As the third cohort to experience Centenary’s unique Centenary in Paris program, the Class of 2020 enjoyed the usual sights, sounds, and tastes of Paris with an added bonus this year: cool weather. On August 4, 2016, approximately 150 students, faculty, and staff members traded in a classic Louisiana late-summer heat wave for an uncharacteristic cold snap in the French capital. The breezes were a welcome complement to the 20,000+ step days spent exploring some of Paris’s most iconic historic landmarks, museums, parks, waterways, theaters, places of worship, and sidewalk crêpe stands. All first-year Centenary students in Paris were enrolled in one of eight rigorous, four-credit-
hour courses with topics ranging from history to music to environmental sustainability. Whether they were navigating Europe’s second busiest subway system, hiking up Montmartre for the best view in the city, or navigating narrow streets on a trotinette (scooter), learning and exploration were their constant companions. Bruce Allen’s course celebrating Bohemian artists sketched Parisian life during a leisurely boat ride through nine locks on the St. Martin canal, while a daylong walk with Steve Shelburne helped students tangibly experience how 17th century ideas about city planning and preservation shaped one of Paris’s iconic neighborhoods, the Marais. Chris Ciocchetti’s Revolutions class visited the Grand Mosque of Paris (pictured at left), where two students jumped in and used their language skills to help classmates understand a tour that was delivered in a mixture of French and Arabic. A stroll on an elevated railway-turned-greenspace gave David Bieler’s environmental sustainability students a unique perspective on city life, and Cory Wikan’s Listening in Paris course led new Centenary College Choir members on a musical tour of Paris that included stops to see the famed Paris Opéra and France’s largest organ in the stunning Gothic church, St. Eustache. Students in Dana Kress and Andia AugustinBilly’s Paris Noir course read poems by expatriate African-American writer Victor Séjour at his
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