Art and Commerce

Day 16
I quickly downed two shots of espresso before boarding a bus and going to the Louvre with the group. Originally, the Louvre was a fortress built to protect France from England. Then it became a palace, and in 1987 they built the famous pyramid and excavated most of the castle to create the museum there today. There are 35,000 pieces of art on display at the Louver and another 20,000 in storage. If you wanted to stand in front of each piece for one minute, it would take everyday of 10 weeks to see everything at the Louvre.

Some of the Art I Saw Includes:

• The sphinx is the oldest and heaviest piece in the museum and was taken from Egypt
• Greek statue of the goddess Aphrodite represents the idea of Greek beauty, there are very few true Grecian statues left. Most are Roman copycats. 
• and of course the Mona Lisa!  The Mona Lisa became famous in 1911 when it was stolen for 10 years. The thief wanted to give it back to Italy where he believed it was originally stolen from. The painting is hard to upkeep because it is oil on wood, which is causing it to crack

Our next stop for the day was the International Chamber of Commerce. The chamber is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization created 1919 in order to expand trade and represent business worldwide. They play an advisory role by developing policy position and creating voluntary rules by which international trade is practiced. The chamber provides service like: commercial dispute resolution services, policy and busines practices, World Chambers Federation. One of the big problems that they handle is the counterfeiting of goods. What most sticks in my mind about this presentation is that it was the first time I felt like the speaker, Francois-Gabriel Ceyrac, degraded us for being American. Instantly upon meeting us he asked who knew French, and looked appalled when only a couple people did. I admit that more of us should be bilingual, but many of us in the group could speak Spanish which did not seem to impress him. He also asked who was from another country besides the U.S. and lauded the couple foreign students who then reaised their hands.  His speech came across as extremely nationalistic and Anti-American. This was the first time on the trip that I felt sterotyped as a "stupid American."

The International Court of Arbitration is also part of the ICC and Rafael Alves was our speaker on this area of the chamber. The court deals with trade conflict resolution, and has handled 16,000 cases in 180 different countries. The court is an administrative body; it scrutinizes the awards of cases but does not have decision-making power.

With the rest of our day free, a group of us decided to picnic under the Effiel Tower. We stopped at a grocery store to pick up bread and cheese, and ate a truly French-style dinner in the park. Seeing the Eiffel Tower at night all light up is beautiful. Now I understand why it is described as the most romantic city in the world.

Peace, Love, and Paris ~ Naomi

Pictures of the Day

   

 Sphinx

 Aphrodite

 Ceiling mural

Mona Lisa 

Buying baguettes for our picnic