Paris Day Six: Musée d'Orsay and Musée Guimet

Don't shoot me, I'm sorry! I did not post yesterday, as I was so tired from travelling back home from Paris, that I only arrived back home at around 10.30pm, and blogging was not at the forefront of my priorities. But here is what you guys missed - it's crazy to think I was at these museums only yesterday! Here are my last positives and negatives, both of the day and of the holiday in general.

The negatives:

• Yesterday was our last day in Paris, and my mum decided that we should go to Musée Guimet, even though I wasn't particularly fond it, she seemed to like it. It holds Europe's largest collection of Asian arts, so I found it rather boring, but my mum's fond of that sort of thing.

• In the Musée d'Orsay, I accidentally got an audio guide only for a temporary exhibition (Degas and the nude, which contained lots of naked bodies), instead of the entire museum, which was bit of a waste of money, as it cost 5euros, and I didn't want to pay another 5euros for another audio guide.

The positives

• I loved the Musée d'Orsay, especially the symbolism section of it. The paintings in this section were really thought-provoking and striking. Some people say it encompasses the Gothic elements of romanticism. Unfortunately I don't have any photographs to show of my favourites for obvious reasons. I also enjoyed the really massive canvas paintings, as well as the famous pointillist paintings, such as The Circus, Georges Seurat
• I had this AMAZING eclair from a pâtisserie outside the Musée d'Orsay, which had Chantilly cream and loads of strawberries. Just thinking back to how delicious it was is making my mouth water.
• Another snack I loved in France were these things below. Oh they were so yummy, with their crunchy outer and raspberry centre. I ended up finished a total of two boxes in two days.

• I love how all the French seem to love wearing Ray-Ban glasses, or simply glasses with statement frames. From toddlers to OAPs, they all seem to have very stylish choices in frames - I am impressed. 
• I love the feeling when you just come back from holiday, or you've been away from home for a prolonged period of time, and then you return to familiarity and everything just feels just as it was. I don't know whether it's just me who gets this vibe. The annoying this is though, after about 5 mins, this sense of euphoria is quickly expelled by the stresses and pressure that come with home - in other words, my looming exams! 
• It's just generally a beautiful city!

 I can't wait to go visit it again!


Rebecca x

P.S. Sorry for this lame post, I have been very uninspired today. Posts will be of a better quality asap!

Paris Day Five: Palace of Versailles

"The Château de Versailles began as Louis XIII’s hunting lodge before his son Louis XIV transformed and expanded it, moving the court and government of France to Versailles in 1682. Each of the three French kings who lived there until the French Revolution added improvements to make it the most beautiful achievements of 18th-century French art."

The negatives: 

• It was, again, ridiculously busy at the Palace of Versailles. When we were visiting the King's Grand Apartments, I was quite disgusted by the body odour of some of the other tourists that I was squished up against. 
• Luckily the weather was lush, but it was too sunny! The sun was really strong and since the grounds and palace were mostly all white, it was all reflecting into my eyes. Furthermore, I had forgotten to bring my sunglasses, so my eyes were killing. 

The positives: 

• Everything else! The palace was beautiful, so excessive and extravagant. 

From the outside.

Th famous hall of mirrors

There were many marble statues.

The gardens were nice, but nowhere near as good as ones in England. In France, there is too much sandy white gravel, not enough green!

I think they are planning on planting more plants here, as outlines are marked out with chalk.

The elaborate ceiling of one room.

A water fountain of some people on horses drowning

This sign in front of Musee d'Orsay is funny. 

• Today I had the chance to try out some snails, or escargot for the first time and I loved it! They taste pretty much the same as other shellfish and mollescus, which I love anyway, so they were great. They had a lovely garlic, herbs and olive oil sauce drizzled over them and it was delish.

Last half day tomorrow!


Rebecca x

P.S. Replying to Wendy's comment on yesterday's post about the scariness of Montmarte: I know it's crazy! I just read something online about these guys who were at the bottom of the hill carrying threads of string. Apparently they ask you for your wrist to try out the string for length, and they quickly braid it into a bracelet and tie it around your wrist, which can't be untied by yourself. Then they demand an extortionate price for the rope bracelet, which you can't refuse to pay, as you can't take the bracelet off and they'll keep holding on to both you and the bracelet until you cough up the money. I'm so glad that I quickly walked past these people and didn't make any eye contact with the creepy men, as I was concerned that I might get attacked or stabbed or something worse...

Paris Day Four: Notre Dame, Sacré Cœur and Panthéon

Since Tuesday is the day museums that are closed tomorrow,  today was a day of big religious buildings: Notre Dame de Paris, Basilique du Sacré-Cœur and The Panthéon.

