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.
How in the world did it get to be the 6th of May?? I just spent an incredible weekend in Paris with two really great friends and it went by too quickly. But it gets to linger a bit longer while I tell it to you!
Anne and Emma came to visit me in Paris this weekend. Just a little background: Anne is a friend I made in high school when she did an exchange program for a year from Germany. She currently goes to University in the city of Hamburg but lives on a beautiful island in the Baltic Sea called Fehrman. I had been almost two years since I took my trip to Germany and last saw her! Emma, as you may recall from my first blog posts, is my best friend who is has been studying in Seville, Spain for the past year.
While we did a lot of the same things I did with my Dad and sister when they were in Paris, it was interesting seeing Paris through the eyes of a European and a girl who has lived in Europe longer than me (And you know me… I love playing tour guide). It was both of their first times in Paris and I think they had high expectations because well, it’s Paris. However, I am happy to say that I think they both loved it! Neither of them could really compare Paris to a city they had been too before. Emma was amazed by the metro and even complained when we had to wait six minutes for a train instead of three. Anne enjoyed looking at the fashion of the people and the old and new architecture that is mixed in the city. In a way it made me appreciate where I am living right now even more because they enjoyed it and they pointed out the best things about the city.
Emma’s dad asked her to describe Paris in a word. She said French (ha.ha.ha.), but I decided I want to think of a word that describes my Paris. So far the closest thing I have is “homey”, but that does not capture the grandeur of Paris. I’ll figure it out and get back to you…
The weekend worked out great because due to La fete du travail (Labor Day) I had a three day weekend! On Labor Day, May 1st, hundreds of people were selling flowers in the street. I heard that it was good luck to give someone you love a flower so I bought both Anne and Emma a flower, not really knowing the significance. I just looked it up (yes, on Wikipedia…) and apparently on May 1, 1561, King Charles IX received a lily of the valley as a lucky charm. He then decided that each year on that day he would offer a lily of the valley to the ladies of the court. In the 20th century it became a custom to give one as good luck to someone you love. The government allows individuals and workers’ organizations to sell these flowers free of taxation. Wikipedia also tells me that it is traditional for the lady to give a kiss when she receives a lily of the valley… I guess Emma and Anne were unaware ;-)
Since I was their tour guide, we did a lot of walking and a lot of eating… I was able to see a few things I hadn’t seen before too. Emma and I took a day trip to Reims (a city to the east of Paris, 45 minutes by TGV) to see the cathedral we had studied in Humanities and get a taste of the Champagne region (ha.). It was definitely one of the best weekends I’ve had in Paris this semester and I miss them both incredibly already.
I’ll just let the pictures do the talking:
Anne got into Paris way before Emma did so I asked her what she wanted to do. Anne, being the big business lover that she is, wanted to see La Defense, otherwise known as the Parisian Manhattan. I actually live fairly close to La Defense and had it on my list of things to see before I leave. Essentially, La Defense is where all of the big business have their headquarters outside of Paris. There are lots of skyscrapers and this thing you see in the picture, La Grande Arche. La Grande Arche is a modern version of l'Arc de Triomphe and actually faces it. When I cross Boulevard de la Grande Armee close to my apartment, I am in the middle of them and can see both. It's a really cool structure and I believe there are even offices in the sides. You can go up for something like 8 euro, needless to say, we opted out of that.
The view from La Grande Arche. You can see all of the skyscrapers and waaayyy in the background, l'Arc de Triomphe!
We surprised Emma at the airport Wednesday night because she got in late and I could tell she was a little nervous about getting into the city without knowing the language. Thursday morning I had class, but these two got up bright and early and started their sight seeing. Before I met up with them at 10AM, they had already found a Paul to have breakfast at (a French chain that has great pastries and cheapish coffee) and seen Notre Dame. We walked to the tip of the Ile de la Cite together and saw this incredible view of the river and the Louvre. Also, this is a great example of the kinds of ridiculous pictures I have from this weekend ;-)
Anne and Emma went on the boat tour on the Seine while I had my ACCENT class. During my class we had a tour of the Latin Quarter which was really interesting. I have class in the Latin Quarter and spend a lot of time their when I'm not in class so it was interesting to learn what some of the institutions are that I walk by everyday. I met up with them after class and we went with Lauren (on the left, side note: I will be living with her this summer in DC!) and Jackie to get the best ice cream in Paris (and the best ice cream Emma's ever had apparently) behind Notre Dame. I had Fruit de la Passion (Passion Fruit)... yum.
