Day 20, Night of the Museums

Well, so I honestly stay up far too late doing my blog, talking to fam, and getting ready for bed, and last night was my record: 4 am!  This morning, I woke up to my alarm and then proceeded to sleep another half hour, which seems to be a pattern here using a cellphone alarm which is exceedingly far too conveniently close to my bed.  Thankfully, the sleeping in was only a half hour and even though I was late to meet up with some other ladies to picnic in a park, there were others even later than me.  Yeah, "Mormon Standard Time" isn't just a States thing, which is fortunate for me in cases such as today.  Because of each person coming at different times, we ended up finally getting to the park an hour after our original meet-up time, but it was all good and we had plenty to eat.  Better yet, the weather forecast was sunny with some rain, and there were definitely clouds up there in the sky, occasionally stripping us of the sun's warmth, but those would give way to sunlight to warm us once again.  The day was peaceful, and it was nice to not be pressed for time and just enjoy being there.

Most of the girls are in the YSA, but the Japanese girl with us is the one who came with me to institute a week and a half ago, Ayumi.  And the little girl next to her is three and is an adorable little English-French bilingual!

After spending a few hours there, we finally made our way back to the metro station to go our separate ways.  I ended up going to my computer for a bit, napping, eating dinner, and arranging a rendezvous with another American girl here, Amy.  She also goes to BYU, she studies French, and she's doing an internship here.  The inspiration for our rendezvous?  A little annual something here called "Nuit des Musees," "Night of the Museums."  I knew it was going on, and I wanted to participate, and then I received a message from Amy saying that the Musee d'Orsay was participating, which meant I could go see it for FREE!  I came the first week I was here, but I waited outside for my friends.  This time, I got to go and enter without having to pay!  (Totally worth it, PS, especially since I met two Spanish nuns in the metro on my way over, who were delighted to speak to me in Spanish!  Hehe, they recommended that I go to the Bon Marche.  I wonder how loaded those two were...)


I couldn't take pictures on the inside of the museum, but we snagged a couple before going in.  Here's one:

 At first, we just kept seeing one nude after another, but it was cool to look at what they were holding, how the title related, and what it could mean.  There was a series of three women who were more covered, and they were called "Vigilance," "History," "Meditation," and the fourth is "Fantasy," but it's in Japan.  One giant one we saw was"Romains en Decadence," which seemed to be a huge depiction of a party of carnal Romans, but it was interesting to look at the expressions and poses of the statues above them and to notice that only two of the figures were facing forward.  We decided the explanation of those two had to be that the man was the painter and the woman was the one he loved, but she was with another man and was unreachable for him!

Soon, we found the impressionists and the art turned to everyday beauty.  I saw some works that I remember learning about all the way back in first grade from Mrs. Tammen, and I saw original works by Renoir, Millet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Monet, Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Pissarro, and Cross.  I couldn't believe I was seeing the real "Moulin de la Galette" by Renoir and "Femme à l'ombrelle tournée vers la droite" by Monet.  I did happy fingers, I was so excited--a habit picked up from my friend Ashlee.   Two other favorites were "Portrait of Mademoiselle Carter" by Lucien Levy-Dhurmer because the face was so life-like and "Jeune Fille" by Emile Levy because the dress's sheen and depth was so vivid!  Seeing those two paintings in particular, Amy and I felt like the museum might indeed come to life, like in "Night at the Museum"!  If you don't believe me, here's a glimpse:

 

Religiously, the one I liked best (perhaps one of the only ones I saw) was "Compassion!" I can't remember the artist's name, but it was a sweet depiction of Christ dead on the cross, being helped by a man holding a smaller cross on his shoulder while beginning to support Christ.

When we decided we were done and left the museum, I insisted on taking pictures of a particular building I'd seen before entering a couple of hours earlier.  In the night, It was beautiful!  The picture I'm including is neat in its own right, but doesn't quite do it justice.  We also went on a nearby bridge, giving us an even better view of the building I'd just photographed, as well as Notre Dame, The Eiffel Tower, and other monuments in the city--amazing!