The Pantheon

The negatives:

• The weather was pretty rubbish since it was raining almost all day. We visited all these places today, not only because everything else was closed, but also as they were all indoors.
• Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur are both functioning churches so I felt quite bad for the minority of people who were actually at the church for worship, rather than just for some superficial sight-seeing. Even though photography was forbidden in the Sacre Coeur, many people were still taking snaps. Though, it was even worse in Notre Dame as the rules were less strictly enforced, so even though you weren't allowed to take pictures with the flash on, many people still were. Lots of tourists were also really noisy - there were some annoying Americans in the Pantheon visiting the crypt, which contains the remains of distinguished French citizens. It's really quite similar; just respect the places you're visiting. 
• The Montmatre area surrounding had lots of people were trying to sell those tacky Eiffel Tower key rings that I mentioned in my post here. Turns out that if you are court illegally selling souvenirs, you could get sent to prison for 6 months. Also, there were some soldiers/police patrolling the area carrying some hefty guns, so these shifty men selling these souvenirs definitely have balls. However, the area was ridden with "Beware of Pick-pockets" signs, and we couldn't use cash to pay for our tickets in case of theft, so I was not suprised that some people say the area surrounding the Sacre Coeur is plagued with drug dealers and seedy men.

The postitives:

• The architecture today was breathtaking (both literally and figuratively for the Sacre Coeur as it is up the Montmatre hill). I cannot be bothered to describe it, so here's some pictures for you to enjoy. 

Pictures not too fantastic because of a lack of flash

• We had another awesome meal at Chartier! This time we had a beef stew, duck confit and some pork which just seemed to be gammon. I also tried foie gras for the first time and I surprisingly enjoyed it! One portion of foie gras probably had enough calories for an entire meal, but I was quite yummy - I do like liver anyway. We were also hoping for some snails, just because we are in France but unfortunately, it wasn't on the menu today! 

The old lady sitting on the table next to the two other ladies was so cute! She was by herself, drinking a bottle of beer and had a salad, soup and a dessert for dinner. She ate so slowly but attentively.

So that was day four, see you tomorrow for my second to last day in Paris!

Rebecca x
P.S. I know the formatting is messed up here, but I'm tired now. I'll fix it tomorrow morning. If you still can read this message after that time, I've been lazy and left it. 

Paris Day Three: The Louvre and Chartier

Yes, the weather was that grey today!

*WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS PARTIAL NUDITY* 

Musée du Louvre is one of the world's largest museums and the most visited art museum in the world. Today, it was certainly a crazily busy day with streams of tourists (mostly Chinese it seemed). 

The negatives:

• The Louvre is absolutely ginormous and is pretty much a giant maze. We did manage to navigate ourselves round, but it was certainly a trek, as my legs got so tired - far more tiring than climbing the Eiffel Tower! 
• The crowds in front of the Mona Lisa were ridiculous! Everyone was pushing and shoving to get a snap of the famous painting. There was a total of 6 "body"-guards in front of the painting and they were very vigilant with anyone who would act out of order.

• We went to the Galeries Lafayette, which I thought was pretty boring. It was the same as every other big department store regardless of whatever city in the world you are. The ceiling was quite cool though. Afterwards, we went to H&M (again, but a different one), but yet again, I didn't manage to find anything I fancied. 

The positives: 

• I'm not really an appreciator of fine arts, but there were some cool paintings, statues, ornaments, furniture etc and I did enjoy the museum, despite what my feet were telling my brain.

Tehehe

Venus de Milo

The metro station...

• Yesterday, by chance, we stumbled across this really busy restaurant with a queue to get in that went around the corner of the street. Luckily there was no queue today, so we decided to go inside for a meal. We were pleasantly surprised as our meal was delicious (One steak, lamb and sea bream). Turns out Boullion Chartier used to be a soup kitchen or broullion over 100 years ago, but now is a restaurant that is popular amoung both native Parisians and tourists. Lots of the original decor has been retained - there are lots of little draws where regulars used to store their napkins and there were also racks on top of your head to put your coat and bags. Service is very speedy and the entire restaurant was packed to the point of having to share tables with others. My favourite aspect of the restaurant though, was that they would scribble the bill onto the paper table cloth, and work it out using some speedy mental arithmetic - a nice personal touch to a fantastic meal. 

That was my day today, how was yours?

Bye!

Rebecca x

Paris Day Two: Arc de Triomphe and Tour Eiffel

Today was a day involving climbing lots of stairs and doing lots of queuing up. 

