Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Bon Voyage
Our six students and two teachers departed for Paris France to meet with our Danielou sisters. After a quick trip through Iceland the group will reunite with their counter parts and go home for some rest in Reuil, France.
Danielou
Visit to Versailles
Today we were able to spend the day at the grand chateau Versailles. Versailles was the winter chateau to kings Louis the fourteenth, fifteenth, and finally, sixteenth. Versailles is a chateau rather than a palace due to the fact that it is situated outside of the city of Paris, as a palace is a royal residence within a city. The royals spent their winters at Versailles because winter was the peak time of the court, and the splendiferous chateau was the perfect place to live.
Thanks to Madamoiselle Selim, we were able to tag along on a tour being given by the nation's premier historian on Marie Antoinette. The tour focused on Louis XV and the opera. During the tour, we learned many facts, one being that at age seven, boys of the French nobility were considered eligible to marry. The tour allowed us to view parts of the chateau that would otherwise have been closed off to the public, such as the opera house and the formal dining room.
The entire chateau was magnificent, every square centimeter dripping with opulence. When the tour ended, we took our lunch in the cafeteria of Versailles. When we had finished lunch, we were able to explore the chateau on our own in groups of three. My group headed towards the bedrooms of the king and queen, but we were sidetracked by the Laduree stand and masses of people. Although we did get to see the king's room and the hall of mirrors, both of which were absolutely breath-ta kingly beautiful, we were unable to view Marie Antoinette's bedroom due to the amount of fellow tourists.
After the group reconvened, we went to the gardens. The gardens of Versailles are them most beautiful that I have ever seen, fountains and sculptures scattered throughout the well-groomed greenery. We made our way to a balcony that overlooked yet another part of the garden, with miniature mazes made of grass and yet another fountain. The view was spectacular. We would've liked to stay longerbut due to time constraints, we were forced to make our way back to the cars and head back to Danielou.
It was an amazing day that we had at Versailles, one of the most beautiful places in all the world.
-Kat Kirkpatrick
The Old and New Paris
Today, we went to Hermes. We had the privilege of seeing the store before it opened. It was absolutely amazing. Before I went to Hermes I thought the brand was just another very expensive, posh store, but after I came to appreciate Hermes because of its high standards and values.
Hermes started out as a small boutique for jockeys to purchase saddles and jerseys. Little by little the small boutique expanded. They started selling other items such as bikes, shoes, bags and scarves. Even though Hermes added new items to their inventory, they still made the traditional leather saddles and silk jerseys. Our guide in the store told us that Hermes values time, quality, and craftsmanship. They all link together to create the perfect product. In other words it takes time to find materials of good quality. After these quality materials are found, a product is crafted and in a way comes to life! Now when I think of Hermes I think of the time and effort that goes into making a scarf or saddle.
After our amazing visit to the Hermes store we went to a pastry shop/cafe called Laduree. Laduree is famous for its macaroons. The group had the opportunity to try these when we sat down for a very French tea at the cafe portion of the boutique. I really enjoyed this part of the day because it was a time to relax while becoming very immersed in French culture.
We left Laduree to take a walk around Paris. We saw the Louvre and we walked around an older part of town. There we looked around some shops and made our way to some beautiful garden where we ate lunch. After lunch we walked to the Gallerie Lafayette, which is a well-known shopping complex with modern clothes and other goods. Then we took the metro and a bus to return to Danilou.
Today I personally learned a lot about how France adjusts to the modern world while also maintains aspects of its past.
-Mira Gill 
Paris
Today was a day well spent in Paris. Between Impressionist Exibits, to die for desserts, and mad dashes in the rain, the French 6 got a taste of Parisian art, food, and weather.
The day began with the a lesson on transportation. Paris runs on a series of buses, metros, and RER lines- and while extremely helpful they can be more than a little confusing for the average American tourist. After grasping the basics of the RER destinations and routes, we were ready to see the Musee D'Orsay. Boasting stunning collections of impressionist art works, among them the works of Monet, Renoir, Manet, Morrisot, Signat, and Degas. After and hour and a half of vivid colors, strokes, and various compositions, we began our search for lunch.
Finally, we came upon a restaurant within the museum itself, home to a panoramic view of the Parisian skyline. I myself enjoyed a sirloin steak,a citron presse ( a type of do-it-yourself lemonade, and what I can honestly say was one of my favorite desserts of all time: a cube of pure chocolate sponge and mousse, filled with a raspberry compote, and served with a side of cold frozen yogurt.
Setting out for what had originally planned as an afternoon on the Seine, we were greeted with sheets of pouring rain. Instead, we spent our time visiting a few small boutiques before finally arriving at the Galerie Lafayette. Of course, it conveniently ceased to rain once we arrived...There we did what girls do best- faire du shopping!
Behind schedule and rushed, we full out ran to the RER, finally catching our breath after we arrived in Rueil-Malmaison, our home.
