Like any good art geek, I felt it necessary to go render homage to arguably one of the world's greatest architectural achievements; the cathedral which marked the absolute beginning of the Gothic style, born in France in the 12th century, thanks to Abbot Suger and his abbey which was massively in need of repair. Welcome to the Saint Denis Basilica, located in the outskirts of Paris and is the burial place for nearly every French king and queen over the last thousand years:

So, after about 45 minutes of wandering around the Saint Denis, hopelessly lost... I stumbled across it! Big, intimidating, tall, kinda fortress-like (I mean, it was the middles ages...), three decorated portals, rose window... :)








Note the one bell tower. The other was taller and pointier (kinda New England church style), but was taken down in the 19th century because of some structural problem.










Rose window from the inside.













Upper left side of the choir. Love the stained glass!

















Nave, facing west, right at the transept. Note the organ and the fantastic vaulted ceilings.
















North side of the nave... Like the smoke? There was a group from a German tv station there to get some footage, and they wanted smoke to help catch the rays of sun. How cool!










Nothing better than finding a star of David in a Basilica :)












So, while Reims is where pretty much ever French king was crowned, Saint Denis is where they were all buried. Seriously, ALL of them, from the Merovingian kings to Louis XVIII.










Ceiling of the ambulatory. I LOVE these ceilings. Seriously, they're probably my favorite part.












Central window of the choir, with Saint Denis who is walking around, carrying his head after it was chopped off with an axe. Ah, zombies...















Have I mentioned how much I love these ceilings? They look like dragon scales or something...










Okay, done with the art geekiness...

... NEVER!

Finally, pictures of the inside of the Musée Condé!

(Maybe it's not a bad idea to take a peek at this first, although it's not totally correct, it'll give you some context: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Chantilly)

Gallerie des Cerfs, which used to be the grand dining room, and now houses an exhibition on Henry IV.











Gallerie de Peinture, the large painting gallery. Note that the only light is coming from the giant window on the ceiling--the chateau was rebuilt in the 19th century to house the art collection.










The French side of the gallery (other side is Italian, plus Nicholas Poussin).












Cabinet des Livres, aka the library which holds maybe 1/4th of the entire collection. On display are a number of illuminated manuscripts and books which reference regicide (an exhibit which goes with the one on Henry IV).









And now, your very own private tour of the Grand Apartments!

Room #1 La Salle du Guard, Guard Room. Military mementos from various owners of the Chateau, as well as a painting of one of the most celebrated princes of Condé, Louis II of Bourbon, "le Grand Condé." Very wealthy, very powerful, very successful military general, and a cousin of Louis XIV. And yet, despite it all, really ugly.












On the door, the symbol for Henry of Orleans, the last owner of the chateau, who was responsible for rebuilding the grand chateau after it was destroyed during the Revolution, and for redecorating the small chateau when it was sacked.














Room #2 La Chambre de M. le Prince. So, originally the bedroom, which now doesn't even have a bed. It was redecorated post-Rev, and it was redecorated to be put on show, instead of to be lived in (the small, private apartments were more comfortable). The piece in the back belonged to Louis XIV at Versailles, and the paintings are by Christophe Huet, 1737.






Room #4 Le Grand Singerie (Large Monkey Room). These were actually all the rage in the 18th century, because of all the exploration of and trade with the Orient, and there used to be dozens, but most were destroyed or redecorated. Also Huet, 1735.








There are 12 different scenes (6 large, 6 smaller) which are all allegories (albeit, loose ones...) of activities, arts or sciences.
















#5, Battle Gallery, which was inspired by the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. Near the end of the Grand Condé's life, (end 17th century) he felt as though his military exploits hadn't been properly appreciated, so he commissioned 11 paintings to commemorate his greatest victories.








"Le Repentir," The Repentance of the Grand Condé. Huge allegory of repentance (commissioned by his son after his death)... The question is... What for? Oh right, for those years he spent leading a revolt against the regent Mazarin, when Louis XIV was too young to rule. The interesting thing is that a. he never actually repented for what he did and b. he was pardoned and eventually returned to military service. It's good to be powerful!




A map desk, very useful piece of furniture... Also, one of the very first neoclassical pieces, made soon after the discovery of Pompeii in the mid 18th century. See the columns for legs and the Greek geometric design? It's really an evolutionary link, if you will, smack between two styles... Which is why it looks so odd.







Room #6, the Music Room (although it was never used for music but as a "Curiosity Museum"). Portrait of le Duc de Bourbon, the last Prince of Condé. He ruled from about 1770 until 1830, although he spent about 25 years exiled in England during the Rev. When he died in 1830, the entire domain passed to his grand nephew, Henry of Orleans, le Duc d'Aumale, son of Louis-Philippe Roi des Français, who was 8 years old.










Down the service staircase... Mind you don't break your neck... Actually, it's the castle's natural booby trap: steep, twisty stairs, a low ceiling, and loose tiles to top it off. We're so going to get sued one of these days...









Room #7, the Duban Gallery. Basically a glorified hallway made to connect the small apartments.












It's decorated with the coats of arms of all the families that have owned the chateau over the last 1,100 years (Bouteillers de Senlis, Orgemont, Montmorency, Bourbon, Orleans). Here's the Orleans crest, which is basically the royal crest, but with something added to show that they're a different branch of the same family.