The negatives:

• There were lots of dodgy looking foreign men selling tacky Eiffel tower keyrings. I'm pretty sure what they were doing was illegal as they would quickly scamper when they saw the police arrive. My mum took a picture of one of these men as she's annoying like that, and boy, he looked like he wanted to attack her or something and he did. He grabbed my mum by her arm and my mum quickly retaliated with some verbal abuse and then we were on our way. 

• The queues were really quite long for both the Eiffel tower and Arc de Triomphe. However, considering it was the Easter weekend, it was shorter than I anticipated. When we reached the 1st floor of the Eiffel tower I realised just how long the snaking queues were. 

• I forgot to take over the picture taking, so I only have the ones my rents took. This photo could've been so good if my mum didn't cut off the bottoms of the cars.  

• After the Arc de Tromphe and Tour Eiffel, we reached this museum called Grand Palais, and went to this exhibition called "Beauté animale". It was honestly very underwhelming, as there wasn't much on display and the entry tickets were quite expensive. I do not recommend anyone to go visit it, unless you have a museum pass of some sort. 
• I had a citron and fraises flavoured ice cream and was very yummy. However it was also a bit of a rip-off at 4euros. Oh well, it's now in my tummy. 
• We also walked around Champs-Élysées and there was a huge H&M that I simply had to go in as my local one is absolute rubbish. I didn't buy anything though, which was sad. 

The positives:

• The weather was pretty good to begin with, although it did soon deteriorate. We walked up to the second level of the Eiffel Tower and then took the elevator (you couldn't walk any further from here on) all the way to the top. We reached 281m above the ground and I was very concerned about the amount of radiation I was receiving from being so close to the satellite dishes at the top of the tower. The aerial view was pretty good though and I was surprised to find that all the new developments in Paris were pretty much confined to a small area, and much of the uniform marble architecture has been retained. 

My dad's camera's white balance is a bit off. 

• There was also all these people in this huge conga line chanting this French song underneath the Eiffel Tower. I'm not sure what they were singing about, but it sounded like it could've either been a protest, or some sort of scout group. 

• We also reached the top of Arc de Triomphe (I keep thinking its Marble Arch), although it seemed way less high, after the Eiffel Tower. 

• I reckon I now have thighs of steel after all this climbing. 

That's all for today! If I'm back tomorrow early again, and have time, see you tomorrow for another post. 

Rebecca x

Reading my map. For some reason my hair looks far more red than it actually is now. Oh well. 

Paris Day One: Arrival

Today we went on the 11.24 Eurostar train from Kings Cross St. Pancreas, to Paris Nord and commenced our Paris holiday. Here are some things I noticed:

The negatives:

• The first thing that happened when we got out of the train carriage is that some very rude people barged us out of the way in the station. 
• Lots of people in France smoke.
• We don't have a complementary breakfast in our hotel! 
• Parks in Paris don't seem to have grass - just all this white sand. As it as not rained in a while here, it was so dusty. Today it was ridiculously windy, so there was a full blown sand storm in my face. 

My boots after walking through the park. 

The positives:

• Paris is known as the city of love and there were also quite a few Chinese couples having wedding photos taken in front of the landmarks with their obnoxious dresses. We saw a total of three couples having these pictures taken within about 10 minutes - they seemed so Chinese and so out of place.

• I set next to this REALLY cute Chinese toddler on the Eurostar. She had her hair in little bunchies, and had a bunny ears headband. Odd, how the only 5 Chinese people in our entire carriage ended up on the same row... 
• Since we only arrived at around 3pm, we just decided to go out and have a walk around town. Here are some random pictures my dad took. 

With cool HDI settings, although the white balance is a bit messed. 

Tomorrow, I will take over the photography, as my dad took these images today. Hopefully I will get some good ones.

See you tomorrow,



Rebecca x
P.S. I'm afraid that these posts are going to have to be quite late, as I am really tired after entire days out. I might just save them to all do at once at the end of the holidays, but I don't want to break my BEDIE.

The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineering Fair 2012

Yesterday was phase two of "Outings with FC" - to the The Big Bang Science fair at the NEC Birmingham, for a spot of being nerdy and being awesome. Click here to see phase one: "Camden"! Here are some images from the fair, courtesy of my dad. The fair was basically an exhibition with various science and engineering companies showcasing what they do, with some hands on activities so that you can experience it yourself.

The fair was broken down into these main sections: Making Trax led by Jaguar Land Rover, Go Global led by Siemens, Farm to Fork, The Next Factor led by BAE Systems, Body Talk, Energise led by Shell. It is obvious that there is quite a prominent engineering focus to the fair, but that is probably because they have the money to sponsor these sorts of events.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any famous people (I was hoping to see Prof Brian Cox!) but that is probably because the best shows had to be book way in advance and I was not that speedy. However, we managed to talk to various people from lots of different science and engineering based industries. Some where more knowledgeable than others, but it was really interesting being able find out about the assortment of different branches of science.

