Diner chez les Diebold (Dinner at the Diebolds)

I know, I know, all I talk about is food. Several of you have commented on how my posts make you hungry, so consider this your fair warning not to read this blog post on an empty stomach.

A lot of my eating experiences so far in France have been at restaurants, cafes, brasseries, sandwicheries, boulangeries, spaghetteries (okay, I made that last one up). Since I have been traveling for so much of the last month, I haven't had that many opportunities to eat at my host family's house. But I am looking forward to doing it more often. Noelle's cooking is superb. The entire experience is also very different from eating out. So, tonight's meal:

At 8pm sharp Sarah knocked on my door to inform me dinner was ready. I put on my shoes and walked the few feet from my apartment/room to the kitchen door. The table was already set with a basket of bread and and a salad. Orane, Joseph, and Sarah were seated. Noelle called Gaspard to the table, and then brought out the meal: a whole chicken cooked in what looked like a terra cotta dish (at least that was the color, although I think it was also the material) and a bowl of halved baked potatoes wrapped in tin foil. Joseph and Gaspard carved the chicken and we passed around olive oil, salt, and a kind of cheese with the consistancy of sour cream for the potatoes. As usual, we drank water with dinner. During the meal the family discussed the possibility of Orane participating in an exchange program through her school. Next year she would spend 6 months in Berlin. The Diebolds asked me how my placement test went today, and I tried to follow their conversation about the economic conditions in Russia (Joseph ran into a friend today who is Russian). There were also tomatoes and zucchini in the pot with the chicken. Although the meal was simple, it had great flavor. The bread tonight was not baguette, more of a multi-grain bread. I've noticed that the breads we eat with dinner are more often multi-grain or whole wheat, as opposed to the baguette with breakfast. But it really varies. I've eaten sourdough, whole-wheat, cheesy-olive bread, the works. After the main course comes the salad. Tonight it was something I've never had before: a salad of endives, sliced apples, and grapes tossed in a Swiss vinegarette (the only reason I know it is Swiss is one of them brought it up). Noelle comes from Switzerland and she often cooks Swiss dishes or uses products made by Swiss companies. It was very light and tasty. For dessert we had compote (think applesauce, but it can be made with different fruits, tonight it was pear). I have noticed that "dessert" with the Diebolds is more often fruit or yogurt or fruit compote than sugary sweets like ice cream or pastries. Maybe that's the French dietary secret. When they say dessert, they mean fruit. It's sweet though, and I have developed an affinity for plain yogurt (this time it really is plain/natural yogurt, unlike my freshman year at Wake where I thought I was eating plain yogurt for all of fall semester and it was really vanilla-flavored). I'm hoping to carry this through at home, since it's so much healthier.

So that was dinner. Some stereotypes which have not proven true:

• French dinners always involve wine.
• French dinners always last 3 hours (I am always the last to finish, everyone in the family eats very quickly)
• French dinners always involve 3 courses (tonight was unusual in that Noelle did not offer any cheese after the main course, but usual is one or two of the potential offerings of salad/cheese/dessert. And they're certainly not formal)

A stereotype which has proven true:

• French food is delicious.
  

One more thought before I resume my attempt to memorize all of the significant dates in French history between 1515-1789 (that would be the beginning of the reign of Francois I and the debut of the Renaissance through the French Revolution). I realized recently that in at least one way, in the attempt to learn a language, there is no substitute for living in a country which speaks that language. This is because here there are so many labels which demonstrate the names of items I might not know how to identify in French. Like bouche d'incendie is "fire hydrant." I would probably never learn that word without seeing a fire hydrant with the above written on a sign next to it, pointing to it. Same thing with au secours which means "Help!" or "Emergency." It's like living in a French textbook. This is probably a very infantile concept, but I have found it to be remarkably helpful. So bravo, study abroad. And bravo, my parents.

The Rest of Paris

Hello all,

Sorry it has been such a long time since I updated. It's not for a lack of events/sights/experiences to report. I was simply too busy while I was in Paris and ever since I returned to Dijon on Saturday afternoon I have been recuperating and working on the nine cahiers (reports) due about our two-week excursion. I also have a two tests on what we learned during this past trip, one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday.

