Thoughts, Montparnasse, and Pictures of Honfleur

We are going to the Louvre tomorrow and I am so excited!!! I cannot wait. I loved the Met in New York, and I generally love art museums. I remember going to the huge museums in Washington, D.C. before 9th grade and loving it. I specifically remember being in front of one painting for about 5 minutes or more, just absorbing it and realizing how amazing it is to create art and to experience it. It is such a communal yet individual experience, and emotional as well.

I feel like I am getting into a nice routine. Not a routine as in I do the same thing every day, but more of a rhythm. I love Paris, a feeling I've maintained since arriving. Today I went to Montparnasse, the quartier I am doing for my "Quartier" project. It was cool seeing a different part of Paris, yet feeling a similar vibe to other parts like the Latin Quarter and Place D'Italie. I went to the cemetery where Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Guy de Maupassant, Charles Baudelaire, Duras, Serge Gainsbourg (Charlotte Gainsbourg's dad, I didn't know that until now...), and others are buried.

Sartre et de Beauvoir

Serge Gainsbourg

Baudelaire

Ionesco(s)

Cat grave! Some were truly pieces of art.

Lion grave!

It was beautiful, but I felt kind of detached from the fact that it was a cemetery because there were a lot of tourists walking around, stepping past all the unfamous people's graves to get to the "important" ones. It also made me think about how I don't feel very religious, since there were many with shrines to Christ and to pray to him within mini mausoleums, as well as some Jewish graves with hebrew and jewish stars. What shocked me most was seeing a grave dedicated to a family that was killed in Auschwitz and another concentration camp. I don't really know why, but it was a very powerful image. I forgot my camera so I am borrowing all of these pictures from the two friends I was with (Michael and Anaïs).

After the cemetery, I walked around Montparnasse with aforementioned friends. We sat at a little crêperie, where two of us (Anaise and me) ordered sugar and lemon juice crêpes, delicious! For our project we have to describe the quartier as a whole, as well as a specific place. So Anaise and I decided to do this spot, along Boulevard de Montparnasse. I sat, writing, describing the restaurant, the street, the scene. I realized how quiet it was, but also how nice.

I went up the Tour Montparnasse, the highest skyscraper in Paris with a 360 degree view of it all. It was beautiful, but less green than I pictured Paris looking as a whole. I like Paris better on the ground than from way up high at a distance, I think.

Time to sleep before class tomorrow. I'll include a few pictures of Honfleur, which I went to last weekend. It was so beautiful!