Paris - part 1

Once again I was lucky enough to attach myself onto a Syracuse University Florence school trip. Sarah and I did have to pay for this one though, as did all the other 50+ students that signed up for this optional trip that had something to do with a Michelangelo class. On the evening of Thursday, November 20, Sarah, Kellin, and I met Mary outside of her nearby apartment and we headed off to the Campo di Marte train station. This was the first time that I had used this station, though I pass it on the way to work every morning. It is not a terminus, as is the Santa Maria Novella station that we always use. Instead it is one of those stations that is just along the tracks between other major hubs. Another first, this was the first time that I had taken a night train.
We met up with the undergrads, two TAs Sean and Luke, and Prof. Hatfield and we were on our way some time after 6:00. Sarah and Kellin got to get a glimpse of how hectic Sean and Luke's jobs are, trying to keep track of a bunch of college students, their tickets, and their passports. That is exactly what they are going to be in charge of next semester. It certainly doesn't make the job any easier that at least one student always seems to be late, be missing, or to have forgotten their passport. It really makes things interesting.
The students all seemed to be in rooms together, but Sarah, Kellin, Mary, and I were in a six person room with two strangers. Well, strangers to us. They were an Italian couple and seemed pretty nice. There is not a lot of room in these sleeper cars. There are six seats, three to a side, that fold into the wall to create six bunks, three along each wall. There is not much extra room. There is a little aisle, a ladder, and unless you are on the top bunk there is barely any room in the bunks. There certainly isn't enough room to sit up. But they are meant for sleeping. There aren't even any plugs (like the regional trains we usually take always have for computers, or whatever), which was not good for Sarah since she intended to work on her thesis during the trip.


We all stayed up for a while talking, then reading and working on school work, then finally set up the bunks to go to sleep. I woke up a lot, and when it began getting light outside I decided to just stay awake and look out the window. Luckily I was on one of the middle bunks and facing the front of the train so I could see all the scenery. I absolutely loved traveling through France. The towns are so beautiful. Italy, of course, is beautiful too, but I am definitely more a fan of northern European architecture. I love the villages and stone buildings. If I had a better vantage point I would probably have taken hundreds of pictures that morning. Mary also woke up early and couldn't resist taking a picture of me. Can you blame her?


I think we were scheduled to arrive at Paris's Gare de Bercy train station around 9 something in the morning on Friday. (I just learned that this station is the 7th largest in Paris and accommodates four daily sleeper trains between Paris and Italy.) For some reason (someone said we had to take a detour) we arrived two hours late. All that extra time and our rooms still weren't ready at the hotel. They were renovating and putting new beds in all the rooms. So after we left the hotel we spent pretty much the rest of the day at the Louvre. Many of my two readers may recognize the picture above as the inside of the pyramid that is over the central lobby area. When you go to the museum you go through security, go downstairs, fight through 7,003 tourists, get your tickets, then make your way into one of the three sections of the massive museum. The museum is actually in the building you can kind of see outside the pyramid in the picture, but you enter then through this subterranean, sub-pyramid lobby.


The class broke up into three groups, led by Prof. Hatfield, Sean, and Luke. We went with Sean's group and Sarah, Kellin, and Mary were prepared to lecture on a few works as well. At one point we were admiring some old paint, when a group of school children, who must have had to write something down for class, spontaneously and without audible orders, broke into the formation seen above. It was quite interesting, but I'd hate to be the poor sap that's in the front of the line with no back upon which to write.


The Musee du Louvre, which is French for Ridiculously Large Place With Lots of Paint and Sculpture, is the most visited art museum in the galaxy. Just ask this guy, front and center, who seems to be yelling at a work of art.


Hey, there's Clark's gesture! Man, I can't wait until this semester's over so I can stop locating the group's gestures. This, of course, is Leonardo da Vinci's Creepy Person Pointing Up, aka St. John the Baptist.


And there it is. The Mona Lisa. I really don't get it. I mean, it's swell and all. But what's all the hoopla about? Apparently it wasn't always so famous. It started to gain attention in the mid-19th century, but really became famous in 1911 when it was stolen. An employee took it off the wall, rolled it up and put it in his coat, and just walked out with it. It was lost for two years until the former employee, who had been hiding it in his apartment, decided that it belonged in Italy (since it was by an Italian) and tried to sell it to the Uffizi Gallery, next door to my apartment. He was arrested, but only served a few months in prison.
I just realized while I was writing this that I forgot to get a picture of the Venus de Milo. Oh well. It's only really famous and a couple of thousand years old. No big whoop. I'll see it next time.


Here's a close-up. And moving on...


Unlike almost every museum I've been to in Italy and many of the churches, you are free to take pictures in the Louvre, even of the biggies. If you want to see the best work of art in the museum, see my cousin Brad's site (linked above on the left) and type in Louvre into the search box. He was just there also and posted an article about it called Paris on Bastille Day. It's about seven or eight pictures down.


Here's Sarah dreaming about Pontormo again. Like she does.


I had seen these images of the seasons by Giuseppe Arcimboldo before, but I never realized that they were late Renaissance works of art. I looked him up (I do work at Harvard's Center for Italian Renaissance Studies after all) and found that this is what he does. He painted images of people and buildings made up of other materials. There's also one of a librarian made up of books. Who care's about the Mona Lisa? This is what I call art!


Mary, Kellin, and Sarah pose in front of the work of art that their group chose to be on their symposium posters and invitations. Oh, did I mention that I found this little gem that shows Sarah's gesture and Kellin's gesture and Clark's gesture and other gestures? Yep. I'm the one.


More art. This museum has a lot of it. But the coffee in their cafe is terrible, so don't bother going.
The Paris postings will continue with more from the Louvre...