"If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young (wo)man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast."

--Hemmingway

Centre Georges Pompidou

Model of the Museum

The Centre Georges Pompidou is the biggest modern art museum in Paris and is one of the city's best museums in my opinion.  Over 40 years ago, the French President Georges Pompidou had a dream of a museum in Paris that combined visual modern art with music, film, fashion, as well as architecture.  The architect of the Pompidou, Renzo Piano, stated he wanted the museum to be: "A building that would be not a monument but a celebration, a large urban plaything".  And that was exactly what the Pompidou became.

One of the most distinct looking buildings in Paris, the Centre Pompidou's exterior exhibits what should be on the buildings inside.  When looking at the model above, you can see that red marks where there is people movement (i.e. lifts), yellow marks the electrical shafts, blue for air ducts, and green for all the pipework.  Although it was highly controversial at its opening in 1977, the musuem currently has an average of 22,000 visitors each day making it Paris' most visited monument (even more than Notre Dame!).

Chasse Interdit --Joan Mitchell

Carpet room with Piano, normal at the Pompidou

Last night, I made what was probably my final visit to the Centre Pompidou this semester and spent a total of 4 hours taking a final look at all of the art that I have come to love.  The beautiful view from the the museum's roof in combination with some of the most famous pieces of modern artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Man Ray, and many, many others makes it a museum well worth visiting multiple times.

Centre Pompidou Bar

When my Aunt Pam and Dad were here, we planned to have a drink on top of the Pompidou but unfortunately the bar/restaurant was closed at the time...guess I have to save something for my next trip to Paris so I can have and excuse to return.

Familiar?

C'est moi

View from the roof of Notre Dame and the Pantheon

Picasso

Today marks the Royal Wedding in London but more importantly it almost marks my final week in Paris; 7 days from now I will be over the Atlantic en route to Philadelphia.  It amazes me how quickly this semester went!  I am trying to soak up every last second of being in "the City of Love" because who knows the next time that I will be back, and oh will I miss it...

"There are only two places in the world where we can live happy: in our home and in Paris."

--Ernest Hemmingway

Bisous bisous,

Mary

All you Need to be Impossibly French

Recently a friend lent me a book entitled All you Need to be Impossibly French by Helena Frith Powell. Although I would not be caught dead reading this on the metro in Paris out of sheer embarrassment, it is one of the most entertaining books I have read in a while.  Helena discusses and contrasts British or American women with French women, and particularly Parisian women.  All you Need to be Impossibly French is "a witty investigation into the lives, lusts, and little secrets of French women".  I have gathered the following guidelines from Madame Powell:

1.  Zen exercise i.e. yoga or power-walking is the way to go:

"I'm French, so I'm quite lazy about exercising, and I smoke.  But I do love going for a run in the morning with my dog.  That's all."  --Eva Green

2.  Never mind the botox:

"Age does not protect you from love.  But love, to some extent, protects you from age."  --Jeanne Moreau

3.  However, when you do want to cover up, make-up is a girl's indispensable ally:

"The most beautiful make-up on a woman is passion.  But cosmetics are easier to buy."  --Yves Saint Laurent

4.  Don't have too many single friends, advice direct from Coco Chanel.

"My friends, there are no friends."  --Coco Chanel

And the rest you will have to read for yourself because I am trying to keep the blog PG....  OR you can read this fun article:  This Is What ‘Parisienne’ Looks Like

Bisous bisous,

Mary

"Don't pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in inches."

--Andy Warhol

Bisous bisous,

Mary

Joyeuses Pâques

Joyeuses Pâques or Happy Easter everyone!!!  To celebrate today, my friend Hannah and I had dinner in the "China Town" of Paris to enjoy some Pho Vietnamese soup before heading to mass at Notre Dame.  As we left our apartment this afternoon, a large group of 80+ year old French people were outside the nursing home that neighbors our apartment singing Easter songs with the nurses...my heart melted. 

 

Although I'm a bit homesick not to be with my family in New Hampshire this Easter, spending time with friends in such beautiful Parisian weather was incredible.  I was also able to learn a little bit about how the French celebrate Easter or as they would call it Pâques.

In France, it is not the Easter Bunny that delievers gifts and candy Sunday morning, instead it is a flying bell from Rome.  Not sure which is more believable?

 

Although it sounds very peaceful in theory, mass at Notre Dame was more chaotic than any service I have ever been do.  This is a video from Easter at Notre Dame in 2008 but it gives you an idea of how crowded the service is.  

Mass at Notre Dame

Also, Shelby's aunt recommended I change the name of the blog to Same Girl and her Two Mute Friends, New Continent, what do you think?

Bisous bisous,
Mary

Faire du Jogging Part II

Cite Universitaire

As mentioned in an earlier post, finding places to run in Paris isn't always easy.  However, when you do find a somewhere to run in the city, it is usually a great one:

 

Your best bet when running in Paris is to go to a park and repeat the same route around the park on its gravel paths several times for the farthest uninterrupted distance runs.  I found a great website that maps out runs through Paris and calculates the distance of each.  I have found many places to run I would not have otherwise known about through this helpful site:

http://www.run.com/city.asp?loc=Paris+fr

However, most days I go running at one of the parks behind or across the street from Cite Universitaire which is an international college less than a mile down Boulevard Brune from my apartment.  The park is full of runners, (especially today) enjoying the sunshine and beautiful atmosphere of the park.

