Les oeuvres de Monet

I don't know if I have mentioned this on my blog in the past, but one place I've been wanting to visit since before I even arrived here is Giverny, or home to the famous French impressionist, Claude Monet. I planned to go and do just that on the Monday just gone, when I realised with a sinking feeling that the cost of my train ticket there and the entrance fee to the gardens themselves actually equated to all the money I have left for this month, and tempting though it was (and it was very tempting. I almost went anyway), sensibleness won out. After all, I didn't think it was really very smart to leave myself with only €0.30 in copper coins for the remaining five days of my time here.

So that's another casualty on my bucket list, and the one I am most sad about, without question. I was really looking forward to going and I'm super disappointed that it didn't happen. But these things happen, and I know my mum was jealous that I was going, so maybe she'll come with me to do it one day in the future.

Still, I am an appreciator of Monet and impressionist works, and as it happens, a lot of Monet's most famous works live in various museums right here in Paris. I went and looked at them last week, on my first free day after exams (the only reason I didn't blog it earlier was because I had been planning to do a joint paintings/Giverny post, but as I said, it was not to be). 

I started off at the Musée Marmottan Monet, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.

It's home to the largest collection of Monet works in the world as well as paintings by lots of other famous masters, including Manet, David, Gérard and Cézanne.

After that I took the metro over to Concorde, spent a while soaking up some rays in the Tuilieries and then went into the Musée de l'Orangerie which is home to Monet's Water Lilies. You're not technically supposed to take photos, but of course people have and a quick google images search will show you the impressive paintings (of which I think I counted eight, and they're all huge). In fact, one of his paintings from the water lilies series has just sold at Sotheby's in London for £31.7m.

Anway, the paintings were all very interesting to look at and hear more about. It's not quite Giverny, but it will do for now.

Vicky xx

Les Invalides et le fin des examens

This weekend just gone, mon père was out here in Paris with me, and we had a lovely weekend, catching some live music in a bar on Rue Mouffetard and catching some dinner at La Bar a Huitres, which has become my go to place for seafood (to the delight of my dad, who much to my disgust, is a big fan of oysters).

We also headed over to the Musee de l'Armee at l'Hotel des Invalides. My Dad is ex-navy, and with both of us being history buffs, it was ideal for this weekend.

It's actually really interesting. Unlike the Imperial War Museum in London, it covers more than just the two world wars onwards, but also goes back to the time of the Musketeers and the Napoleonic wars. 

When we went on Saturday, we only had time to cover the 1914-1945 section of the exhibition, and to grab a verrrry quick look at Napoleon's tomb, so at some point before I head back to Blighty I hope to take the opportunity today to go back and look around a bit further. 

Well, that's not ostentatious at all!

In other news, my exams are OVER and I went out to dinner at Entrecôte tonight to celebrate. 

It's so nice not to have any more exams hanging over my head. By Monday this week, all of my stress caught up with me at once and I'm currently coughing and sniffling my way through one of the worst colds I've ever had. To be honest, I've been waiting for my body to say 'no! No more!' for a while. In fact, I'm impressed I made it this long without getting ill - in all my time in education, I have never been through a year as tough and as challenging as this one. 

It's been difficult, exceptionally so, and while I'm glad that I chose to come out here this year, I'm not at all sorry to say goodbye to the university element of it. Not even a little bit. Au Revoir Assas, not gonna miss ya.

On a lighter note, I've 8 (full) days left, including today, to enjoy living in Paris without exams hanging over me, and I hope to make the most of them.

Vicky xx

Cartier: Le Style et L'Histoire

So what's new?

This week my flatmate Parisa and I headed over to the Grand Palais, and after a nice chat in the queue with a travelling American, headed into this lovely building to meander around the Cartier Exhibition for a few hours. 

It's an exhibition which, fairly obviously, if you look at the picture above, told the story of the style and history of this great jewellery house, which was once described by King Edward VII as

"the jeweller of kings and the king of jewellers."

And you can see why.

Every exhibit was fascinating in it's own right, and even as you had to admire each item for the look and the workmanship, it was fascinating to learn a little bit more about the background behind each piece, which when put together, could almost tell the story of world history for more than one hundred years. As Maria Doulton put it, much better than I even could, in her review of the exhibition [see here]... 

"While clothes may decay and photographs fade, the bright colours and box-fresh excitement of jewels always best capture the zeitgeist and aspirations of an age."

So, for instance, the Amethyst and Turquoise necklace below belonged to the renowned Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor...

And then of course, there is the jewellery of the late, great, and stunningly beautiful Grace Kelly, Princess Grace of Monaco. 

Essentially, it was a really well put-together exhibition, which I really enjoyed looking around and which let me kill and afternoon doing something interesting and productive, rather than sitting around at home glued to my laptop. If you're in Paris, it's definitely worth going to see. It's not expensive, and it will be on until the 16th February.

Not the most eloquent of reviews, I grant you, but praise is praise. And as they say, a picture speaks 1000 words - I've got 5 of 'em in here. You can also check out my instagram - my username is the same as for my twitter account, the rather imaginative @9victoriag

Til next time - 

Vicky xx