parisian details
We’ve been exploring more of the city in the past few weeks, and we came across some very cool things…
A very old timber-frame house in the Marais, my favorite neighborhood so far.
Would you go inside this thing?
Zipper?
By the canal St. Martin.
Remains of an old fortification.
Hugsies at the Pantheon…
Amazing space!
Amazing amazing amazing!
Curvy in the crypt, the coolest part of this building! Marie Curie and Rousseau are buried here!
Harmony.
At the Bibliotheque St. Genevieve.
Love this space. I even got a library card to come back and read here!
An English bookshop in the Latin Quarter.
More to come soon!
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amsterdam
Here are some of my favorite pictures from Amsterdam and Utrecht.
Birds birds birds.
Bicycle parking- far more interesting and better-looking than a car parking lot!
A restaurant / resale shop in Central Amsterdam. Everything was for sale, including our plates!
mmm…The bread for our sandwiches was about 1/2 inch thick with sunflower seeds all over it…
Kitty enjoying the morning discussions…
We had amazing weather the day after we arrived.
We joined the masses and rented bikes for a few hours!
ya.
Red Light district / swan lake…
peek – a – boo!
We took a day trip to Utrecht to visit some important buildings, at least to us… the canals here are a bit more like the “backyard” than a major transit route like in Amsterdam.
The Schroeder house.
Reflections on the Schroeder house- I think in spirit I went inside.
The Double House! I studied this house my first year for 6 weeks…
Murky, dark, Amsterdam.
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edith piaf
I’m back from Holland since Monday and since then I’ve been listening to Edith Piaf non-stop. I only listened to her previously in moments of longing to go to Paris or listening to something different, but I was inspired to re-surface her music from an experience in Amsterdam.
We went to this “Supper Club” restaurant in Amsterdam to get drinks because it looked like a nice lounge. We walk into a techno music, a starkly white room, which along the walls had set up a bed that ran along the entire length of the room. These “beds” were filled with people facing the center of the room eating their dinner. Then we walk in, and the only available seats were right in the middle at the cafe tables, and just for kicks, we sat down, with EVERYONE staring at us. This was an intensely stressful situation at this point for me… and after about half a beer, Edith Piaf’s “Non Je Ne Regrete Rien” comes on, and a girl walks over and leans on my shoulder in tears. She stumbles to the bar and starts drinking vodka out of the bottle, all the while crying with enthusiasm and making a scene. After that wasn’t enough, she threw cocaine at her face and then started stripping and dancing the robot on the bar, and then she ate a banana, which she almost threw up from all the drama.
So we finished our beers and left. Obviously this was the dinner’s entertainment, but looking back I think everyone thought we were extras in the act.
So that will always remain as my last memory of Amsterdam. And since then I can’t stop listening to Edith Piaf’s music because I am drenched in her subject matter every day, so even when I’m in my apartment, I feel like I’m still walking through the city. And as it turns out, my class walked through the Belleville neighborhood today, and that is where she lived and sang in the streets! There was a plaque above the door of her home and this small homage to her presence. Interesting things happen when you stroll off your usual path!
I’m staying in Paris this weekend, so hopefully I will get a chance to upload some photos from Amsterdam. It was a fantastic trip to a very, uh, honest city. What was really nice to see though was everyone on bicycles– there were more bikes than cars which was a very refreshing experience.
Back to Edith and research…
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andale!
We’re back from Spain! Bonjour became hola, and merci became gracias, and our tongues became confused…but I was able to talk to people and ask questions, so it was very refreshing. The train ride there was actually pleasant, and we saw so much of the landscape along the way. There was a moment on the border of France and Spain when the sea was on the right side of the train and a lake on the left, and the shore was at a point that wasn’t visible when we were sitting, so it felt like we were riding the train on water! But we made it to Barcelona safely and had a great time!
Barcelona was a nice break from rainy, cold Paris– and this was our first taste! Those little dots beyond are surfers, they were really good!
The shoreline, with Frank Gehry’s fish glowing in the distance.
Sagrada Familia…a masterpiece in the making.
Interior of Sagrada Familia– see the different colors, they were cast by the stained-glass windows, and we were lucky we went there on such a sunny day to experience this effect!
Atop the Casa Mila.
Parc Guell– pure magic.
Relaxing in the plaza…
Modern statues at Parc Guell…
Pup on a roof- I just liked the shades on the building in the background.
The art of Mies! It was so interesting to see the Barcelona Pavillion in person because it’s nothing like I imagined. Firstly, the building is great, and secondly, the way it is placed on the site is surprisingly poor. Looking at it straight ahead, there is a lack of grandeur that most of his buildings posses because of the tight proximity to traffic and asphalt roads. That in itself was disappointing, but otherwise, the pavillion was beautiful.
Herzog & DeMeuron’s “sponge” building– check out that cantilever…
Park by Foreign Office Architects. Brilliant. The benches were cast from concrete that took the same shape as the tiles, so each “chair” fit into the next.
Tipper.
Orange trees!
Antique Shop by the Museum of History.
From Madrid:
Madrid by night.
MvRdV! The orange parts articulate circulation, and each color on the building is a different material.
CaixaForum by Herzog & DeMeuron…with a green wall!
The entrance to CaixaForum.
Philip Johnson’s towers, flanking Norman Foster’s new building.
We have a busy weekend ahead of us– a concept review on Friday which means late night working on Thursday, and Friday after class we’re going to Brussels and Amsterdam for the weekend! And I’ll be back by Monday to Paris for my next class…
I have set another goal for my time in Paris, so besides trying every cheese, going to a concert of a French musician and discovering the city in my own way, it’s to go to a couture fashion show. Maybe it’s unrealistic, but a girl can dream. Will keep you posted on my adventures…
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old places
Here’s reporting from some old places…
Here’s a moment from my “Urban explorations” class, we’re exploring the passages of Paris, the in-between spaces withing the urban fabric, the inside-outside. These were where the surrealists loved to hang out and stroll, which is what we did all day long!
