Londres et Noel a Paris

Swan in Kensington Gardens

Tower Bridge

Snow ball fight

Buckingham Palace

London Eye

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben

Rodin Museum

The Thinker

Lighting of the Champs-Elysees

Ferris Wheel in Concorde

Hello everyone! I cannot believe it is December. I fly home 2 weeks from today and I am heartbroken! I am so excited to see family and friends and to be out of the cold, but I will be very sad to leave Paris! But, I still have fun stories from the past couple of weeks to share first.

Christmas is upon everyone in the world right now and despite the freezing temperatures here, I'd forgotten what fun it is to see a city decorate and prepare for the Holidays. Every store window is displayed with decorations, trees are lit, and there is a general glow about the city. The lighting of the Champs-Elysees happened last Tuesday and the enormous tree lined avenue is covered in twinkling lights and Christmas market stands all up and down the street. They sell virtually anything you could want from vin chaud or hot mulled wine (delicious and very warming for the bitterly cold nights we've been having), spiced nuts, crepes, cupcakes, vodka&caviar combos, to scarves and other winter trinkets. Holiday music plays over speakers and it is so fun to listen to while looking at the lit street. Flannery and I went the night they lit the trees and strolled down Avenue Montaigne (one of my favorite streets, off the Champs) and they were having "Fashion Night Out". Basically every boutique on the street (this one is home to Chanel, Vuitton, Gucci, Valentino, Dior etc.) has a private party where shoppers are invited to come and have cocktails and shop around the store. We saw women in the most beautiful winter outfits going into all the fabulous parties. Maybe one day I'll get to go too!

Later that night, at the end of the Champs, opposite the Arc du Triomphe is the annual Place de la Concorde ferris wheel! It is enormous and lit up so beautifully. We walked to it and decided to take a ride on it. We asked the woman how long we'd be in the air and she told us 5 minutes. We timed it parfectly so that we could see the tower sparkle on the hour, once we were in the air. We could see everything from atop. It was perfect!

On Thanksgiving day, my friends and I decided to check out the Musee de Histoire Natural to see more stuffed animals and bones than I ever care to see again! But it was still interesting to see. We then went to see our beloved Harry Potter movie at the movie theater. I really enjoyed it and I was happy not to have missed out on it while in Europe. For dinner that night, we decided to go back to Relais de L'Entrecote. Originally we were going to go somewhere that actually has an anglicized version of the meal, but we thought, we're in Paris this year, does anyone really care if we don't have turkey? So off we went to Saint Germain de Pres for a delicious meal of Steak frites, a walnut salad, baguette, chocolate tarte, raspberry sorbet, and red wine for a perfect holiday with friends. It was everything I could have asked for.

The next day, we had heard whisperings that we would see snowfall. Sure enough, we went to have hot chocolate in what is known as the best chocolate chaud in Paris. As we sat on the top floor of the cafe, we looked out the window and began to see soft, delicate snowflakes fall from the sky. I am really not even a big fan of snow, or being cold for that matter, but this was beautiful! That night, my friend Flannery and I went to see another DJ show at club in Paris we had never been to. We had such a great time and it is absolutely the most fun thing in the world for me to be able to hop on the metro to see my favorite music, live!

The following day we went to the Rodin museum near Invalides. As we walked to the museum, we saw the "thinker". Flannery turned to me and said, do you know where the real thinker is? I had no idea. Then, we stupidly realized, this was the real thinker! We couldn't believe neither of has had no idea. The museum was cool to see because it is in Rodin's former home. The grounds are specatacular as well. It truly would have been paradise to live there. That night we went to a club we had yet to go to, that is actually built into the under part of the King's Bridge off the Champs Elysees. Everyone had kept telling us to go, and we finally did and had a fabulous time. We were discussing how Paris is truly the coolest place to be for so many reasons. But one of the main ones is that it absolutely offers everything. You can go to the most amazing clubs and party all night, then see priceless works of art and historic monuments the next day. We have enjoyed so much of the amazing nightlife, while also enjoying the wonderful culture, art, gastronomy, and scenery of Paris. It is truly perfection.