There's no way for me to write on everything that happened Wednesday through Saturday morning, so I'll include a list and then elaborate on my favorite bits:

Wednesday

• Versailles
• Musée Rodin (the former home of sculptor Auguste Rodin, with many of his works inside)
  
• Les Invalides/Église du Dôme (which houses the tomb of Napoleon I)
• Théâtre: "La Cantatrice Chauve" de Eugène Ionesco at Le Théâtre de la Huchette
  
• Eiffel Tower at night
• Dinner: Dans Le Noir

Thursday

• Guided tour of the Louvre: Eugene Delacroix, Gericault, Ingres, Titien, "La Jaconde" (the Mona Lisa), Veronese, da Vinci, Giotto di Bondone, Pierro dela Francesca, Pisanello, Girodet Trioson, David, Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, "La Venus de Milo")
• Hot chocolate and pastries at Angelina (!!)
• Musee de l'Orangerie
• Sacre-Cœur
• Dinner: Refuge des Fondus

Friday

• Inside of the Opéra Garnier
• Lunch with Alden Masters (a fellow CCDS lifer) at a little cafe called Chez Janou
• Musée de Quai Branley (an exhibit on Iranian photography)
• Spectacle: Cirque Plume (a smaller, French version of Cirque du Soleil, it was incredible)

So some of my favorite moments from that comprehensive list of experiences. I am tempted to write solely on the food, but I will resist. My favorite moment from Wednesday was definitely the dinner at "Dans le Noir," but since I've already written about that, I will mention Versailles. This was my second time visiting Versailles and I am a little sorry to say I liked it better the first time. Wednesday was our first really overcast day of the trip and that combined with the changing seasons (last time I was there it was early June and the flowers were blooming in full force) made the gardens not quite as spectacular as I remember them. I had also forgotten about the mobs of tourists. This may sound incredibly stereotypical of me, but I have found Japanese tour groups in profusion here in France. And in connection with that previous statement I have also seen some incredibly short people. Mostly women, but also some men who can't be more than 4 1/2 feet tall. I am 5'5" and which is an absolutely average height for an American woman. Here in France I often feel like a giant. When we were in Louis XIV's bed chamber I was trying to take a photo when I felt something brush against my elbow - it was a woman's head! As in, the top of her head. I had to pay attention because I didn't want to squish her. Anyway, the crowds made Versailles not quite as enjoyable as I had hoped. Although I did really enjoy seeing the Hall of Mirrors. Last time I was there it was being restored. And, I take back what I said earlier about Fontainebleau competing with Versailles. Versailles is in a category of its own.

Thursday was an excellent day, possibly my favorite of the trip. In the morning we had a guided tour of the Louvre. The Louvre is incredible and very overwhelming. Just walking from the central area to one exhibit could take 10 minutes. There's no way that in our two hour tour we saw even 1% of the art inside. I actually prefer smaller museums, where I have some hope of seeing a majority of the art inside. Nonetheless, we saw some neat paintings (and sculptures). Our guide was the same as Tuesday's Musée D'Orsay tour and she did a great job again. She excelled particularly at explaining the transition from one style to another. The best example was in one room where she showed us two paintings directly across from one another. At first glance I would have guessed they were the same style, but upon more careful consideration I saw that the faces in one were much more realistic. The more realistic, a painting by Giotto di Bondone called "St. Francois d'Assise recenvant les stigmates" marks the transition from the gothique style to a more Renaissance style (more human). But besides the faces most of the other parts of the paintings were very similar, so you could really see how the styles were evolving - not just appearing as the textbooks sometimes present them.

After the tour Carleigh, Carolyn, Jenn, Mary-Kate, Miles, and I headed towards Rue du Rivoli and the best hot chocolate in the world. Mom, Trey, Holly, Mimi M., and I discovered Angelina last time we were in Paris and I personally couldn't wait to go back. All six of us ordered the "chocolate a l'ancien 'dit africain,'" the thick, rich hot chocolate Angelina is known for. If you've seen the movie Chocolat, this hot chocolate is similar to the one prepared in the film. It's heavenly! Each of us ordered a pastry also. I ordered the Tartelette Eva based on the following description: "sweet pastry, creme brulee with Bourbon vanilla, vanilla marscapone cream, fresh raspberries, strawberry shortbread." You might notice nowhere does it mention chocolate. That was intentional, because I knew hot rich and chocolate-y the hot chocolate would be. Well, check out a picture of my tart on the right. Yup, it's 85% chocolate. Those other parts in the description, they were the garnish. So I had my dietary allowance of chocolate for the year. The whole group had a great time though. Angelina is more a tea room than a cafe (although they serve real food too) and it was a wonderful treat.

