The Green and the Grey

Hello again! I am into my third week in Paris and it is still a whirlwind of activity (although the weekend saw a bit of a break in the actual sightseeing/doing real things, comme d'habitude). One of the sad things right now is that the weather is pretty gloomy; rain is pretty much a daily thing, and the grey sky is a given, but lately it is a snowy mess. This is unusual here, so everyone was very excited at first, but as my friend Caroline pointed out, snow is basically just really cold rain, and I am over it.

But this only makes all the greenery more noticeable! One of the things I love is the abundance of parks, gardens, and elements of nature that you just stumble upon here. Amid all the overwhelming city stuff, there is always an oasis nearby, and this week I made it my mission to find some of them.

*Another post with more pictures will come soon, because I found a beautiful park while I was running in my neighborhood, and didn't have a camera on me. Now, there is too much snow/slush to run again (also I am lazy), so it may be a while.

1. Jardins du Luxembourg

2. The Seine! This is the bridge of lovers' locks, where couples bind themselves together metaphorically and toss the key into the river.

3. Parc Monceau

 Love the little guy playing to the right of the statue.

4. Cool statues. Love the ones of the women tending to the male statues. Even the statues got their own statues; now that's classy.

Classes have started at the Middlebury Center (classes at the Sorbonne-Paris III won't start until the 28th), so I will have just slightly less wandering time. Because of the cold weather, I have been on a museum binge, especially now that I can use my student ID card. It usually will either get me in free, or at a reduced rate.

Below: Jardins des Plantes, Paris's Botanic Gardens

 The "Secret Garden" just off the Place des Vosges, where 3 of us stepped in puddles one after the other. Stupid Americans. I was one of them.

 The beautifully symmetric Place des Vosges, home of Victor Hugo, which is now a museum.

 Les jardins du musée Carnavalet, a fabulous--or fabulously overwhelming--museum of French history housed in two of the neighborhood's beautiful mansions.

Below: Les jardins du Musée Bourdelle, the workshop/museum/gardens of sculptor Antoine Bourdelle, who studied under the famed Rodin.

Hope you all stay warm and cozy. With my host mother's help, I discovered last night that the bizarre contraption in the kitchen is a water heater, so today I bought a box of tea sachets, and now I am no longer chilly. There are benefits to braving the snow, like coming across happy surprises: