today was a pretty packed day - we practically had classes non-stop from 9am until now, which is 9.07pm at night. i just got home! very odd for me, since i usually write these blogs at around 5.00pm
This morning we had a three-hour class with M Le Grand - it was in the conference room, which is a god-send, because he couldn't make us do group work when we're sitting in theatre-style seats. It was basically a summary / wrap up of all of the changes that Haussman made to Paris under the instructions of Napo III. Something i'm actually interested in - although i used the time to try to calculate how much money i would be spending in the next week and a bit and making sure my bank account has the right amount.
I think i might over-calculate by 50 euros and spend my last day really enjoying paris... :)
So it was nice just to sit in a warm room and not really pay attention and for him not to be able to tell i'm not paying attention. I wrote an incredibly long email to chrissy, and typed up my budget on excel. funfunfun
Then we had lunch - it was ok. Today has been a bad food day - four bread rolls for breakfast with honey, half a tub of yoghurt, lunch - one bread roll (again), a quich-type thing, and then an incredibly rich pure chocolate cake. Very yummy, although slightly too much chocolate, feeling a bit of an overload.
Then we had class - went to Le Grand Palais and Le Petit Palais which was ok. The guards and rules at Petit Palais (grand palais closed for renovations) were ridiculous. They would sell us a group ticket but then refused to let us congregate - the guards kept on telling us to disperse - because they refuse to let someone talk to the group as a whole (even though they sell group tickets) because they want us to pay for one of their conferenciers to talk to the group instead of a leader of the group! What absolute tight arses. Also, one of the guards said he thought sylvia had explosives on her when we went through security - scanning of bags and person - at the louvre it's only your bags - and then follow that with guards coming up insisting every two seconds that she didn't have le droit de parole and watching us suspiciously (they all warned each other about her through their walkie talkies.. stupid french thinking we can't understand). On top of that, when i was looking at a sculpture i had my bottle of water out because it was too big/heavy to be in my bag, and the guard insisted i put it in my bag and keep it in my bag otherwise he'd have to confiscate it. And i was like "why" and he said that i would get water on the sculpture - yes, very likely, since the ropes prevented anyone from getting near throwing distance to the statues. And all the security guards kept on giving us greasies... what a rude day. Also, there wasn't that much famous art there - in the louvre you carry your water bottle around, hey you can even pull a roll out of your bag and eat it (which is actually forbidden) and they don't give a damn. What a terrible place.
Then ana amanda and i went to La Durée which is this extremely famous parisien bakery / cake shop where you can both buy to take away and also sit down and eat. I had Religieuse a la violette which was pastry sphere stuffed with purple-cream stuff (it tasted purple too) and then was covered in purple icing, with a small ball of pastry and purple cream on top. The cream was probably a bit too much for me, although i was very impressed with their ability to make the cream and the icing actually taste like violette. Miam. Felt a bit sick, and definately overdid it today.
Then we went to the louvre - my third visit! This time it was at night, and we were given the history of the building - assez interesting - and we saw the medieval foundations of the building. I already knew this stuff because i researched it, but still. It was very hot inside - we were all sweating because it was freezing outside today so we'd all rugged up, and at the end the conferencier (who was good-looking in the french man way of actually being ugly but still being good-looking) made us stand outside for like 20 minutes.. we were all freezing.
Anyway, feeling fat and off to bed.
No photos today because although i took them Sarah still hasn't returned the thing i use to upload them onto my computer
bonsoir
xxx
Snow report: none sighted, not really expecting any, although the ground was particularly frozen and frosted this morning.
Re Photos: check ana's blog. she has all of mine too.