Another cool experience came later that evening at Sacre-Cœur. Our whole group split up in the afternoon (some people went to the cemetary where Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, and various other notable persons are buried) but met up in the late afternoon at Montmartre. Kara had made reservations for us at the fondue restaurant and in the meantime we hiked up the stairs to see Sacre-Cœur. Again, this was not my first time visiting, but this time it was a whole new experience. Jenn and I went together and as soon as we walked inside we realized mass was about to start. So we sat down in the back and watched and listened for about 20 minutes. It was really neat to see the cathedral come alive for the service. I have seen many cathedrals in the last few weeks, but never been inside during an experience. The cathedral was even more impressive when it was filled with the sound of the organ, the congregation (I'm not sure if that's the term for catholics), and the nun soloist. And the sanctuary was filled with incense, which added to the experience. I could understand most of what the priest was saying and the words to the hymns (also, possibly not the correct Catholic word) and the whole thing was really neat. Unfortunately you cannot take pictures of the inside of Sacre-Coeur, even when there isn't a service going on, so I can't show it to you. There is a giant mosaic of Jesus behind the altar, it's absolutely magnificent. I also liked the stained glass windows on the sides of the nave, which are smaller but somehow more brilliant because they are surrounded by more blank wall space. The picture on the left is of all of the girls at the base of Sacre-Coeur (front L to R: me, Jenn, Carleigh, Carolyn, Mary-Kate, Kara).

Dinner that night was a rolicking good time. "Refuge des Fondus" is a hole-in-the-wall place (possibly the most fitting incarnation of that moniker I have so far encountered). There is only one menu: cheese or meat fondue, which comes with hors d'oeuvres, a small glass of sangria, wine (served in a baby bottle, yes, I know, very strange), and fruit salad for dessert. There are just two long picnic-bench style tables, so we cozied up to the other students who book-ended our group. Although the place is small and definitely appeals to the rowdy college-types, I'm not sure how "local" it is - I'm pretty sure all of the customers spoke English and were students studying abroad. The small amount of wall spaces behind both long tables is covered with the signatures of previous customers, and we were able to find two Wake Eurotour groups' signatures! Our food was tasty and our whole group had a great time. I'm really glad that Kara's friend Amanda recommended it to us - it was perfect for our group.Okay, last thing, because I am simply running out of time and I don't want to try your patience by making this too long. The Cirque Plume on Friday night was very, very cool. I was not entirely sure what kind of spectacle ("show") it was going to be, but I was very impressed. The introduction didn't really clear up things either, but right away they got into the acrobatics. My favorite act was a woman who did tricks inside a giant wheel. Her body could fit inside and she would flip and swing on it and through it as it rolled around the stage. There were also two acts involving giant trampolines and various flips and moves. Right now my description is completely failing to convey the awe-inducing nature of the show. But suffice it to say, if you go to Paris, Cirque Plume is worth seeing.

So now I am back in Dijon. Tomorrow our group is reporting to the CIEF center at the University of Burgundy to take a placement exam. We'll start our classes there next week, but this week we're beginning our Contemporary France class (basically sociology), our Art History class, and finishing all of the evaluations for Dr. Barbour's French civilization course. Yikes!

Now that I am back in Dijon permanently (albeit gone for a few weekend trips), I am hoping to join the Discjonctes, the university Ultimate team. They practice Monday and Thursday nights and I might go tomorrow night (if the captain emails me back about the bus stop nearest to the gym). Wish me luck!

**9:29pm my time** I wanted to add that tonight I saw my movie of the week: a comedy called Le Petit Nicolas. Carolyn and I saw it at Olympia, another movie theatre about 10 minutes from my house (we saw Harry Potter 6 at Le Darcy). The theatre for the film tonight was huge! It was probably 5-6 times larger than the one at Le Darcy. I tried to count seats and estimated it would hold at 300-400 people. It was probably about half full, not bad for a 6pm showing on a Sunday evening. I enjoyed the film a lot, although from time to time it was a little difficult to understand what the main characters (a young boy named Nicolas and his school comrades) were saying.