We also went to see a David Hockney exhibit called "Fleurs Fraiches" or fresh flowers done entirely on his iPad and iPhone, at the Foundation-Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent. As we walked through looking and dozens of tiny screens displaying a loop of his images, I wondered if this would be the future of museums. Will we just start looking at screens instead of canvases?

Fast forward to this past Thursday, when we went to London! The weather has been frigid here, tons of snow and freezing cold weather! So on Thursday, many of the trains were canceled but luckily ours was not. However, we experienced delay after delay once we were on the train. It took us nearly 4 hours to get there, when it should have only taken too. But, we were happy to finally arrive in London! We stayed near Kensington Park and were happy to quickly figure out the "Underground", what their subway is called. It is certainly expensive to buy a day pass, but we used it so frequently it made it worth it. The subway stops were the most charming names, a loud speaker on the train would read, "Charing Cross, Oxford Circus, Picadilly, Tottenham Court" in a lovely British accent. It was a welcome change from the dinginess of the Paris metro, having such a clean, cheery one. We got into our hostel and went to dinner than out in Oxford Circus where there is a lot of nightlife. We had a great time and took a double decker bus home.

The next day we did lots of sightseeing. We saw Big Ben, the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Harrod's, Covent Garden, and Topshop! We went all of the city and saw blankets of snow covering the ground everywhere. We were in a little winter wonderland! Harrod's was spectacular! So festive for the holidays as well! We had a great day exploring the city and went to a tavern for dinner. I felt like we were in a Harry Potter book, seeing people cozily huddled around large wooden tables with pints of cider and shepard's pie.

The next and final day we went to the Tate Modern and walked by the Shakespeare globe theatre on our way. The Tate was fantastic! I loved the contemporary architecture and of course the art inside. We especially liked the Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol pieces. There was also a room that I took a liking too. It was a series of photographs called "Subway" by Bruce Davidson, where an assortment of people and situations are recorded. Davidson athletically trained himself to operate the heavy camera equipment in order to escape if need be from some of the dangerous situations that would occur in some of his photos. Later, we went to Kensington gardens which were fantastic! We stopped at a pond where there were tons of ducks and swans floating all around. So adorable! Later we went back to the train station only to experience more delays, but it all workd out in the end.

London was a really fun, interesting city, definitely one that I hope to go back to. It is very trendy and contempory despite its rich history. There is so much art, music, and culture integrated as well. I loved hearing British accents everywhere and the names they have everything are so charming! It was a wonderful city!

Just two weeks left in Paris and I still feel like I have so much to do! I don't know where the time has gone..but I wish it would slow down...just a bit.

Côte d'Azur: The French Riviera

Cannes!

Rainy Day in Cannes

Monte Carlo!

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Monte Carlo Casino

Monte Carlo Casino

Harbor in Monaco

Beautiful beach in Nice!

Christmas Tree!

Chateau de Vincennes

Chateau de Vincennes

Tennis Match

It is has been a couple of weeks since I caught up on my blog but I am finally sifting through pictures and thoughts and have time to post. I went to the French Riviera this past weekend, but before I get into that a few Paris stories first.

I was sitting in class with a friend who told me he was going to the BNP (The sister bank to BofA) tennis match that night. I had seen some billboards in the metro but since it was a BNP Paribas Masters Tournament, I assumed it was outside of Paris and very expensive. I grabbed my Juliette that night and we went only one metro stop away to Paris Bercy to the Palais Omnisports stadium. We decided to check what ticket prices and availability were for the match. It was only 10 euro for a decent seat and we would get to see two matches, one being between Monofils, Berdych, and two others. We saw two exciting matches and later in the week tennis champions like Federer, Roddick, Nadal, and Soderling played.

The next night a great family friend named Lisa came to Paris before a trip to Africa! We all went to a lovely French dinner that was delicious! Foie Grois, Escargot, and red wine...just about my favorite french foods! It was great to see a familiar face in Paris!

