Guided tour in the gorgeous Yale Universtity

“Why are we visiting an university?” Manu was a bit blasé this last Sunday morning. It was early and our first impression of the Yale campus was that it looked a bit too much like the Harvard Yard. Okay, it’s not that bad but since we live in Boston there are red bricks all over. But after wandering in a few streets, Manu was completely charmed by the Yale campus (I was already anyway: big fan of the red bricks. The campus was huge but nice at the same time: dormitories are in big buildings looking like Westminster Abbey in London, gargoyles carved in stone have contemporaneous faces, and sometimes we can even think that we are in an Italian village. This campus is amazing! Good, because the rest of our weekend in Connecticut wasn’t a little bit “so-so”.

The Old Campus

Yale is the third oldest university in the US, founded in 1701, it’s the second richest in of the world, and the greatest rival of Harvard. There are about 12 000 students, 15 millions of books in the different libraries. A lot of presidents of the US and Nobel prizes studied there. Yale is an Ivy League – it was at first 8 private universities of the East Coast which compete in different games, and then it became a very selective place for rich and educated people. We have now seen all of the Ivy League of New England: Harvard à Cambridge, Dartmouth in New Hampshire and Brown in Providence! Unfortunately it doesn’t make us smarter.

Old Campus Yale University Old Campus Nathan Hale Yale University Yale University New Haven York StreetYale University New Haven 1Yale University New Haven 5

Neo-gothic style

Neo-gothic, it’s like gothic but different. There’s a fusion of styles to make it looks like Notre Dame de Paris but newer.

Yale University New Haven 1 Yale University New Haven

And with touches of Venice style.

Yale University New Haven Harkness Tower Yale University New Haven 4

Hello there! it’s Sunday morning, everybody’s sleeping except us, tourists with camera.

Yale University New Haven 3 Yale University New Haven 2Drama school Yale University

I should think of a new career.

Law buildings Yale University

The fun part of this neo-gothic style was the sculpures carved in stones: no gargoyles or saints. The scenes were easier to understand: modern daily class, policeman and thieves, roasted chicken.

Sculptures Yale University 3 Sculptures Yale University 1 Sculptures Yale University 2Sculptures Yale University 4

And then, some Egyptian style

This is the not modest entrance of the cemetery, with some Egyptian influences that make it looks pretty dramatic. Is this inscription means than there are zombies in Yale?

Cemetery YaleGo Yale!

The picture below represents a gym. I don’t know about your own gym in your college, but mine was pretty creppy, far away from everything – maybe the reason of I did only one semester of sports back then. But if I had been to Yale, no doubt I would be an Olympics champion now.

Gymnasium Yale University Y for Yale Yale Bulldogs Yale security

Beinecke Plaza

We walked a couple of hours in the campus, and thought that we saw everything but boom, we arrived at this gorgeous place, with tons of architecture jewels. This plaza is right in the middle of the campus, and we could see an incredible library whose walls were made of marble. There was also a big building with names of battles from the First World War, strange to see here familiar names. This building is nonetheless the cafeteria of the university.

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscrip Library Yale University Dining Hall Yale University

I loved this campus. But we haven’t seen much of New Haven, the city where Yale is. Have you been there? Did you enjoy it?  

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Mathilde

Mathilde

Rédactrice, grande organisatrice et réseau socialite du Blog de Mathilde. Quand je ne suis pas devant un écran, j'organise des visites guidées de Boston, là où j'ai fondé ma petite entreprise Boston le nez en l'air. Je suis aussi auteure de nombreux guides de voyages, de livres de yoga et de jeux chez des éditeurs français. Suivez-moi sur Instagram, Facebook ou Pinterest.

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