Chocolate Tears are the Best

From Caen we took a train to Rouen. Rouen is a charming town which is a great day trip spot. The town is known for the cathedral which Monet painted 20 some odd times as well as being the place where Joan of Arc was burned to death. It is a nice town to just walk around in.

The cathedral is enormous and after we saw it we headed to the Beaux Arts Museum where we were able to see a few of the paintings which Monet did of the cathedral.

The center of town is cobble stoned and there are quite a few streets which are pedestrians only. There is a beautiful clock that is on top of a curved passageway which you can walk underneath.

This was one of the beautiful building-lined streets:

So you may be wondering about local delicacies (which of course there always are). There are a few things in this region. Rouen specifically has larmes de Jeanne d’Arc (tears of Joan of Arc) which are a type of chocolate covered almonds. They are tasty although a bit pricey. Calvados, the apple liquor is also big (we bought a bottle, I’ll keep you all posted when we try it) as are the alcoholic apple ciders (cidre). And I saw this amazing macaron tier cake (looks like I may have to find an excuse to throw a party):

In the 1500s a plague struck Rouen so there was a large plague cemetery where they essentially piled the bodies. We went and visited this spot (Aitre Saint Maclou, the church Saint Maclou is also very nice) and there are some interesting carvings there:

I mentioned the Beaux Arts Museum earlier. It had a nice collection and I would recommend visiting it, if not for the centuries old art, then for the staircase:

Moved and Thankful

It rains two times a year in Normandy. Once for six months and the second time for six months. – Saying/joke in Normandy

A few days ago my parents and I took a trip to Caen (it lived up to the cloudy and gray Normandy weather, even at the end of May!) where we toured the museum and from there we took a guided tour of the D-Day beaches. The whole experience was very moving and made me feel thankful for the actions of all of those men and women 65 years ago.

The pillboxes from which the Germans where firing on the Allies (Americans, Canadians, and British were the three major forces landing on D-Day, June 6, 1944) are still intact.

The bombing evidence is also still very visible with large holes in the ground.

Today other fields close to the sites have grown over. Our guide, Sandrine (who was terrific) actually told us that a few days ago another body with dog tags was found. She explained that many soldiers were quickly buried during the advances and people forgot where they were buried later.

The most moving part of our trip was the stop at the American cemetery (this year is the 65th anniversary of D-Day). President Obama will be delivering a speech there in about a week. The cemetery is on a cliff overlooking the sea and the graves just seem to stretch on. There are about 9,000 soldiers buried there, including two of the brothers who the film Saving Private Ryan was based off of as well as Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (who was one of the first people off of the boats, he wanted to inspire other men to follow him and he received the Medal of Honor). Additionally four women are buried there, three postal workers and one Red Cross worker.

We then headed down to Omaha beach where the highest casualities were sustained.

And on Omaha beach someone drew the following. Maybe I am naive but I hope it is something we can all acheive even with close to seven billion people in this world.

Allez, Allez!

Yesterday we ventured out to Roland-Garros to watch the French Open. A few months ago I waited up until the wee hours of the morning clicking so that I could get tickets and voila, my work paid off. We were able to get into one of the big stadiums and saw some good early round matches (plus all of the players walking around the annex courts).

First up for the day was another -ova, in this case it was Svetlana Kuznetsova easily beating the French wild card Claire Feuerstein. But nothing is ever simple in life and after a few games it started coming down so we had lunch during a two hour rain delay.

It finally cleared up (although it was freezing the entire day and the day before it had been in the upper 80s, make up your mind silly weather!). Then we got to watch home-country favorite Gael Monfils. He beat American Bobby Reynolds and I am going to make a future prediction here: he will be the future of French mens tennis – he is young and good.

Before I move on to describe the highlight match, let’s play a game, Where is Waldo style, I spy a Napoleon hat in the crowd. Do you?

And you know what is great about annex courts? Oh hi, Marty Fish.

Then we saw the fashion queen herself, Serena Williams. Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic gave her quite the run and took it to three sets.

But I have to say that I really did like Serena’s shoes. I thought they were pretty cool:

While Serena was playing my dad walked around and saw Nadal and Roddick practicing. But then we finished the day and got to see Fabrice Santoro a French two-handed underdog player who my dad and I like.

