A Moveable Feast: London Calling

Hi everyone!

So I'm back in Paris after about ten days out of the city. My tour wrapped up with a weekend in London, visiting Barb and Jeremy and seeing the sights.

London has such a different energy than Paris does - much bigger and faster paced. Barb and Jeremy were great tour guides - we saw so much in the short time that we were there! One of the first things we did was go to the Tate Modern, where there's a big Mark Rothko exhibition going on. It was really interesting, since it's the first time that they've had such a large series of his works collected in the same place. They weren't necessarily ones I was familiar with (every college student has a Rothko print somewhere in their room it seems), but seeing that many of his larger canvases in one gallery was an experience in and of itself. There was also something downstairs about it raining in the future and all the sculptures growing and people living in bunk beds - very abstract, but we got some cool pictures.

We also went to a huge outdoor market and had real fish and chips for lunch, which were delicio

us and very much not part of the "get less fat in Paris" plan, but well worth it. We did so much walking that day that it's almost hard to keep track!

I know for a fact I harassed the police men in the funny costumes because there is photographic evidence. We also went to Buckingham palace that

day and took lots of pictures of the building. Sadly, Prince Harry was out of town (we checked up on it, not embarrassing at all)...

That night, Marisa and I went out to pubs in Clapham, near Barb and Jeremy's house, the details of which I will spare you all. The next day, we went to Westminster Abbey and saw the poets' corner. Unfortunately, you can't take pictures in the church, but it was really cool to see the graves of basically everyone I've read in the last five years or so (I'm not sure if that's a morbid thought or not...)

We also went to the Tate Britain to see a Francis Bacon exhibition - the general consensus was that if you took all of your childhood nightmares and had them painting, his work is what you'd get. There was also a really cool thing going on - as a sort of installation piece,

runners would sprint down the main gallery in one minute intervals. So imagine looking at a painting and having someone whizz by behind you. I got a few pictures of them, but obviously they're blurry since they were running pretty fast.

The next day, Barb and Jeremy were nice enough to get us tickets for a special Renaissance Portraits exhibition going on at the National Gallery. It was great to see that many museums because Marisa, the friend that I went with, is an art history major. These pieces were also so iconic that even with my limited background, I could easily recognize some things. I even noticed that some of the portraits were borrowed from the Prado and that I had seen them when I was in Madrid a few years ago.

The night after getting back to Paris, I went to a wine tasting organized by my program. It was incredible - the sommelier was only a few years older than us but definitely knew his stuff. We tasted six wines - two champagnes, two reds and two whites, all from France, and they were all paired with really really good cheese. It was a nice way to get re-introduced to Parisian life. Work has definitely started to kick in and the weather turned awful the second we got back, so we're all staying indoors until Halloween tomorrow night. I'm being a French girl, and pictures will be posted!

All of the pictures from my trip to London can be seen by clicking the link below: