Hi, I'm Katie! Welcome to my blog, where I ramble about anything and everything. I'm 20 years old, a junior at Boston College and am pursuing a major in International Studies and a minor in French. I'm currently studying abroad at Sciences Po in Paris. I plan on keeping this experience well-documented by blogging every single day, even if my entries consist of only a few new words I learned, or a new picture I took. I love photography, traveling, reading, and cooking. I love all kinds of music; check out what I'm listening to at Paris
Date: April 2006
Description: Hello Paris.
Sarah and Scott in the airport
Doug and Todd being sneaky
Sarah and Scott being emo
Todd and Mel
Hôtel des Invalides was a hospital for wounded soldiers in the 17th century and its a church now
The Eiffel Tower was built for the World Expo in the late 1800s
Me and Dougie in front of the Eiffel Tower
Artsy view of the Eiffel Tower…look how big it is!
Arc de Triomphe from across the Place d’Etoile
The gates of the Louvre museum
A big, French building…
A super French flag
A French bum
The side streets are so tiny…and the French park on the sidewalks
My sexy boyfriend falling asleep on the bus
La Sorbonne was closed because of the student riots
20 police cars drove by with their annoying sirens, probably heading to quiet another student riot
The Jardin du Luxembourg is a garden where a lot of people hang out on nice days
FNAC has music and movies and stuff, like Best Buy
Tour Montparnasse is the tallest skyscraper in Paris
Everyone looking really funny while eating our first dinner
The nice ladies and Madame Donohue at la boulangerie (bakery) around the corner
Sarah and Scott at le Gare Montparnasse
Doug is a model in the train station!
Look how damn big Versailles was! I can’t believe someone actually lived there…
Doug in front of Versailles and a red utilities truck
Doug and I waiting in line to enter Versailles
Silly : )
“To all the glories of France”
The second story of one of the rooms in Versailles
The painted ceiling of one of the rooms in Versailles
Look at the detail on the fireplace!
The Hall of Battles had large paintings and sculptures in memory of major battles
Seen it in the textbooks?
I wish that was my bed…
The Sun King, Louis the XIV
Look, we’re in Versailles!
The Hall of Mirrors in Versailles
As Scott would say, it’s an “emo myspace picture”
Aren’t we purdy?
Marie Antoinette. Pre-beheaded, of course.
Look at those beautes in front of a big painting!
Doug and I in the Hall of Battles
Take two.
Our hot group in the Hall of Battles
The gardens behind Versailles (or part of them, anyways)
The gardens again
Doug and I in front of the pretty fountain!
Todd and Mel
Group shot in front of the fountain
The gates of Versailles
The Notre Dame Cathedral
Look, we climbed to the top of Notre Dame!
The Eiffel Tower from the top of Notre Dame
A famous gargoyle and the Sacre Couer cathedral in the background
The Arc de Triomphe is in front of the cluster of buildings
Some more freaky gargoyles
The Seine with a tour boat
The giant bell at the top of Notre Dame
Scott and Chris climbing out of the bell tower
The Centre Pompidou from the top of Notre Dame
Notre Dame is actually on an island in the River Seine, called Île de la Cité
Candles inside Notre Dame
The high ceilings of Notre Dame
The stained glass window inside Notre Dame
The trendy glass pyramid in front of the Louvre
Sarah in front of the Louvre
The room in the Louvre with French sculptures
Beneath the trendy glass pyramid of the Louvre
The Obelisque and Arc de Triomphe in the distance
A duck sitting on the fountain edge in the Jardin de Tuileries
Todd taking a picture of me taking a picture of him in Tuileries
A pretty toy sail boat in the fountain
Rory getting harassed outside the Louvre
Obelisque, Eiffel Tower and a Smart Car
Doug while waiting for Sarah
Sorbonne in the Latin Quarter
College de France in the Latin Quarter
Walking into the Jardin du Luxembourg
The fountain in Jardin du Luxembourg
Being French with our French friend Aurienne in a Jardin
My still-alive-and-moving meat at the Bistro Trente (blech!)
Sarah and Aurienne
Rory and Todd
Doug and I
Avenue de Suffren was the closest to home we could get
Group shot under the Eiffel Tower
Look how massive it is! Ahh!
VIew of the court yard from the first floor of the Eiffel Tower
France’s Statue of Liberty
The Arc de Triomphe from the second floor of the Eiffel Tower
Some cool people on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower
We are trendy folk, let me tell you.
Place de L’etoile and the Arc de Triomphe from the tiptop of the Eiffel Tower
Todd, Mel and Rory made it to the top!
Doug and I made it to the top, too!
The Louvre and Obelisque
The extreme top of Eiffel Tower…can’t get any higher than that!
A model of the opera house in the Musée D’Orsay
Musée D’Orsay used to be a train station before it became a museum
One of my favorite paintings in the Musée D’Orsay
A cool sculpture of a ballerina
All three of these paintings were made by different painters…it shows how similar their styles were
Monet’s famous painting at his Japanese gardens (Giverny)
A close up of a painting of Van Gogh
A view of Van Gogh from further away…look how it changes from the close up
Sarah and Mel at one of our lovely breakfasts
Doug, Rory and Todd just can’t sit still
Audette, Chris, Mikalena, Scott, Kelly and Madame Donohue
Mmm, tasty!
Want some sausage and eggs?
Behold the most amazing hot chocolate ever to live! Not that it lives…
I like pastries
Monet’s gardens at Giverny, definitely not in full bloom
Yellow flower!
A pretty tree
The famous bridge that Monet frequently painted
Some cool people on some cool bridge
Pretty pond at Giverny…notice the lilypads that Monet painted
Madame Donohue and her friend Audette on the bridge at Giverny
Doug and I on the bridge
I love the reflection the bridge makes in the water
The mod fountains near Centre Pompidou
An obscene French fountain
Rory and Mel maxin and relaxin at the fountains
“Road of the bad boys”
Sacre Couer, finally up close
My heros…the sanitary cleaners in their trendy outfits
Centre Pompidou up close
Arc de Triomphe at night
The names of the soldiers that died in World War I
The eternal flame and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
One of the four reliefs on the Arc
Another relief…
Still another relief…
The last of the four reliefs
What a hottie.
Scariest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.
Champs-Elysées never stops moving…
The Eiffel Tower sparkles for 10 minutes at the beginning of each hour after dark
The sparkly Eiffel Tower after our Boat Tour of Paris on the last night
Toddy eating some ducky! Or maybe steaky…I forget.
Aww, ain’t she a cutie?
Coolest chaperone ever…long live Madame Donohue! : )
MD and I
Dougie and I being cool
Favorite picture ever
A super, rich chocolate cake at an amazing restaurant
Mel staring down her creme brulee
The view of the Eiffel Tower from Doug, Todd and Rory’s hotel room (I am jealous)
The traffic circle and fountain right outside our hotel
Our favorite little Supermarché G20