One of the best stands was one where we got to make our own ice cream by putting milk, sugar and flavouring into a bag, which was then placed into another bag filled with ice and salt. Because ice requires energy to melt, it absorbs heat energy from the milk mixture and the environment. The salt lowers the melting point of ice, so even more heat energy is needed to be absorbed to melt the ice, thus, speeding up the ice cream making process. In the end, the ice cream that we made was quite convincing and did taste okay, for the first few mouth fulls, but after a while, it became rather sickly and the milk started tasting dodgy too.

Other activities included making peanut butter, making a giant blood clot, staring at a spinning wheel until you fall over and going up and down ramps in a land rover. Some more activities are shown below in these pictures.

This contraption was previously used to prepare astronauts during early space exploration missions. Unsurprisingly, I did not have a go on it as it looked absolutely terrifying. The guy in the picture had a "I'm about to soil my pants" expression on his face whilst being spun round in every direction.

On this stand, you could create a vortex and blast a doughnut of smoke towards some tin cans to score points. Well done to my dad for capturing this awesome picture - the girl's expression is hilarious.

At the fair, there were also informative shows/presentations by various people. We managed to catch this guy (Dr Ken - although I think he's far too imbecilic to have a doctorate). His presentation was "How to save the Planet in 60 seconds" although it was so stupid as the title is completely misleading. Here, a girl is spinning a basketball on a hand held drill. This is when my hate for this guy started manifesting- he started making sexist jokes about girls and their incompetence with power tools. I understand that it was only a joke, but I didn't - nor did the rest of the audience- find it very funny. I obviously can't speak for the entire female population, but I think I am pretty capable at handling tools, and I thought it was absolutely shocking that he was making these jokes, 1) at a science and engineering fair - the whole point of them is to encourage women into these industries rather than deter them- and 2) in front of a young girl and a mostly family audience. Pretty soon after this picture was taken, we swiftly left as I could not stand him for much long and I think quite alot of other people did too. This second time this month I have experienced gender inequality regarding science and engineering. Sad times.

This was probably one of the coolest aspects of the science fair. These little remote controlled, helium filled dolphins/planes/blimps elegantly flew around the fair - I want one.

This bubbly experiment is used in construction to find the strongest structures.

Us on fire. Standard.

In the NEC in another hall, there was an Alpaca exhibition by the British Alpaca Futurity. Unfortunately, we couldn't get in as it required to by tickets, but we had a quick peak from outside and they looked pretty cool. The smell they produced, on the other hand, was not so cool.

Here is some of random freebies that I acquired from the fair.They are quite a nice bonus, and at last I have some working pens! Though one thing that I regret is that I didn't take a stress ball freebie from one of the companies and now I regret it! There was also this super cool red blood cell stress ball that I saw one person had, but alas, I could not find it :(.

 Here is a close up of "The game that is really infectious" - happy families featuring infectious diseases. Some of the cartoons that they drew for each disease are quite funny. I might donate this to the biology department at school.

However, my favourite freebie of them all is my "Plantarium - Growing Gel". It is pretty much some agar jelly in a tube, and you get some seeds to grow a plant. Apparently this "patented technology" has even been used by NASA in space. I have already put some basil seeds in the gel, so I hope they germinate soon and I will have a lovely basil plant. It says that it is "fool-proof", but although, knowing my luck with growing plants (the air plant that I featured in this post is pretty much dying as the leaves are falling out!), they probably won't germinate and I'll just end up with a tube of growing mould.

I got this cool plant growing kit from Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil company and is also the most valuable company in the world. This shows a clear trend that occurred at the fair - the largest companies (such as oil companies) all had the best freebies, as they are obviously wealthy beyond belief. They can afford to throw their money all across the place!

I think I probably sound so stingey talking about all the freebies that I got, but I am most grateful for simply being able to attend such a worthwhile event, especially since the tickets were free. It can't start to imagine how much it would've cost to put on a fair of such a vast scale, so I am so glad that I have been able to be part of it and I do think I have learnt something. Hopefully I can go again next year in 2013!

Time for phase three of "Outings with FC"!


Rebecca x
P.S. I have been majorly slacking with the volume of posts that I have been getting out on this blog - will try and be better in the future!
P.P.S I have just found out that my 8 year old friend has a blog, and he's been posting since he was 6 years old... I feel so old now - I didn't even have an email at that age!