Old Town New

Such a long day!!! I had to force myself to get out of bed at 7. We left at 8 to go to ESCP to have breakfast with Josiane. At 10:30, we went to BNP Paribas (a French bank) to open accounts. They are all over town but we went to the one at Place Vendome. Let me tell you about Place Vendome. There is a tall column in the middle with a road surrounded by two old buildings. In one building is the Ritz (the one Princess Diana stayed in her last days alive). There is a Cartier and Tiffany’s on the same street. So, we’re in a niiiiiiiiiice neighborhood. After getting bank stuff done, we went back to the DRI/E area (where we have class) and got sandwiches for lunch. Samantha, Emily, and I got 12 euro ballet shoes; I got brown!! I’m excited. Then we went to the school to use internet before our 2 pm tour.

This tour was amazing. Our guide Sylvaina was so funny and smart. She told us so much history that it would be wrong to not share with you. We started out talking about architecture. She said basically there were two styles-before and after Napoleon III’s reign. Haussman, the architect of Napoleon III’s time, has a notable style of five floors above the ground floor shops. The first floor was the most expensive. The second and the fourth floor had balconies. The fifth floor was the least expensive at the time because it was up five flights of floors but now is the most expensive because it gets so much sunlight. You can tell real Haussman buildings from later versions because there are balconies on the third floor.

After this wonderful conversation, we took a bus down the street a bit to the Luxembourg gardens. The palace of the Luxembourg gardens is now the seat of the Senate. It was initially built for Marie Medici as a palace outside the city. Yes, it used to be outside the city and now it’s in the middle! We also learned the difference between boulevard and avenue. A boulevard is roundish because it used to be the circumference around the city. An avenue is a straight road and leads to a certain place. Example: Avenue de Champs-Elysees ends at the Louvre and Avenue L’Opera ends at Opera Garnier (home of the Phantom of the Opera). As Paris grew out, more boulevards were made around it.

We walked past the Pantheon and La Sorbonne to the Latin Quarter. I’m going to get into Paris’ history so if you don’t care, go to the next paragraph: Paris began on the island now called Ile-de-la-Cité (where Notre Dame is) by a tribe called the Parisiennes (spelling is wrong sorry). They stayed only on that tiny island. Later, the Romans came in and settled on the hill on one side of the island (now called Rive Gauche –left bank). They built monasteries and the area was known as the intelligent quarter. Now the Rive droite (right bank) is known as the shopping area. Les Halles (shopping area on Rive droite) was where selling went on from merchandise arriving at the docks by the workers.

We walked the tiny streets of the Latin Quarter, which are centuries old. People used to throw waste out in these streets. Then we walked onto Ile-de-la-Cité to see Notre Dame. That island has such an amazing history. The square in front of Notre Dame used to have homes. The area is marked off (hopefully you can see in the picture) of where buildings and roads used to be.

We discussed the difference between a basilica and cathedral. A basilica is built over a saint’s tomb. A cathedral houses the seat of a bishop. Therefore, a basilica can become a cathedral but a cathedral can’t become a basilica. Also on the island is present day Palais du Justice. This was the first residence of the French royalty (and then the Louvre and then Versailles). And thus ended our tour on Ile-de-la-Cité.

After the tour, we did a little shopping but all the stores were crazy because it’s the first weekend of sales. Now we have a nice weekend to enjoy before a full week of class.

more photos on facebook:
http://scarolina.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2098387&l=63520&id=12600427