The following night I had another treat and went to dinner with my good friend Flannery, her mother who was in town, and Juliette. We had been wanting to go to Cafe de Flore, as it was once the center of philosophical debates in Paris. We had an excellent dinner and enjoyed getting to know Flannery's mom as well.

That week I also visited L'Orangerie, a museum adjacent to Jeu de Paume at the end of the Tuileries. It was by far my favorite museum that I have seen. It features a lot of impressionistic art from Monet to Cezanne, Renoir, Matisse and even Picasso. Monet's water lillies sprawl out over the entire wall space of a room. So beautiful! There is a Monet exhibition at the Grand Palais that I have heard is incredible. I booked my ticket over a month ago and manged to get one final slot that had not yet sold out for my last week in Paris. L'Orangerie made me very excited for the exhibition.

Last week, I went to Printemps and Galeries Lafayette which are decorated so beautifully for Christmas! The window displays are so festive and stringed lights hang from the overhead of the department stores. Inside the scent of eau du parfum floods the many floors of the stores filled with beautiful clothes, shoes, accessories, and of course macaroons and champagne for the hungry shopper. A large Christmas tree in the middle of the department store extends all the way to the top encouraging Paris to get into the holiday spirit.

I also decided that I wanted to go to Chateau de Vincennes with my friend Jonathan while there was a break in the rain. It is a castle on the last metro stop of line 1 and it was so fun to see one in Paris. It had a moat, draw bridges, a chapel, and a lookout to see all of the grounds. It was lovely to finally see it!

Now, finally...The French Riviera! Even though it is the off season, I have also wanted to see the southern French coast. I went with one of my friends from UCI also studying in Paris. We flew into Nice and laughed at hour similar the airport was to John Wayne in Orange County, small pretty, and lined with palm trees (minus the Hermes and other luxury good stores in the Nice airport). We took a bus with directions to our hostel stating "we are between the Louis Vuitton and Armani stores." We knew we had picked a good place. We drove by the beach before heading into Old Town and it was absolutely beautiful! We caught a beautiful sunset before arriving at our hostel which although was advertised as such was actually simply a very affordable hotel. We were about two blocks from the beach and in the heart of the amazing shopping Nice has to offer. Our room was fabulous as well, big beds, a clean nice bathroom, and a cozy homey feeling, we didn't want to leave! The next day we explored Nice in the morning which to our surprise was gorgeous, sunny, and still warm! My friend actually took a brief dip in the water on the beautiful pebbled beach. For lunch, I had been dying to go this restuarant I had read and heard about near the shore in Nice. It was called "La Festival de la Moule" which serves endless moules frites (muscles and french fries). We arrived and there is a large selection of moules and I decided upon the garlic and white wine. They bring you a large bucket, a roll of paper towels and separate bucket to toss your shells in. It was delicious and after we were through, our waiter insisted we try another flavor. He surprised us and brought me a lobster moules bucket and my friend a white win and cheese flavored one. We left very full and very happy!

The same day we took a train to Monte Carlo, Monaco, just a 20 minute ride away. It was absolutely breathtaking. I have never seen a place more beautiful in all of my life. It was glamorous, with a gigantic harbor full of pristine white yachts. Enormous houses clung to steep cliffs over the crystal blue water. Palm trees lined every street and each building was more beautiful than the next. We walked down to the famous casino with gushing fountains leading up to it. I am not really very into cars but upon arriving there were the classic old cars and new fancy ones everywhere. I remembered that the Formula 1 race takes place here each year leading me to think that beautiful cars were here year round. There were decadent shore side stores and then a promenade above the sea. We walked down the acutual beach were was gorgeous. I can only imagine how amazing it would be in summertime! It was absolutely exquisite and while I believed it shared similarities to Southern California and Hawaii, its European influence made it so special.

