Things I'll Miss About Paris

Obviously I'm procrastinating in my studying for finals.  So here's a list of things that I'm really going to miss about France once I get back home.

• Not needing to straighten my hair (in Paris most women don't straighten or curl their hair everyday.  They brush it, mousse it, pin it up, clip pieces back, braid it, etc. but they almost never use heat products to contort it into an unnatural style.  I'm not looking forward to having to straighten my hair again every day in order to look nice and put together)
• Perfect weather (it's in the mid 70s here.  It's in the 100s at home.  Enough said.)
• Being of legal drinking age
• Fresh bread every day
• Pastries (donuts and coffee cake will no longer count as pastries for me.  I've been spoiled by the piles of pain au chocolat, tartes, macarons, and chaussons aux pommes on every corner here)
• Gelato (I might suffer withdrawal when I'm forced to stop eating it every day)
• Orangina
• Foreigners (not the French, it's the other foreigners I love meeting.  Like the waiter at a restaurant last week who was from Algeria and here studying electrical engineering.  And the guys from Scotland who'd heard of my last name before.  And the very cute Australian math teachers.  It's just so interesting to meet people from other countries on a regular basis.  Even if it usually is in a bar)
• The shopping.  The variety.  The clothes.  The sales.  Soooo wonderful here.
• The service in restaurants.  (They don't harass you here.  You need to flag your waiter down if you want something.  And the only time they'll indicate that they want you to leave is when they're closing for the night.  It's so nice not to be rushed or bothered)

Things I Miss About the United States

For awhile now I've been coming across things that I really miss about the US.  I mean, I love Paris, but sometimes I just wish I could turn on the TV and watch some Toddlers and Tiaras.  So here it is, my list of things that I really can't wait to get home to:

• TLC (Say Yes to the Dress and Cake Boss mainly, because there is nothing quite like hours of wedding and dessert related reality TV)
• Being so close to my family (distance-wise)
• Chicken Pot Pie
• Pull-N-Peel twizzlers
• Country music
• Penny
• Having my own room (I know this isn't something specifically American, but it's something that I'll have when I'm back in America so it counts)
• Being able to say I'm American.  The French find it to be very arrogant when you say you're from America or that you're an American.  They see all of North and South America as American.  So while I'm here I have to always say that I'm from the United States, which is tricky to do because I consider my nationality to be American.
• Cereal (mainly Lucky Charms, Raisin Bran, and Honey Nut Cheerios)
• Popcorn.  COVERED in butter.  The way Justine gets it at the movie theater
• Group iMessages on my iPhone
• Tabloids in the grocery store (I never realized how much I enjoyed reading their ridiculous headlines until I got here and they didn't have anything like that)
• American boys (there's really nothing quite like them.  European guys are very metrosexual.  They dress up nice during the day but at night they all wear tight jeans, tight shirts, blazers, scarves....it's disconcerting because that's sort of "gay" at home.  I just have a hard time calling a guy hot when we both own the same jeans.  Doesn't work for me.)

A Shopping Spree, Piles of Bones, and Crêpes Galore

On my last Saturday in Paris, I spent the morning and early afternoon relaxing and recovering from my Champagne night.  In the afternoon we decided to visit the Catacombs so a group of us headed to Denfert-Rochereau, where the entrance is.  Unfortunately, we got there at 3pm and the last entrance was at 4pm and the line was going to take about an hour and a half to get through.  So instead I took the RER up to Saint-Michel and then walked back to the Foyer, stopping along the way to shop and pick up some of the last few things I wanted to get here in Paris.

After I finished shopping, I met up with a few of the girls in my group and we went out for dinner at a restaurant by the Seine and Notre Dame.  It was surprisingly delicious for its inexpensive price.  I finally tried escargot, and also had boeuf bourguignon and chocolate mousse.

After dinner we went back to the Foyer and got ready to go out.  We went to our favorite bar, the Violon Dingue and hung out, talked, flirted with the cute bartender, and danced.  I ended up leaving around 2:30am and passed out almost right away when I got back home.