The Palais Royal, easily becoming my favorite monumental space in Paris.
Remember the movie “Something’s Gotta Give” with Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson? This is the restaurant they dined in Paris!!
And we also went to Versailles– a very cold day to spend outside, but it was well worth it. The sunlight made it look mysterious, adding to the aura of history and richness.
What’s this doing here?
Mariusz XXV, a brave and adventurous explorer.
The stairmaster. So obviously we didn’t go inside, but the gardens are really what I came for– I wanted to experience the perspectival plays of Le Notre, like this staircase leading to the heavens…
The following day we went to the Louvre, because it was a free day!
me- Mariusz, what’s that?
M- it’s a column supporting beams…
The mob in front of the Mona Lisa… check out the multi-layered security gates in front of the painting… I wondered if anyone really knew what they were looking at. I’ve never seen paparazzi for a work of art.
So that’s what’s been going on. I haven’t been posting much, which should be a good thing because it means that I’m spending more time with people and Paris than my computer… 🙂 more face time. But I will be updating regularly, promise!
Also, I will be sans computer for the rest of this week because I’m travelling to Barcelona and Madrid, leaving tonight by train… 12 hours… should be fantastic! We’re meeting our professors in Barcelona and we’ll be there for four days, visiting all of Gaudi’s architecture, the Barcelona Pavillion (!!!!), the Herzog & DeMeuron purple sponge building, and eating lots and lots of paella!
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weekend in london
As we considered it sinful to leave Paris without trekking the Eiffel tower, here we are, after a long hike up the staircase!
The Baguettiers…
St. Pancras train station in London with Eurostar trains.
A typical rainy day in London on the Millennium Bridge.
We came across a robot made of trash cans by Spitalfields Market.
Fish n’ Chips at Trafalgar in Chelsea…and a burger for Mariusz.
Oh my Herzog… the Tate Modern main entry. Alexander Calder’s statue is in the background, which was a nice “hello from Chicago!” for me…
Fierce with Rothko- an AMAZING exhibit at Tate.
The British have silly names for things– such as this restaurant, or “This is a Picadilly Line to Cockfoster”
And the grand finale… the Hussein Chalayan exhibit at the Design Museum.
Amazing.
Overall, a lovely weekend in London!
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Londres
So I’ve been absent for a while…but photos will be up soon from my London weekend! I’m starting to work on school and I didn’t sleep much due to my early train back to Paris, so please be patient!
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going places
Today was a long day– but in a very very fulfilling way, like when you remember what you did this morning as a distant memory. That was my long day today.
I love how every area of this city has something more for me to discover. We went to the Marais area yesterday and got sidetracked on our way to the Place du Vosges, and this was me: baby steps while dragging my feet trying not to trip on the cobblestones; hands slightly raised for protection; my eyes cemented open; mouth slightly ajar as to not frighten people. This was the Paris I imagined.
I’m going to London tomorrow!
on the agenda:
–
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the past few days…
We finally made it up Sacre Coeur, which was lovely. We hadn’t seen a panorama of Paris yet because the Eiffel’s highest level is under construction. Paris is quite mono-level and not that impressive when looked at from above (contrary to any US cities), though it is extraordinary once you feed through the streets and experience flaneur. The one thing that bothered me were the vendors of the keychain eiffel’s and the “friendship bracelet” guys who very clearly and aggressively wanted your money– they are a distraction from a pleasant experience, thus skewing your memory of the essence of a place. Maybe it’s my fault for going on a beautiful Sunday, but I think that a place has more meaning if you make your own story about it.
Here we are at the Academie of Music during a late night stroll in the 9th district. Walking around here at night is like the day before Christmas… absolute torture. All the best stores are closed, and EVERY ONE of them is having a sale. I finally had to save some time before school today to get over to Zara, but still I ran out of time. I promised myself I would come back tomorrow… and Friday…
We finally went inside and around Notre Dame, which was great– HUGE! and this has to be said, that the “rear” is so much more beautiful than the facade…it looks like a spiderweb or like a delicate object held in someone’s hands.
A very eventful day today- we had our orientation session today at studio! Our problem this semester is to come up with a gathering space at Bastille in the 13th district for music venues/political discussions, in addition to designing a new Metro stop and a deluxe restaurant… sounds like a myriad of program, but once we go see the site it should make more sense.
AND we saw Obama get sworn in as president! We went to a Canadian pub (it was the closest to an American one–please don’t tease) in St. Michel to watch the inauguration, after being turned away at the Hotel de Ville.
(will post photo soon!)
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the unashamed tourist
So I’ve been to all the typical tourist destinations by now, all on foot mind you… What I like most is that I can walk though an area at night (thanks to my current sleep patterns) and realize that I can come back during the day, and in spring too! Yesterday we walked from the Centre Pompidou, stopped at the Louvre, then walked straight down Champs Elysees to the Arc du Triomphe! All together, about 5 km, all at night. And while the photos are fantastic, I’d love to see it during the day.
And we had some culinary adventures too! Our master chef Mariusz made escargot for dinner, which turned out to taste just like mussels or other shellfish…this morning I ran across the street to the Boulangerie to get a fresh baguette for breakfast, and it was raining a bit outside, and I held it in my hand like a treasure…
The rest of our studio group arrived so we met up with them today and walked around some more! We finally went inside the Centre Pompidou to see the Ron Arad exhibit which was spectacular–
I wish my days were always filled with a quick run for fresh pastries.
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...in Paris 