A Very Victor Hugo Day

So this week has been pretty routine as far as school. Monday after class Megan and I went to the Memorial de la Shoah, the Holocaust museum in the Marais. It was small, very recently built (in 2005 when Chirac admitted the Vichy government's responsibility for deporting thousands of Jews in a collaboration with the Germans). The museum was interesting, but what I found more interesting was the amount of security around it. You couldn't leave the museum without stepping into a separate compartment and closing the door leading in before you opened the door going out. There's still a bit of anti-Semitism in France and the museum is afraid of attacks. I learned that there were 76,000 Jews deported from France through the collaborationist government.

As far as school, my history class is getting a little easier and we are also finally finished with introduction and getting into the actual topic of the course, Napoleon III, so that's cool. The other IES students and I are a little confused about the assignments, since we're leaving before the end of the French semester, but we'll figure it out. I had an oral presentation in one of my poli sci classes this week, and I think it went OK. I also had another visit to the Louvre for art history, we talked about the artists David, Ingres, and Delacroix.

Today Megan's last class got cancelled, so after my class ended I went to the Musee Carnavalet, the history of Paris museum, to see the special exhibit on Les Miserables! It was really awesome, they had a timeline of the characters, paintings of Paris at the time the book was written, explanations of the locations used in the book...it was basically really awesome. Then I went to all the parts of the museum that Megan and I apparently totally missed the first time, like the French Revolution and the Gallo-Roman period, it was interesting. Then once Megan got out of class, we went to Victor Hugo's house. Obviously they talked about Les Mis there too, so now I have the desire to reread the book. His house is located in the Place des Vosges (originally named the Place Royale), the oldest square in Paris and the model for all residential squares in Europe. It was built in 1612.

My host parents have the first student they ever hosted staying with them this week, she's 26 and a doctoral student. It's really interesting to have dinner now. I love my host parents in general, we had a really great dinner tonight. They keep lending Megan and me movies that I hope we'll have time to watch! Mostly French movies but some American ones as well.

This weekend should be interesting, Giverny and then Brussels to see Cristy for the first time since CTY!!! More on that the next time I update. By the way, the top photo is L'Institut Catholique and the bottom is Place des Vosges.