Once we were let go from our school trip in Prague, Jack and I flew to Paris!  I was so overwhelmed going from Prague, which I thought was the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen, to the spectacular city of lights with my wonderful boyfriend.

(No, I did not take this)

Jack and I saw so much in Paris! We went to the Louvre, which was absolutely breathtaking, inside and out.  It was so much fun going around and analyzing all the paintings and statues with my newly acquired knowledge from Art History.  Also, I finally got to see The Winged Victory of Samothrace!!

Outside The Louvre

Jack and I in front of The Winged Victory of Samothrace

In the Flemish section

The Mona Lisa

Me and The Angry Roman

The Musée d'Orsay is also a must see in Paris.  Musée d'Orsay, unlike the Louvre has a large collection of impressionist art, which is a genre I love dearly. Many people are directly attracted to a specific art form (music, film, poetry, theater, ect.) and for me it has always been paintings.  Put me in any bookstore and I immediately go to the art section to flip through the works of my favorite artists. Musée d'Orsay includes many paintings by famous artists such as Degas, Manet, Renoir, van Gogh, Klimt, and Monet.  My breath was taken away at the fact that I was actually seeing some of the paintings in real life that I’ve seen over and over again on paper.  I was especially excited to see "Poppies at Argenteuil" by Monet since it is one of my all time favorites. 

Poppies at Argenteuil - Claude Monet

      I’m glad that I’m taking a class on renaissance and baroque art because the majority of my knowledge is more modern starting roughly around the 1860s with Vincent Van Gogh.  Although both artist are very different, I’m huge sucker for Norman Rockwell and Gustav Klimt. Here are some of my favorites...

The Problem We All Live With,1935 - Norman Rockwell

The Runaway - Norman Rockwell

No Swimming - Norman Rockwell

Doctor and the Doll - Norman Rockwell

The Kiss - Gustav Klimt

Farm Garden with Sunflowers - Gustav Klimt

Mother and Child - Gustav Klimt

Jack and I also went to the Musee de l'Orangerie which is a beautiful Monet showcase displaying eight, enormous water lily paintings in two plain oval rooms. It was so nice to just sit and observe.

 Of course Notre-Dame and Montmartre’s Basilica of the Sacré Cœur were amazing.  I loved Montmarte as whole, especially since many artists had studios or worked there such as Salvador Dalí, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh.  Everyone in Paris pronounced Montmarte with such a great accent and Jack and I desperately wanted to sound like the Parisians.  This is the correct way to say it

Unsuccessful in our attempts, we just called it “Mo’mo.”  I don’t even think that spelling does our pronunciation justice.  Imagine Oliver Twist saying “Please sir, I want some more” in his cute little British accent… Now repeat the way he says “more” twice.  That’s how we pronounced it. So far off...yet so much fun!

One of the best parts of the entire trip was when we went to O Chateau for a wine tasting. Jack and I were rushing a little to get there and arrived with nearly a minute to spare.  Since it’s required to have a reservation, we were shocked to see that there were only two other people there waiting.  As we got seated at the wine tasting table, confused as to where everyone was, a group of 25 or so senior citizens showed up who were all part of a tour group from Pennsylvania.  Jack and I were the youngest ones there!  It took a while for everyone to get comfortable with each other but this one older woman broke the ice by downing her glasses of wine before our guide even said anything about them.  Everyone thought it was really funny.  Our tasting included two glasses of red and one of white and we were taught how to properly taste and assess a glass of wine.  After spinning the wine to let it "breath", our guide would ask us to hold the glass to our nose and comment on what we smelled.  No one was saying anything and I whispered to Jack that I smelled butter.  Yes, butter.  He kept encouraging me to raise my hand and share my embarrassing and odd observation to the group so finally I did.  Who would have thought, I WAS RIGHT!!!

To end our trip, Jack and I went up the Eiffel Tower at night. This was my favorite part of the entire trip.  The weather was wonderful and I loved the lights of the city and being there with him.  I am so thankful that he came to see me and it was overall one the best times I've ever had.