French Exchange
Today, we started the day off by going to classes with other French students. After about four hours of classes, we then had an hour to have an amazing lunch either at or away from the school. After lunch we had our daily meeting to discuss how we felt about the past day and how we felt about the day ahead.
Then we took the metro to meet up with our tour guide Chloe. From there, we walked to Sacré Coeur and saw the amazing cathedral and even better views from the top of the hill. After leaving Chloe for the last time, we took the metro back to Saint Do and went home with our corres for our final night.
Written by Sydney Beverly ’20, recounting March 18
Today was our second to last day in Paris. Everyone is sad because we have to leave to go back to school soon. But today we went to the Pompidou, which is a modern art museum. Everyone enjoyed looking at the art by various artists from surrealism, Dada, expressionism and many others.
After that, we all had lunch at the Stravinsky Fountain. After the fountain we were free to explore the area around the Pompidou. After we explored we went to Belleville, which has many diverse types of people, to see street art. The street art was beautiful, and I enjoyed seeing the artworks on the buildings. Street art is very costly because people have to pay a fines of hundreds of dollars for getting caught. Our guide, Chloe made everything so interesting!
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Written by Morgan Aufenger ’20, recounting March 15
On Friday, we started off our morning with a stroll through a park and a tour of the Foundation Louis Vuitton museum. The building, modeled after a ship and designed by Frank Gehry, is a work of art itself along with the pieces inside. From the viewing deck we had a wonderful view of the Paris skyline and the wooded park surrounding it, which was highlighted by the abnormal structure of the building. This center strives to be environmentally friendly as much as possible; one of the most notable ways is by collecting rain water to fill their toilettes to not waste water.
After our tour, we walked to a farmers market in Neuilly where some of us had the chance to try out our French and buy some authentic food and jewelry. For our second activity, we took a boat tour of the Seine on a bateau mouche. We all enjoyed watching famous Parisian landmarks as we traveled down the river.
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Written by Pooja Mahesh ’20, recounting March 14th
Yesterday we got to experience a major part of French history: going to the Opéra Garnier. We felt as though we were the rich French people of the 1800s when we walked through the sparkling doors. All the walls were covered with beautiful art, and the ceilings were painted with beautiful classical murals. Although we didn’t see an opera, It was a mesmerizing experience that made my neck hurt because I spent so much time looking at the elegant ceilings.
After a great lunch with our corres we went to the Louvre. Although we only had an hour and a half, we were able to see the most important pieces of artwork in the museum such as Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa.I got to recreate a picture I took ten years ago with the Mona Lisa (it was très cool). We were able to witness a lot of French culture through art.
Written by Camille Foley ’20, recounting March 13th
This morning we all met at St. Dominique and had our morning meeting. Then, we were on our way to the Île de la Cité. After taking the metro there, we met up with our tour guide Chloé and walked around the island until we got to Sainte Chapelle. Chloé taught us about the stories in the stained glass and told us about the process of the glass making. That building took seven years to build and each window is 49 feet high, and the whole room depicts over 1,000 scenes from both the Old and New Testaments.
After Sainte Chapelle, we went to the Pizzeria Sarno. Then, we headed to Notre Dame, which took over 140 years to build. From the gargoyles all around to the intricate designs on the doorways and stories in the statues, this building has much to appreciate. We all had an amazing day!