The One Where I Do and See some Things.

This weekend has been so enlightening! Although it's been so culturally informative, the most important thing I've learned is that weather prediction is the farthest thing from science. It was supposed to be miserably rainy all weekend but it ended up being warm and beautiful with less than ten minutes of rain.

We started out by going to the Musée d'Orsay. Now this is one of the most popular museums in Paris. It has the largest selection of impressionism/post-impressionism in the world (with nearly 1,100 paintings.) I'm in love with impressionism so this is obviously a favorite of mine. The museum is a former train station that was built in 1900 and Fun Fact! the station was built with 12,000 tons of metal, which is more than the Eiffel Tower. The station was decommissioned in 1939 for being too small and in 1977, it was saved from near demolition to be converted into a museum. The idea of the museum was to bridge the gap between the ancient art of the Louvre and the modern art of Pompidou. In 1986, Orsay officially opened, displaying French art from 1848-1941.

Specifically, theres an exhibit I've been dying to see. It's called Au-Delà des Étoiles or Beyond the Stars. Predictively, it's amazing. Impressionism is so mystical in it's very being but having an entire gallery about the cosmos and the stars is simply overwhelming.

Next we enjoyed the absolutely breathtaking Arts and Métiers museum. We ended up here entirely by accident. I was in charge of getting us to our next stop and due to my terrible sense of direction, we ended up on the wrong side of Paris... On our shameful journey back to the center, we passed one of the coolest stations of Paris, Arts and Métiers and decided to check out the museum.

It's actually a really fun museum. It explains all the inventions throughout history from the simple telescope to the most complex computers. They explain how they were made and how they function. As if that wasn't enough, the final part of the museum was the cathedral. First you walk into a typical-looking church and then realize that it's filled to the top with planes and trains and cars. It was a joy climbing to the top and admiring this amazing room from every angle.

The following day, we attended the Fête de l'Europe. This is a proper festival of cultures and ideas to celebrate the European community. It's annually held on (or around) the 25th of March, the anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. This agreement established the international economic community and laid the groundwork for the European Union. And for this, we celebrate! Fun fact! this year, 2017, is the 60th anniversary of the treaty.

This festival is celebrated all throughout the EU, from the biggest cities to the smallest villages. I started my day in my small (?) town of Saint Germain en Laye where I got my first taste of what this day would be like. I was immediately overwhelmed. Huge balloons, flags and so many people! I could actually hear and smell the festival before I even walked onto the street.

You could feel the joy in the air, it was one of those days. First, I went to an information table to figure out how to best experience this event, which was such a good idea! I spoke to so many people about the EU, and programs, groups, projects and events in my city. They also gave out so many things like books, pens, bags, maps and anything else you could imagine.

The rest of the square was filled with tables and stands that represented each member country of the EU. Every country had things from their country like food, beer, clothes, or other products.

After perusing the countries and their offerings, I headed into Paris to check out the main event at the Hôtel de Ville. This was quite a different festival than the St Germain en Laye version so I'm really glad I got a chance to see both!

There was a stage set up to perform live music throughout the day and into the evening and there were a few food trucks, one selling some amazing bratwurst and currywurst that we had for lunch. There were so many tents outside: one side was for talking about the EU and how it functions and the other was to talk about more specific parts of the EU, such as the countries that are applying for membership. We spent so much time in these tents talking to the "experts" about the information they had to offer.

There were also a variety of games to help involve everyone from kids to the no-longer-kids. My friend got herself into a game matching the EU countries with their flags. And I somehow ended up taking part in an interview where I talk about my year of traveling. Really, it was all a great experience! There were also conferences and interviews being held about different topics that we could take part in.

This was such an amazing day. But also such a great way to learn about the EU and even more for practicing my French!

"Le vrai voyageur ne sait pas où il va."

- The true traveler doesn't know where they're going.