It's the Weekend!

It’s amazing how quickly time flies when you’re busy exploring a fantastic city! Yesterday was a long, but exciting day. We started off with a conditioning class and then took a master class with Barbara Kane from the Isadora Duncan Foundation. This class was really interesting for me because I’ve studied Duncan’s work so many times throughout various dance history courses, but I have never actually taken a class in her style before. It was certainly different from anything I’m used to, but it was fun to shift gears a little. Plus we got to dance with scarves!

Afterward, we made a trip to the Musee Bourdelle, a small museum in the Montparnasse area. It features the work of Antoine Bourdelle, as well as his apartment, studio, and some beautiful gardens. It’s a very small museum, but I definitely enjoyed the visit. From there, we went to meet our tour guide for our Paris Fashion Walk! We got a chance to visit some of the most prominent fashion houses in Paris (in other words, places I would probably never walk into otherwise). We all felt a little under-dressed, but it was a very fun experience for me…I just avoided looking at any price tags!

After dinner, a small group of us made our way down to the Eifel Tower for a boat cruise along the Seine River! It was absolutely beautiful – the weather was perfect and the sites were magnificent! Our boat didn’t leave until 9:30, so throughout the ride we got to watch the sky darken and the city light up! After the cruise, we stayed by the Eifel Tower to watch it “twinkle” (On the hour, the Tower lights up with sparkling lights for five minutes). It was one of the most magical things I have ever seen and a perfect way to wrap up Week 3!

 

Today was a free day for us, so I took the opportunity to do some exploring of my own. I wandered through a flower market and then took a free walking tour of the Latin Quarter that was a ton of fun! The guide was full of great stories and information about the area, so I might be going on a few more of the company’s tours in some other areas before I leave! One of my favorite sites was the Shakespeare and Company book shop, which is not only a fantastic English bookstore (the first in Paris actually!), but also a studio for writers to read and work. I did take a few minutes to look around inside and it was fantastic…there are books lining the walls and there are even ladders and step stools to reach the top shelves! A few other exciting sites on the tour were Sorbonne University and the Pantheon.

 

After coming back to the FIAP for a quick lunch, I made my way back to the Marais area, determined to find the amazing tea shop that I have heard so much about. After a bunch of wrong turns and a few distractions, I finally found it. It may have taken me hours, but it was certainly worth it! I wanted to buy the entire store! It is called “Mariage Freres: Maison de Thé à Paris” and it was established in 1854. They sell over 500 varieties of high quality tea, grown in 35 countries! As you can imagine, the aroma of the shop is absolutely lovely and much of the old décor remains intact, giving the store a very unique atmosphere! It was definitely my most expensive shopping excursion yet…I have no will power when it comes to tea! Once I finished my shopping, I was pretty exhausted from all of the walking so I sat outside of a café for a bit to enjoy the weather before heading home for dinner. Now I’m back for the evening and getting ready to plan out tomorrow’s adventures!