PARIS!

Spring break happened like two weeks ago, but I'm still catching up. What did I do? Well, the title of this entry may give you a bit of a hint. Yes, I went to the City of Lights for my spring break. But only the first half. I'll get to the second half in another entry. This trip was three days long, and I really was impressed. I cannot emphasize how beautiful Paris is. I mean, Rome is a fantastic city, but I found myself falling in love with Paris for all the things that Rome seems to lack. For example, Paris has straight streets. I miss looking down the street and seeing all of the store facades and windows, which is almost non-existent in Rome with a few exceptions (like Via del Corso). It was also immaculate. Completely clean.

Chateau Versailles

Makini and I decided to go to Chateau Versailles because she had some free tickets, so I figured why not. It actually ties in nicely with my history class as it really demonstrates a great deal of Baroque art and architecture. Basically I just walked around a lot without paying too much attention to anything. The chapel was probably the most impressive part, but the gardens in the back were also enormous. King Louis the XIV, the Sun King, built a fountain in the gardens with a bronze sculpture of Apollo emerging from the water riding his chariot. This was pretty impressive as was the general opulence of the entire compound. Great paintings inside, but the hall of mirrors was a little underwhelming. It was nice to be in the same space, however, that Woodrow Wilson once occupied.

Louvre

Umm... the Louvre was humongous. I did the best I could to walk through the important stuff. I saw Michaelangelo's slaves, the original sketch for the Raft of Medusa, the Mona Lisa, Venus of Milo and a whole bunch of other stuff. All really incredible except the Mona Lisa. This was really underwhelming. However, I was actually really impressed with the building itself. I know how controversial Pei's pyramids are, but I have to say the he did a great job with the interior display spaces. The courtyard in the Sully Wing looks great with some well crafted details. Pei deserves more credit than he's been given for this great facility for viewing art.

Notre Dame

So I made it a point to go and see the cathedral of Paris, Notre Dame. There aren't any Gothic churches in Italy, so I really wanted to compare and contrast. Notre Dame really was quite beautiful. The whole church actually worked as a perfect diagram of everything a Gothic church should be: pointed arches, ribbed vaults, stained glass windows, intense vertical proportions, flying buttresses, and Latin cross plan. Not nearly as easy to draw as a Romanesque church, though.