June 1, Day 10

In the morning before heading out to do some hardcore sight seeing we hit up a little pastry shop (Le Cafe de The I think? Or 'the tea cafe'... no I havent had tea there... im having no tea until London duuhhh). I got q 'pain du chocolat', translation unknown, but it's just a fabulous croissant with chocolate in the middle- a perfect way to start the day. We walked for awhile, then got tickets for a boatbus that takes you to eight stops like the eiffel tower, lourve, and notre dame, etc. Our destination: Notre Dame. I was so excited, especially since Ive had numerous art history classes where ive studied it and what not. It was gigantic- one could even become dizzy looking up towards the ceiling. It was astoundingly beautiful and beyond impressive. A mighty experience indeed. After lunch we then hit up the Sainte Chappel, which the building in itself is a reliquary, or a sacred decorative container that plays host to some holy relic. I forget what relic was there, but it sure was decorative. The second floor is entirely stained glass; fifteen total huge vertical stained glass windows, each with scenes from the bible. The entire story of the bible was in that stained glass, so that should go to show you how ,uch there really was. Incredible. We then went to some museum where I saw the original Poling the marsh Hay by Peter Henry Emerson, paintings by Manet, Gustave Corbet, and Van Gough. I saw Van Gough's self portrait and was entirely unimpressed. I can appreciate what he did for the impressionist painting movement... but his work did not excite me in the least bit. A little bit of a letdown... but the rest of the work I saw was pretty incredible. I never realized how huge those paintings actually are.
After eating a pretty American dinner (cheeseburger... and I should have just gotten french food because it was not good) I went on a little exploration adventure before heading back to the hotel: find the starbucks. I was told there was one near that restaraunt and was determined to know where so I could go there the next morning before we headed out. Ive been having iced latte withdrawl... it sucks. Nevertheless I found it in not even 2 minutes time (Im not sure if that's pathetic or awesome.... i'd like to say it's quite honorable).

There was a point throughout the day where I saw a great Street Photography photo moment, two homeless french men sharing a bottle of wine on a bench near the river, but was too afraid to get in their business and photograph them. Easton told me, "Some of the best advice a friend ever gave me was 'Dont be afraid.'" This hqs kind of stuck with me since then and my series of Street Photography, I feel, is going to be a lot about me trying to push myself out of my own comfort zone; after all, Street Photography is about upsetting the flow of things and people's personal way of things.

One last thing- everyone smokes in France. I dont know if that's solely a european thing or not, but I feel like just because i dont smoke makes it that much more obvious that Im american. Though, I was told that out of the entire group Im probqbly the one who could pass for being french or european or whatever. That's definitely a compliment in my book.

That's all I have for tonight... I bought some 'Chocolat noir intense et zestes d'orange', rather, chocolate with orange zest, and I really want to eat it :)