Middle Ages was yucky!
Paris is absolutely massive! Christophe, Vincent, and I went to the National Museum of Middle Ages (Musée de Cluny sur le Moyen-Age). I did not know about the Middle Ages as much as I thought! Middle Ages is a time period from 1000 – 1300 A.C. and I certainly would NOT want to live during that period! It’s such a disgusting period! The castles were incredibly creepy and dark unlike the castles from the Renaissance period. Religion played a HUGE role during the middle ages. Everyone wore millions of crosses on them. Crosses were used as patterns on people’s clothes, on dishes, and on furniture! All of the paintings during that period were images of religion. What disgusted me the most was that children did not start learning to read or to write until they were adults! Nothing was pretty during that period. That is why Renaissance occurred! That is also why Renaissance means rebirth of art, literature, and music! Middle Ages destroyed the beauty of art, literature, and music. Thank goodness Renaissance occurred! Another thing that I have learned is NOT to take an art history class on Middle Ages at SCAD!
After the excursion to the National Museum of Middle Ages, we took a walk in Paris, in particular in St. Michael. I highly recommend this place more than Montmartre for souvenir shopping. It’s a great souvenir shopping area and people are nicer than the ones at Montmartre. Plus, St. Michael is cleaner than Montmartre. Montmartre is disgusting! – full of people who smoke! La Sarbonne is located in St. Michael and Latin Quatier is also near St. Michael. There is also a HUGE bookstore in St. Michael, Gilbert Jeune, – four stories tall! This bookstore reminds me of the huge bookstore that I went to in Newton, Massachusetts a few times. They have a MASSIVE selection of books on Napoleon – Napoleon in this war, Napoleon in that war, Napoleon as this…and that. Unfortunately, they were all in French! If they were in English, I would have gotten them for my brother! I would definitely recommend this bookstore for those people who want to purchase a French book! The bookstore is completely overwhelming!
I am so stupid! I thought Hôtel de Ville is a hotel for rich people. It’s NOT! It’s a city hall for Paris! I sure did see it and the building is very elegant. I also saw la Place du Châlelet. It’s just another random monument in Paris. That was it for the day! I just came back to Christophe’s apartment and relaxed for awhile.
I also went the supermarket that is next door to the apartment with Christophe’s mom. Life is so convenient for this family. The mother goes to the supermarket every single day because it’s right next door and she grabs what she needs for the day. Every morning, for breakfast, I find fresh croissants on the table that his mother brought from the supermarket that morning! Yes, I have been eating croissants everyday, BUT I have lost weight! Some of my pants are literally falling off! I am going to hate my life in Atlanta when I return! French people can wonderful food and not gain weight! That is because they WALK A LOT and eat FRESH food daily. That makes me jealous!
