Le Métro

One of the constants of Parisian life is riding the Métro, which first opened in 1900 and serves 1.4 billion (!) passengers every year.  Le Métro provides wonderful insights into Parisian life.  Not surprisingly, its use can bring adventures, ones that affect us directly since, with the exception of one student who lives near the Accent Paris center, we all take the Métro to class.  As a result, when the Métro experiences delays, we experience delays.  We have learned to check its site for "perturbations," as the RATP (Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens) provides – "en temps réel" – information on delays due to mechanical breakdowns, passenger injury, suspicious packages, and strikes.

Rouen & Giverny 2.0

           Headed toward Rouen, we drove past the Arc de Triomphe as the sun was rising!

The weather was perfect for a great group photo in front of Rouen Cathedral.  Rouen's architecture was amazing.  This Viking city was well worth the visit.

                                                                                                                                                                       

Joan of Arc was executed here in 1431.

 

Enjoying the Gardens of Monet!

 

Rouen & Giverny

Thanks to Accent Paris, which facilitates our study abroad program, I went to Rouen and Giverny with my friends!  Rouen, the capital of Haute-Normandie, lies on the Seine, in northwestern France.  I was mostly impressed by its architectural style, which is different from that in Paris.  In Giverny, I visited the house and garden of Monet, one of my favorite painters.  I was exhilarated to be in the real world of Monet's drawings on a beautiful fall day.

Nuit Blanche ~ White Night

The first Nuit Blanche took place in 2001, an initiative of then Parisian Mayor Bertrand Delanoë.  Since then, Paris has celebrated an all-night arts festival, from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., every year on the first Saturday of October.  As current Mayor Anne Hildago and her Premier Adjoint, Bruno Julliard, wrote in this year's program, "La nuit est le territoire de tous les possibles, le lieu de toutes les promesses.  Elle encourage les audaces, délivre l'imagination, s'abandonne aux rêves.  Chaque année, à Paris, l'art s'empare en toute liberté de l'une de ces nuits."  (Night is the territory of all things possible, the place of all promises.  It encourages audacities, frees the imagination, abandons itself to dreams.  Each year, in Paris, with complete freedom, art takes over one of these nights.)  Below are some images from the Open Musée Street ~ Art Contemporain walk of this year's Nuit Blanche, in the 13th arrondissement.

World War II, Vichy, and Casablanca

In HIS/GOV 322, we have begun to study France in World War II, a complex and highly charged topic that has introduced us to the collaborationist Vichy regime established by Maréchal Philippe Pétain and the Free French forces led by Charles de Gaulle.  We learned that most administrators in the French colonies remained loyal to Vichy before the Allied invasion of November 1942.  This seemed the perfect opportunity to screen Casablanca, set in the French colony of Morocco.  In the film, Captain Louis Renault, played by Claude Rains, serves as the Vichy prefect of police in Casablanca.  Corrupt, cynical, and a self-serving opportunist, Renault collaborates with the Nazis before deciding to join, with Humphrey Bogart's Rick Blaine, the French resistance in Brazzaville.

After class and the film, we discussed history, film, travels, and food (good and bad) over dinner at a bistro in Montmartre.

Site Visit: Palais de la Légion d'Honneur

The Palais de la Légion d'Honneur was constructed between 1782 and 1787. During the time Thomas Jefferson witnessed its construction, it was called Hôtel de Salm. Jefferson was inspired by it and decided to redesign his estate Monticello after he returned from Paris in 1789.

Here are two pictures of his estate, Monticello, the "Little Mountain."

Here are two pictures of a replica of the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur, the Palace of the Legion of Honor, constructed in 1924 in San Francisco, California. 

As you can see, there is a real exchange of architectural influence between France and the United States. 

HIS/IST 274 Site Visit Presentations

Today in class we gave presentations on our independent site visits of places in Paris that capture in some way the American presence in the city over the past centuries.  We learned about a wide variety of memorials, monuments, residences, cafés, and even a famous chain of fast food restaurants.  Site visits included Pershing Hall, the Children's Statue of Lafayette, Les Deux Magots Café, Harry's Bar, the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur, the Hôtel de Valentinois (Benjamin Franklin's former residence and printing press), a statue of Rochambeau, and McDonalds.

Not only did we enhance our knowledge of the long history of Franco-American political, diplomatic, military, and cultural relations, but we honed our public presentation skills.  (Left above is Annie presenting on the Children's Statue of Lafayette.  Directly to the left, Tessla is explaining the architectural influence of the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur.  To the right, Meredith is unfolding the history and cultural significance of McDonalds in France.)