Three days in Paris - Monday , October the 29th 2007

Lauren and I, a canadian friend from the rowing club, left Nantes to go to Paris in order to spend three days visiting the city and meeting friends. We left at 6h30 A.M aiming to use the whole day to visit Paris. The train ride was fun, talking about the monuments we would see and making jokes.

At 10h00 we went to Pierre's ( a Club Med friend) to drop off our luggage. Afterwards, we went go to the " Palais du Luxembourg" to see the Arcimboldo exibition. Then after having walked 1hour instead of 10 minutes ( I didn't exactly know the the way to go) we found the entrance and the 60 m long line. So we decided to come back the day after (but early) and went to the "Musée Georges Pompidou", the Modern Art Museum instead - but the line was worse. Nevertheless we wait 50 minutes to enter the museum then another 10 minutes to buy the tickets and another 15 minutes to go to the cloak-room.

Once all these hardship over we reached the the museum rooms in order to see 3 exibitions, 2 were temporary and the last was permanent. The first was about the correspondance betwenn two filmmakers: Victor Enrice and Abbas Kiarostami but I did not like it, it was too gloomy and I certainly did not understand the message. The second was about the Alberto Giacometti's work and I think it was worse. In a work of art I like the technique used to do it, colors and the feeling of joy which emanate from the work. Here the colors were sad and dark, the technique so basic, and the feeling of joy inexistant. Fortunatly after two boring hours the permanent exibition was a real pleasure.

The shapes and colors were so diferent and their diversity was so large. The technique was so developped and with the light colors it was easy to spend time walking in the different rooms. Once the tour finished we walked around Paris close to "Chatellet" and the "Hotel de Ville" and we came back to Pierre' s flat near to the Panthéon. In the end we spent the evening with Pierre and his friends, watching films on the TV.

Three days in Paris - Tuesday, October the 30th 2007

We woke up "early" and we went to the "Palais du luxembourg" and once again the line was long. It was 45 minutes after we entered and bought our tickets. The exibition was short but I loved it. The paintings were great: amazing technique , light colors and understandable symbols. And the best thing about it was that you could see the works of art in different ways looking at the whole painting or only different pieces.

After we went to the "Musée d'Orsay". The different exibitions were interresting and the painting styles too. I liked a few works like Van Gogh and Matisse. But several works shock me: the look of a few portraits or paintings made me inconfortable.

Once the tour finished we went to the "Jardin des tuilleries" then to the "Concorde" and "Avenue des Champs Elysées" and to finish to the "Place de l'Etoile" with the "Arc de Triomphe". At the end we went to the Museum of "Quai Branly" to see the building with grass on its walls.

In order to finish our tour we went to the " Tour Eiffel" and went back to Pierre's for dinner and spent once again the evening with his friends playing video games, chating, listening to music and joking.

Three days in Paris - Wedensday, October the 31st 2007

As the party had finished at 4 A.M the wake up was hard but at 10 A.M we went to "Mont Martre" in order to visit the "Sacré Coeur" and the "Place du Tertre" with all its artists and drawers.

The visit was interesting and "Mont Martre" is a district I love, it is so quiet, there are no cars and lots of gardens. The atmosphere is so different in comparaison in other places in Paris. The "Sacré Coeur" hill is so nice with it gardens and its white stairs. In the "Sacrée Coeur" inside, I did not understand in what kind of architecture the church was built. I think it's a mix between Gothic and barroque art because one can see different elements of these architectures.

After our little walk in "Mont Martre" we went to the " Place de la Bastille" and the "Canal St Martin" to have the lunch (at 3 P.M! but lunch!) At the end we went back to Pierre's going by the Seine river in order to see the "bookinistes" and "Notre Dame". We finished our journey in a Mexican restaurant to have our dinner with mates and to laugh a last time before our rushed departure to Nantes. Half an hour to go from the "Panthéon" to Montparnasse Station.

This journey was amazing. I have spent lots of unforgetable moments with Lauren, Pierre and his friends. I would like to thank them for their good moods and their hospitality. Special thanks to Pierre who put up with us during three days (Pierrot when you come to Nantes... DO NOT HESITATE!!!!) and to Lauren who tolerated me during three long days!!!!