses and churches. I happened upon a large square and discovered that there was a market set up there. People were selling fruit, vegetables, and all kinds of meat, flowers, candy, clothes, and the like. Part of it resembled more of an antique show or yard sale than a market. I found a park and read for a while waiting for the town to wake up. At about noon I dropped my stuff off at the hotel. The Cathedral was the first place I went. It's such an amazing place and is quite hard to describe. However, all I seem to do was look up. It's not quite as big as Notre Dame de Paris but it's still so large. I liken it to maybe to a large hall from the Lord of the Rings, minus all the marble. It still gave me that feeling though. Perhaps it was the architecture or perhaps it was the size, maybe both. But it is still magnificent. Half the stained glass windows were missing. I don't know if they were being restored, because the Cathedral was undergoing some renovations or maybe they were destroyed during the bombing during WWII. I don't know.



After that I took to the streets and made my way to the Abbey St. Ouen. This too was under renovations and wasn't open to the public. Kind of a letdown, but there is a fairly large garden around it so I walked through that. There were some men playing petanques. It's quite an interesting game that can spur many heated discussions. The French seem to take it quite seriously. I guess it can be compared to horse shoes. Although I haven't known of any real competitive horse shoe games. I went to the Musee des Beaux Arts next. It's interesting, not a Louvre or Musee d'Orsay but it has some very nice and rare Monet’s and other impressionist work. There are a couple statues and very large paints. It holds its own. Next I went about trying to find food. Finally at about 8:00 pm I found somewhere that was cheap. I got lunch for the next two days at Monoprix (there’s one everywhere you go). I spent the remainder of the night, until 10:00pm in a cafe/ bar reading (I had coffee don't worry).





Sunday was really nice. It was cold but there was hardly any rain. I went to Easter Mass at the Cathedral. It was a about an hour and a half. The service isn't too different from the services at Monaghan in structure. I could tell what everything was by the program. I picked up about half of the scripture and sermon. However instead of singing hymns they have incantations (I think that's the correct word) much like the Gregorian Chants. That was really pretty listening to it echo all over the sanctuary. Of course they had the organ in the back booming out the notes which is something to behold in and of itself. After church I decided to get a bus ticket and head out of town to the end of the line and walked around. It was a small residential town that's just a few mile away from Rouen Proper.



It too was like a ghost town so I didn't feel too bad about walking around taking pictures everywhere because there wasn't anybody around to see me being a tourist. It's a quaint little town with many old homes and new homes, but the new homes have an older architectural style to them so they fit in. I found a park and had lunch. It started to rain a little so I headed back to town. I saw the museum of Joanne of Arc, the place where she was burned at the stake (its marked with a large cross and flowers, and the Tower where she was kept while await trial. The tower used to be part of the Chateau of Rouen. A chateau is also a castle. In fact the first chateaux where castles and latter became mansions as the need for them as a defense went away. That night I had dinner at a cafe. I was under budget and felt I could afford it for my last night in Rouen. I walked along the river after the sun set. It was rather cold and not as pretty as Paris but interesting all the same.



Monday was a beautiful day; it was warmer, dryer, and the sun came out. I discovered I couldn't fit a trip to the abbey at Jumierges, which is about 40 minutes away by bus, because I wouldn't get back in time for the train. So I got metro tickets and went across the river. I guess that was the part of the city that bombed the most because it is almost all new. One has to go outside the city limits to get to the residential area which is old. It was really cool walking through the streets. There a lot of old houses and the French are very particular about how their main streets and traffic circles look. There all clean and manicured, not that's a bad thing, it’s rather quite nice. I ended up at the Jardin des Plantes, which is a large garden of flowers and pathways and fountains. It was really nice Monday, everything was in bloom.
Everyone else had the same idea as me though. It was a bank holiday Monday so everyone and their families were there. I can't blame them it was a gorgeous day. I had lunch and went back to Rouen at about 2:45pm. I saw the Musee Le Secq des Tournelles. It's a metal and iron museum. Everything was there from locks to keys to beds to signs to lighting implements. It was really cool because it was inside an old church making quite an interesting venue for all the iron and metal work. I also went to the Musee des Antiquites which holds a lot of medieval era things and a lot of ancient things from the Romans and Gauls. They also had an exhibition on glass work from all ages which was pretty cool. By the time I was down there I had to go get my backpack from the hotel and head to the train station. The train this time was a commuter train and it stopped at every station from Rouen to Paris, which took an hour and forty minutes. Thus ending my trip to Rouen.


It was relaxing and enlightening. What I really liked was getting to see the suburbs and small towns. It's a lot different from Paris and after spending a month and a half living in Paris the quietness and lack of people everywhere was very noticeable. As far as pictures go I took near 2500 bringing my total to almost 8000. It is so easy to take so many. I do it without noticing. My mind enters picture mode and everything switches over. So I have hundreds of good pictures and hundreds of bad ones. Unfortunately I can't put all the hundreds of good ones on here so 10 or 12 will have to suffice your appetites.




This weekend is a trip to the Loire Valley with ISA. The plan is to see two chateaux on Saturday and two on Sunday if the weather holds out. I hope it will. We are going to stay in Tours for the night which, from what I understand has a very nice down town. Of course the next two weekends is spring break. So it looks like I will be out and about for a while. I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend and Happy Easter!