saint-germain-des-pres

sorry i've been mia. so im officially done with all my classes!!!! the rest of this week is reading days then finals. argh. good thing is, i get to work through my "to go before i leave list" since i have a lot of free time now.
so today, i woke up and decided i would go to the eugene delacroix museum that i've wanted to go for a while. its right behind the saint-germain-des-pres church, hidden in a really cute square filled with interior decoration shops and galleries. the museum is much smaller than i expected- only 3 rooms of an apartment delacroix used to live in, while decorating the saint-sulpice church. it only houses a little bit of his work but there are these lithography (on shakspeare plays) stones that are just so cool to look at with the incredible details. after the museum, i just walked around and enjoyed the unbelievably warm weather.

saint-germain-des-pres will prob always be my fav neighborhood in paris. this place is usually flooded with tourists..which can be annoying, but this area is just so lovely to wander around that i still go there all the time regardless of the crowd. there are plenty of galleries and furniture stores and of course, an abundance of clothing shops and restaurants/cafes.

saint-germain-des-pres

mabillon on the exterior of the churchles deux magots

they put small metal plates up to mark the seats the famous people used to sit
apparently today i sat right next to J.P. Sartre

musee national eugene delacroixplace de frustenberg

april shower

ugh...stooopid rain. the weather hasn't been as nice as it SHOULD be. very repulsed by the gray sky. still, i forced myself to get out, time is running out! so little time, so much to do!! my classes end in 3 weeks which means thats also when my final projects/papers are due. then there are finals, then seattle! yikes.
alright, FOCUS FOCUS. lets start from last afternoon
so I went to cafe marly at the louvre- did some reading and of course people-watched.

today:
i walked to musee picasso, WOOHOO! i've been there already when mom and bro were here but this time is for my final projects- yes plural. i am studying the building for architecture and a sculpture for my material class. its one of my favorite museums here in paris. my others are l'orangerie and musee rodin. im still workng through the list of museums i need to visit though. i like smaller museums- they are bigger than galleries but much more intimate than the lourvre or d'orsay. the crowd is also smaller, yet the collection is just as amazing, maybe even better at times. take musee picasso for example, the pieces there are some of his best works, and some that are not your typical picasso- i find these even more interesting. there are also works of his peers- such as a room dedicated to cezanne, i saw a couple modiglianis hanging on the walls today as well. i mean i do appreciate louvre a lot too! its like a one-stop shop where you can get everything! going to these smaller museums is like going on a treasure hunt. i often find more than i went for because i get to explore a new neighborhood and things around it.
i only took a couple of shots- my favorite pieces. yeah, kind of failed the whole "im local, not tourist" thing, i tried. well, old habits die hard. oops. (i did manage to hold back on one portrait though, i love love love it but the guard was there which made me ridiculously self-conscious with my camera.)

WARHOL. ANDY WARHOL.

le grand monde d'andy warhol (au grand palais). read about it here
the slide show process of putting up the exhibit. lucky lucky, they got to TOUCH the pieces.

oh la la, the largest showing of warhol's works ever. silk screen prints, films, photography etc. the exhibit inclueded mostly portraits. these were people who were creme de la creme of their times. royalties of their respective fields, real royalties too. show biz stars, fashion designers, socialites, princes/princesses, and political figures. im not going to name-drop, the list is too long. and of course, andy loves himself plenty, tons of self-portraits. imagine having these actual personalities in the room instead of their faces. my answer to the good ol' dinner party question. one of my fav was a young judy garland portrait. such poise. magnifique. who wouldn't meet her in st. louis.
lets see, others...debbie harry looked really good in pink. man ray in green. very cool but eye-sore neon cow wall paper; drag warhol on film (he had a terrible makeup artist, i stood in front of the screen for 10 minutes watching her mess up the fake lashes over and over); lots of dolla sign prints; the 112(?)times of jesus' face from last supper...so on. oh yes, and mao never looked better- the granny look suits him. it was overwhelming to say the least. only paris can pull off this kind of exhibits (this& 'picasso and the masters' etc.) the venues, the resources, the curators, and the appreciative audience are like no other.

a day in the 16th

today, i visited the girls (Ellie&Remy) in their territory- the 16th arrodissement. they brought me to a comtemporary italian restaurant right by victor hugo and the tomato+mushroom rigatoni was delicious. once again, i ate it before i thought of taking photos.
after lunch, we set out on a walk to Palais Tokyo for some modern art. on our way, we passed Place des Etats-Unis and Ellie decided it was time for an impromtu photoshoot. so finally, we now have photo evidences for our families that we are all still very much alive.

(guest photographer: Ellie)

Palais de Tokyo...hm...story of the day. Oh, "modern art"...
my head is still buzzing from this tres bizarre exhibit. its hard to explain and also the fact that that one display probably killed a lot of my brain cells makes it even harder for me to explain.
so we had to turn off all our phones (5 between the 3 of us!) and cameras before entering this "danger" zone. basically, i voluntarily walked onto a platform and let tons and tons of anions flow through my body. immediately, i felt something with my hair, then it got to my scalp and thats when i ran off the display stage. it is one of the weirdest thing i've ever experienced. like Ellie said, we probably all have cancer now.



the rest of the afternoon went on as we discussed how disorientated we were while sitting in the most under-staffed cafe ever- Cafe du Trocadero. stay away from that place or be like us and feel terrible as we watch that one waiter run around the cafe and take care of 20 tables by himself.

seeing rainbow

guess what? this little blog has officially been visited over 100 times. thankyou thankyou thankyou. I LOVE YOU GUYS! i feel so loved getting all the comments even though it makes me miss everyone even more. oh and much love to those who don't leave comments but always remember to email/facebook/text/call me to tell me how you love the photos. im so glad you all enjoy the photos because i'm having a blast with the camera. well..snapping away like a tourist ;)

so i've been thinking about going to Les Arts Decoratifs for a while and finally did it today. i took the metro to Tuileries and walked to the museum- 2 minutes away.

There was a great Sonia Rykiel exhibition by the museum's fashion and textile department. the best part was "la femme Rykiel," which is a 40th anniversairy tribute to Rykiel from every fashion designer you can think of.

My other favorite is the permanent jewelry collection, so beautiful. last but not least, the toy exhibit that had all the granparents and kids in there going ohhs and ahhs and oh la la las.

l'orangerie