Oranges

Uh... it's Degas I'm pretty sure. I saw waaay too many impressionists today...
Picasso used cubism to hide the fact that he failed at human anatomy. At least that's what I'd like to think.
All the different patterns on this are just different types of marble.
Vincent van something or other. Some no-name impressionist wannabe, I guess.
Whistler's Mother. It's alot bigger than I thought it would be.

Went to the Orangerie today. It used to be used as a greenhouse for growing oranges (which were very hard to come by, otherwise) and has been turned into an Art Museum. The French, what can I say? They recycle everything. It only took me about 30 minutes to go through the Orangerie, and I took my time. It's noted for having Monet's ginourmous water lily paintings, and I saw those first, of course. They are big, and fairly sloppy, but you can't really blame the guy, he was going blind at the time he painted those. I was really surprised at how quickly I went through the place. Even though the building is obviously not that large from the outside, I still didn't expect to go through it as fast as I did. I even took my time.

After my experience in the old Orange place, I went back to d'Orsay. I'm so happy that I did. I went to the top floor and worked my way down, which really is the best way to go. Don't be lured by the pretty statues when you first walk in! Take the stairs hidden in the corners! The impressionist stuff was all upstairs and that means only one thing... it was crowded. I saw some cool paintings, Lautrec, Van Gogh, Degas, and all those guys. I took about 100 pictures today so you get a small taste. A very small taste. A nibble, a crumb, even.

I got in a few sketches and saw some great early photography. Like, 150 year old pictures and they have a huge section of daguerreotypes, or however you spell that. They're on metal and they look really neat. Olde tyme type photographs, if you know what I mean. I went to pick up Marsh from school, getting there a good 10 minutes early, as I hoped to be. That just proves that I really can successfully use public transportation and estimate time in doing so. At least when there isn't a protest going on. And here, there is almost always a protest of some sort happening.

I think that's all I have to say for tonight. I just got done watching 4 episodes of Lost with Rob and Kristen and it's 1 am, much to my surprise. I'll post some more pictures or something tommorow, perhaps.

Ou est la gare?

Manet's oh so controversial Dejuner sur l'Herbe. SHOCKING!
Manet's oh so controversial Olympia. INAPPROPRIATE!
I think it's called Le Dance, or something to that effect.
Lolar bear!
Tick tock, huge train clock.

This painting is probably about 20X30 feet. It's HUGE.
This is what the Paris Opera looks like on the inside. Yes, the same opera that that little musical about a phantom is based on.
Right in the ear!

Let me just say that this mouse isn't quite my favorite. Twice now I've been almost done with writing my blog and accidently hit this weird little side button that makes it go back, which wipes my entry. Ah, well, c'est la vie.

Went to the Musee d'Orsay, the train station turned art gallery (quite a French thing to do, really) and it was like walking through a living Art History text book. Almost every time I turned around I spotted something that I had seen before, courtesy of Houghton Mifflin, or Harper Collins, I'm sure. And I just made a joke that probably only teachers will get. Not that I'm pandering to my audience or anything like that. Hehe...

We only got to stay for about an hour or so because the museum closes at the ungodly early hour of 18. Or 6, for those of you on a 12 hour clock. At any rate, we did manage to get quite a bit in. We went through the main statue gallery, with plently of sketching and picture taking, and managed to squeak in a few paintings along the way before we got le boot. I didn't get a chance to see Whistler's Mother, unfortunately. Another art class favorite, that. At any rate, I'm planning on going back tommorow morning for a solo trip (speaking of which, I still need to make a solo expedition to the Louvre as well, time seems to be running out.)

Oh, and lest I come off as some sort of Manet superfan, they really just happened to have some of his better known works present and I couldn't help taking pictures of them when I spotted them. There were a few Monets and Renoirs (and probably pretty much every other impressionist) I skipped over though. There's always tommorow!

Maybe not so Lazy

Arc Arc Arc was almost an elephant. Wiki it.
It glows... Doesn't it?

I went to pick Marshall up from school today so I could take him to the park. His school is, quite literally, on the other side of town, so it took about 45 minutes worth of Metro sitting to get there, but it all went smoothly. Kristen gave me directions and I had gone there twice with her before, so I remembered the way easily enough.

We went to the park for a nice amount of time. I sat on a bench in the shade and tried to figure out how clock gears are able to keep time whilst Marshy played with some of his friends from his old school. It was nice. I got some good pictures in as well. I'm quickly falling in love with black and white photography, I have to say.

