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Post #2: On Pere Lachaise Cemetery

Visiting Pere Lachaise was an incredible experience. I have never in my life ever been to a cemetery of that stature. It was so different from all the cemeteries I have seen or been to back home. With the great tombs and families all buried together it reminded me of my grandparents tomb in upstate New York. However, there were not nearly the amount of tombs around my grandparents tomb as there are in Pere Lachaise. Pere Lachaise is not like the graveyards many of us are used to with the small gravestones or even the grave plates in the ground that tell you who the person is. Instead, Pere Lachaise has huge tombstones with whole families all buried together and their names all labeled on the tombstone. The tombs were all very unique and all very big even the smaller ones seemed to be the size of a rollaway bed you’d get at hotels! And if I had to guess they were mostly about 7+ feet tall. Pere Lachaise has many different funeral style graves such as gothic graves, Haussmanian burial chambers, ancient mausoleums and many more. 

This place of memory commemorates many famous men and women and is a mix between an English park and a shrine. It almost feels like you are a giant walking around a city because the tombs around you are tall but not as tall as houses or buildings. With the cemetery also being a park it is a bit interesting to me. I think I am very used to cemeteries in America being old but also young enough where people still visit their loved ones so to have this super old cemetery converted into a park is definitely a bit different for me to understand. Even though it is different, I do think it is a great way to get people to visit these important people's tombstones and truly experience the history and tombs of so many incredible people. I also think with the Holocaust gravestones there it is a great place to mourn the people lost during that horrific time and a way to remember it so we never repeat what happened. 

Pere Lachaise is the biggest cemetery in Paris and holds many notable figures of the arts in it. One notable figure that I was able to find the tombstone of was Jacques-Louis David who was a super famous painter in the 18th century and is commonly known for painting The Coronation of Napoleon along with many other works such as The death of Marat and Le Serment des Horaces. What’s interesting about his tombstone is that since he was considered a revolutionary at the end of his life the French would not let him get buried in France so he was buried in Brussels. However, they say that his heart is buried at Pere Lachaise and his wife is buried next to it. The tombstone is all white and has a bronze medallion of David’s face mounted on the top of the grave. It has names of David's family members all around the tombstone along with his wife, Marguerite Charlotte Pecoul. The tomb itself is very light and fresh compared to many of the other tombstones in Pere Lachaise which I believe is due to the white coloring of the stone. This makes the grave a little less somber in my opinion.

Word Count: 563

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Post #4: Visiting a Historical Church and Reflection on Churches in France

Being able to go the Saint Eustache and experience a formal Roman Catholic mass ourselves was incredible because it truly goes to show that even though their might be a language barrier or we might be across oceans, we can all collectively agree that we believe in one God and that going to church and believing in Him is so so important. I think being able to experience this allowed me to grow in my faith and feel more reassured that God is everywhere because it is much easier to see it for yourself and witness it than to just read about it from home. It was just as equally important to visit the Mosque as well and be able to see how different religions carry on with how they pray and when they pray and what they believe according to their religion. 

Going back to Catholic churches I believe it also is cool to see how small you feel when you enter these churches and just feel the presence of God and something greater than you in these spaces. For instance I was able to, on my own, go to a catholic church not too far from our hotel called Saint Medard Church. The church was not as big as Saint Eustache was when we visited it for mass but when you entered the tall ceilings and open grand space still made you feel the presence of God and the greatness of Him all around you. This church was built around the 12th century and is still a working and functioning church today in fact when I visited there was even a mass service going on.

It was super cool to go into this church in particular because on the sides as soon as you walk in were a bunch of plaques that talked about the history of the church and how some of it was once parished and how they had to rebuild most of it in the 15th century but is largely considered one of the oldest churches in Paris. The plaques also mentioned how the organ was replaced several times because it had gotten damaged,  was too small, or archaic. I also thought it was interesting that as you pasted the small chapels on the sides their were little informational plaques on the side about that small chapel and the saint in it and what the stain glass work was depicting

It was just really a super cool and informational church that really helped you understand the history but also what the church was about and what each chapel on the sides represented so I thought that was super cool to learn about. 

As for the architecture it was very similar to that of Saint Eustache because they are both transept layout churches where the floor comes at a cross once you reach the altar. Also the ceilings were not blue with stars to mimic the night sky they were just stone with the boning structure for support. The stained glass also was an important part of this church as it helps tell the story of what is going on. As Dr. Kraus had mentioned, when we went to mass at Saint Eustache back in the day, many French citizens were illiterate and could not speak or read so the stained glass really helps you understand what is going on and be able to follow the service. 

As I have walked around Paris I have noticed the plethora of churches all around. Many of them are Roman Catholic but also as we have walked around some areas are more Jewish with Jewish synagogues and some, as we have toured, are for muslims like the Grande mosque of Paris. The variety and inclusivity of churches is definitely shown throughout Paris and I believe is an important note on French culture. However, with the idea of French laicite I believe that it does seem to be working as the French allow everyone to believe in whatever religion they would like but, I don’t know about it working for everyone. I think as a Roman Catholic you are probably better off and laicite works for you however, I do think if you are Jewish or Muslim that there are some restrictions with your religion such as having your full face covered which is illegal in France.

