This coming Friday, I will leave for my third weekend trip to Paris. The first trip I took was in October, as part of a field trip with my European City in Lit and Film class. We visited the Bonne Marche department store, Gallery Lafayette, Musee D’Orsay, and the Marais District of Paris, where we learned about Jewish culture and history in the Parisian landscape.
Last weekend, I took a train to Paris to visit my family, who’d come all the way across the world just to see my face. We went to Disneyland Paris and watched an episode of the new Gilmore Girls.
And now, I venture this weekend with my Medieval Art and Architecture class, led by the lovely and extremely enthusiastic Yumna Masarwa, whose energy and personality I hope I never forget for as long as I live. We’ll visit Saint-Denis, Notre Dame, and my favorite of all Parisian Gothic structures, Sainte-Chapelle, reliquary chapel to King Louis the IX in the 13th century. I’m ecstatic to finally see the remarkable stained glass I learned so much about in Dr. Dennis’ intro art history course roughly a year and a half ago, but I’m also ecstatic that with each trip to this magnificent city, I experience something completely different from the last trip. Paris is vast enough to make you see its Haussmann-ed streets in a new light with every visit.