Probably the Coolest Culinary Experience of My Life

Right now it is 1:15am my time and I should probably be in bed. But I just have to tell you about my dinner tonight. It was probably the coolest culinary experience of my life (hence the title). The restaurant is called Dans Le Noir? (yes, the question mark is part of the name). The idea behind the restaurant is that by eating in complete darkness your ability to taste is heightened. So upon entering the restaurant, the host asked Carleigh, Wright, Miles, and I to place our purses/watches/cell phones/lighters in a locker. We then selected our menu option (all of us got the two course, entree + plat menu and we split a bottle of wine). But we had no idea what we would be eating for these two courses. After a short wait we were lead through heavy black curtains into the restaurant. Our server, Fazia, was our guide. She is also blind. All of the servers who work in the dining room are blind. She led us two our table (we walked in train fashion with one of our hands on the next person's shoulder). The only reservation available when I called today was for 10pm, but it was probably closer to 10:30pm once we sat down. Based on the noise level when we entered, the restaurant was packed. First Fazia sat down another party, a couple, one of whom was on my right. Then Wright sat on my left, Carleigh across from me, and Miles on her right. Fazia brought our bottle of wine and poured the first glass for each of us.

The entree course arrived quickly. Curiously enough, my first instinct was just to reach for the food on my plate, to feel around for what was there. Apparently I wasn't the only one. Just based on touch, I guessed there was some kind of stuffed tomato, a vegetable similar to shredded carrots, and some kind of fish. Then after tasting everything, I changed my mind. The round thing was a fig and it was very sweet (I later discovered it was honeyed). When I tasted the shredded thing I guessed caramelized onions (turns out they were shallots, close enough). And I was also correct about the fish - it was smoked salmon with a creamy sauce. All of it was delicious. It really was amazing how I could focus more on the flavors of the food - the sweet, savory, tangy sensations. At first it was very disconcerting to be totally in the dark (this is the darkest dark I have ever been in, there was no way for me to begin to see the outline of my plate, my hand in front of my face, Wright next to me, anything at all). It meant I had to eat a little slower and be much more careful about where I put my hands on the table. For most of the meal I held my wine glass in my right hand to prevent myself from knocking it over (it was a cup, smaller than the water glass). After that first glass we had to pour our own wine, and I did it by placing a finger just inside the rim, so I wouldn't accidentally pour too much. Ditto for the water.

So then the plat principal arrived. This one was a bit trickier to figure out. At first we thought one of the foods was lobster, then calamari. Finally we decided they were mushrooms. It may seem a little ridiculous to go from lobster to mushrooms, but the "thumb" of a lobster claw has a texture not unlike that of the stem of a mushroom. The main meat was broiled salmon, very tender and flavorful. It melted in my mouth. It was also an easy guess. The other two parts of the dish we guessed completely wrong. We thought there were mashed potatoes and some kind of hash brown item (although we knew that wasn't potatoes, we thought it was some kind of vegetable). Turns out the "mashed potatoes" were mashed zucchini and the "hash brown" was made of chickpeas. I am a little suprised I didn't guess the mashed zucchini, we've actually eaten that recently.

After we finished (we lingered at the table for quite a while, savoring the experience) Fazia led us back into the bar/reception room, which was completely lit and staffed by sighted employees. It was definitely a shock to be back in light. I am surprised at how quickly we adjusted to not having the use of our eyes. Before we paid one of the hosts brought out a little booklet which showed us the courses we had eaten and he described them to us. All of us agreed that it was an amazing experience (I wanted to put eye-opening, but that is obviously not relevant here). Not only was the food delicious, but the whole sensation of eating was much more potent without my eyes to distract me. Too cool.

Just in case you were wondering, here are a few facts:

• The restaurant was founded in 2004 by Edouard de Broglie and Etienne Boisrond with the support of the Paul Guinot Foundation for Blind People
• "Dans le Noir?" is now also in London with one of the biggest "Restaurants in the Dark" in the world
• According to my guidebook, a portion of the restaurant's earnings go to help people who are blind find jobs, through the Paul Guinot Foundation

Paris Day #2: Tuesday

Okay, so today was another long day. My legs were sore from all of the walking I did yesterday, so of course, I went for a run. I was going to cut it a little short, but it ended up being a full 30 minutes because I got a little turned around. On the way back I forgot that I had crossed two bridges, not one, on my way across the Seine. I ended up in front of Notre-Dame and realized my hotel is not quite that close. But I asked the nearest Parisian and they kindly directed me across the Seine. Knowing more than a little French makes these interactions so much easier. I can't imagine what it would be like to be a tourist who doesn't speak French or English. Yesterday, on our way to Eglise La Madeleine, Carolyn and I were stopped by a Japanese woman who was clearly lost. She was pointing feverishly at her map (which of course, was labeled in Japanese) and trying to ask for directions in broken English. We managed to point her in the right direction, thanks to my handy maps. But Carolyn and I both noted how difficult it would be not to have any kind of common language with the majority of the French population.