Word Count: 727

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Post#3 Reflect on what you have learned about/observed about Parisian lifestyles

When visiting Nelson Mandela park I was able to get a deeper look into the normal and daily life of many parisians. The people using this park were families, workers, dog owners, kids, and some tourists. This is a big park so it has plenty of space for people to comfortably stretch out and enjoy their time. As I observed the people around me I noticed that many people were enjoying the green space and laying down to nap or just relax. I visited Mandela park around 1pm so I thought maybe they are laying down as a break before they have to go back to work. This is around lunch time for many Parisians as well, so I was not surprised when I saw many Parisians enjoying sandwiches and eating along the benches that faced into the park. 

As I walked around the park more I noticed in one of the corners of the park there is a spacious playground for the kids to play in. However, there were also kids outside of the playground area with their families enjoying picnic-like lunches. 

There are many little parks around Paris which allow Parisians to go and picnic, walk their dogs, allow their kids to play somewhere safe, or simply just relax. 

As I look back I noticed that many Parisians indulge in similar activities we have been doing ourselves. They sit at the cafes and eat and drink, they go to the markets to get their food, they sit in the parks, and they use the metro. I don’t see many at the very tourist spots in paris such as the Louvre or the Eiffel Tour but I am also not surprised by this. Something I have found interesting is how they handle protests which are much more organized and peaceful compared to how we protest back at home. For example there is a specific route they take when protesting so they don't become violent with those around and at the very end for the few people that do break a couple things they only break windows and such of big corporations not the small businesses. I thought this was super fascinating to learn about but also such a more safe way to handle protesting for your rights.

 I also have learned that the Parisians LOVE their rights and do not want them taken away. I have particularly seen this in the reform the government is putting in place about moving the retirement age from 62-64. This in an American's eyes doesn’t seem so bad but, as you learn more about what this actually means, you soon discover all the issues that come along with doing this, such as loss of income. 

Even with the retirement age going up for the French people, the work-life balance in France overall seems a lot more healthy than in America. They don’t do or discuss work outside of work and they actually take the time to enjoy meals and sit and have conversations with people. Americans are so go go go we never just take our time to sit and enjoy life around us. I think this is why in Paris there are so many parks and so many people that actually use them because as a culture, even during the day and the work week, they want to make sure they take time to actually enjoy their afternoons during lunch hour or be able to just go and lay down somewhere or walk their dogs and play with their kids. I think this aspect of having more of a life and really working to live is much better than the American perspective of  living to work. I also believe that the French are so prominent in having a good work-life balance because they fought so hard long ago to not be under a French monarchy and to have equal rights for everyone and not have some people doing all the work and others benefiting from it. I think because they had such a hard history and lifestyle back in the day that they are really thumbing the monarchy back then and sticking it to them now by having the time to enjoy their lives. 

Word count: 702

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Post #1: On Experiencing Art Museums

In Paris there are many historical and beautiful museums all around the city that represent the important history and changes France went through to get to where it is today. As I have been able to visit many of these beautiful museums such as the Louvre, Carnavalet, d’Orsay, and l'Orangerie, my overall experience has been even more amazing than what I had hoped for. I especially have enjoyed being able to have learned some of the history so when I go to these beautiful museums I actually understand what the paintings are depicting, such as Napoleon crowning his wife or Marat dead in his bathtub, which allows me to have a better appreciation and understanding of them. I especially loved and have enjoyed learning about the realism period in art so when we went to Musee d’Orsay I was blown away by all the beautiful paintings all around me.  One of my favorites there was The Burial at Ornans by Gustave Courbet. Courbet was a very prominent realism painter and really helped shape this period. Courbet, like all other realism artists, really wants to focus on truth and sincerity in art, which I think Courbet does beautifully in The Burial at Ornans. I really love how in Courbet and other realism pieces you can see the hand of the painter in the canvas as it adds so much texture and dimensionalism. I am also a big nature and mountain and realistic person so I enjoy this time period for its call back to nature, truth, and just plain old everyday life. Courbet I believe does a beautiful job with this by emphasizing ordinary in an extraordinary way especially in his huge piece, The Burial at Ornans. With his use of color he was really able to express this sad feeling in the painting, even if you did not know what the painting was trying to tell you, his use of dark colors such as, gray for the sky or black for the peoples clothing, really do a good job at telling us how we should feel when looking at this piece. The movement of the piece is also interesting as there really is no central figure but rather two sides that your eyes move to, as the people are more prominently seen on both sides of this huge piece. There is also a lot of variety in this piece, almost to the point that you miss some of the key pieces such as, the coffin on the left of the painting and the hole on the bottom middle part of the piece. However, after noticing these two pieces the image becomes very clear at what Courbet is depicting, which is a funeral. I think what interested me the most about this painting is all of the questions that came to my mind when I was looking at this piece. As I took a moment to truly understand what was going on in the painting I wondered who the person being buried was? Were they of importance? Was it a man or woman? Where were they from? How old were they when they died? And lastly the one that still tugs at my brain now is what if the burial is representing the person looking at the piece? What if Courbet wants to show from a heavenly perspective what your own funeral could look like? All these questions truly connected me to the piece in a way that is almost hard to describe but at the same time so easy to understand. Which I believe is the reason I love the piece so much!

Being able to better understand how to really look at art and understand what I am looking at has given me a way better understanding and more importantly a bigger appreciation for the pieces so many people have created. The history behind the pieces and the painters helps add a deeper understanding as well to the pieces which is really amazing and makes me feel like a true art connoisseur.

Word count: 673

First image below is image I took of The Burial at Ornans, Second is found from the web so you can see it better!