So VERY lazy

Good day, Peacock, and how are you, sir?
Contrasting colors!

Poppies will make them sleepy... or whatever these things are.
Rawr-gurgle-splash

Hey! Look! Be distracted by all the new pictures I haven't posted yet and rejoice! Ignore the fact that well... I did nothing today. Nothing at all. Well, I did draw and read quite a bit of Kafka on the Shore, which is an amazing book, I have to say. I'll need to go to Barnes and Noble when I get home and purchase more books, I seem to have gotten my bookworm streak back. I'm going to pick up Marshall from school tomorrow, so wish me luck with that. I should have some nice park pictures, I hope.

I have quite a few books on my reading list for when I go back to work after I get home. Speaking of work, I guess I should start saving up for a Macbook Pro. I might have enough by next summer to buy it for VCU, if I can still afford to buy gas, that is. I just hope I can figure out how to use the Operating System before I head down. If I'm unable to do basic maintenance on my own machine, I shall be rather vexed.

I went to church with the President

I was in the pew across from him. The security was crazy tight and they had a couple of blocks surrounding the church barricaded to traffic so the only way to get through was by walking. It was eerie just how silent the city was with no traffic and little to no other pedestrians, but certainly swarming with police and guards of various types.

Don't get me wrong, I'm really not a fan of the President, but famous people are famous people. We all had the mutual thought that if it was a President we actually liked we'd have been even more excited than we admittedly were. The Secret Service was EVERYWHERE, as would be expected. And on a side note, the President wears reading glasses. He had them on the whole time except when he knew people were taking pictures of him.

The Bishop and the Archbishop of Congo were there too, but their thunder sort of got stolen, as you can well imagine. In other news, my English skills have greatly suffered as of late. I have to keep double checking my blogs and when I talk I tend to muddle things. My words get all jumbled and such. It's sort of funny, actually.

Artsy B&W

Ka-shing!
Color just doesn't do as good a job sometimes. You can almost see the blue anyway, somehow.
Such a pretty courtyard.
Only Anglophones find this a funny name for a Chinese restaurant. There are no real curse words in French anyway, so it would be nigh impossible to explain to a Parisian. Perfect timing on this from a moving bus, though.

I went to the Ketron's church (or Cathedral, if you like) today. They were having a rehersal and BBQ for the Rite 13, which is sort of like a coming of age thing for the 13-or-so-year-olds at the church. During tommorow's service they're going to have a little thing where they recognize the kids and all that.

I had a hamburger at the BBQ, which I am pretty sure I haven't eaten in a very very long time. Kristen has promised me fried chicken which is impossible to get here unless you go to KFC. Um. Yeah. I actually saw a Starbucks here the other day which made me do a double take and then wonder if I had stumbled into the Twilight Zone accidently.

Well, church tomorrow so I should get some sleep. There might be an interesting guest at the church tommorow anyway, so I certainly plan on attending.

Cloud Drama

In the back is me and Richard, with Cathy (left) and Doreen (right) in the foreground. Kristen's Aunts and Uncle.
SNAILS NOM NOM NOM
The clouds were perfect for statue pictures today.
Fly horsie!
This... is Cloud Drama

Today was fun. Cathy, Richard and Doreen are going back home tommorow so I hung out with them. We went to the center of the city, which was a bit hectic because Dubya is arriving today and our bus stop was right by the hotel where either he's staying or some of his people might be. Security everywhere, you know. We got lunch at this nice place near the Louvre and I had escargot and onion soup. The escargot was superbe and the soup was good too, I was able to finish most of it, which is impressive for me because I'm not really a fan of onion soup (which is strange because I love onions in any other preperation.)

After lunch we went to the antique mall attached to the Louvre, which is filled with some amazing stuff. There were so many old pocket watches that looked like they were in mint condition and I wanted one so bad, but I think that a 700 Euro Louis XVI era silver pocket watch is a little bit out of my price range. Just a little. I think I'll have to go back and just window shop. It's sort of like the Louvre, except free and with things for sale at insane prices. (20,000Euro rings were not uncommon)

Apres la, we walked back to the bus through the Tuleries where I snapped some more pictures. The clouds were just amazing and perfect for dramatic statue backgrounds. I took a picture of the Eiffel tower, a proper picture I suppose. We ran into another Gypsy in the Tuleries. They're really easy to spot for me now, actually. I can spot 'em comin' from a mile away. I think I might be qualified to write a travel book now. Hmmm.... yes... that could pay for my college tuition, couldn't it? At least for a semester of VCU.