We then headed to the Louvre! They were able to see all of the big things fairly quickly despite the ridiculous amount of people there. Besides the few really important paintings in the Louvre, they weren't that impressed with it. I'm sure they would have had a different impression if they had been able to go on a Friday night when few people are there. After the Louvre, we sat in the Jardin des Tuileries and made a stop in the Longchamps store.
Thursday night I took them to the same creperie I took my dad and sister to. Once again, amazing.
So Friday was Labor Day, which meant a lot of things were closed and the things that weren't were oozing with tourists. However, we braved the crowds and managed to see a good amount of stuff. We started the morning at the Arc de Triomphe and stopped in the middle of the Champs-Elysees for this picture. We made our way to Montmartre and saw Sacre-Couer and the artists that sit on the top of the hill. We wandered around the neighborhood for a little while because I knew they would enjoy seeing it.
And we ended up here for lunch... Cafe Deux Moulins, the cafe in the movie Amelie! Emma was really excited...
One thing that is guarenteed to be open on Labor Day is the Eiffel Tower. We went there first in the afternoon but when we saw the line was about three days long we decided to come back at night. I took them to Angelina where we had the best hot chocolate in the world. I warned them how rich it was but when Emma left she said, and I quote "I want to die." Angelina will do that to you... The Eiffel Tower at night was really fun! Jackie came with us and we had a picnic on the Champs de Mars and ooohed with the people everytime the tower started sparkling. It was definitely one of those things I had to do before I left Paris.
Saturday was Anne's last day. We started out at the Musee d'Orsay, a museum they were both more excited for than the Louvre. From there, I, forgetting it was Saturday/the sabbath, led them to the Marias/Jewish neighborhood thinking we could get falafel. When we saw it wasn't open we went to a cafe that my friends had found the week before that is just as excited. They have lemon mirange pie with the tallest mirange I have ever seen in my life. Oh, and lots of healthy vegetarian options too! We saw Anne off when she left for the airport and then Emma moved into my room. My host mom was incredibly nice and allowed her to stay with me for two nights. Jackie hung out with us that night and we made a late dinner of amazing pesto pasta and a much needed salad.
Sunday, Emma and I ventured to Reims (pronounced "rance", which according to Rick Steves rhymes with France). I was very excited Emma got to ride the TGV. This is an old Roman gate just outside of the center of the city.
And this is the fantastic cathedral. The cathedral is really known for its elaborate portal, as you can see here. Emma and I studied this in Humanities class senior year of high school so it was great to see it in person.
The Reims Cathedral is known for this smiling angel on the left. Kind of creepy...
The cathedral from afar, sadly under construction. We went on a Sunday so the town was literally dead. There weren't even tourists walking around. It was definitely nice to get out of the city for a little bit.
Besides the Cathedral, Reims is known for being the heart of the Champagne region in France. Therefore, we had to try some French Champagne. I booked a tour at one of the champagne houses called Martel. This house is family run and only exports about 20% of what they make. We saw an "educational" video on how they make champagne, toured the caves and got to try three different kinds of champagne. I learned that only champagne that comes from this region can be called champagne, everything else is just sparkling wine. That may be why I thought I didn't like it until I tried this champagne!
We saw the old methods for making the champagne down in the caves. Now they have a bunch of machines that do everything for them. However, back in the day they would have had to turn by hand 50,000 bottles everyday, every day until the bottle went from a horizontal position in these wooden holders to a vertical position.
Emma and I trying our French champagne!
Emma left Monday evening so I made sure to take her back to the Jewish quarter so she could actually see it. She was gushing over the Jewish bakeries!
And of course, the best falafel in the world.
My host parents and I had two really interesting conversations tonight: one on gay marriage and one on healthcare. It is interesting hearing about the socialist/French way for both of these things. This is one of the reasons I am so thankful to live with a host family.
This week is another short week. I leave tomorrow afternoon for Nice (!!!) in the south of France. This will be my first trip by myself but I am really looking forward to being on the Meditarranean coast. Hopefully the weather will be nice and I can literally spend the entire weekend on the beach!
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.
