Studio Culture EN FRANCE

This week marked the biggest change yet in our Versailles experience so far: we finally started meeting French students!  School had been silent for weeks, but suddenly -- yes, as late as October -- they all returned to the ENSA-V in full force.  Finally, the student-run café was up and running with well-dressed French kids swarming around it all throughout the day.  For a while, the forty-eight of us awkwardly tried to: (a) speak to the French kids without sounding like idiots, and (b) avoid coming off as obnoxious Americans.

But things got much better this week when two of the French studios had their first big meetings.  When I say "meetings", I don't mean the usual "studio culture" talk that we would usually hear during the first days of studio in Champaign-Urbana.  These French introductory meetings were advertised on posters as "pots" (pronounced poe)... which is apparently a sneaky way of saying insane party.

Yes, it's official: no studio back at home will ever be ANYTHING like the studios here in Versailles.  They couldn't be more different: teachers and administrative employees are actually not allowed to enter the studio spaces because they are entirely student-run.  Since the studios serve as personal work spaces and not classrooms, they seem to have evolved into idealized "living spaces for architects"... which includes crazy artwork all over the walls, giant sound systems for blasting music, upper levels from which the older students can yell down at the young ones to do work for them, and the freedom to drink and smoke whenever and wherever!

The ENSA-V has three studios, or ateliers, which are called 13, 14, and 19 for some reason.  Atelier 19 is a bit smaller and has a reputation for housing the more quiet, studious students, whereas 13 and 14 are very large and rather eclectic.  The bigger ones had the meetings this week, which is where several of the Americans got to befriend the French kids over free drinks and loud music.  Over the next few weeks, we might have to struggle to find spots amongst the French students in the studios, but everyone there was definitely very friendly and some even invited us to sit by them.  Phone numbers have been exchanged, we're learning how to do the French cheek-kissing tradition, and some of us have hung out with the French kids outside of school -- so all is well in Versailles!

-Kim

Weekend Field Trip to Metz, Nancy, and Reims

One of the best aspects of the architecture program in Versailles is that fact that we're so close to so many famous architectural landmarks in Europe.  We got to take advantage of this for the first time when we had our first official field trip.  From September 23rd to the 25th, all 48 students plus 4 professors piled into a coach bus and headed to Eastern France for the weekend.

Centre Pompidou Metz

Our first stop was Metz, an ancient French town featuring the brand-new Centre Pompidou Metz.  We took a tour inside, so along the way, we got to see lots of interesting modern art and some perfectly-crafted architectural models.  After debating whether or not we liked the building's style, we headed over to a very different architectural landmark: Saint Pierre-aux-Nonnains, a Gallo-Roman church from the 4th century AD.  We practiced our sketching for a while there before driving to one of Metz's hostels.

Inside St. Pierre-aux-Nonnains

Yes, all of the students plus all of our teachers ate dinner and slept at the hostel together.  The next day, after bonding over an insubstantial breakfast, everyone packed back onto the bus for the drive to Nancy.  Even though it was a rainy day, Nancy turned out to be even more beautiful than Metz (in my opinion, at least!) since it contained lots of pretty architecture.  We saw several examples of Art Nouveau architecture scattered throughout the town and also at the Musée de l'École de Nancy.  We spent lots of time sketching there, of course, and also proceeded to sketch inside the nearby Musée des Beaux-Arts Nancy.  Later in the afternoon, we sketched the Place Stanislas and finally drove back to Metz for the night, our hands and our feet exhausted.

An interesting perspective painting at the Musée des Beaux Arts

We spent another night discovering Metz's night life and woke up the next morning to explore a medieval fortress perched atop one of the town's hills.  We glanced inside St. Étienne de Metz, one of the tallest cathedrals in the world, until finally getting back on the coach bus for the last leg of our trip.  We gladly arrived in Reims and got dropped off right in front of the glorious Reims Cathedral.  Most of the students are big fans of Gothic architecture, so it was quite exciting to see this architectural gem up-close.  Before heading home, we were able to explore the town of Reims a little bit and buy souvenirs.  Almost everyone opted to buy a bottle of bubbly -- this was Champagne country, after all!  We wound our way back to Versailles after a few hours on the bus, and everyone crashed after a very tiring but very fun weekend.

