My unofficial summer job

Since I have been slacking on my blog posts again, the next few posts will probably not be in any chronological order. But no one keeps track of time on vacation anyway. 

Some of my favorite parts of this trip have been the art museums. I only took one art history class, but our syllabus really should have been titled "paintings in the Louvre and Musée d'Orsay." So my knowledge of the beautiful art made the experience even more surreal for me. 

Of course the Louvre is a must see for everyone who visits Paris. I was lucky enough to see it twice. The first time was with my dad, back when I could afford to do the expensive things in Paris. We decided we would get in line super early to beat the crowds. So naturally we slept in and got there late in the morning. It actually turned out to be a perfect plan as we were arriving right as the other tourists were leaving for lunch. But still, this is it not crowded: 

We made a beeline straight for the Mona Lisa before the afternoon crowd showed up. I am honestly not joking when I say it was bigger than I expected! So many people had warned me of it's size that I was pleasantly surprised I could even see it. Seriously, people think this is small?

After we had accomplished our goal of pushing our way to the Mona Lisa, it was time to move on to the Venus de Milo. We spent so much time staring and wondering what her hands were supposed to look like that we later hunted for the best wifi, eventually sitting outside the apple store to look it up. Turns out she's holding an apple and doing a pretty bad job of keeping her skirt on.

Finally, we had the rest of the afternoon to explore and enjoy the other paintings. I mostly wanted to see the paintings by Jacques-Louis David, and they definitely did not disappoint! David is by far one of my favorite painters. I could go on and on about the stories and stylistic detail of each of his massive paintings (my dad will gladly attest to my jabbering on about each piece we passed), but I don't have enough room on a blog to explain my love of his art. The paintings like "Oath of the Horatii" and "The Coronation of Napolean" are so awe-inspiring large and detailed that there is no way to capture them other than saying I could have easily stayed and enjoyed them for hours. 

For me, the rest of the Louvre could not compare to David's paintings, but I was still amazed by the scale and variety of the works throughout the museum. Here are some pictures: 

(P.S. mom: I'm pretty sure dad is determined to redecorate now)

The second time I went to the Louvre was the beginning of my new startup business as a tour guide in English and French. In the hostels I met a group of Canadians planning on going to the Louvre. When I started giving them suggestions on what to see, they all decided to chip in for my ticket if I would guide them through. It turned out to be an amazing experience. Two of them spoke English, and the other two spoke mainly French, so I got to do a lot of translating on top of sharing my knowledge of the paintings. They were a super fun group and surprisingly eager to learn everything I knew! 

Now as much as I love the Louvre, the impressionist museum, Musée d'Orsay was easily my favorite. With works by Degas (my absolute favorite painter), Monet, Renoir, Manet, and all the other influential painters of the nineteenth century, I was practically giddy! Again, I felt like a tour guide taking my dad through the history of the transition from Neoclassical painting to the beautiful Impressionism. Unfortunately, they don't let you take pictures of the art, but I did manage to sneak one of "The Gleaners" by Millet that my grandma loved. 

When it comes to art, I don't think it's possible to top the museums in Paris. Until next time, here's a painting of a monkey painting:

Katie learns to love wine

No blog about France would be complete without a post dedicated to the food. This gastronomic mecca has even surpassed my expectations. The smallest cafés are guaranteed to have delectable pastries; and the menus at fancy restaurants have a plethora of culinary delights. Oh, and the bread is fantastic everywhere. 

Coming here, my goal was to convince myself to eat escargot. I still haven't gotten the nerve up to try that, but I've made up for it with the many other foods I would have never eaten before. Most notably, the pâté de foie gras scared me with it's spam like appearance. But I was pleasantly surprised when I spread it on my bread and actually enjoyed it. Another time, my dad ordered a salad that turned out to have chicken gizzards in it. Again, the look of it was unnerving. Apparently there isn't much you can do to chicken gizzards to make them look like real meat. But again this country's chefs surprised me with the flavors hidden in the most unusual foods. I'll keep you updated on my quest to eat snails, but for now I am more than satisfied with my Camembert au miel, poulet rôti, and dourade.

