Today is my last full day in Paris. I’m sitting in my room that is kind of a disaster right now attempting to pack up everything from the semester. Packing has been a lot harder than I thought it would be, not just emotionally, but also because I have a lot of stuff and I’m not the best of packers.
This past week in Paris has been incredible. My final for my Paris Civilization class (the class at ACCENT in English) went really well I think. He is good about letting you know exactly what is on the test before you sit down to take it. The time I didn’t spend studying I spent going to museums and parks that I hadn’t visited yet. The weather got incredibly nice at the end of the week just for us :-) People from my program started leaving on Wednesday… a good number left today. Luckily some of my really good friends are still here until tomorrow or Monday with me. Tonight we are going to eat in a creperie in Montparnasse and drink wine by the Eiffel Tower… a perfect ending.
I can’t really express in words how incredible this experience was for me. I’ve always wanted to study abroad, but I never thought I could feel so at home in a place that is so foreign in so many ways. Living with a host family was definitely a great decision. I made my host parents dinner on Thursday night (Grete’s family’s recipe for macaroni and cheese!) and they were so appreciative. They gave me a book of pictures of Paris as a going away present which was such a thoughtful idea. I’m worried about keeping in touch with them because they don’t use the internet and are spending the summer away from Paris. However, I do plan to write letters a few times a year with my host mom! I have definitely become more independent after this semester. Living away from my friends, walking home alone, speaking a foreign language all forced me to rely heavily on my capabilities and self-esteem. I also learned that confidence means a lot. I am so much more confident now with my French because I just put myself out there and learned not to care if I made a mistake.
I planned the end of my time here really well I think. I leave tomorrow morning for London where I will spend eight days with my roommate Grete (!!!!!). She has been studying there since January so she is really familiar with the city and knows all of the great things to do. I’m also hoping to make a couple day trips to see Stonehenge and maybe the south of England. My goal for the trip is to come back with as much amazing tea as possible ;-) London will be a great bridge between Europe and the U.S… it makes leaving her just a little bit easier.
I’m going to miss Paris more than I ever thought I could. This week has been sort of an emotional rollercoaster with celebrating the end of the semester (and being SENIORS in college…) and saying goodbye to this city. But this is not a real goodbye because I am sure that I am coming back. Possibly after next year, possibly after grad school but I am really excited to apply for this program that is run through the French Embassy where they pay native English speakers to teach English in France. I need more time here… I want to learn the language better and (unlike this semester) I want to meet some more French people. So France… get ready, I’ll be back.
Our last jumping picture of the semester at the Eiffel Tower!
I included this picture because it is a great example of what the end of our semester was... sitting in parks (like the Luxembourg Gardens) and picnicking!
On Wednesday of this week I went to the Musee Rodin. I saved it for the end of the semester because it is known for its gardens and is supposed to be incredible on a nice day. It was definitely one of the best museums I've been to since I've been here. His works were scattered around the gardens as well as in a beautiful mansion that he used to work in. This is the dome of the Invalides (now the Army Museum) from the garden.
I really loved this sculpture of two hands. It's a cool picture too because you can see the gardens in the back and a little bit of what the mansion was like.
I bet you all know this one!
The majority of my program at our Farewell Dinner on Wednesday night. We ate at Le Grand Colbert. You might recognize it from the movie "Something's Gotta Give"?
On Thursday night (the night after our last exam) we stayed out all night to see the sunrise from Montmartre :-)
Friday night, Allison, Jackie and I went to the Opera Garnier to see a ballet! We were suppoesd to go with ACCENT back in March but it was canceled because of a strike. The three of us still really wanted to go so we bought 10 euro tickets and saw an INCREDIBLE performance. The music as well as the dancing were amazing. It was a ballet based off a Proust novel.
The Opera Garnier is what the Phantom of the Opera is based off of (note the awesome chandelier). The ceiling was done by Chagall and is pretty controversial because it covered up another mural that went more with the style of the building.
Jackie made a great point while we were here... it is really awesome that in Paris they make something like an opera or a ballet affordable to everyone. Our seats weren't the best in the world (I definitely had a cramp in my neck by the end) but it was still so good for only 10 euro!
