c’est fini
and how strange it is to be homeward bound…
au revoir for now Versailles!
versailles je t'aime
This is a tumblelog, kinda like a blog but with short-form, mixed-media posts with stuff I like. Scroll down a bit to start reading, or a bit more to read more about me.
Things I’ll Miss About France
1. Observe…sunset on the Seine, this is why people come to Paris
2. THE BREAD, I was talking to a friend that visited in December yesterday and he said he hasn’t been able to eat normal American bread since he’s been here
3. Crepes, Le Versaillaise from THE crepe place, just can’t be duplicated
4. the San Luis Glacier (ice cream shop, this conclude the food related portion however I could go on forever)
5. Living down the street from the Chateau de Versailles, I think we all take that for granted
6. Having a bar in school, call me a dumb college kid but maybe we all need to take a cue from the French and just chill out
7. This beautiful weather. You pay for it in the winter but now I know why they all stick it out every year, you really can’t beat spring in Paris.
8. Never having to use a car, hello 4.25 a gallon
9. Being able to hop on over to another country for a weekend, no big deal, my travel bug is going to have to be satisfied with the continental US for a while, if not the Midwest
10. Just spending a year of my life in Europe, there will never be another experience quite like this one, and I’m ok with that, but I’m always going to miss it a little bit. France is just another place I’ve learned to call home.
Things I WON’T Miss About France
1. The dang French language, why must it all sound the same and why do the French still speak English to me even when I try? I may never really understand.
2. Cold showers, I never thought I’d say this but I at least understand why the French are infamous for their personal hygiene
3. Having to use skype to call home and all the time zone math, it will be so nice to just be able to call my friends and family again
4. Missing things at home, it’s time to be back in the loop
5. Trains, I know I double listed this one but sometimes it’s nice to be able to come and go as you please, not on someone else’s schedule
6. Euro-dudes, seriously must you be so rude?
7. Everything being closed on Mondays. Still don’t get it
8. Street vendors, please leave me alone, no I would not like any bling bling, crazies
9…
10……it seems I’ve run out of things to complain about
but the point is that this has been a weird week, I can’t wait to come home but it’s hard to believe it’s over
I know I’ve sucked at posting lately, but seriously this place is like a time warp. It speeds up, slows down, sometimes I’m pretty sure it skips whole days. I’m about to leave for my big trip to Italy and Greece! I’ve got one full backpack and one empty memory card, not sure how much more ready I can be. So in about three weeks, look for some good stuff comin’ your way from this blog. Till then…ciao!
everything you’ve heard is true…
nothing beats springtime in Paris
…the rest of the selected pics, all from Barcelona
SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
one month later…
So sorry about that. I know it’s taken me pretty much forever. When they said second semester would fly…and we all rolled our eyes at the “been there done that” advice of our professors…let’s just say we probably should have believed them. I’ve been on two other weekend trips since Spain and am close to done with the planning for my big Italy and Greece trip coming up.
I’m hoping this next one can measure up to how great the trip to Spain and Portugal was. We switched it up this time and traveled with some different people (I traveled with Natalie, my design partner and her roommate, Allie and two of my APX friends Matt and Ivan). I didn’t fall in love with Spain like I did the UK, but some of the architecture we saw was so different than anything I’ve seen anywhere else.
The trip started out in Madrid. We had all heard that Madrid was nice, but forgettable. Our short stay there proved this to be pretty much true, at least from an architecture standpoint. That had some really pretty Spanish architecture and we saw most of the highlights in a day. And I suppose they did have really excellent sangria…maybe that balances it out? It also turns out, that we picked the beginning of some very loud and crowded festival to visit Madrid, so needless to say we were already ready to move on to the Cordoba the next morning.
Cordoba was a totally different feel than Madrid. Madrid was a city, perfect for the stylish Spaniard to call home. Cordoba was ancient. The cobblestone tangles of streets are barely wide enough for a car to pass through and the old fortress walls still surround the old part of town. The mosque (or Cathedral of Cordoba as it’s called today) is clearly the biggest attraction and it was easy to see why. The church was very different than any of the millions of Gothic ones I’ve visited in France. It has a middle-eastern influence, evident in its famous double horseshoe arches for all those archi nerds out there. My favorite part was the enclosed gardens paved with handlaid stones and scattered with trees, all connected by this cool irrigation system, it was just a really peaceful place to be.
Another day, another city, as we headed for Sevilla. This was probably my favorite Spanish town. A little more like Cordoba but livelier. And they also had the most delicious chocolate-mousse-cake-pastry thing I’ve ever had so that’s a plus. We checked out their impressive cathedral and spent a few hours in Plaza de Espana (one of the sites of the filming of Star Wars apparently? fun fact). It was this cool semicircular building with ornamented towers and moat kind of thing surrounding the public square. Seriously, if any of your European architects want to teach Americans how to make a public space I’d sure appreciate it.
