Eesh, it’s been a while since I last updated. The last two weeks have been filled with problem sets, projects and this one business venture that I’ve been working on with a couple amazing people at school. We’re trying to get a student-run food truck on Columbia’s campus, because our neighborhood has a tendency to charge ridiculous prices for mediocre food. We made it to the final round of the Columbia Venture Competition and we’re hoping to secure some seed money from this! We’ll know by the end of this week if we win — fingers crossed!

Anyway, I’ll probably make a post about NOM3 (the business venture) later this week. But for now — Paris pictures! This (March 17th) was my last full day of the trip, and the inner art history geek in me had yet to check out the Louvre and the Musée de l’Orangerie.

The Louvre is massive and chock-full of famous works of art that you’ve probably seen in your history books. Like the Winged Victory of Samothrace in all its … uh, winged glory. And this one painting that I randomly found at the Louvre:

Liberty Leading the People by Delacroix — a Coldplay fan would surely recognize this!

The thing about the Louvre is that it’s so easy to get lost. I literally spent half an hour scrambling around the different wings trying to find the exit. Smooth. After that, I walked a few blocks to the Musée de l’Orangerie, which might be a tiny museum compared to the behemoth that is the Louvre. But dude, this place has some of the most AMAZING curating. Case in point:

…you might be thinking, “Uh, why did you post a bunch of pictures of Monet’s Nympheas against a white wall?” Because this, my friend, is not just any ordinary Monet’s-Nympheas-against-a-white-wall exhibit! Work with me here and imagine you’re in a closed, oval-shaped room that’s completely stark white. In the center, there’s a bench. And you’re sitting on the bench. And these huge Monets are wrapped around the walls so that you’re sitting in the middle of Monets with a 360-degree view. And all you see are the waterlilies. It sounds like such a simple concept, but there’s something to be said about immersing yourself in the paintings. AND there were two rooms of waterlilies.

The Louvre (or any museum in NY, for that matter) was totally frenetic and crowded, with throngs of people trying to snap pictures of every remotely famous work of art. On the other hand, the Orangerie is very soothing. It’s very easy to just sit on the benches for an hour and be genuinely awed by the artwork.

After the Orangerie, I went to the Pompidou and sat outside for a little bit while I ate lunch. I then met up with my friend to visit the Catacombs, where we walked past stacks and stacks of bones that made up the walls underground. It’s amazing how many skeletons were kept there!

After the Catacombs, I went back to good ol’ Pierre Hermé and Ladurée for a final macaron fix.

Isn’t the packaging adorable?!

Pistachio, green apple, rose petals, and licorice (my personal favorite!) macarons. I got a bit hungry, and subsequently, a cassis and a second licorice macaron never got to be a part of this photo.

After dinner, it was time to pack up and go home to New York. Thank goodness I didn’t run into any flight troubles like I did with my arrival flight. And so concludes my Paris trip! I miss it already. As I’m writing this now, I’m craving macarons again, except it’s not as if I can walk around the neighborhood and easily find a place that sells them. Sigh, such is life!

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