Appropriate last picture... Jackie and I sad as we left ACCENT for the last time.
After talking with my host mom tonight, I believe I have found my one word to describe Paris: elle est toujours harmonieuse (she is always harmonious). Harmonious has a different tone than balanced… it captures the awe one has every time they leave the metro and see a beautiful building that they have seen a thousand times before. It is also a better word to describe the personal feeling I have in Paris. So, this incredible place cannot be summed up in a word, but this one sure comes close.
I can’t remember if I’ve written this before or not but my host mom also described Paris to me as an old dame. “She has large buildings which are very beautiful but she can be a little cruel and VERY expensive.” :-)
I had my big Sorbonne test on Saturday. Taking the test was an experience in itself. The test was held in this large building just a little south of Paris. The Sorbonne uses this building for all of their large exams. There were four wings to the building and five floors on each wing. We were split up by level and then alphabetically. Every room was being used on Saturday! They let us into the room at 2pm where we each had our own numbered desk with only a sheet of green scrap paper sitting on it. We were required to put any bags on the windowsill and only allowed pens and water bottles at our desk. They were very prompt about starting the test at exactly 2:30 (kind of like the SATs…). I had heard that we weren’t allowed to leave the room for any reason, but apparently in the room my friend was taking her test in the proctors let a student leave for a smoke-break! (Only in France…) The test was a little more difficult than I thought it was going to be. It’s hard to explain but the exercises were a little bit different than those I had practiced in class. The essay topic was SO easy though: “What aspects of French culture do you love the most (cinema, cuisine, architecture, etc.)?” I could talk about that for days. It wasn’t so difficult that I’m worried about my grade, it’s just kind of scary because the way this program works this test essentially counts for 4.5 credits!
I had the last meal my host mom will ever cook me tonight because tomorrow night is our farewell dinner with the people from ACCENT and Thursday night I am cooking for them! I’m planning to make macaroni and cheese, my amazing salad and possibly lemon poppyseed cake for dessert. There are so many things I wish I could make for them but I just can’t find certain ingredients here.
My host parents are leaving on Sunday as well. They spend the month of June in their home in Spain and the months of July and August in their country home outside of Paris. Tough summer…
Speaking of summer, now that it is summer for a lot of Americans they have INVADED this city. There are American tourists everywhere! I might have mentioned this before but France is the number one tourist destination in the world, meaning Paris is the most visited city. I’m even getting a little bit annoyed with the American tourists, and I’m definitely sick of being mistaken for one!
One more exam, four more days in Paris and three large bags to pack… yikes.
Not too much has happened since I last wrote but I felt you deserved an update!
Last Sunday I did something really exciting in Paris. On the way home from class one afternoon I saw a poster on the side of a bus stop for a walk/run for cervical cancer. The run/walk was called “Les Boucles d’Or”, which translates to either the Curls of Gold or Laps of Cold. The event was held in the Bois de Vincennes which is the other large wooded park in Paris, on the other side of the city from me. Some of my friends were already interested in checking out the Bois de Vincennes so I enlisted a couple of them to do the walk with me! Despite the terrible, terrible weather (cold and rainy) the walk was very well organized and very well attended. The walk lasted 2 hours and the organization who put on the walk donated 2 euro for every lap someone completed either walking or running. This was the second year they have done this and I read in the paper that they made 5 000 euro last year. When I left the walk a little bit before the official end, they had already made 14 000 euro! I decided to run and my three friends walked. Each lap was 2,5km so at the beginning I figured I’d run two and get my normal run in for the morning. I ended up running about 8km, which is a lot for me! I was very excited.
We laughed a little at the end because none of us thought that that many French people actually ran. There were easily 2,000 people there on Sunday!
I had the worst run in with a rude French person on Tuesday. I went to the post office to mail something and the woman “helping” me was a nightmare. Once she heard my accent, she insisted on speaking English with me even though her English was TERRIBLE and I certainly could have understood her better if she had spoken in French. She would throw the forms at me and not explain well what to fill out. Then when I stood there patiently waiting for her to tell me what to do next she would ask what my problem was. She mocked my French and tried to make me feel stupid. I don’t get heated very often but let me tell you I was very ready to tell this woman off. I told my host mom about this later and she told me that happens often because that is a government paid position and they can’t get fired. It made me appreciate the post office workers in my little town in Connecticut, who are usually smiling, that much more.
