With reservations and student IDs, the entrance is €4 each. Without reservations it is €9. You can get the passes one hour earlier than your appointment time but will need to collect all of the IDs in order to get the discounted price. Entrance to the Louver is free to art students studying in a French university only. I was told that this was just a Louvre thing, that other museums would allow art students in free. We will see. Entrance is free for students 26 years and younger on Friday evenings when the Louver is opened late.

The students were all very excited about visiting the Louvre. There is so much to see. I took them to the main attractions (M.Lisa, V. de Milos, and the Winged Victory). I also pointed out the better Leonardos and talked them through the Monumental French Painters. It was not as crowded as in the past. We are still early in the season. After about an hour and a half with them, I turned them loose to explore on their own. The museum was open until 9:30 this evening, so they had a lot of time. I saw a few of them as the wondered in. They were pretty much on sensory overload. Most of them will head back over on Friday evening and its free entrance offer.

We woke up to a dusting of snow and 30°. Some of the car going by have
at least 1.5 inches on them. It will all disappear soon enough, we are
supposed to go up into the mid 50s this afternoon.

After services I went to the Gran Paiais to see the contemporary art collection. I really wanted to see the inside of the exhibition space as it had been under restoration for the past several years. This was just as well as I found most of the art to be sub par and repetitive. There was a nice selection of photographs however.

At 9:00AM we headed over to Notre Dame. There is nothing like a cold and frosty Monday morning to keep the crowds down. The Cathedral was virtually empty and they were piping in coral music. It was very impressive. We walked around the building, inside and out, and talked about Gothic architecture and the meaning of literacy.
Next we walked over to St-Chapelle. It too was not at all crowded. After going through security, I explained what St-Chapelle was and a little about the history. I let them go to spend as much time as they wanted to in the church. On my way out I saw that the line to enter was back to its enormous size.

I had an email from Mary when I got back to the hotel telling me that the Olympic Flame was to be carried across the Pont Neuf just up from our hotel later that afternoon. I passed this information along to the students for those who would be interested in seeing it.

The trip out to the Arche de la Defense went well. Several wanted to take the elevator up to the top, but since I have done that several times, I wished them luck and came back to the hotel.

A few minutes ago the Olympic Flame went right passed our hotel. They had to put it away so there was just a bunch of people running down the street pretending. Of course, there were thousands of police. So many that you could not see anything else. All in all, that was very telling of the whole thing. The French are very pro Tibet. The relay began by running it down the Eiffel Tower. Several of our students just happened to be at the Trocadero at the Architecture Museum and found themselves in the middle of it all. There were a lot to Tibet supporters handing out Tibetan flags and some great bright yellow t-shirts with a little Buddhist monk on it. It just said "I Support Tibet". I wish I had one

After a couple of hours there, many of our group chose to visit the Church of the Dome where Napoleon is buried. It is right across from the Musée Rodin. It was built as part of the Hotel des Invalides by Louis XIV and was designed to impress, which it does.

I went by the American Express office for some business and over to the Mason du Chocolate to pick up some little tokens of appreciation for the many people who help us get this program off the ground. I stopped by the market to pick up a few things. After dinner I walked up the Pantheon. Admission is still free for the unemployed and art students.

At 10:00AM we all marched up St-Michelle to the Musée de la Moyen Age. It is a much smaller and quieter museum and has remains of Roman Baths and well as a lot of art from the Middle Ages.

At noon I met Mary Kirk to go and have lunch on the corner at Guy Sav oy’s Les Bouqunistes restaurant. He us a very well know Paris chef and this is a small boutique restaurant where he basically, experiments with dishes before he uses them in him main restaurant. We both had the “Plates de Jour” and by Paris standards, it was both very good and quit reasonably priced (three courses and wine for around €30.

After lunch I asked Mary to translate a wall plaque just around the corner of our hotel. I thought I knew what it said, but I wanted to be sure. Basically, “Pablo Picasso lived here and painted Guernica on this site”. Pretty cool!

