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Last Friday, our NBB class visited the Loire Valley to both explore the landscape just 2 hours outside of Paris and to see some extravagant chateaus. In fact, on the ride over to the Loire Valley, Dr. Easterling was telling the class about the history of French kings and how the kings moved from place to place, reshaping the stories of the chateaus in which they resided.

I was determined to explore the gardens and rooms of the chateaus and relate them back to the history. During the visit to Loire Valley, I was specifically drawn to the Chateau du Chenonceau.

Continue reading “Love and Neuroscience”

Howdy! Great to see you again, and today I am going to share with you none other than Amboise in the beautiful Loire Valley. We went on a class trip here last Friday, June 15th. The small town of Amboise may not have been at its most beautiful, as it was drizzling lightly with dark skies, but not much could compare with the amazing chateau that past kings have tried to get their hands on for years. We received a tour of the remains of the chateau, which is only a fraction of its size back in the day. I had wondered why the tour guide pretty much gave us an entire history of the chateau (nothing wrong with it, I was just wondering why), and it was because the chateau was literally so small had she only given us the backstory to every room we would have been done in less than 15 minutes. A very interesting fact about Amboise is that Leonardo da Vinci lived here in the latter stages of his life. King Francis I and da Vinci were great friends and Francis offered the  Clos Lucé manor to da Vinci, who accepted and lived his last three years here. The manor was in close proximity to the Chateau Amboise, and Leonardo da Vinci continued with his work until he died of a stroke in 1519. The painting below depicts Leonardo being held by Francis I, but there is speculation that this was false and ordered by Francis I to be painted as propaganda to increase his popularity. He is currently buried in Amboise. Continue reading “Ambois(e)ing Experience”

On Wednesday, June 13th, we visited the Musée de L’homme Exposition Néandertal. At the museum, I stumbled upon an art display of people that varied greatly by height and took a photo with them. Additionally, my roommates and I took a photo right outside the museum which had a wonderful view of the Eiffel Tower. From this photo, you can see that we are all different heights.

Continue reading “Height as a Predictor of Cognitive Performance?”

Last weekend I took a stroll towards the Tuileries and since I had already been to the Louvre (though there is still a lot I have yet to see in there since it is so large), I decided to go into the Orangerie museum. It is a building that was originally a sort of green house for the orange trees of the Louvre palace, so it is a much better lit museum than most of the previous ones I have been in.

This lighting is also very important for the Nymphéas room on the top floor of this museum. This room was originally designed to house the final grand art works of Claude Monet, the Nymphéas, or in English: Water lilies. It is an oval shaped room with one grand tableau on each side, to make a total of 4 works, depicting water lilies as the name suggests. However, the roundedness of the room, the special lighting, and the harmony of the art works have with one another allows you to feel like all four pieces are rather one complete piece, 360 degrees. Continue reading “Blog 4- Trip to Musée de l’Orangerie and Finding Gems from Monet”

During my fleeting time here in Paris, I have made it my personal mission to visit the Eiffel Tower as many times as possible (Fig. 1). It began one of the first days I was here when I decided to go for a morning run.  Not having any particular place to go, I decided to run to the Eiffel Tower and back, which came to about 3 miles exactly with a short selfie break in the middle.  The next day, I didn’t want to use up any data mapping my way around the area, so I ran the same path again, and took another selfie.  The same thing happened the day after that.  It has actually become a small comfort for me, and I am now known as the tall, sweaty girl in the coffee shop at the end of the street that always comes in early in the morning, out of breath, and never having perfect change. Continue reading “I fell for Eiffel”

Last week, we visited the Musée du Chocolat (Fig. 1).  Probably one of the hidden gems in Paris, the museum features an exhibit on the origins of cocoa with free chocolate samples, a live chocolate making demonstration with free chocolate samples, and a chocolate molding class with lots of free chocolate samples.  Chocolate may seem like a simple dessert featured in your average Twix bar, but cocoa has been used for over 4,000 years in different cultures and products.  Many people in the chocolate world regard chocolate making and molding as an art form. From personal experience, the process is much more difficult than it may seem.  Our class chocolates were still delicious, but were described as “child-like” by a passing-by chocolatier (Fig. 2).

Continue reading “Research is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get”

During our visit to Le Musée des Moulages at l’Hôpital Saint-Louis, we got to see casts of everything from syphilis to eczema, bone tumors to blood cancer. The accuracy of each condition was a little eerie, but it was also really cool to see the attention to detail. The casts were developed to teach dermatology students about the varying diseases that plagued the French people in the 19^th century. Though that was neat to see, the categorization of some conditions would be considered incorrect by today’s standards. One ‘mistake’ that caught my eye was the ‘hermaphrodite’ cast. The figure 1 caption below describes what doctors in 1883 thought of the condition, but it strikes some discord with newer findings.

Continue reading “It’s Not What It Looks Like!”

This past Friday our class had the opportunity to spend time doing something other than neuroscience. We all hopped on a charter bus and passed out for 3 hours, waking up to the beautiful view of Loire Valley. The first part of the trip included a guided tour of the Château d’Amboise. During one of the most exciting history lessons I’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to, we learned that Charles VIII, the king of France from 1483 to 1498, died “tragically” by slamming his head into the short frame of a door in his Chateau. He had three children (including one son) with his wife Anne, but all three were the victims of illness and failed to provide a successor to the King.

Continue reading “A King Sized Failure”

The Palace of Versailles is probably one of the top must see places for anyone visiting France. Its intricate design and rich French history appeals to the millions of tourists visiting Versailles each year. On Friday June 1^st, my neuroscience class and I added to the millions and took a trip to the glorious palace. We were guided through the palace learning about all the King Louis’ of France and how the ginormous palace started off merely as a small hunting lodge. We saw ceiling painting after ceiling painting and I was in awe of all of its elegance. We passed through the Hall of Mirrors and were even taught a line dance that people used to do in the hall. We ended the tour outside of the palace but still inside the gates and we were all free to roam the massive gardens outside. Continue reading “Versailles Pleases my Eye”

Bonjour!

My neuroscience class visited Chateau d’Amboise on Friday, June 15. This beautiful chateau overlooked the Loire River and was used by many French royals. Our tour guide, Roxie, was telling us about all of the royals who spent time in this chateau, including Henry the Eighth.

Roxie told us an interesting fact that Henry VIII had syphilis. His wives, Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, had numerous miscarriages which lead people to believe that Henry VIII had some disease that spread to his wives and affected their ability to carry children. I looked into this topic a little more and what I learned leads me to believe that Henry VIII did not have syphilis which is what some people still believe.

Continue reading “Chateau d’Amboise”