Wednesday was my last day of classes at the Sorbonne. It was sort of a bittersweet ending. If you remember from my last entry, I’d grown pretty frustrated with my professor. So in that way, I was ready to leave the class, take this exam and move on. I also realized I have been studying French grammar in one way or another for the past 10 years! I am very much done with grammar. I think I’ve learned about all that is going to stick with me for now.
On the other hand, the end of classes meant all of my friends started talking about how we only have a week and a half left before we leave Paris. We’re all really sad because we’ve had such an incredible time here. I honestly don’t know anyone in the program who doesn’t love this city. We’re definitely going to take advantage of every last minute we have here.
The past couple of days has been absolutely beautiful and nice and warm here. I made the conscious decision to wear shorts the past two days despite the fact that the French DO NOT wear shorts like we do. I just can’t wear long pants any longer… I’m ready for summer!
Tomorrow is my French grammar exam. It lasts 3 hours and is held in a LARGE building outside of Paris that the Sorbonne holds all of their large exams in. I’m not too worried. I feel like I know what to expect and now it just comes down to thinking things through and remembering all of the little rules I’ve learned along the way. I have my oral exam for my grammar class on Tuesday and then my final for my ACCENT class Thursday… then I’m a senior in college. Yikes!
I took this picture before I went to Nice but I rediscovered it and wanted to share it with you. This is most of the people in my program, I believe only 2 are missing, with our ACCENT professor. We are in Belleville park on our walk of the neighborhood.
Jackie and I ready to go at the Boucles d'Or walk/run!
We found this sign after the walk. The entire thing says "Parc Floral de Paris" but we had to take a picture in front of the Paris part! It's a little bit like the one in Amsterdam...
I finally went up the Arc de Triomphe on Wednesday! The weather was incredible as were the views. On the left is Avenue Foch and the road on the right is Avenue de la Grande Armee. My apartment building is in between these two roads just before the large patch of trees. You can see La Defense from here with the modern arch. I run on Avenue Foch (the most expensive street in Paris) a lot because there is gravel on either side.
The view of the Eiffel Tower :-)
The Champs-Elysees! In the front on the left on this picture where that large mob of people are there was a group of guys breakdancing. I watched them from above and they were actualy really awesome!
Yes, the title is correct… I only have three days left of class at the Sorbonne. THREE!
While I am sad that only having three more days of Sorbonne classes does mean the semester is coming to an end, I am honestly ready to be done with my grammar class (I’m sorry in advance if this turns into a rant). I have become incredibly frustrated with my grammar professor. She is very nice and patient, but is perhaps one of the worst teachers I have had. She doesn’t teach us anything! This past week we should have been reviewing for our big test next week. Instead she has been handing us worksheets with unorganized explanations of complicated grammar concepts, reading them out loud and then giving us exercises to do. She doesn’t write anything on the board, doesn’t give good explanations for the reason why things are they way they are and even has to look up the answers herself. I’m definitely going to have to teach myself a lot of things for this exam!
In my ACCENT class this week we watched the very famous French film from 1939 “Les Enfants du Paradis” (The Children of Paradise). It is their equivalent of the Sound of Music, Wizard of Oz or Gone With the Wind. I’m not always the biggest fan of French movies because I find them kind of twisted and a little too realistic, but I was really interested in this film. It is a triangle love story of actors with a little murder mixed in. I would recommend it if you are into old movies and are up for reading subtitles for almost three hours!
Last night my host mom invited the German boy, Morritz, who is renting out the other bedroom in our apartment to have dinner with us. It is the first time I’ve had a real conversation with him since he’s lived here, which is a huge shame because he’s a really nice guy! We sat for two hours after dinner just talking about American culture and our studies. He is turning 19 on Monday and has been working in Paris since he finished high school. His step-dad is American so he knows English pretty well but we spoke in French. He was really interested to hear about the drinking age in America and how we can drive with permits before we are even 16. We both laughed at the fact that he’s German, I’m American and yet we were sitting in a kitchen in Paris speaking French to one another.