I hope you enjoyed your tour... :) If you have questions, ask me! I like babbling on about the history of the place :)

So, after leaving Montpellier on Sunday the 23rd, I went to Chantilly to begin my internship at the Musée Condé! Getting there was a little interesting, though... So, I took the train to Paris Gare de Lyon, then spent about 45 minutes wandering around trying to figure out how to get another train to Chantilly. Finally, I bought myself an RER ticket, and hopped on the next train that was going in the right direction (although getting through the turnstile with a giant suitcase was a, er, painful experience... Those doors Hurt!). However, the terminus of the train was (of course) one stop before Chantilly! So, I got to spend some quality time with my luggage on the platform before the next train came along. Eventually, I got to Chantilly and did some eyelash-batting to get a man to help me haul my suitcase up the stairs. Once there, I called my host, and Mme Cantesse came to pick me up! So, everything worked out just fine :) Mme Cantesse is very sweet (although she talks a lot and very fast, so I never know what she's saying), and I have a nice little room and bathroom.

The train ride from Montpellier to Chantilly--very sad, but at least very pretty.












On my way to the chateau in the morning... Chateau from afar.












Wandering down the path towards the "Grands Ecuries" (aka the horse palace).












Grands Ecuries from the front.













The right side of the Ecuries, with the show ring and a ceremonial arch.












... Getting closer!













After passing through the gate and walking up yet another cobblestone path... Chateau!












The gardens "à la française" behind the chateau.













(Pictures of the inside forthcoming!)

The town of Chantilly which is super cute, and about Northampton-sized.












So, I just finished my first week at the museum! It was pretty weird at first because everything was very disorganized, and I wasn't really given any sort of direction except "well, you'll probably be doing tours of the apartments at some point." Seriously. I didn't even figure out what days I have off until this evening. Anyways, after one week I've sort of gotten the hang of it--I get there at 9:45 am (although it's nearly a half hour walk), and spend my day either following tours, just wandering around (yelling at people for using flash, if I feel like it), and giving tours of the apartments when there are anglophones to be found. Around 1:00 I break for lunch, and then stay until 6:15. I've given two tours so far, and they're actually a lot of fun--I even got tipped today!! I was pretty pleased. Hopefully I'll continue to figure out how things work, and stop being so bored! It is super good for my French though, as I'm totally immersed for the first time. So, one week down, 5 to go!

My last week in Montpellier... It was quite the mixture between awesome, busy, crazy and just really sad.

So, on Monday, the day that we returned to Montpellier from Corsica... I promptly left again, to go camping at the Lac du Salagou with Manuel. It's a beautiful lake, and the ground it is bright red! (Kinda like Prince Edward Island)









What's a camping trip without bottles of wine?













We got back to Montpellier on Tuesday evening after having a bit of an adventure concerning the car springing a leak and thus loosing coolant and then the oil overheating and smoking... Anyways, so we spent a while hanging out on the side of the highway, until the police came to say hello and call us a towtruck. So, it ended up being a long afternoon, and the car ended up not being worth repairing which was too bad. It was a good car :( R.I.P. and thank you for the many adventures we've had with you.

Wednesday was my last baleti! It was a fun dance, and Sealia took a few pictures, but seeing as it was dark out...
















... You'll just have to imagine just how sexy our mazurka was.

















And then, onto the last party of the semester! ...What we lack in photogenic-ness we make up for with awesome-ness.









Thursday and Friday were spent taking care of a million little things that needed doing: a final visit to the Musée Fabre, finding an Occitan cross pendant, selling books, spending as much time with my friends and Manuel as possible, shipping things home, cleaning, and last but not least... PACKING. Have I ever mentioned just how thoroughly I hate packing?

Saturday was the day of stomach-gymnastics, with the epic BAFL, (Big Ass Fucking Lunch) with my favorite girls. The sheer amount of good food still boggles my mind.










And then on Sunday morning, it was off to Paris for me... :( :( :( Manuel left me a very cute message on the window, though, which was sweet.










Now, onto my next adventure: Chantilly!

So, I know that I always say this at the beginning of my posts, but this past month has probably been the most intense... Ever. A lot of it has been wonderful, some less-than-wonderful, as I wrapped up my year in Montpellier... and I have a whole lot of catching up to do, seeing as my last post was at the end of April.

So, about a week of May was taken up with exam craziness which wasn't fun. I had an exposé due for my literature class (but it was on Symbolism, so it was fun), then an exam for the contemporary art class (how exactly does one take an exam when one hasn't learned a single thing in the class?), an exam for French Civ and then another for (real) art history. So, it was a tough week, but all's well that ends well, I suppose. I just got my grades back for two of my classes, which I passed, so I'm pretty pleased :)

Then, the day after I finished exams, I headed off to Corsica! Sealia's "uncle" Geno lives there, so the 6 of us decided to pay him a visit!
After heading up to Nice on Wednesday evening, at the crack of dawn on Thursday we found ourselves walking to the port...











Where, surprise, surprise, we found a boat. Who'd a thunk?












5 hours, 1 torrential rainstorm later, we found ourselves driving through the mountains of Corsica... And fearing for our lives at every turn. No, seriously, the Corsicans are crazy drivers.










The next day we went to the beach in Porticcio, about 10 minutes from Geno's house. Hello, ladies!











I don't know what possessed them, but they all went swimming...












While I stayed nice and warm and dry (Interesting fact--they all grew up near large bodies of water. Clearly, I did not).






























The next day, off to Ajaccio!













Obligatory "I was there" photo, like usual.













Group photo...











The cover photo for our new band. Duh.











A surprisingly chipper bunch, considering the fact that it was 7:30 am... Waiting to catch to train to Bastia!











Pretty much the more beautiful train ride possibly imaginable.


























I can has... The Shire?













... Mordor?













The port in Bastia.













Waiting to get on the boat back to Nice.













All in all, a great trip!!!