A thousand beautiful things

What a fantastic weekend in Paris!!!!!! It was sunny, not one, but BOTH days!!! It was great. So I started off the weekend lamely. I stayed home Friday and spent about 9 euro at the laundromat. Oh well! Saturday, I woke up pretty late (I deserved it!) and met up with Jill and Rick at Musee d'Orsay. We met up at a cafe-Les Deux Musees-and had a coffee before going in. This building is awesome. Formerly a train station, it was turned into a museum in 1986. It houses famous paintings from the period of 1848-1914. We wandered around for about three hours before meeting up at the cafe again. I saw some of my favorites-Degas, Monet, Renoir-but I also found a new favorite: Camille Pissarro. His (oops) landscapes are so beautiful and rival those of Monet.

renoir: country dance and city dance

degas: the star

monet: woman on a hill with an umbrella (facing right and facing left)





Saturday night, I met up with Emily, Josh, and Kristen for a drink at a cafe up in Montmartre. We sat outside under a heat lamp and enjoyed the jazz and the atmosphere. It was a nice evening.

Sunday, I slept in again...I stay up too late! I decided that since it was a gorgeous day, I wanted to be outside! So I headed to the end of line one on the east side of town and visited Chateau de Vincennes and Bois de Vincennes. What a beautiful area!!! The chateau was built where a hunting lodge used to be when the woods became royal in 1037. The castle eventually became one of the court's residences and a center of government.

The woods the belong to the chateau are amazing. There are four different lakes, a cemetery, a zoo, a farm, a racecourse for horses, and a soccer park. There were so many people out to enjoy the weather. People were pushing babies along, little kids were riding bikes, others were out jogging. It was wonderful to just be out and enjoying nature. Because the place is so big, I decided to head to lake Minimes since it was closer on the map and I wasn't sure of distances. I hope to go back another weekend to explore more!







more photos:
musee d'orsay (includes pics of my apt):
http://scarolina.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2104196&l=a115e&id=12600427

vincennes (chateau et bois):
http://scarolina.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2104361&l=9c6e3&id=12600427

my famous classmates in the portuguese track:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NlyrxeW800