Bread and Warhol

This weekend I was able to do some quirkier things in Paris, which was kind of fun to explore. After a long and difficult week last week (mainly school related but also some not fun stuff in my personal life), I took a break on Friday to spend the day relaxing then going out to dinner and a movie with some friends. We went to our favorite sushi place (great, cheap sushi and free drinks :)) for dinner and then off to take advantage of the "Semaine d'UGC". UGC is one of the big chain movie theaters in France, and this week they are only charging 3 euros for all of their movies, so of course I'm going to see as many as possible! I already saw Angels and Demons on Thursday, and Friday we went to check out a movie I would definitely recommend to anyone looking to laugh through a whole movie: Good Morning England. Rumor is that this british movie won't be out for a few more months in the US, and it will be under a different name (probably something like Rock Boat or Radio Rock something), but it was really really good, so go see it when it comes out!

Saturday, to get out of the house I decided to go check out this Bread festival ("Fete du Pain") that Kitsy had told me about on Friday. There were tents spread out all over the front of Notre Dame, and inside you got to watch all the top "boulangers" (bread makers) from all over France 

and Quebec compete to see who could make the best bread, it was pretty cool. We went in the

 hopes of free samples, but unfortunately I guess they were being stingy that day because we had to buy our own bread. We did get to try some surprisingly delicious mint milk, however, and some really unique butters (I tried the maple butter which was awesome. I stayed away from the anchovy butter and the pickle butter though...). In the end I bought the best apple tart I've ever tasted and some really interesting blueberry bread, which tasted a lot like a blueberry bagel. Here's a few shots of the festival (it was really rainy...) 

Giant bread ovens

 Baguette lessons for kids

Finished product! Nutella and ham/brie sandwiches

Sunday I did some more exploring. Ashley's sister arrived on Saturday so they were off touring, and I decided to finally head to check out the Andy Warhol exhibit at the Grand Palais that I've been wanting to check out for quite a while. I smartly decided to walk there in some pretty heavy rain, but it let up enough for me to sit on a bridge over the Seine and eat a small lunch :). Then I continued on to the Grand Palais, which, if you've ever been to Paris, is that huge glass building that looks like a giant greenhouse, and everyone always asks what it is. It's right on the Champs-Elysee. Anyways, I got there and there was a huge line to get in, but I didn't have much else to do so I decided to stick it out and wait in the rain-- for an hour. It kind of sucked, but I had my ipod and there was a very entertaining clarinetist to keep everyone entertained. The exhibition itself was really interesting. At first I didn't think that I would like it at all, but I think Warhol is one of those artists that you have to warm to. At first I didn't see the value in any of the paintings, but after looking at a fair amount of them I started to reall see the artistic side of them. The collection was great, it brough together tons of paintings and photographs from all over the world (many of Warhol's "twin" paintings are actually owned separately, which is interesting). I also learned a lot about his techniques including diamond powder (using finely powdered diamonds to top off a painting, making it unbelievably sparkly) and "piss painting", where he would paint with copper and then literally urinate on the painting to turn it green. He was a weird one, haha. Unfortunately they wouldn't let me take any pictures in the exhibition but it was very cool anyways. 

On the walk home I was able to snap a few shots around the Invalides, so I'll add those in for your viewing pleasure...

Adorable park next to Les Invalides

I stole a shot through the fence of the Musee Rodin

There was also a really huge protest going on urging President Sarkozy to take action against the genocide in Sri Lanka.

And lastly, I think this is my favorite bumper sticker ever: (rien=nothing)

That about sums up my weekend...this week is going to be pretty uneventful, but then next week my mom and two friends come and it's off to Nice...and only 3 more weeks of school! I can't WAIT to be done with this semester...