Day 20- Monday 27 June

This morning was occupied with thoroughly cleaning myself, rediscovering the various objects that had been displaced by the domestic whilst I was away and doing my homework. Class was particularly interesting today as our work of choice was a first-hand account of a More Real Paris before the revolution [so, the 1780s], one that wasn't all artists in cafes and promenading of the elite but a Paris of blood congealing in the streets for blocks around the butcher areas, of the disposal of body parts from public dissections in primitive toilets, of the impoverished carting human waste in the night to just outside the city, to accounts of finding mismatched severed limbs in said outskirts, of prostitutes, an utter lack of building codes, privies leaking into the water bakers used, cemeteries being constantly dug into to place fresh bodies, thousand year-old skulls peeking from the stewing soil, and more along these lines, really interesting.

Did I mention today was hot? Freaking hot. In Provence everyone was wearing practically nothing, and I figured Cool, enjoy it while I can, but I got back and the rain and overcastness and cool-windiness from before was POOF and it was sunny and hot and the grass is always greener. We had our second class today in the Louvre, walking around until we were forcibly inclined to leave, and that I liked, too. Our professor's current area of research is in the period of eighteenth-century French painting, so she not only a) did not get us lost in the Louvre, but b) was very enthusiastic, and kept pointing out favourite This' and That's, and could talk about the museum itself, too. And, guys, that was basically my day. There was an interesting photography exhibition [link here, they were great in person, make sure you look at them at a larger size, like National Geographic eye candy] between the museum and the Palais that I looked at for a while, and did some reading, and Maria made beans and potatoes and, I dunno, beef? for dinner, and I have a lot more reading to do.