Oh La Lauren

Mercredi: Il faut étudier . Histoire: Louis XIV et Invalides . Né dans la rue

Well last night I engaged in an interesting conversation on Skype. I don’t know why, but some of the things that this person said to me hit me hard…or made me wonder…I don’t know what happened. So I ended up going to bed at 2AM without reviewing any material for my quiz this morning.

But hey, all I have to do is pass the class, right? So I think I did end up passing the quiz. I woke up at 8AM to study. It seems as though my study habits didn’t make it through the French customs counter.

I really enjoy my History of Paris class, even if M. what-is-his-name-anyways doesn’t organize his lecture at all.

So today we met up at Invalides. The only thing I knew about Invalides before today—or, at least the only thing I remembered about Invalides—was that it has a big golden dome and Napoleon’s grave is there.

But now I think it’s one of my very favorite monuments of Paris. First of all, the weather today was absolutely gorgeous. As we walked up to Invalides, seagulls were flying around, and the color of the trees matched the gold-leafed statues that lined the side of the road, with the glassy Grand Palais behind us. While I stood in front of Invalides, I thought about what a ridiculously ornate city Paris really is. I mean, every image and every words of every monument—and there is at least one for every king, military man, politician—has a special significance. That’s dense.

What was especially beautiful about Invalides was the church—it was perfectly simple. But then you go to the other side to see the église du dôme and it’s a completely different story. It is over-the-top ornate, with decorations in places that don’t merit them. I learned that Louis XIV actually wanted to place his tomb in the center of this église that he built, but he realized he would be breaking tradition with the kings of France and decided to be burried at basilique Saint Denis (new place I must visit). The spot that Napoleon now occupies was made for him—as in, they drilled a hole in the middle of the marble floor to accommodate Napoleon’s rosy-violet stone tomb.

When visiting places such as this, I tend to switch into Tourist mode and want to take excessive amounts of photos. But I constantly try to restrain myself…I think that sometimes, if you’re too occupied with taking photos, you never get to really experience or absorb the subject that you’re taking photos of.

Afterwards we went to the Graffiti exhibition né dans la rue at the Fondation Cartier. It was horribly frustrating that they didn’t let Christina’s mother in with her suitcase…huuugeee boooo.

However, I really enjoyed the exhibition. For a moment I felt as though I was back at home, because the exhibit really recognized New York as the birthplace of the graffiti movement. I learned about the different fonts used…”whole car” art…the risks that graffiti artists take, etc. It was beautiful and fascinating. It was also REMPLI with children. I think this is due to the national vacation happening right now. Ugh.

Also learned about “pixaçao,” this graffiti form in San Paolo that is absolutely insane. I watched a movie about it for about 20 minutes…and it made me think about where you have to draw the line on what is considered art. While the exhibition really highlighted graffiti as part of the contemporary art movement, I think pixacao is more of a social phenomena, a way of coping with life, than graffiti. This exhibition was just wonderful.

Now, what to do with my first four-day weekend in Paris since the beginning of the month?…