by Kohe and Courtney
After a buffet breakfast of croissants, pain au chocolat, baguettes and coffee, we headed off to the Louvre for the ultimate art experience. We started off at Napoleon’s apartments, which were meticulous in their detail. The room was adorned with gold figurines, amazing paintings on every roof (which were works of art themselves) and antique furniture. The whole picture came together amazingly and was a well put together restoration of the apartments of such a historical figure. After our trip through the lifestyle of Napoleon we moved onto the classical Greek and Egyptian statues, which were perfect examples of the artists’ caputring moments in time. The work and effort put into these works of art was evident and they were all as beautiful as the next. There was so much to look at and each piece intrigued all of us equally. One stand out point was walking through the galaries towards the Mona Lisa. Although Da Vinci’s masterpiece was the ultimate destination, all the artwork and paintings set out along the way were almost as effective and imprinting as the age old masterpiece itself. Once we finally arrived at the Mona Lisa (where we all proceeded to take photos) we wandered through the rest of the Louvre until it was time to go to the Notre Dame. Due to our short time frame avaliable to see all the sights of Paris we were rushed around the Louvre and it was blatantly obvious that one could spend two days there and still not appreciate all of the art.
The Notre Dame certainly lived up our expectations. The structure itself was amazing and a lot of us found it hard to comprehend how structures like these were built such a long time ago without the access to technology that we have today. The artwork, statues and general atmosphere of the Notre Dame were on one hand overwhelming and on the other absolutely amazing. To think about how much time and effort that was put into the construction and what the history of the structure was is absolutely mind blowing.
However much to the group’s dismay it was time to move onto the next phase of our Parisian day: shopping at Galleries Lafayette, tres chic. After a successful shopping session from the delegation, we congregated at the hotel and set off to meet the Australian delegates for dinner at a restaurant called Hippopotamus. The food here was delightful as was the company. All the Australian delegates were friendly and I am sure that many friendships were made and will be kept. After dinner it was back to Pigale, where half the delegation continued to socialise with half the Australian delegation, while the remaining half returned to the hotel to pack bags to prepare for our flight to Berlin the next day.
Finally, yesterday morning, before departing for Berlin, we visited Sacre Couer and Montmarte, exploring the hillside suburb’s twisting cobbled streets.
Paris was a truly amazing city which all of our delegation thoroughly enjoyed. Although we were all ultimate tourists, with cameras constantly attached to our hands, we seemed to fit right in with the Parisian culture and even managed to conquer the twists and turns of the Metro. We are both sure that the THIMUN 2011 delegation will remember our experiences in Paris which were a lot of fun and extremely informative. The city itself was tres belle, the architecture was incroyable and the atmosphere à ne pas oublier!