Anyway, today:

• Notre-Dame de Paris: This seems like sort of an absurd comment, but I was a little disappointed by Notre-Dame. I have seen it before, but this time when I walked inside my first thought was: oh, another gothic cathedral. It seems terribly gauche of me, since Notre-Dame is the original gothic cathedral. But I think one of the hallmarks of gothic architecture is that the arched vaults can make even a smallish cathedral look majestic and imposing, so the extra-large cathedrals therefore aren't expontentially more impressive. When I walked further in though, I really did like the rosaces (stained glass mirrors in a circular shape which resembles a rose). The violet-purple glass in them is really striking, and they're enormous.

• Musée D'Orsay. We had a guided tour of the museum and our guide was excellent. She talked in detail about paintings by Gustave Corbet, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, and August Renoir. Of course, she went into detail about 6-7 paintings out of the thousands in the Musee D'Orsay. As awesome as it is to see very famous works of art, I actually prefer smaller museums. I always feel a little overwhelmed in big museums like the Louvre, the Met, etc. There's just so much to see and no way to possibly see it all! But I did learn a lot, especially about Corbet. The picture on the right is of me on a terrace at the museum. The picture of the lion below has absolutely no significance for me beyond it's connection with a family joke "it looks like Miss Annie!" (Annie is our yellow Labrador)
  

• Musée Rodin. This is a museum of the work of Auguste Rodin, "the father of modern sculpture" (according to my guidebook). The museum is located in his former residence (see picture below). I really liked this museum a lot. It's the size I like - manageable in an hour or two - and sculpture is one of my favorite art forms. I really don't know very much about it but I thnk it's beautiful and I wish it was still as popular as painting.

• Les Invalides. This was a very brief visit because it was getting to the end of the day andis buried. His tomb consists of six concentric coffins, each made of a different material (I know at least two are mahogany and lead, and the outermost one is marble). In 1989 the dome was recovered in real gold, making it the only monument in Paris whose exterior has real gold. I've already been there before last time I was in Paris, so I don't feel like I missed out because we didn't linger.

Tonight we went to Saint Chappelle for a performance of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons." It was fantastic! The quartet (although a violinist joined them partway through, making it a total of three violins, a viola, and cello). They played in a little chapel which contains the oldest stained glass windows in Paris (13th century) - and what must be some of the tallest. They stretched practically from floor to ceiling! The rest of the chapel which is not stained glass windows was elaborately painted and covered in gold. It was a cool venue and the music was excellent. A great evening. The picture on the far right is one of the stained glass windows inside the chapel where we heard the concert. The picture on the near right is of the Palais de Justice, the building right next to Saint Chapelle. The exterior of Saint Chappelle is undergoing renovations, so all I could see of the exterior was scaffolding.

Tomorrow we're going to Versailles!

Paris Day #1: Monday

Notre-Dame de Paris at night (I took this Sunday night after dinner)

Wow the last two days have been a blur. When we were en route from Giverny to Paris Dr. Barbour gave us all a list of sights/museums we needed to see during our six-day (really five-day, we leave Saturday morning) stay. While it's certainly not everything in Paris, the list is very comprehensive. I've spent the last two days trying to get to as many of those sights as possible. But I don't want to give you the impression I've been doing the crazed tourist mad dash through the city. I've been taking my time at each of the museums/sights and spending as much time as I want, but just spending the whole day doing it. My schedule for the last two days has been thus:

8am: Wake up, go for a run along the Seine
9am: Breakfast at the hotel (baguette, OJ)
9:30am - 4pm: Sight-see
5pm - 6pm: Return to hotel, relax
6pm - ?: Theatre/Musical performance with the group

So you can understand why I am a bit fatigued. I've decided to take tomorrow off from running because my legs are so tired. Dr. Barbour got us museum passes and metro passes for our stay, so it's very easy for us to move around the city. Monday I went around with Carolyn because we met up with our friend Jess for a quick lunch before she had to go to class. Jess went to Wake our freshman year and played on RUCKUS. She transferred to William & Mary our freshman year and I haven't seen her in a while, so it was great to catch up. She is spending the semester in Paris through another program. Carolyn and I saw a ton on Monday:

• St. Germain-de-Pres
• St. Séverin (see photo of the column on the right. This is in the more contemporary part of the chapel (15th century, as opposed to 13th), and something I've never seen before. After going lots of old churches over the last month, I'm starting to notice those elements which make any given one unique.
  
