A Weekend in Paris (Day One)

The first thing I noticed when I arrived at the airport in Paris was the smell when I walked into the terminal. At first I thought what I was smelling was garbage, but then I remembered where I was and realized that it was cheese. (That really happened.)


I landed around two pm and my friend Taïs picked me up at Charles de Gaulle International. We took the RER (commuter train) back into the city center; the stop is literally across the street from Taïs' apartment  so we went and dropped my stuff off. Her flat is beautiful, very well-appointed with fabulous views (except for the questionable aesthetic value of Les Halles, one of Paris' few--if not only--mall). It's very thin, but they have three floors: two bedrooms with sinks in them (so European!) and a WC. The place is (what I imagine to be) so typically French.

Taïs' father treated us to un cafe and was very nice to me, sharing in fluent English (it seems like everyone in Paris does) a conversation about mutual philosophical musings involving such things as the effect on society of the growing prevalence of the screen as mediator of experience (blogging, for example). 


When we returned to the flat, Taïs' mother had just gotten home. Her English is virtually accent-free (she is an actress) and correctly informed me that the Keds I had brought were inadequate for walking about in the drizzle. It's funny: I bring my boots with my everywhere but fail to bring them to Paris, where I definitely needed them. Taïs lent me some very European-looking sneakers which kept my feet dry until about our third hour out walking. 


We set out intending to walk over to the Eiffel Tower. I was "oohing" and "ahhing" at every turn, so we lingered in the streets for awhile on our way to le Louvre. 

Église Saint-Eustache, down the street from the flat

A ceilinged passage between streets. Apparently because of their potential to foster rebellion Napolean got rid of most of them; or else they fell out of fashion when wider boulevards came into vogue. We may never know.

Temporary location for the library during construction

Théâtre du Palais-Royal

sculpture/installation by Daniel Buren by the Galerie de Montpensier

L'Opéra Garnier

We made it over to le Louvre, and I fell in love. I didn't know truly how huge it was until I was in the middle of it. Quick history lesson: originally built as a fortress in the 12th century by Philip II, through a long history of expansion and renovation it became Louvre Palace and was the seat of the monarch until Louis XIV moved to Versailles. 

Or, for a better quality video, click here.

Mom, does this look familiar?

The gardens are also lovely. I am enamored by some of the statues:

"Pomone" by Aristide Maillol

"Riviére" also by Maillol 

I made some other friends:

As you can see, there was a parade of mythical figures posing all around this area of the garden. You can also see in the distance the Obelisk, beyond which is the Avenue des Champs-Elysées and L'Arc de Triumph. The proportions are so grand and sweeping, it's all in a perfect line with incredible symmetry. It's amazing that in the middle of an enormous city so much space is lent to pedestrians and grandeur. 

"Thésée combattant le Minotaure" by Étienne-Jules Ramey 

"La Comédie" by Julien Toussaint Roux

didn't catch his name

nor hers

Apollon et Daphné

"Le Bel Costumé, 1973" by Jean Dubuffet, a controversial Parisian artist. There's some play on words with "bel", it should be "belle", but I didn't really understand the irony. 

Taïs and I really enjoyed these "Hands" by Louise Bourgeois. I saw some more of her stuff at the Pompidou (more to come on that later.)

I thought it was cool that there were contemporary sculptures integrated into the gardens almost as well as the classical sculptures. Though they were relegated off to the sides a bit more, it seemed fitting that they were separate from the more grand and eye-catching pieces.

Pegasus, the Eiffel Tower, and the obelisk at Concorde

check out those veins

Ceci n'est pas un arbre.

La Siene! 

Taïs' grandmother called to invite her over; Taïs is taking classes in London this semester and left the Sunday I was in Paris. Her grandmother was happy to have an American girl over, luckily for me. As it was getting dark and the weather was getting worse (from light drizzle to fat drops; the wind picked up and my umbrella was falling apart) we decided to go over there.

I love sphynxes.

I am happy that I went and was able to meet more members of her family and see more Parisian flats. She lives in a very posh (bourgeois) area in a wonderful apartment. It was quite spacious. In Paris as well as Prague many doors that appear to be the front door of the building are only entrances to the courtyard and access to several buildings therein. The flat itself was impeccably decorated, with art adorning every wall and surface. She served us chablis and smoked cigarettes, speaking half in English and half in French while Taïs tried on her new boots and jacket. 


