Le Corbusier: Maison la Roche

Today we took a short tour of Le Corbusier's Maison la Roche in Paris. This particular house predates the Villa Savoye we toured yesterday. After a quick lecture from my teacher, we learned that this house was a sort of 'experiement' in trying to define Le Corbusier's 5 points of architecture (which he is famous for perfecting in the Villa Savoye). I'm pretty sure you have to be an amazing architect to use a whole house as an 'experiement.' At least that was my own initial thought. From the outside the house did not have as much cohesiveness as the Villa Savoye, but I was surprised to find inside an interesting interior. The one thing I did really like in this house was how maze-like it was, there were many ways to get back to a room or to the other side of the house. I enjoyed his purposeful use of color as well. I found this house to be more inviting and less stark than the Villa Savoye. We were allowed to explore around the house for about 45 minutes (blue booties included so we did not track dirt in). It was a nice change of pace to be done at 11 this morning instead of at like 4 or 5. Tonight my friends and I are going to attempt our first look at the French department store called Monoprix as well as attemp to find an art store to pick up more supplies. Tomorrow we start our 3-day excursion to Lyon. We will be leaving tomorrow (bright and early) to catch a train to Lyon to tour the Lyon Opera house. We will stay in a hotel in Lyon and on Friday we will be taking another train to La Tourette to see Le Corbusier's monastery (and stay overnight in a monks cell!). Then Saturday we will be taking a bus to Ronchamp to see one of my favorite Le Corbusier's pieces, his Notre Dame du Haut church. I'm excited to be outside of Paris for a few days, and to not have to take the metro all the time! After I come back from our little excursion, then we have two days off. I'm hoping to see the Catacombs at some point along with seeing Napoleon's tomb. I can't believe its been a week since we arrived in Paris already. Time has flown by because I have been so busy! I'm excited for the rest of our time in Paris, especially now since I'm so familiar with our routine now. I'm even more excited for the weeks to come when we travel to London and I take my first independent travel trip to Ireland! I will write and post more pictures once I get back from Lyon. Aur Revoir!