My Last Weeks in Paris

After returning from the Italy trip and after finishing up with final reviews at school, I spent a few days relaxing -- pretty much just eating and sleeping -- before setting out to explore or revisit all of the things I wanted to see in Paris before leaving.

Our panel of reviewers on the last day of school

Au revoir to our awesome staff!

Some of the places I visited during those two weeks of freedom....

The catacombs -- creepy

Sainte Chapelle yet again 

A fun day in Montmartre.  We really need to get some of these good drinks in the USA:  I think this was a "Monaco," a Belgian beer with grenadine.

The Musée Rodin, home to the "Thinker" statue 

The Napoleon apartments at the Louvre again... pure luxury

Monet's water lily paintings at the Orangerie near the Louvre

The Eiffel Tower sparkling on the hour

A huge exhibition at the Grand Palais by Anish Kapoor, the guy who did the Bean in Chicago

Standard famous shot: the Eiffel Tower from Place Trocadero, or the Palais Chaillot

My new favorite park that I had never seen before: up on the northeast side of town, the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont

My final photograph taken in France... good old Notre Dame de Paris

I spent a lot of time visiting various boulangeries and cafés around the city, comparing baguettes and pastries of all sorts.  Sitting at a café for a few hours and sketching is one of my favorite Parisian past-times; once I even splurged at Ladurée (on Rue Royale) and Les Deux Magots (on St. Germain).  I revisited my favorite crêpe place, which, for anyone heading to Paris soon, is right off of St. Michel and St. Germain on Rue de la Harpe, a few meters from the Musée Cluny... A bunch of us brought wine and snacks to the Pont des Arts, where lots of young people like to spend their evenings drinking along the Seine... And I went museum-crazy.  I visted/revisited the Louvre, the Orangerie, the Musée d'Orsay, the Palais de Chaillot, the Palais de Toyko, the Musée Carnavalet, Victor Hugo's house, the Musée Jacquemart-André, the Institude du Monde Arabe, Sainte Chapelle, Notre Dame, and more that I probably can't remember right now.  I also made sure to stop by Fauchon for free food samples again and went to the Marais to compare falafels (Chez Hannah is the best).  But the best thing I did during my last week was hang out with the remaining Americans and my French friends.  Being able to hear and speak French with them for the last time was so nice -- who knows when I"ll get to do that again.  On my last night, I went out with my French friend in his neighborhood, and then before catching one of the last trains back to Versailles, I sprinted over to the plaza in front of Notre Dame to step on the famous gold marker set in the pavement there.  It's considered a good luck charm if you step on the marker, which denotes the geographical center of Paris -- it means that you'll be back there soon!  So hopefully, since I went so far out of my way to get there... fate will bring me back to Paris soon.

Finally.... My 3-Week April Sketch Trip in ITALY

After arriving back in Chicago, a month and a half after-the-fact, I finally remembered to put up some pictures from my Italy trip on here.  It was a three week break in between our final exams and our final design presentations, during which my friends and I traveled all throughout Italy.  Ten of those days were also spent on a mandatory sketching trip with a teacher, and I was lucky enough to go to the Amalfi Coast with Lenore Baigelman.  It was the most relaxing sketch trip of the entire year, what with the warm weather, the beaches, and the complete overdose of Italian cuisine... here are some of the beautiful sights I got to see on my Italian adventure!

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

The Duomo in Florence from Piazza Michelangelo

The Colosseum in Rome

The Spanish Steps in Rome

And now for our Amalfi Coast sketch trip... first stop: Sorrento! 

The Roman city of Pompeii, buried under the ashes of Mt. Vesuvius

Crazy huge lemons.  Lemons and limoncello were everywhere! 

The Atlantis-like island of Capri

The small but beautiful Amalfi

High up on a hill, the ultra-luxurious town of Ravello

A ritzy resort town called Positano

The ancient Greek city at Paestum

And after the sketch trip ended... the charming canals of Venice

Last day in Italy: Piazza San Marco in Venice

We also visited Naples, where we ate the world's BEST pizza at three different restaurants, one of which was the famous one from "Eat Pray Love."  (Unfortunately, Naples' big garbage disposal problem made it rather unworthy of photo ops).  From Florence, my friend and I also made a side trip to the Chianti region, where we compared vineyards, went in a castle with pet peacocks, and tried 3 different wines.  And of course, we spent a LOT of time sketching every single day -- even outside of the Amalfi sketch trip -- to document all of the beautiful Italian architecture and ruins surrounding us.  It was good to go back to France, where the food is more diverse and where I can understand the language... but it was an eventful and memorable trip to Italia.