La Musée des Beaux Arts and Academic Preparation for Paris

So on Monday, a pretty large group of Sweet Briar people got to go on a guided visit of the art museum in Tours. It's a really great museum for such a small town, and houses artwork from the really old (I'm talking 7th or 8th century) to the modern (1980s and later) The building is very thoughtfully arranged, with the older stuff in the older area of the building where the floors squeak and the doorways/hallways are smaller, while the more modern art is in the area of the museum that was constructed within the last 20-30 years. This is all great, but the best part of our visit was our tour guide. I've christened him "Monsieur Moustache", and he's fabulous. If you want to see him in action, go check out the video on the facebook page. Even if you all don't speak French, you will appreciate how utterly adorable he is!
 

 This is the Cathedral in Tours. There was a really fabulous view out of one of the windows in the museum. I love me some flying buttresses, so I couldn't resist getting a good pic.

 This a really real Monet! Accompanied by Monsieur Moustache doing an impression of how Monet's style of art work was received by the majority of the pre-impressionism artistic community; something like this: "This is not art! This is just the scribbles of a little child! It doesn't look anything like that pond over there that this crazy man was trying to paint!" (You have to say it with a French accent to get the full effect; if you need help, ask my dear Mother and sister Rachel, they're pros at the French accent)

So definitely the highlight of the trip was Monsieur Moustache. He's just one of those guys who is passionate about what he does, knows everything there is to know about the art and the history, and absolutely LOVES to tell you all about it. He was always careful to speak slowly enough that we could all understand him (the entire tour was in French, of course), but not so slowly that we felt like idiots or that he sounded condescending.

Now moving on to a little bit of information: Today I had my meeting with my academic adviser here and chose all my classes, which was really exciting! Madame Gré is really French, and honestly came across as sort of intimidating when I first met her a couple of weeks ago, but she was so sweet and helpful today in our one-on-one meeting. I'm all set up for an Art history course which includes visits to the Louvre, a history class on French politics and society during 17th and 18th centuries, a comparative French literature course which I need for my major, and a course offered by Sweet Briar to help me write better in the French academic style. And here's the kicker: I'm leaving for Paris on Friday, but my classes don't start for another 3 weeks! so I get to do some exploring and stuff before I get all engrossed in my school work.

Now a word on the French grading system. So in the States, our grades are determined really differently than they are here. In the States, pretty much everyone starts out with an A, then depending on how well or poorly you do on the semester's work, you get an averaged grade, right? So if you get 100% on every assignment and exam during the semester or year, then you get an A. In France, grades are on a completely different scale. You get grades out of 20, but a 10 is passing. How does that work? So the way it's been broken down for me is like this. 10 is passing; 12-13 is Fair; 14-15 is Good; 16-18 is Excellent; 19-20 is God. It's pretty much impossible to get a 20, even if you do perfect work the entire semester. So today when I got back my essay and I got 17/ 20 that doesn't mean I got 85%. That means I got a high A, which is pretty awesome! So when my classes get started and I start talking about my grades, now you will all understand the system and won't freak out when I get a 13 or 14 out of 20 (which will probably happen). So with that infomercial-esque paragraph, I'll leave you to get back to your lives. Coming soon: Some of the pretty bizarre misconceptions French people have about Americans and the United States.