The next day, the rain came unfortunately, but we were prepared with warm coats and umbrellas and headed in the other direction to Cannes! I have always wanted to visit this area for its beautiful beaches and of course the annual film festival in May. Even rainy Cannes was gorgeous. It too had a large harbor for yachts and we saw the audoritorium for the festival which is literally on the beach. It also had shore side shopping with nearly every designer you can think of. It had a long flat promenade which stretched for miles along the coast.

The Riviera was more than I could have imagined. I have never seen a place so gorgeous and it is somewhere I would live instantly if I had the chance (of course though, who wouldn't?). I can only imagine how idyllic it would be in the summer, during the season! I can only imagine it would be paradise and I have decided I must return as soon as I possibly can! I fell in love with this little piece of paradise and ironically enough our hotel was on Rue du Paradis.

Under the Tuscan Sun

Inside of Siena Duomo

Michaelangeo carved wall

Piazza del Campo, Siena

Duomo, Siena

Halloween!

After lunch in Panzano

Charming Restaurant in Panzano

View in Panzano

Overlooking Florence

Church overlooking Florence

Santa Croce

Arno River

Gates of Paradise

Duomo, Florence

November has already quickly begun here and I know I always comment on the changing leaf colors, but they just continue to get more and more beautiful! But this post will mainly be dedicated to Italy!!!!! We had fall break beginning last Thursday which of course was the beginning of the biggest strike yet in Paris! Nearly everyone from my program (about a hundred people) had flights, buses, trains, and other forms of transportation canceled or postponed due to the strikes. By some miracle, our flight was right on time and I left right after class to embark on a lovely trip to Italy! I was so excited to visit Italy, because it is somewhere I have always wanted to go and I was thrilled that I would get to spend some there. I went with two of my best friends in the program, Flannery and Juliette who are wonderful travel companions! We decided we wanted to go to Tuscany, since none of us had visited there before. We got off the plane and were greeted with a a beautiful sunset cast over vineyards and fields reminiscent of the California wine country. We were in love immediately!

We arrived at our hostel which was not ideal, it was plastered with "pub crawl" posters, advertisements for the hostel bar, and other hostel-esque things that do not particularly interest me or my friends. But at least it was fairly clean and convenient. We barely spent any time in there anyway. Since our trip was so lengthy I will try and just hit the main highlights since I know everyone is busy and does not have all day to be reading a blog.

The first day we spent roaming around Florence and we were so lucky to have gorgeous weather! We went inside Basilica di San Lorenzo, which has lots of history behind it and was beautiful. (Here is the link if anyone is interested,http://www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/florence-san-lorenzo) It is right amidst one of the many leather markets, which has some amazing goods like custom made jackets, belts, gloves, wallets, and purses. We walked to the Duomo and saw the "Gates of Paradise, another incredible artistic wonder, again here is a link to it (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/gatesofparadise-200711.html). We then walked to a famous panini place which several of our friends told us we had to visit. It's called "I Fraternelli" and is literally a hole in the wall. They make a wide assortment of paninis and it is customary to order a small glass of wine with your sandwich. We all ordered the #23 which was, warm ciabatta, with arugula, truffle oil, and pecorino cheese. It was delicious and they have little wooden shelves outside of the stand to set your wine glass down as you eat. Then, we walked to Ponte Vecchio, a famous bridge over the Arno River. After we visited the Basilica of Santa Croce and then decided to cross the bridge and hike up to a San Miniato al Monte, which we were told by many had the most beautiful view in florence and to take a bottle of wine to enjoy the view. After a relatively steep climb up the hills of Florence we arrived. The view was absolutely stunning and we could not have asked for a nicer day. The sunset was truly remarkable and we could see the entire city plus all of the surrounding areas. Absolutely gorgeous!