Restaurants were one of the best places to practice my French - reading the menus and ordering all the food. And we always did get what we wanted. With two notable exceptions..

To assuage my dad's eagerness to learn French, I allowed him to order for himself at a fancy but friendly restaurant in Versailles called Maître Kanter. He did pretty well, ordering his entrée and then his plat. But he made one crucial mistake - he asked for wine. Not "un verre du vin" like I had taught him. Simply, wine. To our surprise (and eventually delight), the waiter placed a large bucket of ice next to our table, in which he placed a full bottle of Pinot Blanc. But hey, if our biggest problem in France is ordering too much wine, I say it's a good trip. So I laughed and helped my dad polish it off. It actually went pretty well with my seafood platter. 

There was a different vibe to the second incident. On my dad's last night, we found a cute Italian restaurant to enjoy a late dinner. The problems began when the waiter didn't speak very much French. My dad managed to place his order of shrimp linguine, this time clearly requesting one glass of wine. Again, an entire bottle of white was placed at our table. We could have handled that. But then, the waiter brought us a menu and pointed at the fish section saying "no." So naturally my dad wanted to switch his wine to a red to complement the ravioli he was now ordering. And the fun began. The waiter alternated between yelling "not possible" and "no English" while my dad kept trying to communicate in any language. I swear at one point he even tried German: "Bitte beachten Sie die Lücke zwischen Zug und Bahnsteig." I knew from the announcements on the metro that he had just cautioned the waiter to "please mind the gap between the train and the platform." So I finally intervened and with elaborate hand gestures, we managed to explain "no poisson, no blanc." The waiter finally seemed to understand us, but then we realized he was just bringing us a second bottle of wine. We had learned our lesson and this time waved him away before he opened the red. It's not like my palate is so sophisticated I can't drink a white with my pasta anyway. 

Sometimes it works...

The first few days in Paris, we devised what we thought would be an effective strategy for exploring the big city: if we saw a line, we joined it. Sometimes we were rewarded with a twilight boat cruise down the Seine; other times we were just in line for Nutella crêpes from a cart. Here's where some of the best lines led us:

The very first line we got in looked promising. It went past an elaborate wrought iron gate into a maze of hedges straight out of the Triwizard Tournament. To our disappointment (and confusion), it turned out to be Abercrombie & Fitch on the Champs Élysées. The first hint probably should have been the bouncers - they could have doubled as models.

Being on vacation, we had completely lost track of the days. So when we visited the Cathédrale Notre Dame on the Île de la Cité, we didn't expect to find ourselves at the Sunday service. It was an overwhelming experience and a very welcome start to our day. Somehow it didn't feel right taking pictures, but the exterior is magnificent enough. 

In keeping with the religious theme, we also visited Sacre Cœur on top of the hill in Montmartre. It has one of the best views of the city. 

When the lines and crowds got to be too much for us, we wandered into one of Paris' ubiquitous gardens. Below is the Jardin des Plantes. 

And of course, no line is worth waiting in more than that at the Eiffel Tower. After seeing it in the daylight, we immediately decided to come back at night to make the trek to the top. It did not disappoint. 

Of course, our strategy wasn't perfect. Sometimes we won... And sometimes we followed an oddly spellbound crowd to watch the world's worst Michael Jackson street performer. 

A very Gaudí city

As promised, I'm trying to write more posts. Which means finishing documenting Barcelona so I can start telling stories about Paris!! So instead of trying to describe everything in writing, I'm going to just post a bunch of pictures with some commentary. 

No trip to Barcelona should ever be complete without visiting Park Güell, Antoni Gaudí's fantasy. The view can't be beat and the architecture is unique and beautiful. 

Seriously, Gaudí must have had a blast designing this place. 

(P.s. that's not just the lighting, my arms really suffered in the sun)

They should really rename Barcelona the Gaudí City. Pretty much all the landmarks were designed by him. The park may have been the most fun, but the cathedral, La Sagrada Família was easily the most impressive. 