On Sunday we relaxed in the morning, but got up and headed to the catacombs around 1pm.  Unfortunately the line was still very long and we waited about two hours to get in.  By the time we got inside our numbers had dwindled from seven to four due to fact that it started raining.  And we only had one umbrella.  It wasn't too much fun.  But the catacombs were very cool.  At first you got down more than a hundred stairs to deep underground then you walk through all these tunnels for quite awhile.  Our group was all alone down there and so it was really creepy.  We kept thinking we'd just randomly turn a corner and suddenly see piles of bones.

There were also all sorts of dark gated off corners.  It was really creepy and we kept thinking we'd see a skeleton or two in one of them when we took pictures using flash.  Alas no luck there.  Probably a good thing...

Finally however, we came upon a very creepy doorway.  Almost like a dolmen.  It's in french, but basically it translates to "Stop!  This is here the Empire of Death."  Reminded me a lot of the doorway in Lord of the Rings that says something to the effect of "The Way is shut, it was made by those who are Dead and the Dead keep it."

Then we walked in.  And there were bones EVERYWHERE.

Some of them are even arranged kind of artistically.  Like this random creepy drum of bones in the middle of a room.

They just go on for miles too.  There were so many gates like the ones below that blocked off entire huge chambers of nothing but more bones and more passages.  It was like some sort Edgar Allen Poe inspired labyrinth from hell down there.  Being lost in that rabbit warren of bones would probably be the worst thing that could EVER happen to me.

I also decided to get sneaky and carve my name into the wall on the way out.  So my friend and I pulled out keys and went to work.  It's a bit sloppy, but I didn't want to get caught.  Such a great way to leave my mark on Paris!

When we finally left it was still raining so I stopped to grab dinner on the way home then just headed back to the Foyer for the night.  I skyped my mom and dad then showered and went to bed.  It wasn't my busiest weekend, but was still an exhausting one.

Today was my last full day of classes and my last day of French History class (tomorrow we have an outing).  Classes started at 9:15am and went until about 12:15pm when we got a break for lunch.  I headed down to La Croissanterie and a delicious sandwich, soda, and citron tartlette.  Despite its yumminess however, my meringue is of much higher quality than theirs.  

After lunch we had our last class of the day and then I was free!  I spent the afternoon packing and listening to music.  I figured if I packed today, I wouldn't be tempted to do it when I need to study for finals tomorrow and I'll be free on my last afternoon in Paris on Thursday to do whatever I want.

After packing I watched some True Blood then my group went out to dinner together.  Our program director had set up a dinner out for us at a very nice crêpe restaurant just off the Champs-Élysées.

At the restaurant I got a salty crêpe and a dessert crêpe.  My salty crêpe (which was actually a galette, or a thicker and browner crêpe) was filled with bacon, potatoes, cheese, and sour cream.  So delicious.

My dessert crêpe however was the pièce de résistance.  It was a thin crêpe with orange marmalade, chocolate fudge sauce, chopped nuts, and flaming Grand Marnier.

After dinner I headed back to the Foyer and showered, by then it was almost 11pm so I finished my last episode of True Blood and am now finishing my blog.  Once I finish this I'm going to get ready for bed then pass out because tomorrow is going to be another very busy day.

Last Friday in Paris

Yesterday was my last Friday in Paris.  Talk about depressing.  Of course, the day was actually so busy I didn't have much time to be sad that my trip was almost over.  Class started at the ungodly hour of 8:30am, meaning I had to be up by 7:30am.  And of course it was for French lit, my least favorite class.  After suffering and sleeping through the required 75 minute class we had a quick meeting (where we got a hundred extra euros!) then got on the metro to go to Saint Denis, a suburb just north of Paris.

The first thing we did when we arrived was visit the Basilica of Saint-Denis, sometimes referred to as the Royal Necropolis of France because so many of the French kings and Queens are buried there.