Fast forward to the next day...we decided to visit the heart of the Chianti wine region and took a bus to a little town called Panzano. It was a tiny little town and it was so fun to find ourselves in the Italian countryside. We found a charming restaurant overlooking vineyards and fields and enjoyed a wonderful meal there! The town was very quiet but it was nice to see a new part of Italy. The following day, we braved the rain and waited in line to see the "David" statue at Galleria dell'Academia. The line moved quickly thankfully, and we entered and saw the amazing statue of "The Rape of the Sabine Women." I had studied it a bit in school and was excited to see it in person. We then turned the corner and saw the astonishing statue of Michaelangelo's "David" at the end of the room. People were literally in awe, jaws dropped, eyes widened, and were speechless. It was far bigger than I had ever imagined and I was shocked to learn it only took 2 years to create. How anyone carves tons of marble into that kind of perfection is beyond my thought comprehension.

The next day we completed our art viewing an went National museum to see, Donatello's version of David, that Flannery had been dying to see. It was great to see such a different interpretation of David. Donatello's was a little wispy, shepard boy while Michaelangelo's was an athletic god like figure. After, we went to our appointment time at the Uffizi Gallery, since the line could be up to 5 hours long! We went to see Bottecelli's famous "Venus" painting and "Primavera." I was so excited to see these as these were some of the few paintings I had actually studied prior to coming to Europe. They were beautiful! We saw some DaVinci pieces as well and saw Caravaggio's special exhibit that is just about to end. We saw his famous Medusa painting as well as "Judith Beheading Holofernes," which has a really interesting story as background. This was one of my favorite paintings I saw, because it is so graphic and you can really see the look of terror on the man's face which I think is difficult to depict through painting. Our final full day we went to Siena on a bus, which was beautiful but so tiny! We went inside the Duomo and saw the inside of the beautiful church. There was one wall in particular that we loved, which Michaelangelo had carved. We walked around the Piazza del Campo and had a great day exploring a new part of Italy.

As part of a cultural exploration of Italy, we enjoyed amazing leisurely Italian meals. We were partial to (of course) the pizza, pasta, lasagna, and chianti wine and definitely indulged in Tuscany's world famous cuisine! We also found a thriving night life in Florence which we had not expected. We went out and met lots of great people, both locals, tourists, and other students studying abroad as well. As everyone knows, Halloween is my favorite holiday and I was thrilled to hear several clubs and bars were having celebrations for the occasion! We decided to buy little glittery eye masks, traditional of Italy, and wore all black, as our costumes. We had such a fun night and I was happy it was still celebrated. While we were planning our trip we decided to stay in a different hostel mid way through to try something new and were so happy to be in this new place! It was a charming little room with three beds, vaulted ceilings, and a very nice innkeeper. It felt like were in a little bed in breakfast instead of a hostel and we wish we had stayed there the entire time.

Overall we had a great time in Italy and loved experiencing Tuscan culture! Florence was very small but I felt like we really got to know the city and we saw some of the most amazing art! I loved Italy and we had such a wonderful trip, but I was soooo excited to go back to Paris. I missed it! It's quite an incredible feeling being able to call Paris home, but I am so happy I am able to do so.

Finally, a few Paris stories before I wrap up this ever so lengthy blog. I finally went into the Lourve on Friday, yes...it is embarassing that I had not gone in until then, but I was enjoying the lovely Paris weather before my time went to staying indoors to see museums. But, I went on Friday with a friend visiting Paris and she wanted to see the Mona Lisa. We went into the Denon Salon and found Mona, behind tons of glass flanked by security guards. My friend Juliette is a real art enthusiast and goes to the Lourve nearly every week and has promised to take me all over to see her favorite pieces since it is gigantic! That evening, my friend studying in a different program in Paris, but from my school, told me to come to a Flo Rida (a rapper, show that night at a club. I decided to go and met up with her a little while later. This was my favorite night in Paris by far. The club was very chic, unlike anyone I have ever been to, even ones in Paris. It was free which is nearly unheard of in Paris and we ended up seeing Flo Rida and got to go to his VIP booth after, got to hang out with him and dance the night away. I felt like I was in a music video and it was my one of my favorite nights ever, so much fun! Today Juliette and I had breakfast and wandered all over the city stumbling upon new beautiful streets of Paris we had never seen.

This is all for now, miss you all and hope this finds everyone happy and healthy!

Bisous!