I was surprised by how much of their French conversation I could understand. I was able to get the jist of their entire conversation, partly via visual cues and some English phrases here and there. Of course grandmothers and grandchildren speak more formally with each other than young people speak to one another, and probably more slowly as well. More and more French came back to me throughout the weekend--those three years in high school paid off more than I thought they would.


Unfortunately it rained all night. After hours of traipsing through puddles my toe was a bit soggy, so it was lucky that Taïs had just gotten a new pair of boots because she lent me her wellies. The umbrella was beyond repair, having been turned inside out and back again several times. 


We walked to a sandwich shop around the corner and had a light but extremely filling dinner-- only about 15 Euro with desert and wine. Then we continued through the rain and walked back across the Siene to Taïs' flat. She took me through a neighborhood that was full of galleries, many of which left some lights on in their window displays, so we were able to peruse a variable collection as we wandered through the winding streets home.

first week of classes 27.9 - 1.10

Sunday was a lazy day; I simply visited Kaufland (in German: "Buying Land") to pick up some very cheap groceries. It is just up the tram line from the dorm and sort of like a mix between KMart and a 99 cent store. Strangely exhilarating. 

This was my first week of classes, but I didn't start until Wednesday because my class schedule consists of lessons only on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and because Tuesday was St Wenceslas day. He's the patron saint of the Czech Republic.

Monday I woke up a bit late and met my friend Mark at a cafe in the afternoon. We continued on to DOX, a contemporary gallery in Prague 7 which is an area almost devoid of tourists. It sort of looks like Binghamton:

There were three large exhibits, one of which was closing that day: a retrospective-like show on Czech architect Jan Kaplický, who ran Future Systems (the design firm). 

He's known for designing the Lord's Media Center at Lord's Cricket Ground in London. It was a really cool exhibit overall, really well done. They showed hundreds of his plans, photos of his work, boards with inspiration collage, as well as many of the models made by Future Systems. It was curated in a way that seemed to express an intrinsic connection between the architect and his work. So, well done! I noted at the time that some of the work reminded me of Vivian's, and in fact she told me later of her love for Future Systems.

The next exhibit had to do with "the future" in another way. The show was called, literally "The future of the future". The sign on the wall introducing the whole thing was also very well done; I picked out one sentence which I thought particularly poignant: the current vision of the future "is one that is not an escape from the present and the past, [but] one that emphasizes sustainability and interconnectedness rather than progress and growth without limits" (Jaroslav Anděl). The exhibit featured works from artists, architects, and designers who envisioned a way of life just like the one described by Anděl. One piece was a model of what Brooklyn would look like one day--a sort of self-sufficient sustainable utopia. Others dealt with changing the way we live (literally our houses) to make them more relevant to the ways in which our world is changing (organic homes which are actually alive, or mobile homes that reflect the ebb and flow of people between urban and suburban areas).

After stumbling upon a random installation on the roof, we moved on.

The last exhibit dealt with past perceptions of the future as perpetuated by the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, with a particular focus on space exploration and living on other planets. While on the one hand it makes sense that the Communist regime would support the spread of these tales to distract from the declining conditions of the present with hope for the future, and because of the attention paid to space exploration in the world at large at that time, AND because of the allegorical potential of a new beginning with new way of life; it strikes me as a particularly Capitalistic thought system... boundless growth, a new frontier rather than improvement and reform on a smaller level. In any case, it was very interesting to see these silly myths which were contrasted with the work of artists who grew up during the occupation. While mostly satirical, it was clear that the propaganda had effected them in extremely formative ways and made a specific mark on their present world views.

Tuesday, St Wenceslas Day, was a nice holiday as well (in keeping with my entire time in Prague thus far). Hung out, went to the mall, didn't buy anything, helped my friend Neil with "taco night" (we all need a bit of home sometimes) which was complimented by the common room. I took some photos the other day, I hope my fellow ECES members won't mind their images being put up on the internet...

Fancy, no? Look how much fun we have!

Wednesday was my first class, art and architecture in the Czech lands. We started out with Gothic and Baroque styles. The first half of each class is a lecture with power-point, and the second half is a field trip! Every class! The cost of all the galleries and places we go is included in our tuition. The first day, we went to Old Town Square and climbed to the top of the spire in the old Town Hall. Great views.