The church itself was definitely very lovely with the requisite stained glass, high arched nave, and large rose window, but the really interesting thing about the basilica was definitely all the old tombs, including those of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

The first king of France (Clovis I) was also located there, as was Henry II and Catherine de Medicis, Louis XIV, Pepin le Bref, Charles Martel, and Francois I among many others.  The creepiest part of it all was in the crypts below the basilica.  There were more graves down there, but also the only part of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette's son that could be found: his heart.

There were also a lot of super creepy paintings and pictures of Saint Denis.  I guess he was beheaded or something because in all of them he's holding his bleeding head in his arms.  Yuck.

After we left the basilica we went to the nearby market, which is one of the best in the city.  It's huge with every type of produce, meat, cheese, bread, clothing, accessory, furniture, and home good imaginable.  However it was also a bit more intimidating than the markets in the city because it's in the suburbs, meaning it draws a much more ethnic crowd.  I didn't see very many european people there that day.  Lots of women in burkhas, men in long robes and turbans, Indian women in saris, etc.  It was interesting, but I also got the feeling that it could get kind of dicey.

When we left Saint Denis, a group of us headed straight to our next outing at the Musée d'Orsay.  Once we got nearby we stopped to get lunch at a café where I had an espresso and a delicious salad with artichokes and avocado.

At the Musée d'Orsay we looked at all the Art Nouveau furniture and goods to get a better feel for the time period.  I didn't get to stay that long however because one of my roommates had gone back to our room after the outing to Saint-Denis and while there she couldn't open our door.  Neither could the women in housekeeping.  And so if we didn't report to the repairman about it by 5pm, when he was leaving for vacation, we wouldn't be getting into our room anytime soon.  So around 3pm we left the Musée d'Orsay early and caught a bus back to the Foyer to talk to the repairman.  Luckily our door got fixed and we didn't need to worry.


I spent the afternoon napping and recuperating from my early morning then went out for a late dinner at a nearby café with some of the girls in my group.  I got a wonderful bowl of french onion soup, a glass of white wine, and a caramel mousse for dessert.

After dinner we headed to the Champs de Mars, stopping to buy champagne along the way.  We sat in front of the Eiffel Tower for about two hours then, laughing, talking, taking pictures, and drinking champagne.

Eventually we caught the metro back to the Foyer just before 1:30am, when it closes, and went to bed.  It had definitely been a long day.

Picasso, Mondrian, Rothko Oh My!

Today I got up extra early to take a shower before classes started at 9:15am.  Fortunately, there were only two classes and I was done by noon.  When class ended I took a walk around the block to a nearby crêperie I hadn't tried yet.  It might've been the best crêpe I've had yet.  They made the pancake part fresh in front of me and then stuffed it full of cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes, and onions.  Delicious.


After a short lunch break we headed to the Centre Pompidou, otherwise known as the modern and contemporary arts museum in Paris.  The building was designed to be more or less inside-out, with the escalators, pipes, and ducts all wrapping around the outside of the building.  It's very modern.

Inside the building the museum takes up the fourth and fifth floors.  We had a guide who showed us around to give us a basic understanding of modern art.  We started with a painting from Georges Braque from 1905,

then moved on to see a wide variety of Kandinskys, Picassos, and various other pieces by artists that I didn't recognize.  The following is my favorite Picasso from the museum, titled "L'Aubade" or "The Dawn."

I was also excited to see Andy Warhol's pop art depiction of Liz Taylor:

And Rothko's very famous and very modern "Untitled": 

I saw plenty of other interesting and thought provoking pieces, including an extremely disturbing exhibit by a Russian artist showing the regression of society into animals.  I couldn't make myself take pictures of it because it was so disturbing, but I doubt I'll forget it soon.  The artist was completely naked and wearing a choke collar like the kind put on a large pit bull.  In all the pictures he's behaving the same way an aggressive dog would, tugging at the leash, baring his teeth, trying to leap from a moving car....it was freakishly violent (the museum even had a warning in the doorway) but also very thought-provoking.