Next we were on our way to Lisbon, Portugal. I had mixed feelings about the town while I was there but the things I saw were gorgeous. It’s a beautiful coastal town and the perfect place to go to see both old and new architecture. The old areas of town were pretty public squares along the coast and an old castle (on top of a very very high hill). The new part of town, developed for the World Expo of 1998 was my favorite. Calatrava’s Gare de Oriente was a beautiful combination of aesthetics and structural function and other buildings in the area seemed to take a cue from this monument. It was a kind of architecture that I often overlook in Europe in favor of the really old stuff so that was cool to see.
Finally, we were on our way to Barcelona. And everything you’ve heard is true!! It’s a beautiful city, they’ve got it all, the old, the new AND a beach. Here, Antonio Gaudi reins supreme and the highlights of my visit were definitely Park Guell and the Sagrada Familia (started in the early 20th century and won’t be finished until 2025 even with modern technology?!). It’s this crazy dream-like kind of architecture that you can’t find anywhere else and I really enjoyed that. The streets of Barcelona in general were beautiful and the old and new are all mixed in together. We also made an Australian friend in our hostel here and had a little more of an oppurtunity to sample the cuisine and check out places like Chupitos! (every college tourist in Spain goes here apparently? I can see why…)
And this whole time (except for the crazy Lisbon weather) it was sixties and sunny. So when we landed back beneath the cloud layer in France it was a little depressing. But I remembered that not too long from now we’ll be back on the road (or in the skies or on the rails? haha) and ITALY BOUND!
Dear French People,
I am aware I have been here for six months now. I am aware I don’t know that much French. But are you aware that I’ve met more French people that don’t like cheese than I’ve met that do? What’s wrong with that picture?
Love Beth
PS To everyone else, my Spain post and hopefully a Brussels post are coming soon. I hope.
Official SAPV Blog 2010-2011
Yours truly had the honor of posting the most recent update on our class’s blog page, here’s the link if you feel like checking it out!
And the latest little adventure was a trip to the northwest coast of France to see Mont Saint Michel. It’s a monestary built up on this island hill in the Normandy region of France. My friend, Natalie, and I went spent the weekend in the tiniest little town called Pontorson. I think it’s safe to say it’s the smallest town either of us has seen so far in Europe. And that’s saying something.
Saturday morning we took a 10 minute bus ride out to Mont Saint Michel and spent the day making our way through the winding cobblestone streets of the village below, exploring the abbey, climbing hundreds of stairs and enjoying the beautiful view of the Atlantic from the “other side.” It was just amazing to see how people still lived there and the way this little town was built into the natural surroundings of the island.
That evening we got back after seeing the abbey all lit up and tried to find a place to eat. Turns out people in Pontorson don’t go out much. In the whole town there was a pizza place, a bar and an overpriced buffet open after 7:00. So we got pizzas to go and ate them and watched French television. Sounds like a lame Saturday night but it was actually one of the most relaxing weekends I’ve had in a while and I’m glad that we made it out there.
Cross one more place off the list! Natalie and I were talking about it and now that we’re realizing how fast our semester is going to go we can’t stop planning in our heads where we’re going to go next and all the places we “can’t leave Europe until we see.” It’s crazy that it’s almost February already…when did I walk into a time warp and how do I make it slow down? Not that I won’t be fully ready to be back in America by May but I’m nowhere near finished with Europe yet.
I’m a little behind on my updates, it’s like I got back to France and hit the ground running. To be honest, the way things are going it doesn’t look like it’ll let up until the end. It’s gonna be a crazy semester but I wouldn’t have my last few months in France any other way.
Anyhowww, this picture is from our history intensive week that took place from January 11th to January 15th, fondly referred to as Corbu week by its participants. Basically, instead of having a history lecture with tests and papers this semester we spend two weeks doing nothing but history. ENSAV hires a well-known architectural historian, the one and only William J.R. Curtis, to come and lecture for us in the mornings and take us on site visits in Paris in the afternoons. I am of the opinion that we should change the slang from Corbu Week to Curtis Week. He knows SO much about the history of architecture and history in general and has traveled so many places and done so many things that its hard to not listen to him. I mean, the man has his own wikipedia page, he knows what’s up.
As for the actual architecture we saw that week, I had no idea there were so many things hiding in the little corners of Paris. It’s crazy how much history you can jam pack into one city. During the week I saw Villa Savoye, Maison La Roche, Corbu’s dorms at the Cite Universite, Alvar Aalto’s Maison Carree and Corbu’s personal apartment and workspace which he designed himself. I have to say, I respect Le Corbusier after this week but I was so happy I didn’t have to visit another one of his houses. I just wish Alvar Aalto had more work in Paris, his Maison Carree is the house in the picture and I think our whole class was impressed with the design and feel of the house. And maybe just a little relieved it wasn’t another Corbusier visit. I know I was inspired by it. The best part about all these visits is that the more we study other architects, the more we realize the kind of architects we want to be. Or not be…ya never know.
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