In the afternoon I went over to the les Halles area looking for the Librairie Gourmande. It is a known institution in Paris and though most of the cookbooks are of course in French, they did have a nice selection of them in English. I bought “Bocuse in Your Kitchen”, a collection of recipes by the famed French Chef, Paul Bocuse. I also picked up another nice heavy copper pan from Mori.

At 7:30PM we took the Metro to the Place d'Alma and took the touristy but still very memorable Bateaux Mouches boat ride up and down the Seine. It was a little breezy, but everyone seemed to have a good time watching the sun set over Paris.

We left and drove about an hour to a small town by the Seine River and had a wonderful lunch of roast duck and potatoes and a great apple tart for desert. We were a little ahead of schedule so we walked around the village for a half an hour or so.

A quick 20min. ride took us to Giverny and Monet’s home and gardens. The weather was sunny and warmer and the walks through the water gardens was very, very nice. We toured his home and looked at all the flowers and could not fail to notice the contrast in his life and that of Van Gogh’s.

A short walk from Monet’s home is the American Museum. We had an appointment there and were shown two interesting exhibitions of impressionist period work. It is a small but impressive building and when we were through, it was pretty apparent that the students were just about full for one day. So, back to Paris we went.

Over half our students will be traveling away from Paris this weekend. Some are headed to Madrid, others to Brussels, and several to Amsterdam. Learning to travel on their own is one of the objectives of this program.

When I got back to the hotel I decided to check out the newly renovated museum in the Arc de Triomphe. There were over 250 steps in the first section of spiral staircase. Then the museum that was very nice and interactive. Ten, more steps to get to the top. The view from there is truly amazing and worth the sometimes painful climb.

I’ve been in and out of all kinds of bookstores looking for two books Todd asked me to fine for him. Stephane Mallarme’s ‘Un Coup de des” and Guillaume Apollinaire’s “Calligrammes”. The booksellers all seem to know what I’m looking, but don’t have the books. I’ll keep looking.

This Friday evening was made for catching up on paperwork.

Sunday
Again, I was the only one who went to the American Cathedral. On the way back I went to another flea market I had heard about, Paces de Vanves. This one was much more sane that the more famous Puces de St-Ouen we went to yesterday. This one consists of temporary stands set up on either side of a long sidewalk that goes on for several blocks. There was still a lot to look at. I found another old meat clever. I don’t know what it is about old French meat clevers.

When I got back I had emails from the Spain and Brussels groups that they were back safe and sound. 

The weather has been very good the last few days, but you can see storm clouds on the horizon. I took the Metro to the FDR station and walked back along rue de Fauborg St-Honore. This street wonders past the backs of the Elysee Palace (the French President’s residence), the American, British and Japanese embassies, and a lot of high-end shops. It is a pleasant enough walk with lots of interesting things to se along the way.
I talked to several students and they were all out running around. Some of the architecture and interior design students had specific houses and buildings in the Paris area they needed to see.

I walked around and took pictures including some of St-Séverin and its Flamboyant Gothic architecture.

At 3:30 I took five of the students to the top of Tour Montparnasse for a great view of the city without having to see Tour Montparnasse.

Several students wanted to buy chocolates to care back so I went with them over to the Madeleine area to the La Maison du Chocolat. They have truly fine chocolates. While we were in there they gave us each samples of very dark, very rich, bittersweet truffles. My, my. I also took them by the Maille shop for fine French mustard.

Our last full day. What to do?

Between 9:00AM and 10:00AM I sat in the lobby as the students came by and showed me the journals they have been keeping. Many were full of their writing, drawings, ticket stubs and other mementos. Others, not so much. I will look at them again before the term in over.

I went out to the Bastille and walked back through the Marais district. There is so much to see there.

I met Frank for lunch. We went to a small café around the corner and had Croque Missure and Croque Madame. I am still trying to figure out how to make this very French ham and cheese sandwich.