After leaving the museum I went back to the Latin Quarter with two of the girls in my group.  Along the way we stopped at a bakery to pick up snacks for later and baguettes for dinner.  I spent the evening working on homework, making and eating dinner, and helping a few other people with papers that are due at midnight tonight.  For awhile I thought about going out for a drink, but since I'm already exhausted and class starts at 8:30am tomorrow, I figured that wouldn't be my best idea.

The Past Three Days

The past three days have flown by and for various reasons I haven't been blogging.  So this is about to be a long one to catch up on everything I've been up to.


On Monday I woke up around 8am and went to class.  Not just one class.  All three classes.  Granted I had a lunch break in there where I was able to go grab a sandwich, but otherwise I was on the go with class until late afternoon.  That's when I took a break to go do my grocery shopping.  By the time I came back it was almost 6pm so I relaxed and made myself dinner.


The only interesting thing of the day was when we went to a nearby bar after dinner for happy hour and olympics coverage.  It was a lot of fun, just sitting around drinking long islands, raving about the American swim team, and gossiping with the girls on my trip.  Around 10pm we headed home and called it an early night.


The next morning we woke up bright and early to meet our French history professor in Montmartre.  With him we toured the neighborhood, seeing Sacre Coeur, the only vineyard in Paris, and of course, Place du Tertre.

After the outing we took the metro back to the Foyer and had a few minutes to grab a quick lunch before heading to our last two classes.  Once they ended we only had a little bit of time to get ready for the theater that night.  At 6pm we left the Foyer and walked about 8 blocks to the Théâtre de la Huchette.  


We were there to see La Cantatrice Chauve (translated as The Bald Soprano), an absurdist play that has been performed every night at this theater for the past 55 years or so.  It's the longest running play in theater history or something.  Either way I found the play to be awful.  Absurdism can be good, but I didn't like the play when I read it and I liked it even less when I was forced to sit in a hot, stuffy room and watch it.  The actors did a good job, I just found it to be trite.  It wasn't good absurdism, it was just a sort of haphazard attempt at social criticism through theater of the absurd.  Not a fan.


After the theater I rewarded myself with gelato (chocolate and nutella) and headed back to the Foyer where I spent the night catching up on homework for today.


Today we met Madame Szeps at La Grande Mosquée de Paris, the largest mosque in Paris.  We had a guide who showed us around and talked to us about Islam.  We were able to see the central courtyard, the gardens, the library, and even the prayer room (though we couldn't enter).

The guide was very knowledgable and a bit loquacious about his faith, but not in a pushy way.  He was just trying to explain to a group of Americans what it truly meant to be a Muslim.  He did a great job in my opinion, even if he was a bit long-winded.

After this trip we headed back to the Foyer where we ate a quick lunch then went to our next two classes. After class we went to the theater in the Luxembourg Gardens to see one of the famous puppet shows put on there for children.  This show was the story of the three little pigs, told with puppets, singing, dancing, and set changes.  It was very cute.  Even cuter were all the little French babies sitting in the front and laughing and yelling at the puppets.  


When the puppet show ended I went to out to meet Nikki and Ilia for dinner on their last night here.  We ended up at a café on Saint-Germain where we sat for about three hours.  I had two delicious glasses of Sancerre and a Croque Monsieur, all for fifteen euros!

After dinner we headed across the bridges onto Île Saint-Louis where we wandered a bit then stopped for gelato at Amorino.  This time I got caramel and cinnamon.  Sooo good.  We walked a bit more and ended up in front of Notre Dame where a group of fire dancers were performing.  They were incredibly talented so we stopped to watch for a bit.  There was a girl who used a fiery hula hoop, one fire-breather, and another guy who twirled flames and used fireworks too.  It was so cool.

After this we split up and they headed back to their hotel to get some sleep before their early flight and I walked back to the Foyer.  Along the way I passed a group of breakdancers who were performing (singing and dancing) to Prince's "Kiss" so I had to stay a watch a little.  Then they started up with Michael Jackson.  Quite impressive.


After this I walked the rest of the way home, where I got ready for bed, and am now here writing my blog.  It's definitely been a very busy couple of days.