Finally, some sun!

About a week ago, when I was in the midst of writing my 10-page term paper for my art history class, something very troubling occurred to me. It's now April. Normally I would be happy - the weather is getting nicer, trees are starting to bloom, and Parisians seem less snobby than usual. But then again, it's April 6, and that means that my program ends in less than two months. Not good.

So after calming down, I put things into perspective. Over the next seven weeks, I'm going to Chartres, Aix-en-Provence, Marseilles, Nice (and surrounding towns), Cannes, Venice, Florence, Cinque Terre, Rome, Giverny, and hopefully Amsterdam. Three countries, 11 cities, then back home.

Really though, this nonstop traveling started this past weekend with our trip to Barcelona, which was by far my favorite trip so far. First off, we were able to stay at my friend Annie Miller's apartment (palace) in an incredible location in the city. That, coupled with her encyclopedia-like knowledge of the city and its landmarks made it an unforgettable trip.

Barcelona is the first city I've been to in Europe whose architecture rivals that of Paris. Clearly influenced by the famous architect Antonio Gaudi, who built incredible sights all around the city. Most notable are the Sagrada Familia cathedral and Parc Guell. They are straight out of fairy tale books and were a great contrast to the gothic architecture I'm used to in France.

Sagrada Familia

Parc Guell

View from Parc Guell

The pictures don't really do it justice, but these were without doubt my favorite parts of Barcelona. That's a pretty ridiculous statement to make considering the amount of amazing sights we were able to take in in the three-plus days we were there.

The weather in Barcelona was pretty much perfect throughout our entire visit. It hovered around 70 degrees with sunshine throughout, and I was outside for most of the time in a t-shirt. Unfortunately, our return to Paris brought us back to reality, with temperatures in the 40s and 50s once again...but not for long.
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So at this point, I got really busy (lazy) and haven't really had a lot of time to finish this entry, so please forgive me.

This week completely flew by. First, not having class on Monday threw me off a bit, and the fact that my sleep schedule has been on Barcelona time all week didn't help my cause. With that said, I will say I had a really fun week. We got closer with our awesome Parisian neighbor who took us to a great club, and on Friday we went to Montmartre again, which was lovely.

And since the weather got a bit nicer (high 50s and sunny), we were able to spend some time outside, and we even got to explore a new park/garden called Lac de Buttes Chaumont, a true gem in the far northeast district of the city.

Lac de Buttes Chaumont

Aside from that, not too much is going on at the moment. My friend Annie from Wisconsin is visiting us for a couple of days, and in one week Jon and I are going on our epic spring break. Before I finish though, I thought it would be fun to show some pictures from the Luxembourg Gardens that really illustrate the change in seasons.

Winter

Still not quite there...

About freakin' time!

Alright, that's it. Hope you enjoyed, and I'll try to get another post in before I go on spring break.