an empire, a church and some artists.

Thursday: The last day of classes for the week, Thursday was a "mundane" day in Paris. We went to the Middle Ages Museum - the Musee de Cluny with my Paris Museums class. Though I'm not obsessed with art before Impressionism, it was amazing to be in a room (built in the 1300s) with things from the same era. Welcome to Europe.
Saturday: Went to Les Invalides, which is a whole compilation of things relating to war. Most famously, it is the site of Napoleon's "tomb" if you can call something bigger than most houses a tomb. It was HUGE and gorgeously decorated.

Napoleon is entombed inside that huge thing - in a box inside a box inside a box (etc.). The tomb is surrounded by all the names of his battles (notably leaving out Waterloo).

The ceiling.

Les Invalides is also a war museum, and I got to see armor from many centuries, which was amazing. To think that most of this armor came from before the United States was a country (or even "discovered" by the "civilized" world) really puts world history in perspective.


My favorite armor was children's armor. Though I'm not into child soldiers, it was hilarious to see the small scale version.

Sunday: In a huge contrast to Saturday's war-focused visit, Sunday we went to Montmartre. First, we walked up all the steps to Sacre Coeur and saw the church. While the church itself is very beautiful, what really got me was the view. One photo of each.



We then walked around Monmartre, the surrounding village, which was a huge artist hangout in the late 19th/ early 20th century. While the actual square was pretty touristy - lots of artists profiting off the tourist's desire to be "drawn", we wandered around and found some cool side streets to explore. Overall, absolutely amazing, per paris usual. The side streets were almost exactly what you think about if you try to imagine an ideal Paris. There was also a church from the 1100's that often gets overshadowed by Sacre Coeur, but was equally incredible (albeit much smaller - I appreciated their sign that said something along the lines of "We're a church, not a museum. Please do not walk around taking pictures during services.")




Last night I slept through the Superbowl (sorry, America). This morning I woke up and went to my first class at the Sorbonne. It looked and felt like a normal classroom while I was sitting in class, but then I walked outside and remembered that I was in arguably one of the most famous universities in the world. I'm not sure I'm ever going to get over that.