Semester 2 began today!

Yesterday, Sunday, I took myself to le musée d’Orsay, and, it’s safe to say I will be returning often. What an amazing and delightful museum! It’s spacious and inviting and I took more photos than I can count. It was once a train station, « La Gare D’Orsay, » a Beaux-Arts railway station (1898-1900).

In between galleries, I treated myself to a lovely lunch, complete with champagne (my first since I arrived!). Then, I had coffee and dessert. Ouh-la-la!

I stayed at the museum till closing, and I didn’t see everything.

I’ve long had the enormous coffee table book on d’Orsay, but of course it’s never quite the same as seeing a piece in person. I had no idea as to the size of some of these tableaux, such as Whistler’s Mother (which is here on exhibit and which is ENORMOUS), and I continue to be astonished by the vivid colors after all these years.

No favorites. How could I? I really loved Manet’s painting of Berthe Morisot being playful behind a fan, the Renoir dancers (City/Country), VanGogh’s Starry Night Over the Rhone (different front Starry Night, but reminiscent in hues), Cezanne, Gauguin, Degas, oh my! I also enjoyed lesser known artists and beautifully crafted Art Deco furniture, statues, and porcelaine objects.

So, I began Semester II this morning, feeling quite nourished.

My new professeur seems to be another dynamic woman. « C’etait super! » There are 5 of us from the last class, but mostly people new to me. Again, I’m the only American. The countries represented in class are: Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Vietnam, Denmark, Egypt, and Uganda. And, of course, yours truly « qui viens des États-Unis. »

We spent a good part of the day discussing the various countries we come from, using different tenses. Like most things in French, countries have genders. (The United States is male, plural.) I liked this exercise as it involved actually USING the language in conversation. Then we watched a video, first without sound, and then with sound and answered questions about what we saw/heard.

Last semester we “teamed up” for every exercise, and so far, we’re doing the opposite in this class. I enjoy the group participation here with everyone chiming in to share similarities/differences from their country relative to the discussion. For example, I had no idea the French had an expression: « Ah la Vache! » Which kind of means, Oh my God, but literally, Ah, the cow! What? In America, I was raised saying “Holy cow!” which made my teacher and classmates laugh, and it turns out they refer to cows in Czechoslovakia, too, when describing something unbelievable. Who knew? Now, you do!

Oh, and my class is not on the 4th floor. I was pleasantly surprised to be assigned to Room 5. Easy-Peasy, or so I thought. First floor, right? Not exactly. Turns out, to get to Room 5, you enter the front doors, make a right, go outside, and climb 2 flights of stairs outside and re-enter the building. I don’t know what to say about that.

Looking forward to Tuesday. À demain!