We even climbed a super narrow staircase to the top of one of the 25 story towers for another incredible view.

The last day, we had just enough energy to climb Mont Juic and see the old (1992) Olympic stadium.

They still hold big events here, but this cat basically owns it.

I guess I can now say I'm an official world traveller after spending the night in the airport to catch an early morning flight. My dad managed to find the only set of seats in the entire terminal missing an armrest, letting him lay down.

These two French girls spent half an hour yanking all the armrests and muttering "how did he do that." They even discussed waking him up to ask before giving up and laying on the floor. 

As sad as I was to leave Barcelona's sunshine and splendor, I loved knowing that Paris waited for me just across the Pyrenees. It's going to be a challenge accurately describing how much I love the City of Lights.

 Bye bye Barca.

Better late than never

Now that I've been in Paris for a few days, Barcelona seems like a world away. But in an effort to make up for the lack of posting thus far, here are some pictures and anecdotes of what I remember from my spectacular 5 days in the beautiful city:

The first day, I slept. But I did manage to get out and explore the city a bit. Turns out, exploring isn't very simple in Barcelona. We were trying to find the biggest, busiest street and instead found ourselves lost in the Gothic Quarter

But wandering down the back avenues and side streets led us to some of the coolest places. 

And we finally did find that busy street, La Rambla de Catalunya!

The second day we took an awesome bike tour. Sure it sounds like a touristy thing to do, but I only wish we'd done it earlier because biking through the narrow streets, stopping at all the beautiful landmarks, and capping it off with free drinks on the beach was a perfect introduction to the city.

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of one of my favorite parts because I ate it too quickly. I was expecting amazing desserts in Paris, but Barcelona was a delicious surprise. The second night, I ordered the truita llaetjas de xocolata because I at least knew the word chocolate. It turned out to be a chocolate tortilla with chocolate sauce dipped in more chocolate (which by itself would be tasty enough). But the best part was the sprinkles. They were like chocolate pop rocks! I still have no idea what they really were, but they crackled and fizzled on my tongue just like real pop rocks. Amazing. 

I miss you all! Shout out to Liz for getting me to write a new blog post (you know I need the pestering). More mañana. 

Parlez-vous Catalan?

Well I've been here for a day and a half and the language barrier is proving more amusing than frustrating:

- So far, after every meal my dad has politely requested "one ticket, please." 

- The other night as they were locking the garden gates of the Palau Robert (locking us in), we apparently ran around asking everyone for a salad.

- Today, we scoured the MACBA (Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art) for the paintings of angels before discovering the proper translation of the exhibition title was "There are no angels here."

Catalan, the native language of Barcelona, has a French influence though, so it kinda looks like French but with real endings to the words. 

I don't know if it was the way I looked, or the fact that I keep automatically blurting out "merci" after transactions, but a flamboyant flamenco street performer (with a suspiciously deep voice) asked me "oh, français?" My proudest moment. Let's hope I can get a similar reaction in France.

P.s. to mom, proof that we did successfully meet up:

T minus 16 hours

Well I leave tomorrow for my grand European adventure. I call it that because there are several purposes to this trip. It is equal parts vacation, adventure, and job. For those of you that I have not already talked excitedly to, I am going to spend almost 3 months in France. When I get off the plane though, I'll actually be in Barcelona, Spain meeting up with my dad.

After a couple days we'll head to Paris. From this point on, there really is not much of a plan in place. It should be interesting to spend a week with my dad, whose idea of speaking French is answering every question existentially with "c'est moi" or "it's me." After fending for myself in the hostels of Paris for a while, I'll finally be moving to St.-Malo, a city on the Northwest coast in the Brittany region of France. There I will be an au pair for an adorable 3 year old girl. I've already started practicing my French nursery rhymes and Disney songs :)

This is going to be one of the greatest experiences of my life. Not only do I get incredible experience for my future, but I also get to fulfill a lifelong dream of rocking dresses every day with the ever-so-stylish Europeans.