Yesterday I had a “Wow, I’m in Paris” moment. I was standing waiting for the bus in Place de la Concorde surrounded by the Tuileries Gardens, the Louvre, Rue de Rivoli, the Place de la Concorde itself, Les Invalides, L’Assemblé Nationale, the American Embassy and the Champs-Elysees. It’s a place I’ve stood many times before but sometimes take for granted. I actually teared up a little at the thought of leaving this city that I’ve really grown to love.
That being said, I have been craving American things (mostly food) lately. On Wednesday I went with some friends to a place called “Breakfast in America” for lunch. I overpaid for the biggest stack of banana pancakes with MAPLE SYRUP I have ever seen. It was SO delicious and such a great reminder of home!
The weather hasn’t been so great in Paris. In fact, it has been significantly colder than normal. We’re going to brave the weather this weekend though and try to finish a lot of things on our list of things to see before we leave!
I left for my weekend in the south of France on Thursday afternoon. Friday was yet again another national holiday here (and actually a holiday all over Europe) celebrating the end of World War II. As I was waiting for my train (my last ride on the TGV…) there was a ceremony being held in the train station. I couldn’t see very well but they had a couple wreaths surrounding a plaque that I’m sure had to do with the return of soldiers from war. There was an incredible little military band that played too!
Perhaps one of my favorite parts of my trip was the train ride down to Nice. In between Paris and the coast we traveled in between little medieval villages with stone houses and cathedrals. I got to see all types of French landscape from city, to mountains, to the beach. Once we hit Aix-En-Provence (a city to the west of Nice) the views were incredible. We traveled along the coast of the Mediterranean with all of the beautiful coastal towns and Provence style houses in bright colors. One day I want to rent a car and drive along the coast to see these towns up close.
I arrived in Nice around 21h and was able to find the hostel no problem. I stayed in a small hostel in the heart of the old city. I was very happy with my location because it was definitely the part of Nice I loved the most. The hostel was pretty much an apartment with one large 12-person room and a smaller 2-person room. We had a kitchen and free internet so it made for a good weekend. The son who helps run the hostel met me and let me in. He was incredibly nice, as was his mom, and was excited to talk to me because he is going to the States in 2 weeks. The worst part of the hostel was probably the group of older, fat, smelly Scottish men who stayed in the same room as me for two nights. Yikes.
I woke up Friday morning and went out to explore the town a little bit. I found the incredible market that I had read about, the Cours Saleya, and boy was it incredible. Better than any market I’ve been to so far in Paris. There were tons of fruit and vegetable stands, bread stands, cheese stands (with very fresh goat cheese), olive stands and herb stands. I bought a bunch of things for the weekend because I cooked for myself all weekend. I got some incredible fruit and some of the best pesto I’ve ever had. I would live in Nice just to go to that market every day. Everyone warned me about the rocky beach in Nice but I didn’t have a problem with it. I bought a beach towel and just laid out all day Friday.
On Saturday I took the bus (for one euro!) to a small town called Villefranche to the east of Nice. My friends who went to Nice last weekend recommended it to me. It’s only about a 15 minute bus ride away but I didn’t know the name of the stop I needed to get off at so I kind of ended up wandering around for a little bit. The town is pretty small but was very similar to the old town in Nice with winding streets and colorful houses. It was definitely a lot more of a town I stereotype as a town in southern France. I found the beach there and again laid out all day. The beach was sandier and a little quieter, however had its fair share of topless women…
On Saturday night there was a little bit of a change in the hostel. This group of 9 Belgian women rented out the large room all to themselves. It was a bachelorette party and they wanted to be alone for the night. Some of the boys who were staying in my room had to be put up in another hostel and I was moved in with the two girls in the 2-person room. The woman who ran the hostel was curious as to why they had to have the room all to themselves and asked us to notice what they did that night. We didn’t hear them at all. The next day, they insisted on only paying for 9 people (which is actually at a discounted price since they were a group) even when the hostel had to pay to have the boys put up in other hostels. I’m not sure why they thought they could pay so little for taking up the entire room; it was very rude of them. I was also a little puzzled as to why they would be so stingy for their friend’s bachelorette party.
