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Glamorama: London
Sorry for the lack of updates! I tried to write more, but the website kicked me off and all of my original Friday entry was lost.
Ok, so Friday in Paris we woke up early to get ready and enjoy more delicious breakfast. Then, Basia took us to an interesting view of the Eiffel Tower. We got off at the Trocodero stop and saw the tower in full view close by. It was across some sort of green space from us.
After a few photos, we went to Musee d'Orsay. This museum used to be a train station, and it now houses several famous works, sculptures, impressionism, and post-impressionism. I got to see Degas's ballerinas, in painting and sculpture, Monet's water lillies, Van Gogh's self-portrait, and also works by Gaugin, Manet, and Seurat. The museum itself was beautiful. It was very Zen, with a glass ceiling and black and natural wood accents. There are two beautiful clocks in the building as well. Basia told us to go to the "room of exceptional beauty" which is a very girly and gilded room with tons of ornamentation and angelic sculptures. It used to be a ballroom, and still looks like one, but it was too gaudy for my taste.
After Musee d'Orsay, we went to the Louvre for lunch and Basia told us about the main things we had to see. Then, we went to la Musee du Textile de la Mode, which is right next door. There was a big menswear exhibition called "L'Homme Pare" which means "man as peacock." Basically, it was portraying the future of mens' fashion as flamboyant, colorful, and full of layers, comparable to a peacock. There were pieces from the 17th century, next to piece from designers of the past few years. It was very inspirational, even for womens wear. All of the top designers have been to this exhibt, and it will affect the immediate future of mens' fashion. In the sense of European, designer fashion that is. It may take awhile for dressing like a peacock to catch on in the States.
Then, I crossed the Seine to go to Seineiles, a very old art supply store. After buying a few brush pens and a set of nice colored pencils, we went back to the Louvre. We hit all of the places Basia had recommended...Venus de Milo, which is beautiful in really life, the Winged Victory, and the Mona Lisa. Then, we went to the Apollo Galleries, which house the crown jewels of Lousi XVII. The most amazing thing was the ceiling of these galleries. They were so highly ornamented, and decorated with gods and goddesses and scenes representing signs of the zodiac.
The last thing we saw were Napoleon's apartments. They were full of red velvet and gold leaf, and again, too over the top for my taste. There were beautiful chandeliers and objects of art, though, and the view over the Louvre and the rest of Paris was lovely.
We went back to the hotel, where Allison and I cooked pasta for dinner. We then got ready to go out to Wagg, a club in St. Germain des Pres. Before leaving for Paris, I started to research the city and discovered stories about Jim Morrison's last days in Paris and his mysterious death. I became very interested in him and wanted to visit some of his favorite places. Wagg used to be Whiskey A Go Go, and before that it was Rock n' Roll circus, a club Jim and Pamela Courston would go to. He was actually there the night he died. Even though it is completely different now, it was still cool to be in the same space that he once was. It was also a good club, with lots of young Parisians dancing and sipping fancy drinks.
We took a taxi back to the hotel, and then talked in our hotel room for awhile. We went to bed pretty late but it was ok because we had an amazing night!!
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