• Église St. Julien-le-Pauvre
• La Sorbonne

• Jardin du Luxembourg (Luxembourg Garden)
• Place de la Concorde

• Église La Madeleine (Church of Mary Magdalene). This church was very interesting. From the exterior, it doesn't look like a church at all (at least, not like most of the cathedrals I've seen in the last few weeks. It's done in the neoclassical style and has a dome to let in light, rather than windows. On the inside, all of the walls are painted and there is gold everywhere. On the altar is a giant statue of Mary Magdalene, and the paintings above it feature her prominently at Jesus's right hand. Even the chandeliers inside seemed like they would be more natural in a train station, rather than a church (you can sort of see them in the picture of the statue on the right). I guess it's just my Protestant roots, but it always seems odd to me when I go in a church and visual focus is on a person, rather than Jesus.
  

• Opera Garnier (think "Phantom of the Opera"). Carolyn and I didn't get a chance to go inside, so we went back today, but the main auditorium was closed because of a dress rehearsal. So we're going to try and go on Thursday morning before our tour of the Louvre at 10:30am.
• Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysee

That night we went with Dr. Barbour and the group to "La Comedie" and saw a play called "Figaro Divorce." We thought we were going to see Moliere's L'Avare, but apparently that was Sunday night. "Figaro Divorce" was very difficult to follow and three hours long. But I think the difficulty in following it came from the writer's style, not from the dialogue, which I could translate just fine.

Oh, something interesting which happened that day. At one point while we were riding the metro between monuments, Carolyn and I got onto a train where a Frenchman was proselytizing loudly. As in, no one else was talking but he was shouting (in French) about the Revelation and the Second Coming and repentance. He was not addressing anyone directly, but his shouting was obviously making people uncomfortable. Carolyn and I ended up getting off a few stops early just because the mood in the car was getting tense. I could understand everything he said and none of it was violent, but anyone using that tone in a public transportation vehicle makes me nervous. Not a big deal, just something that happened.

Impressionism through Arrival in Paris

So Saturday we spent the whole day walking in the footsteps of the Impressionists. We started off by driving to the spot in Chatou where Renoir painted "Le déjeuner des canotiers." We stood on the spot where he set up his easel, right along the Seine, and looked up at the restaurant patio which is still there (and, go figure, still open if you want to eat lunch for an exorbitant price).

Mr. Tomarchio explained that the man and woman in the lower right of the painting are the son and daughter of the proprietor. And one of the men in the back right is a collegue of Renoir. I'm really excited for our class with Mr. Tomarchio, based on his explanations of the historical context of the paintings we saw in the museum later, he knows a lot about this kind of art and we're going to learn a lot from him!

Next we went to a museum of "minor Impressionists" (I left my notebook upstairs so I am going to skip past this part and move onto Giverny). So, Giverny, Monet's home. Yet again I had been there before, but yet again I love spending time in gardens. I think one of the highlights of this excursion is how much time we have spent in beautiful gardens. As a sort of random side note, the weather here has been pleasant and mild the entire time, so it's not nearly as evident that fall has arrived. It was certainly cooler once I got back from that brief weekend in Cincinnati, but still the weather has been beautiful. One of the ways I have been able to see the change in seasons is through the way the vines are changing colors (more so than the trees). On the right you can see some of the vines on a building near Giverny. Below are some of my favorite photos from Giverny:

And after Giverny, we headed for Paris. Sunday evening traffic meant it took a little longer than we expected (about 2 hours), but we got there in time to relax and walk around before dinner. We ate at Royal Couscous - and I was very happy to have more Moroccan food. My couscous was actually served slightly differently than Moroccan couscous (I think it was Tunisian style). They served each of the elements separately (a big bowl of couscous, a tureen of vegetables and broth, and a plate of grilled lamb). Then you added as much or as little of each to your plate as you preferred. I love North African food, I hope I get more opportunities to eat it (when I'm not chowing down on French food, of course).

