mostly harmless.

It is now time for me to regale you with colorful stories of my first academic travel with Franklin College. This semester I chose the trip titled “Paris: The Visual Culture of Modernity,” which specialized in, as you might have guessed, art (more specifically, photography). Man, I thought, this is going to be right up my alley! A class about photography where you get to go to Paris for the sole purpose of taking photographs? A class with no papers and no tests because it’s all about experiencing art? I signed right up.

We began the semester with bimonthly meetings with our travel leader, Professor Fassl. She talked to us about the merits of street photography and gave us readings from Street Photography: From Atget to Cartier-Bresson by Clive Scott (a ridiculously wordy book. Only recommended to those who are fascinated by verbose examinations of early French photography). We took photos around Lugano as a warm-up and presented them to the class before we left.

On Monday the 11th we departed, leaving from the Lugano train station to Basel, where we waited to get a train through the French countryside to Paris. The trains took about 3 and a half hours a piece, so we didn’t arrive in Paris until evening. We took a heard of taxis from Gare de l’Est to our hotel, the Hotel Tryp de Saxe near the Eiffel Tower. Our hotel was reasonable, if not a little run-down, and Morgan and I collapsed asleep pretty quickly.

We met the next morning in the hotel lobby and headed out for a walking tour of Île de la Cité and the Quartier Latin, after which we were abandoned. Morgan and I took a leisurely walk back through the Latin Quarter to our hotel, stopping to shop, look at an oddly gigantic French grocery store, and observe a gaggle of strikers as they proceeded down the street. Our assignment was to take photos from the point of view of a hobo. (I don’t even–)

The next day we rocketed through the Musée du Louvre and then made our way up and down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, taking pictures “as if we were in love, and as if we were heartbroken.” Morgan, Johanna and I stopped at a small cafe that, I was assured, has the best macaroon cookies in the universe. They do.

On Thursday, we headed out to the Musée d’Orsay. I liked the atmosphere and the art of the Orsay much better than (what we saw of) the Louvre. We stayed and looked at the paintings for around 3 hours before the rest of the group split. Morgan and I looked through a few more areas before we, too, took off to find food. After lunch, we hit up the Galleries Lafayette, where we wandered around until we found the kids’ section. I bought a video game and Morgan bought a novelty plate.

Friday we met at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie and saw some really fantastic exhibits. We stayed in the museum most of the morning, then we headed for lunch at Dans Le Noir, a restaurant where the dining room is in the pitch black and the wait staff is entirely comprised of blind people. After our rather adventurous lunch, Amy, Julia, Morgan and I headed up the street to the Centre Georges Pompidou. We looked at modern art until early evening, and then Morgan and I headed to a grocery store in the École Militaire district. We bought dinner there and headed back to the hotel to watch ridiculous Marky Mark movies dubbed in German.

Saturday was a free-for-all day, so Morgan and I took the RER out to Disneyland Paris. I cannot convey the sheer magic in words. Suffice it to say that I regret nothing. I’ve dedicated an entire Flickr set to photos of Disneyland, you can see it here.

On Sunday, we trekked out to the Cinema Museum, where we saw some really cool exhibits, including a special exhibition called “Blondes vs. Brunes” focusing on the history of hair in film. It was fantastic. That afternoon, we went for a boat ride up the Seine. Monday morning, a small group of us headed with the professor out to a Monet exhibit at the Grand Palais. We saw some fabulous paintings, then headed out for coffee before our afternoon walking tour of Montmartre. We trudged through the streets of Montmartre, ending up at the top of the hill, and were eventually left to our own devices. Morgan, Johanna, Julia and I stopped to watch a street performer do a hip-hop dance routine and then walked through some shops in Montmartre. (As an aside, the Metro station that we came through in Montmartre had the single largest elevator I’ve ever been in. It’s literally the size of my entire dorm room. And you need it, too, because walking up all those stairs was nothing short of hellish.)

Tuesday, Morgan and I walked over to the Eiffel Tower, then had lunch at a cafe in the École Militaire district. We met up with our group that afternoon for a walking tour of Le Marais, then a few of us headed to the most phenomenal tea parlor before we marched off to dinner at a Moroccan restaurant in the Latin Quarter.

Because of the strikers (no petrol), the Metro lines were insanely crowded, so we took a bus to the train station on Wednesday. About 8 hours later, we arrived in Lugano safe and sound (and exhausted), and it’s been back to “business as usual” ever since.

I’ve got all of the photos from the trip uploaded here on Flickr. I’ll be happy to elaborate on the circumstances of (or any funny stories tied to) any of the pictures; just leave me a note!