Scotland!

This past weekend was Easter, and I decided it would be nice to be with someone from home since I can't be there. So I went to visit my friend Josh from high school, who is currently studying abroad in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It was a great trip! We saw the Scottish Parliament (that's where he's working this semester), we walked up Arthur's Seat (a group of hills), visited The Edinburgh Castle, walked the Royal Mile, and then took the train into North Queensferry, a town about 20 minutes away to walk the Coastal Path. Then we went to some bars (we only stayed at 2 but we visited a couple). On Easter, we went to a very small (30 people or so) service in a gorgeous church called St. Gile's. We also ate a very traditional Scottish breakfast (haggis!!). We visited the Princess Street Gardens, the Waverly Bridge, the cemetery where the philosopher is buried, and Calton Hill. It was a packed trip but it was great! Edinburgh is gorgeous and it was a nice change of pace from Paris- very, very different!




We started by hiking up Arthur's Seat, which was lovely and gave a fantastic view of the city.























The Edinburgh Castle was interesting- very dark looking but with really beautiful parts to it.



























North Queensferry was lovely- it was the quaintest little town in which I have ever been!




































St. Giles was where we went to an early morning Easter service.






















We followed church with HAGGIS!

















Princess Street Gardens were nice and right by the Waverley Bridge (which divides the new/ old sides of the city)











The cemetery was very pretty and peaceful

















Calton Hill has a very different monuments on it, and the view from the top is great of both Edinburgh and Arthur's Seat.

Musée de L'Orangerie

The Musée de L'Orangerie is a small museum of impressionists and post-impressionists right off of the Tuilleries Garden. My favorite part was the upstairs, which was 3 rooms of these long, mural-length Monet paintings.



The downstairs was neat, too. There was a lot of Matisse stuff I liked a lot, and also some Cézanne (but I'm not a huuuge fan of his), Derain, and I think some Picasso too.

Place des Vosges

Place des Vosges is this nice little square off of the Marais. Victor Hugo lived in one of the apartments surrounding it, and it's not a museum.

Musée Rodin

I absolutely LOVED this museum! The sculptures were gorgeous, the building was gorgeous, the garden was gorgeous! Another one of my Parisian favvvvvorites!

Tuilleries

After my 3 hour french exam (!!), Tuesday afternoon I met Laura at the Concorde station. Funny story- while waiting for her, in this huge city of 2 million people, I managed to run into another girl I know, Victoria! And later in the same trip, Morgan's friend Kitty! How crazy is that!! But anyway, neither Laura nor I had to work until 4:15, so we wandered around the Jardin des Tuilleries, the garden right by the Louvre. The last time I saw Tuileries, it was my first weekend here- snowy, gray, and barren. But yesterday it was all sunshine and blue skies!

(If you look closely in this picture, you can see the Arc de Triomphe all the way down the Champs-Élysées... look hard!)








Because it was such a nice day, we decided to just wander, and we ended up walking along the Seine until the path ended. Inevitably, any walk in Paris ends up in a cafe, so we stopped for some hot chocolate before heading out. What a nice afternoon! It finally felt like spring!

Arc de Triomphe

I had no language school Monday, so I decided to re-visit the Arc de Triomphe, which I'd only seen briefly during the quick car tour I took my first weekend here. It's at the center of this CRAZY roundabout, with like 4 lanes of traffic- I was nervous even being in the passenger seat when Marc, the father of the family for whom I'm working, was driving. I tried to get a picture but it doesn't do it justice! But anyway, when I got there, I was considering how best to brave crossing this chaotic mess of cars when I saw a sign directing me underground! Interestingly, instead of including crosswalks, there's a passageway that goes underneath the mess of cars.


















So while I had only intended to go across the street to see it up close, while I was walking underground, I saw a sign directing people where to buy tickets. I had no idea you could go up to the top! But since it was free for me (as have been all the museums, since technically I'm an EU resident under 26), I figured I might as well! It's 284 steps to the top (I know this because they had sign after sign, saying "This way to the 284 steps") but it wasn't bad. And the view from the top was worth it! You could see all the major landmarks of Paris in each direction. The Avenue des Champs-Élysées is right there, so I walked down for a while after I was done at the Arc (sorry, my camera died so I don't have any pictures!)