-Shanzay Khan 
Notre Dame and The Bald Soprano
Today we visited Notre Dame. Notre Dame is one of the oldest churches in the world (849 years old). We left from Madeleine Daniélou School in the morning as usual and got on bus and headed to the RER train towards downtown France. While in Notre Dame we had a scavenger hunt to help us learn the history and see many things that make the church as beautiful and magnificent as it is. Having the experience of visiting Notre Dame was so amazing that no one adjective is sufficient for explaining it. After Notre Dame we were on the hunt for a cafe so we could get out the cold.
Finally, after 20 minutes of walking (and getting lost) we found a historic little cafe near the old shopping center of France. After we finished eating we had a very interesting and lovely conversation with the women whose table was connected to one of ours. She told us about how she loved the area about how she would take the train just to visit this café. The cafe was great, just like the women said, even though we did not have the nicest waiter.
In between visiting cafe and lunch we went shopping to some boutiques through the old shopping center. I almost liked this kind of shopping better than the Gallery Lafayette. We were able to go wherever we wanted as long as we didn’t get lost and met back at the bride on time.
After some shopping we had a late lunch and some ice cream. Lunch was a completely different experience than the cafe in terms of the service. It was a little “hole in the wall” restaurant with waiters that were funny and nice and food that was fantastic. We met our correspondents from Daniélou at the restaurant. While they finished some desserts from the restaurant the girls from Holton headed to the ice cream shop. The ice cream shop was supposed to be one of the best in this part of France and it did live up to its reputation.
As soon as we finished our ice cream we walked as fast as we could to the theater. We were going to see The Bald Soprano by Ionesco. This play was super confusing because there were many play on the words and they were hard to understand because we didn’t know the different pronunciation between the north and the south. Many of our correspondents from Daniélou had the same reaction but it was enjoyable because we actually got to see a play in French. Overall this was my favorite day and a great way to start the weekend.
. Kenya McNealy
Museum Galleria
This morning we met at Daniélou to head to Galleria museum where garments of the French Revolution era kings and queens are preserved and displayed. Led by me (with help from Ms. Mahr), we took the bus to the metro where we rode the suburb train into the city. We took a bit of a detour because the RER train goes faster than the city train, so stopping at Nation, we switched trains and headed to Voltaire where we met Mademoiselle Selim and headed towards musée Galleria (thankfully I hadn't gotten our group lost in process).
We arrived at the museum and met Mrs. Balesterous Gorguet, the museum director. She was very kind and it was a pleasure to have her lead us around the part of the museum not allowed for public view. We entered the first room and watched a seamstress work on a blue and white dress. There were washing machines all over the room and she told us that the dresses and other garments are put in bags to be cleaned because they are very delicate being hundreds of years old.
We headed downstairs into the room where all of the clothes are stored and it looked more like a bank than anything! It was incredible to watch her (with gloves of course) remove each piece from its drawer and give us endless information about each. There was so much to say about each garment and they were all so interesting too! First, she showed us a corset owned by a pregnant woman. We could see the careful stitching still present as well as teh adjustments made for the woman to be able to change the tension as she pleased. Mrs. Balesterous Gorguet told us about the common silouette that women usually had when dressed in this period. Their torsos were commonly an upside-down triangle and then billowed out at the bottom of the dress. The two sectors of the outfit were not connected to allow women to do much curtseying and limited movement dancing as their hearts desiered.
We also looked at suits beloning to Leo XV as well as Leo XVI. One of the suits included stiching of two famous French philosophers of the time, including Voltaire (yes, like the train stop). The other included silver thread wrapped in thin gold, and had no stitching. To do this, it was necesesary to weave the fibers together.
After that, it was sadly time for us to part, so we thanked the museum director and headed out into the rain, something we've grown used to. Walking down the sidewalks in a sea of parapluies (my favorite French word meaning umbrella) we stopped at a park to eat our lunches. Afterwards, we went into a famous candy store to pick up some presents for our famlies and some yummy ice cream. Then after another train ride, we went to the artist city of Montmartre to look in some shops and climb a ton of stairs in process. The shops all reflected the artsy mood of the town.
Shanzay, Mira, and I went straight to a café upon seeing some French hot dogs. I'll never think an American hot dog is really good after eating that massive one that the three of us shared with some icecream and lemonade, because it was fantastic! After eating our hot dog and being swarmed by an army of fearless pigeons (a recurring nightmare we've experienced a few times) we walked to an antique shop where we met up with Kat, Kenya, and Ashley, as well as our new best friend Opal, the super cool owner of the store.
I wish we could've stayed longer because we all were having such a great time looking at the clothes, wigs, shoes, records, sunglasses, and book that was on sale there! We got back on the train at 4 and casually munched at a baguette Mademoiselle Selim picked up at the best bakery in town this year. We returned to the school and parted ways, except for Mira and I, because we carpooled to hers and Mélo's house and then I headed back home with my host family. Right now Claire is working on some homework as I write this and I'm excited to go with her to another one of her dance classes! She says hi as well! See you all soon!
♥ Kendall Turner
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