-Night Not at the Musee-

The worst part of study abroad programs is how much homework we have.  Ahahaha, just kidding.  But I was thinking this as I slowly worked on my only real paper of the semestre.  Perhaps my paper-writing skills have gotten rusty this semestre, or maybe it's that the weather is finally encouraging me to spend long afternoons outdoors, but it felt like a lot of work to crank out 5 whole pages.  So instead of writing Saturday morning, I headed out to do "field research".

I wanted to examine 3 main monuments in Paris that have a peculiar quality in common: they are all modern art pieces integrated into older Parisian architecture or art.  It's more controversial than you would think, with lines drawn between the "historicists" wanting to completely preserve the old stuff, and the "modernists" aiming to revive Paris with new work.

I've already seen the Grande Pyramide situated in the main courtyard of the Louvre Museum (more than once, if you can believe that) and the ceiling in the Opera Garnier that was painted by Marc Chagall (it replaced the original painting).  The last one I needed to see was the series of columns installed in the courtyard of the Palais Royal, so that's where I went.  As expected, it is a courtyard full of black and white vertically striped columns, short and tall, as well as tourists and children climbing on the shorter columns, and one cute young couple getting their wedding pictures taken.

Later in the evening, I met up with Maria and Brianna for the Nuit des Musées,  a France-wide event including nearly every museum being both free and open until midnight.  Crazy!  Our first stop was the Orangerie (home to several of Monet's water lily paintings).  That was a strike, because the line had no foreseeable end.  Next we tried the Centre Pompidou, which had an equally long line, but two other friends were just coming out, so we all decided to break for gelato.  Mmm, Amorino.

After our snack break, Maria decided she'd try going to one more museum with me, and so we set off on foot to La Maison de Victor Hugo. 

Only to arrive at precisely 11pm as it was closing.  How were we to know that it was the only museum closing at 11 instead of 12?  So 3 tries and no museums later, we trudged home unsuccessful. Lucky for us, the museums are free for students every day, so all we really lost was the opportunity to see museum exhibits come to life and roam around...