9

It was overwhelming, as was to be expected. Of course, I am talking about the Louvre. In the three hours we were there, we managed to cover Italian paintings from the 13th to the 15th century, French paintings, Romanticism, and Neo-Classical artwork. This was but a small portion of the museum, a very small portion. So, unfortunately for Cole, we get to go back! Eric, Nicolas’s father, knows everything there is know about art history and so he not only explained the artist’s background, but the story the artist was depicting as well. I was amazed by his knowledge and I fully enjoyed listening to him. I learned a great deal about style, symbolism, and allusions; I had never before realized the complexity.
Then, once night came, Nicolas took over and it was time for “fun.” Annually, there is a huge music festival, city-wide. It was actually very cool—you could walk around the entire city and find concerts everywhere. Though, it was painfully crowed and the metro was suffocating. And, there was a lot of techno. We had the opportunity to meet his friends, and they were all very nice, trying to speak English and always making sure creeps stayed away from us. We went to a fruit bar and had fruit smoothies at 12:30 at night while the city was wide awake. It was fun and a nice insight into younger French culture.
And to end the night, technically the morning, we had Frosted Mini-Wheats and fell fast asleep.