Arrived! Cluny Trip Day 1

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Arrived! Cluny Trip Day 1

This is it! I've finally arrived to Cluny! It's like I'm watching everything I've read about come to life before my eyes. After taking an hour-long train ride from Paris and then a private bus, we arrived at our Cluny hostel called Cluny Sejour. After a lovely dinner with Professor Healy and Professor Haggblom, our group decided to go and explore the streets of Cluny by ourselves. The town of Cluny is very small, as Dr. Haggblom puts it, "If you drive too fast, you're out of Cluny". We were able to cover most of the town just by foot that night. The streets were generally empty and all of the shops were closed, with the exception of a few restaurants. This is because we arrived on a Sunday and most stores are closed on Sundays and Mondays. There was something incredibly intriguing and endearing about this little town. The town was a collection of Romanesque and Gothic style buildings. Through the integration of the past with modernity, Cluny was able to evoke what it must have felt like to live there a thousand years ago while still being reminded of the present. One thing I incredibly admired about the town was that all of the new structures were built to complement the old buildings. For example, the new kitchen of the Cluny Engineering School was built using rusted metal instead of polished as an artistic complement to the historical buildings it was next to. It's hard to imagine while walking on the streets, that several of the houses we passed were hundreds of years old. Cluny is famous for its resemblance of medieval structures and now I see why. Anyway, I can't wait to see what more this town has to offer tomorrow. I'm already starting to fall in love with Cluny.