Well sorry for the sports over-load blog. I enjoy watching tennis so it was a fun day for me. Today we spent the day in Caen and went on D-Day beach tours so I will post soon about that. I leave you with a photo of the Promenade des Plantes near Opera Bastille that stretches along what was an old track (metro or train, can’t recall) into the 12th. It is a really nice jogging spot:

When it rains it pours, when it’s sunny it’s hot

Currently I am watching a light show out the window – lightening. The last four days in Paris have been warm, sunny and wonderful. But today was humid which of course leads to rain. The day before my parents arrived Shirin and I decided to take a long Metro ride to Parc de la Villette. This is an interesting park and I felt as though I was not in Paris. There is a large sphere geode sculpture and red sculptures known as the folies all over the park.

People were out in full force enjoying the first real sunny day and there was an African dance class:

Yesterday we walked through the Jardin de Luxembourg and it was sardine sitting:

We also celebrated the end of classes by going to a cool bar that was actually on a boat on the Seine. There was a nice view of the bridges of Paris at night:

My parents arrived Friday so the last few days I have been playing tour guide and I have gotten to see all of the sights of Paris again. The major difference is that it is sunny and nice now (not the case in January). We have hit up all of the major sights and took a bateau mouche cruise. It is definitely Seine bank chilling season here now. So here are some highlight photos I have taken:

When we went to see Notre Dame we headed to the front of the island and we saw the Holocaust memorial that is there (it is down some stairs so I didn’t realize it was there before). And there was this quote that I thought was really touching and beautiful:

My parents were quite eager to try some macarons and I guess they did miss me because we bought quite the box at Ladurée. They have admitted that I did not over-exaggerate on this blog, they really are wonderful pastries:

We have been walking a lot and I have seen some neat sculptures and displays in the last few days. The moving lips were featured in the new Sabrina movie with Harrison Ford (not as good as the original) and are next to Center Pompidou:

This is a new solar-powered light installation in a small park in the Marais:

So I hope all is well with everyone. Tomorrow morning we are heading to the French Open to see some tennis (fingers crossed for no rain and for bumping into Andre Agassi) and then we will be visiting the D-Day beaches and Rouen in the next few days as well so I will write more soon (just to please Tania). I hope it is sunny wherever you are, profitez-bien!

Paris, je t’aime

Ah, it’s official: I finished my last paper and I guess I am a junior now. So after I finished my paper today I went for a nice long walk (the goal was actually to sell back some books but I got a bit sidetracked in some stores) and it was great because it was warm enough that I could be comfortable in a t-shirt! It was glorious! Here are a few nice things I saw on my walk this afternoon.

Men with baguettes always make me happy:

Parisians are stylish, no matter what they are doing (note: her shoes):

And my stroll took my by the one nice looking uni in Paris, La Sorbonne:

And if I couldn’t ride a motorcycle around Paris I would settle for this sweet car:

So a few days ago I ventured into the 7th and 8th to go to the Andy Warhol exhibit (which was awesome!) and then to go to Fauchon. Fauchon’s macarons are up there. Like really high up there, they were delicious. I especially enjoyed the chocolate raspberry combination and the vanilla. I was oddly intrigued by what I guessed to be bubblegum. And since today was a warm day what better way to celebrate the end of the semester than gelato? In Rome you may get heaping scopes but in Paris they shape it like a flower (I think that sums up a lot about both cities):

Here are some things that caught my eye on the way to Fauchon and the Grand Palais for Warhol:

And because if Rome has one, Paris has to have one as well:

Yesterday I took my aunt’s suggestion and went to the Quai Branly Museum. It’s rather close to the Eiffel Tower (see below) and has a nice collection of artificats from around the world:

As far as cultural things outside of the world of museums, I recently watched La Haine. I have been meaning to watch this movie for ages. It was great and if you get a chance I recommend it. The plot revolves around three different young men from the banlieue (suburbs of Paris) and what happens to them in a day. It underlines a lot of unhappiness that immigrants feel here, especially problems which concern the police.

And so I leave you tonight with some nice flowers and the view of the Pantheon from my host family’s living room. My parents are arriving in a day or so, so look for new photos in the next week. Until then.