I Heart Paris

The first two days of the trip have action packed. The first day we spent three plus hours at the Louvre (we will have to post pictures later). In addition to being incredible, the Louvre is one of the most frustrating museums I have every encountered. Everybody gets and audio guide and I tried to follow one of the tours. It was basically impossible. Still, everybody seemed to be able to find the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and the Nike Swoosh—I mean Winged Victory.

After lunch, we went to the Museum de Cluny. When we first told the students we were going there, a couple could not believe that George Clooney had his own museum in Paris. It is actually the museum of the middle ages. Most people found it interesting anyway. After that, people made their own way back to the hotel and we enjoyed a great Chinese dinner in a local restaurant Dr. Nell and I found last year.

The second day consisted of a trip to the Musee d’ Orsay, the impressionists museum, which tied directly into the reading we did prior to course. We then stopped at the grave of Emile Zola, one of the central figures in the course and followed that with a trip to Montmartre and the Church of the Sacre Coeur. The place was mobbed. We had dinner at a charming French bistro.

Today we will go to the graves of Sarte, Simone de Beauvoir, Dreyfus and the other leading lights of French culture and intellectual life. That will be followed by philosophical discussions at the Café de Flore, one on the Existentialists’ favorite watering hole. Tonight is the musical festival. There will be music all over Paris and a million people in the street.