On Sunday I got up and took the bus (again 1 euro!) to Cannes. The bus ride is actually pretty long, 1.5-2 hours, so for one euro that is a pretty incredible deal! I wasn’t sure what I wanted to see in Cannes besides them setting up for the film festival which starts on Wednesday. I saw the Palais des Festivals which is a large building designed especially for the event every year. I did a small walking tour of the old town (which wasn’t as great as Nice’s old town) and some of the more modern areas. It was Sunday so all of the shops were closed. I ate at a great pizza restaurant for lunch, which wasn’t hard to find. Southern France (at least what I saw of it) is FILLED with pizza places. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s so close to Italy or if they just really like their pizza.
Last night I took the night train home. It was 9-10 hours on an inclined seat (cheaper.). I didn’t sleep much as you can imagine. I couldn’t figure out how to get comfortable. I tried to mimic the guy sleeping across the aisle from me because he sat down, took his position and zonked out all night, but I have no idea how he did it. Oh well, it’s really not that bad for one night!
All in all I decided I don’t like traveling by myself. Besides it being a little lonely, being a girl it can be kind of scary walking around by yourself. Maybe it was because I was alone but I noticed a lot more creepers in Nice than I do normally. If they know you speak English they just like to say the few things they know to you (which aren’t normally very great words…). I didn’t run into any problems but I just didn’t always feel comfortable. I loved Nice but I decided I would have enjoyed the weekend a lot more if I had someone to talk to about it. In any case, it was a great experience and one I think a lot of people should try.
Oh.. I saw TWO people from AU just walking around this weekend! One in Nice and one in Cannes. Neither of them saw me but I was very taken back to see them. There is an AU program in Nice so it makes sense.
I have my one and only paper of the semester due this week. Everyone is freaking out because it’s work that we actually have to do. I haven’t found it to be so hard yet except that I forgot how to properly format a research paper. My topic is the switch of the Musée d’Orsay from a train station into a museum… which was way more controversial than you might think, dun dun dunnn.
My host family and I had a conversation about global warming tonight. I asked my host dad if he had seen Al Gore’s movie and he replied immediately, “Non, parce qu’il est stupide!” (No, because he is stupid!) Hahaha it was pretty funny although according to my host mom not all French people dislike Al Gore like my host dad.
I couldn’t find pita at the grocery store today so I ate my hummus on a baguette instead… how French.
Flowers at the Cours Salyea on Friday morning.
Not the best of pictures (not my good camera and my arms were filled with great food) but this is one of the stands at the market. There were tons like this which great, fresh food.
Haha sorry for the barely clothed older woman in the picture but I wanted to show you the stones that make up Nice's beach. Up on the hill is the site of the Old Chateau which you will see pictures from later...
An example of a street in the Old Town.
The port of Nice from on top of the hill. This is on the other side from the beach.
From the site of the old Chateau, I looked down on a ceremony remembering World War II. They had all types of representatives from the different parts of the military and I believe a couple survivors who were receiving medals as well.
Nice from the hill!
Villefranche. These pictures don't do this town justice but that is the town front from the beach I laid on. I made sure to go in the water and test it out. It was just as cold as Connecticut's beaches in the summer!
Oh yes.. and I bought a yacht. Ha! I wish.. this thing was more like a mini cruise ship (hard to tell from this picture but compare it to that sizable sailboat next to it).
The town front of Villefranche.
Looking down on Villefranche...
Setting up for the Cannes Film Festival!
The old town of Cannes. I climbed up to that castle.
A beautiful little street in the old town.
The view of the port from on top of the hill. The white tents are for the festival. Each one is for a different country. I'm not totally sure what they are used for but I thought maybe for the judges or just as a general meeting point for each country?
The had a walkway of hand prints like in Hollywood.
Part of the red carpet in front of the Palais des Festivals.
For the next five months I will be studying at La Sorbonne in Paris! I've heard that you can't learn a language until you are abandonned in the native country.. and that's exactly what I plan to do. I will be taking classes on French, in French and living with a French family.
