Circe d'hiver

Jan 25, 2014

Today API arranged for us to go see Circe d'hiver, a French circus. API provided us with free tickets so I didn't have to pay anything to enjoy the show.

Okay...I have very mixed feelings about the circus act. First, there were a few really great and impressive acts by very talented performers: cool gymnastics and acrobatics and some funny skits.

But I did not like how sexualized the female performers were. In multiple acts, there were women scantily dressed who would just dance inbetween the male performer's stunts. The dancing wasn't even good either. It was clear they were just there to look pretty. For example, during the gymnastic act (which was my favorite) the male performer would do a bunch of crazy flips with metal bars and then he would descend from the bars and do a little sensual dance with the woman and then return -- rinse and repeat. There was absolutely no reason for the woman to be in the act. Similar things happened in most acts. There were only a couple acts where women actually "performed."

And next: the animals. While I did enjoy seeing trainers work with tigers and horses for tricks, I didn't like how they were treated in the ring. And I know they must be mistreated out of the ring too -- kept in small cages.

Overall it was good to experience a typical French circus and some of the acts were really cool, but I found a lot of problems with it. I'm glad for the experience but I won't go to one again.

Revisiting The Louvre

I've been wanting to go back to the Louvre ever since I had the tour there so I decided I was going to spend my free time on Sunday there. Some other API/Diderot students wanted to come so we all met outside the glass pyramid at 1:00pm. I thought it was only free on Friday evenings but apprently it's free for me any day at any time! It's free admission all the time for 18-25 year-old residents of the EU -- and with my French long stay visa, I'm technically a resident. So that's great to know!

I really wanted to check out Greek and Roman art in particular so after looking around at random for a bit, we found that section and looked around for a while. It was really cool, definitely some of my favorite types of art.

We stayed at the museum for about 2 1/2 hours before we got hungry and decided to leave to get lunch. Not much was open because it's Sunday, but we did find a small Japanese restaurant in the area that was affordable. Unforunately, we were between meal times and the restaurant takes a 2 hours break so no lunch or dinner specials. But I got some delicious pork dumplings (which was called raviolis grillées, "grilled ravioli" -- so weird!")

After our delicious late lunch, we all split-up and headed back to our homes. I'm going to spend the rest of my free day reading the Percy Jackson books in French!