Thursday was my other class, Czechoslovak New Wave (film class). It seems pretty cool; we watched a film called Černý Petr, made by the famous Czech filmmaker Miloš Forman who also directed One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest and Amadeus.. I thought the film was pretty cool so I volunteered to do the first presentation of the semester on that film in class next week. All day I ran around doing errands in preparation for my trip to Paris the upcoming weekend! Thursday evening I went to the opera with my roommate Brielle; our "dorm mother" Zuzana hooked us up with tickets. It was 200Kc (a little over $10), so I couldn't pass up an opportunity like that. We saw Don Giovanni at the Estates Theatre, which is where Mozart's famous opera originally premiered in 1787! The theatre was beautiful!

Another wonderful week in Prague. Stay tuned for details on my Parisian weekend!

Kutna Hora 24 9 10

Last weekend I intended to travel to Vienna but due to technical issues and the difficulty of navigating Czech bus line sites we didn't have a reservation. Desperate to get out of the city my friend Mike and I took a day trip to Kutna Hora. It was only about an hour on the train from Prague, and the ride was aesthetically pleasing if not pretty.

We visited the famous Ossuary (bone church) which is a really weird place. It is a popular burial ground because a monk who had traveled to Palestine brought back with him a handful of Earth from Golgotha and sprinkled it around the abbey, thereby making it some kind of holy ground. During the plague, thousands of bodies were stacked around the church and then buried in mass graves. Years later, a half-blind Cisterian monk decided it would be a good idea to dig up all the bodies (which had long since decomposed) and to redesign the interior of the church by decorating it with the bones of the corpses. I found that a bit odd, but no further explanation was given.

He not only placed the bones in pyramid structures and stacked skulls atop one another but also crafted a chandelier which contains all the bones in the human body and a coat of arms for the Schwarzenberg family.

The bird pecking the skull in the eye is meant to represent the defeat of the Hussites in the 15th century.

I was amazed by the Ossuary but Mike was not very impressed. Truly, its small size was a bit disappointing, but its intended effect rang mostly true inside my little heart. No matter who we are, we will all end up the same way: just one of many in the multitudes that stand before whomever their god is. In the same vein, I pointed out to moje kamarad the poetic nature of a certain scene we witnessed outside of the church. There, in the cemetery amongst who knows how many thousands of graves there was a bush around which swarmed more bees than I have ever seen before. They were resting on the gravestones or humming happily as they danced with the flowers. The deceased are remembered with eternal flames or pebbles on their gravestone but the bees continue buzzing and the flowers keep growing, and that will continue forever.


After the Ossuary we went to the Cathedral of our Lady which was just around the corner. We were still in a suburb of Kutna Hora called Sedlec. It's an UNESCO site (for those who aren't familiar with that program, you can find a Wikipedia explanation here) and very beautiful.

It doesn't seem like there are services there any more and it was restored, though I'm not sure how recently. It was more like an enormous gallery, with pieces on display that had recently been restored.

 There was a seemingly secret passageway from one balcony through another that I thought was pretty cool. I made a video of it but it isn't working right now, of course.

We then hiked through the town for about a half hour to get to the next attraction: St Barabara's Cathedral.

We picked up lunch at a reasonably priced restaurant; it cost me about $7.50 for my chicken and sausage skewer, fries (hranolky), and a beer (Kozel dark, my favorite.) We checked out the silver mine but the last English tour had left an hour before, which my mother pointed out was probably for the best. Some people from my program went there on a day trip and said it was pretty awesome but we would have had to pay a good amount for the tour anyway. 

On to the Cathedral, which is built in a style similar to St Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle. It was enormous with beautiful views of the town and neighboring countryside.

There was no flash allowed inside the Cathedral, so I had to edit my photos a bit. I apologize for the loss of quality.

After that, we caught a bus back to the nadrazi (train station), arriving minutes before our train departed for Prague.

It was a pretty nice day despite the fact that it rained for most of it. Even better, the entire trip (transport, lunch, admission) cost about $20 each. Additionally, we were happy to get out of the city for the day though it was small compensation for a missed trip to Vienna. There's always another day!