Another favorite, as well as one of Hemmingway's favorite parks in the city, is the Jardin du Luxembourg in the 6th.  The gardens are packed with runners, tennis players, and children alike all looking to enjoy time outdoors in the city of light.

The park is 1.3 miles around making it one of the biggest parks within the city.  A great place to run even longer trails is the Bois de Boulogne which has 35 miles of them (2 times Rivanna Trail of Charlottesville)!

Happy Running!

Bisous bisous,

Mary

 

"For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream."

--Vincent Van Gogh

Bisous bisous,

Mary

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

Bonjour tout le monde!

Here are the countries from yesterday's post:

1.  Denmark

2.  Spain

3.  France

4.  Italy

5.  France

6.  Netherlands

Anyways, the original plan was to go to Nice this weekend and spend Easter there but after chatting with my parents and realizing how little time left I have before leaving Paris I rethought my plans for the weekend.  So instead of traveling, I decided that it would be best to just spend the 4-day weekend here and do all the things that I wish I had done but have not yet had time to do i.e. Rodin museum, riding bikes through Paris (which I did yesterday and it was rather terrifying), go to the cafe from the Gossip Girl series, go running in the Tuileries, and so much more!

The other day my friend Melissa and I had some time kill so we spent our day wandering from one end of Paris to the other and having a picnic in the Luxembourg gardens.  We also saw Morning Glory with Rachel McAdams in theatres which we both surprisingly loved:

Movie Trailer Mornign Glory

 

Happy Easter weekend everyone!

Bisous bisous,

Mary

Jour des Photos: Name that country

 

Bisous bisous,
Mary

 

"I want to amaze Paris with an apple."

--Paul Cézanne

Bisous bisous,

Mary

Marbella, Espana: Part Deux

View from our porch

I read a statistic that Marbella, on average, only has 35 days of rain each year and I can believe it.  I don't remember seeing a single cloud in the sky over the 7 days spent there.  

Another interesting tid bit I recently learned about Marbella is that it is the hometown of Antonio Banderas.  To this day, he still has a house there with his wife Melanie Griffith.

Zorro

Although the water was not yet warm, the beaches were fairly packed, nudists and all.  The only downfall of these picture perfect beaches was the number of itinerant sales people who would sneak up on you every couple of minutes; some trying to sell sunglasses, some selling knock-off purses, and some with indistinguishable items that I cannot imagine any tourist would have an interest in buying.  Although this happens in Paris as well, there's something uncomfortable about being approached when you are tanning on a beach reading a book.  One night we went out to dinner for Chinese food and the waiters let them walk through the restaurant selling items to each table which made us ready to lose our minds as we repeatedly said: "No, gracias."

In "Old Town Marbella" this kind of behavior was much more regulated and did not seem to exist in the city center.  In the Old Town, we found a fun area right off the beach called Alameda where there is a large outdoor exhibition of Salvador Dali statues! 

I.M. Pei of Salvador Dali??

Although it was fantastic to have such a relaxing week and time in the sun, I am excited to be back in Paris for what may be the most beautiful season here.  I met up with my friends Melissa, Elizabeth, and Tewfik to spend time in Jardin du Luxembourg yesterday and somehow found myself ending up there again today.  I am lucky that it is just two blocks from where I go to school and possibly the most perfect place in the world to read.  I think that it is a good indication that I picked the right place to study abroad when I am continually excited to return home no matter where I travel.  

Bisous bisous,
Mary

Marbella, Espana

 

Marbella, Spain was more beautiful than I could have ever imagined making it the perfect place to spend Spring Break.  Southern Spain reminded me a great deal of Costa Rica with the beautiful combination of clear blue water and tree covered mountains.  The town of Marbella was very charming with a lot of character, i.e. the alarmingly high number of stray cats that seemed to appear out of thin air....or dumpsters.

The week was filled with spending time at the nude beach (also alarming at first), laying by the resort's pool, taking the bus into town for flea markets, and of course tapas!

 

I realize each time I travel that there are many things I take for granted in Paris, one being the ease of transportation.  Paying 9 euro to get to the airport or having to wait any longer than three minutes for the metro seems trivial after spending a week outside of the city.  Each time we needed to go into town from the resort, it usually included a 20 minute wait for the bus and then another 45 minutes on the bus.  Let's just say we were a little impatient with Marbella's transportation system at times.  But who can really complain when the view from the bus looks like this:

 

This trip left me very curious about what the rest of Spain is like.  Unfortunately, there will not be time to explore any more Spanish cities but I did recently discover that next Spring, my brother Kyle will be studying abroad in Barcelona!  He may be the single hier to "Same Girls, New Continent", that is if he is up to the challenge....

More to come on my trip to Marbella tomorrow!  Bonne weekend tout le monde!

Bisous bisous,

Mary

Jour des Photos--My Dad & Pam's Visit