PARIS TRAVEL DIARY: DAY TWO
learned about Paris' fashion distracts and shops presented by Oliver Roux. Roux has thrown a ton of information on us about almost every store and brand in Paris...like literally. It was really interesting to hear and got me excited to see all the stores. One big thing I took away was how "Parisians" act, think, and behave differently from Americans. (I'm not saying all Parisians are like this, but these are just some traits I've seen staying here) The most obvious trait of Parisians is how blunt they are when speaking and saying all their opinions that might come off as rude or harsh. At first, the culture shock was a bit amusing, but then you start to realize that their comments are their honest opinions. For example, Roux was talking about a well-known brand and told us to visit the store to see how a failing brand looks like.
Roux also talk a little bit about Parisian behavior like they are very exclusive and walking down the street you wouldn't look at a stranger with a smile and say hi. This took me a little while to get use to because it makes me feel super shady and cold towards other, but I just have to realize that that is just the culture. But then again, he told us that people like to be very exclusive and that if you have nothing to offer you aren't worth anything. He said being pretty will not get you far here and the only way to get far is by having something to offer to someone. I thought it was an interesting concept because I never really thought about that, but I feel like many big cities share that trait.
It was very interesting hearing and learning about the culture differences and made me really reflect if I should change myself to their standards or be true to myself. I gradually felt myself feeling really confused and it kind of bothered me.
Later in the day we visited Musée du Louvre, directed by Agnés Rannou an Art History professor from France. If you don't know the Louvre is a huge museum mostly famous for holding the Mona Lisa and the entrance being the glass pyramid. It's a massive museum that holds up to 460,000 artworks with everything from ancient Egyptian times to Greek sculptures. The Louvre is a beautiful museum that used to be a palace and where Napoleon III used to live. The Louvre still showcases his apartment and it is absolutely stunning. I love French buildings and architectures becasue it is just so delicately made and looks so elegant.
During our visit, two students and I did it separated from the group for about 20 minutes becasue since it is a popular spot for tourist the Louvre it's super pack and you can easily get separated and lost becasue it's so massive. After the tour ended, we were free to roam by ourselves and I decided to fun a little fun and take snapchat selfies with some of the painting, but sadly I couldn't even get close to the Mona Lisa becasue the crowd was just too much. After the Louvre, we grabbed a light dinner and headed out to see the pyramid that we only saw from the inside. I was able to get some beautiful pictures and ended the night eating some McCafe macaroons. Day three awaits with...
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