Sorry I am so unbelievably behind. It's been busy, as I'm sure you can imagine.

Let's see last week. . .
On Monday we went. . . somewhere. It really wasn't that long ago. . . ah ha! The Pantheon. We went into the crypt and saw the graves of famous French men--Voltaire, Rousseau, Marat, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas and Louis Braille. Pretty neat.
Tuesday we toured the Orsay Museum with our instructor Elissa. We looked at academic painting, realism and idealism, which don't excite me that much, but she did a good job of explaining their historical importance. I did like some of the realist work, which often was social commentary, like the conditions of the working class.
Wednesday we saw San Chapelle, the Concergerie, and Norte Dame. San Chapelle was built to house the relics obtained by the French monarchy. High Gothic architecture. It has beautiful stained glass windows. Next door is the Concergerie, which used to be a palace, before the Louvre palace and the chateau at Versailles were built. During the revolution, it was used as a prison. I saw the cell where Marie Antoinette stayed before her execution in the Concord Plaza (which I saw on Tuesday after class). Norte Dame I've already done, so I'll spare you a retelling of that.
Thursday we only had class, and I got caught up on my readings.
Friday we left for Normandy and Brittany. At noon we went to the WWII Peace Museum at Caen. We didn't even have enough time to run through the whole plan of the museum before we saw a movie on the D-Day invasion. It was strange to be in a peace musuem during a time of war. The set up was really overwhelming, but moving. There were lots of pictures and posters and historical artifacts, like Nazi flags, and letters home.
After the museum we went to the American cemetary and Omaha beach. It was misty and rainy, only adding to the mellow mood. We had just seen video footage of men crawling onto the beach and being shot down. It was odd to walk on the beach with those thoughts in mind.
I have much more to say, but I'm afraid my time is up. Saint Malo will have to wait.

Pray for peace, until the violence stops. . .