On Friday night, I participated in the Nocturne du Louvre as part of my art class: Great Figures in Art from 1900 - 1920. Most museums in the city offer a "nocturne," which is basically just one night out of the week where admittance is free to anyone under 26; the Louvre's being Friday from 6 to 10. When the "jeunes ont leur parole" ("the youth take the floor," give or take), kids from college art classes pick a painting in the museum, research it, and then spend the evening wearing hideous tshirts and discussing the work, the artist and the painting style with other kids and tourists.
Originally, I thought that participation was necessary as part of my course work, so I feel like I sorta got suckered into the evening, but all said and done it was actually alot of fun if only a little exhausting. I presented La Richesse, a work by 17th century French artist Simon Vouet done in the Baroque Italien style. I was with another American girl from my program, so not completly alone, but she wasn't feeling tops so I mostly did the event on my own. After my first horrible presentation to an art teacher and a group of her students (to which I was incredibly unprepared for their questions - interrogrations! - and fell flat on my face) the evening went swimmingly and in the end I consider it excellent practice for my speaking skills as I spent the majority of the evening using french and only gave the presentation in english once or twice. However, I will not be so stupid as to participate again - no thank you.
Truthfully, I would have bailed after I had found out it was not an obligation, but I really like my art teacher and didn't want to get on her bad side. She's one of those "march to the beat of your own drum" kinds that have crazy wild hair, wear a ton of odd-ball jewelry and a shade of lip stick that is ten times too pink. Art history just oozes out of her pores and she has a funny way of introducing artists by their date of death as opposed to their natural life cycle. This week we're studying Picasso and she is practically giddy as she describes each painting - each class is entertaining, but I've stopped sitting near the front as her excitement creates a surplus of saliva.
On Saturday, my program took a day trip to visit two castles/estates - Fountainbleau and Vaux-le-Vicomte. The first was Fountainbleau, one of the many castles of François the First. The chateau spans many architectural époques, so the facade is a little disconcerting to look at as it's just one big jumble of building styles. Our group organizer took us on an incredibly dry tour of the exterior and for the most part I found the interior lacking in detail and cool furnishing. It did however have a very interesting chapel and some cool exterieur stair cases. I took alot of pictures which I'll attempt to post later, but for the moment you'll have to be satisfied with what I found on google. To be honset, I didn't find it all that impressive, but it was cool to discover that Napoleon attempted to commit suicide here.
The second estate was the Chateux de Vaux-le-Vicomte. I absolutely loved this palace. It was never a royal palace, but was instead built by a bourgeois, Nicolas Fouquet (foo-kay), superintendent of finances for Louis XIV. It is one of the most impressive buildings and grounds I've ever seen that has a striking resemblence to Versailles - and that is because the layout and design of Versaille was stolen from Vaux-le-Vicomte.
The story goes a little like this: After it's building in 1641, Vaux-le-Vicomte was the most impressive palace in the country of France. On August 17, 1661, Fouquet throws a lavish ball and feast to show off his chateau and gardens (and moat!) complete with luminaries and fireworks. He invites Louis XIV, whom I've come to consider a royal prick, who instantly becomes jealous when he realizes that the current royal palace, THE LOUVRE, is drab and unimpressive in comparission. After the party, he has Fouquet thrown in jail under the claim that he funded Vaux-le-Vicomte through the misappropriation of royal money, exiles his wife, and proceedes to steal, borrow and buy paintings, furniture and even the orange trees from the grounds. Then he hires the same architect, painter-decorator and landscape architect to build Versailles. Not kidding, Louis the XIV was a giant baby.
What I liked most about this chateau was it's size; unlike Versailles that is just too big to even consider as an actual residence, Vaux-le-Vicomte is stylish and done in the finest tastes - plus you actually get to see just about every room (I hate the Versaille tour because you really only get to see a fraction of the castle and at that you only see the public rooms of the royal family). The grounds also seem less haughty and severe in comparission to Versailles - clearly Fouquet wasn't trying to prove anything - and we lucked out with the most perfect weather to walk around the grounds and enjoy the sun. The fountains and faux waterfalls are gorgeous.
**Little interesting fact: the "Man in the Iron Mask" was actually kept here as a prisoner for several years, and you can go down into the dungeons to see the little stall that he was sequestered off in - it's next to the servents salon, the kitchen (which we actually got to see!) and the wine cellar.
Sunday I spent recovering from having too much fun on Saturday night. Ain't it just the life? Tomorrow is my day off, so I'm going to take it easy and make the final touches on my spring break plans. Only three more weeks and I'll be soaking up the sun in southern France.
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