Fontainebleau and Impressionism

Day #5 of the excursion marked our transition from the chateau and the Renaissance towards Impressionism. We started off in the morning with our last chateau, number six, Fontainebleau. For me, this was the most impressive. In Peter's words, "it gives Versailles a run for its money." Walking through room after room covered in gold-gilted everything, tapestries, luscious fabrics, and Sevres china, I suddenly had an acute understanding of why the French Revolution happened. And I was not the only one to reach that conclusion. That level of oppulence makes the colonists' complaints about Tea Taxes look like whining. But I couldn't help but admire the sheer amount of art work and talent displayed. It's certainly worth seeing, if only for the shock factor. Another reason this chateau seemed so much more excessive than the earlier ones is that it is outfitted in a different style. It was the palace of Napoleon I, and thus the decorations date from an earlier time period and are slightly more recognizable as flagrant displays of wealth. That, and there's gold everywhere, which was not the case in any of the other chateau we visited. The picture on the left is of the queen's bedchamber.

Oh, I almost forgot, before we toured the chateau we had lunch at a cafe in Fontainebleau. There we had the worst service I have seen so far in France. There were 10 of us (nine students plus Dr. Barbour, our chauffeur Stephan was not with us at this point) and we sat down and ordered at 1:15pm. We all got cafe food - salads, two hamburgers, a "Pomme Cheese" (explanation to follow, picture at right), and a pizza. 40 minutes later the first four salads arrived. Another 10 minutes later the Pomme Cheese, a hamburger, and another two salads arrived. Another 20 minutes later, Mary-Kate and I had yet to receive our respective hamburger and pizza. We had reminded the server a few times that we were waiting on some items, but it was only over an hour after we had ordered that she realized the kitchen had forgotten our two items. Like I said, this is the first time something like this has happened. Normally service is prompt, especially for simple stuff of the variety we ordered. Three course meals are normally more like an hour and a half for lunch and two plus hours for dinner, but that's what we expect. Normally those are more complicated dishes too. So needless to say, we're not going back to the Cafe Churchill again. But the upside is that I got to try Dr. Barbour's "Pomme Cheese" which was the French equivalent of a stuffed baked potato. It was two halves of a baked potato, covered in crème fraiche (similar to sour cream) and chives and topped with melted cheese. I wish I could remember the name of the cheese, but it is escaping me now. Anyway, it was very tasty. My pizza "Napoleon" was an interesting concept, but not very well executed. It had the standard crust-sauce-cheese and then mushrooms, prosciutto ham, olives, and an egg over easy in the center. The flavors worked well together, but the crust had a lingering burnt taste (as if the stone it was cooked on wasn't clean), so I think it could have been better.

So then after Fontainebleau we transitioned towards the Impressionism section. We went to a museum called Musee Ganne which is located in the building where there used to be an auberge (hostel/inn). It was at this auberge that certain artists went to escape the official "Empire-approved" art of Napoleon's regime and wanted to paint natural landscapes. It was called the Barbizon school and they were the forerunners of the Impressionists. *The picture on the right is the inside of the auberge, note the cabinet doors are painted - apparently they practiced on all of the surfaces inside - walls, cabinets, etc).* It's kind of funny to think that once this auberge was out in the woods, but now there's a street running right in front of it. It's not a big town, but it's definitely not in the countryside. I think it's awesome that although this class with Dr. Barbour is not conventional because it lacks a classroom setting, I am still learning so much! Not only so many facts, but realizing so many connections between art and history and politics. It's so cool that we're doing all of these things chronologically, as if we are following history as it unfolded. Our five days in Paris will be the culmination of this chronological history - between the monuments and museums there we will study up through the present day. Of course, once we get back to Dijon we'll be taking an art history course with Mr. Tomarchio (I spelled it phonetically, I'll get back to you on that). He joined us for these last few days to help give more insight into the history of Impressionism. But it's so cool to see these things in context.

That night (Friday and Saturday night) we stayed in a hotel called Villa des Impressionistes in a small town called Bougival, a little ways outside of Paris. This hotel was another three star and I could really tell the difference. I roomed with Kara and Jenn in a triple and our room had two floors! I got a big queen-sized bed all to myself on the first floor.