The facade of Notre Dame de Reims

-Kim

Concluding Orientation

As September comes to an end, it's hard to believe that we've been here in France for almost a month.  We've all finally settled into our apartments, learned our way around Versailles, and started thinking about schoolwork again.  So many things have happened -- sketching projects, field trips, weekend excursions -- so it feels like we've been here in France much longer than four weeks.  Now that we've recovered from our long orientation program, it's time to let everyone back at home know what we've been up to!

The first two weeks were filled with introductory courses and orientation lectures.  We met the awesome program director, Alejandro, and his wife Magali, the program administrator.  By now, we all consider them our pseudo-parents: they have an answer for everything and they're always looking out for us!  They spent a lot of time giving us information about life in Versailles and how to survive in France.  We learned about everything from banking and cell phones to doing laundry and cooking... it was overwhelming, but very useful!  During our introductory school courses, we met the rest of the staff: Jean-Brice and Eugenia (the two other studio professors, along with Alex), Tricia (history), and Jeff (structures).  We also got split into three different levels for a short-term French class to help us adjust.  At the end of the week, we had our first sketching session, the first of many to come throughout the rest of the year.

The most interesting -- and certainly challenging -- aspect of those first few weeks was adjusting to the French culture.  We couldn't help but be shocked and embarrassed from time to time... one quickly realizes just how American we look amongst all the Europeans.  We realized that several stereotypes are too true: compared to French people, we are loud, obnoxious, and don't dress well!  It was fun meeting friendly French people from time to time, but more often than not, we made fools of ourselves with our poor French language skills.  Fortunately, by now we're getting better -- I might even venture to say that they believe we're actually French sometimes!

It was exciting to learn about French customs and habits, too.  People truly do dress like supermodels; the food is amazingly delicious; and (of course) the beautiful architecture can't be beat.  Then again, some less exciting stereotypes are also true: everyone smokes like a chimney, no one smiles on the street, and things aren't very convenient or organized.  But, as Magali tells us, we have to learn to adapt to the "French way" -- just go with the flow, and things will work themselves out!

Back on the first day, when we arrived in Versailles via coach bus, we were all immediately awestruck by the enormity and beauty of the Château de Versailles.  After all, it's the heart of the city -- in fact, the only reason that the city even exists.  It looms over Versailles like a giant symbol of royal power, its golden facade shining brightly in the sunlight every day.  It seemed ridiculous to not visit it at the first opportunity, especially since our school is part of the grounds.  So when we finally had some free time, several of us ventured inside (for free with our student cards).  What we found inside was mind-blowing, almost ridiculous -- there's so much to see that even now, three weeks later, I still have more areas to explore.  We'll send more updates about the actual Château once we've explored the grounds a bit more thoroughly.

Everyone was also very excited to go explore Paris for the first time.  Having been itching to go there for several days, I finally led about half of the group all over the city for several hours.  I think that was when we truly realized how lucky we are to be here.  Paris is teeming with indescribable beauties in every neighborhood... it is truly breathtaking.  There's just too much to tell about the wonders of the City of Lights in one post -- so more on that later!

-Kim

We're Here!

After a long day of travel and several confusing days of settling, we are here in Versailles and are ready for a year of hard work, new experiences, and the time of our lives! In these first few days we have met the staff, moved into our housing, and have begun getting oriented with the culture, classes, and the French way of life. We've gotten lucky with some rare nice weather and we've been taking advantage of it. Stay tuned for more on our exciting adventures in France and the rest of Europe!

The Versailles Student Representatives,

Brandon Polk and Kim Daul