Paris

Geez where do I even start with this city, there is so much to talk about! I guess I will try and hit the high points...

First off, the pastries.... AMAZING best in the world definitely. Croatia is a close second but Paris still trumps (speaking of trump, i have learned an excellent new card game that i will teach my friends back home, its called setback).

Okay on the the architecture...

Notre Dame: better than the pictures. Its so clean! apparently they just took down the scaffolding that had been up during the entire lengthy cleaning process. The yellowish-brown stone glistened in the parisien sunlight. While we were sketching the interior a service began and we got the rare opportunity to experience the organ of the great cathedral.

Place de Vosges: An excellent example of urban planning. I believe the piazza used to serve the royal palace and has now been turned into apartments. We visited in the morning when the sun was out but they weren't many people there. Then by the time we left the park began filling with children and mothers playing in the sandboxes. And FINALLY a city piazza with grass! see Rome it can be done!

Palais Royale: Another nice urban space. This one was larger, with extensive alleys of trees cut very specifically to allow to a slit of sky to be visible from beneath the canopy. Best park of the park, while we were sketching a young french child came up and peed on a tree in front of us hahaha. Oh and then Marina cam e and brought us pastries. So yea it was a good spot!

Louvre: Wonderful! I went first at night with some friends and then we returned the next day to visit the pyramid and the mall beneath. I got some quality pictures and did some sketching. I loved the rainbow of colors that the glass produced on the ground. There was a great spiral stair there too, some cool shots were there for the taking. We successfully built our own human pyramid next to the real one, I think ours was better.

La Grande Arche de la Defense: haha this french pronunciation is so strange, they don't pronounce the last letter of the word, i don't understand why they even put it in if they're not going to use it. Anyway, the arch was awesome! a modern day triumphal arch, perfect to continue the grand axis started by Louis V (or maybe VI... or VIII there were way to many kings named Louis). I really enjoyed La Defense, much more then I thought I would. It seemed to be an example of how skyscrapers can work within a proper urban scheme of corridors and piazzas. We got to visit the top deck by way of an epic glass elevator.

Institute of the Arabic World: Awesome! I never knew a facade treatment like the one used here existed! They basically covered the entire southern facade with a series of camera lenses (sort of). Its a system of panels that each have many diaphragms that open and close depending on the strength and position of the sun and produced shadows and outlines that evoke the traditional geometries of Arabic culture. Excellent project, way to go Architecture Studio (the studio that designed the panels)! Unfortunately the panels are too expensive to operate and maintain so we were not able to see them move, oh well

Cite d' Architecture: this museum was epic, an architecture students dream. This is the kind of museum I could enjoy spending days in! First off, its set on a great piazza that over looks the Eiffel tower. Inside is a huge library, with only architecture books, large casts of sections of famous cathedrals from throughout Europe, and a great exhibit on modern architecture complete with a life size 1:1 model of Le Corbusier's Habitation apartment! wow

Pompidou Center: Okay, I think that Paris has a secret multi billion dollar space program that they are not telling anyone else about, because this "art museum" looks suspiciously like a space port. I was shocked when I found out it was completed in the 70's, it looks more contemporary then the majority of buildings constructed today! I loved the bright red stair bellies and the massive exhaust pipes that came up from the piazza, it looked like there was a submarine parked below the pavement.

Eiffel Tower: amazing, way bigger than I thought it was. Unfortunately we were unable to go up, unless we wanted to wait for hours in line and miss our sushi dinner (which was surprisingly good, the Sapporo however, was disappointing.)

Lest I say, I will most definitely be visiting Paris again soon.