Travels

Yesterday, for my French Society and Culture class, we went to the Musée Cluny which is the museum of the Middle Ages. My professor met us there and gave us a tour. It was nice to have our own personal tour, but the information was not super exciting. Fortunately it only lasted two hours - not the normal three hours of that class.

Today, I'm going to my Composition class at 9. That class ends at 10:30, when I have to BOOK it to the Louvre for my Art History class. We're supposed to be there at 11. Hopefully I'll make it. There are two other students in the same situation as me, so I guess we'll just run over there together.

Then once that class is over at 12:30, I'm catching a taxi to the airport because I'm going to PRAGUE! I cannot wait! I am SO SO excited. I'm a tad nervous about not speaking Czech, but hopefully Jacob will take care of all that! Tonight we're going to see the Philharmonic Orchestra in Prague which should be really neat.

I'll definitely post stories on Sunday when I get back, if not before!

Miss and love yall!

Old friends

Today was a really good day.

I found out online that there were fitness classes at the American Church of Paris Community Center and I decided to go to one last night. I was really nervous about it, but it turned out SO well. It was basically 45 minutes of cardio workouts to music and then 15 minutes of toning. I really enjoyed it and definitely want to go back. There were 7 or 8 of us in the class, plus the teacher. Her name was Alison and she was probably in her late 50s. She was so nice and everyone else was too. They made me feel so welcome. I definitely worked up a sweat. To top it off, on my way home after it, I gave directions to some lost American couple. They asked me where I was from and I said NC, to which they replied, ahhhh we heard it in your voice! Love it.

Today I got up, went to classes and then went to meet my from Russell from Wake. He's doing the WF program in Dijon and they're in Paris for the week. It was so so good to see him. I ran up to him outside the metro where we were meeting and gave him the biggest hug. It was so good to see someone from the states. We grabbed lunch and walked around some, just catching up, hearing about each other's semesters so far. He studied abroad with me last summer in Tours.

It made me so excited to see Jacob this weekend in Prague, Stephen the next weekend here in Paris, Laura two weekends later in Morocco, and then MY PARENTS  the weekend after that. October is going to be absolutely fantastic.

Steps of Sacré-Cœur

Once again, today was a great day. I could get used to this. I got up this morning and walked about five minutes from my house to the Bois de Boulogne to go for a run. My host fam had told me about it, but I had always just run along the Seine. This place was great! It reminded me of Country Park from home, except this was Country Park on steroids. It was huge and there were so many open places to run. There were tons of people there and it was just a really great place to run. I think I might switch off between there and the Seine to do my running from now on.

I then came back, showered, and then set off to meet Aubrey, Melissa and Anna in Montmartre, an area in the northern part of Paris. We met at 1pm and walked around, going in some shops and such. We then found a super cute and inexpensive place to eat lunch called the Kakoo Bar and Brasserie. I ate a chicken and cheese crêpe which was delicious. I also had a café crème. 

After lunch, we headed up to Sacré-Cœur which was right outside of where we ate. On the steps of Sacré-Cœur, there was a guy named Youri who was playing music on his guitar and singing. He was there both times that I visited last summer. He's such a fun performer and he really gets the crowd into it. He sang songs like She Will Be Loved by Maroon 5, Let It Be, Imagine, Stand By Me, and Fast Car. Also, did I mention that you get an amazing view of Paris from these steps? Magical. Unfortunately it started to rain about twenty minutes into his performance, so Melissa and Anna headed home, while Aubrey and I walked into Sacré-Cœur to look around. It is such a beautiful church. It's so big and white and it's so quiet inside. Unfortunately, you're not allowed to take pictures inside.

After this, Aubrey and I walked around the cathedral area where there are some cute shops, restaurants, and my favorite - a square where different artists paint and sell their paintings. I really want to go back when it's not raining. Some of their paintings are gorgeous.

Aubrey and I walked around Montmartre some more, eventually making our way to the ever-tacky Moulin Rouge. We took some pictures and then headed home. Such a good day.

Also, in other news - I BOOKED A FLIGHT TO VISIT MY ROOMMATE LAURA IN MOROCCO. nbd.

Louvre

Yesterday, I got up and ran along the Seine - my Saturday morning routine. Then I met Aubrey at the Louvre. We wanted to see some specific pieces. We saw, of course, La Jaconde (Mona Lisa), Venus de Milo, and my favorite The Coronation of Napoleon.  There were tons of people are La Jaconde so I didn't even attempt to take a picture. Sometimes I get a tad claustrophobic, so I had to get out of that crowd!

The Coronation of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David

There were a ton of people there, so we decided to not stay too long. Plus, students get in free, so we could definitely go back on our own and in both of our art history classes, we're making visits to the Louvre - so needless to say, we'll be back. No need to stuff it all in at one time. One thing that I like about the Louvre, probably just as much if not more than the paintings and works of art, is the architecture of the building itself, especially the ever-famous glass pyramid. It's gorgeous. I can't even begin to imagine how long it took to build.

Once we left, we were searching for an American to take our picture outside. We ended up finding some Irish folks to do it instead. They were so nice. They asked us where we were from. I said North Carolina and Aubrey said Kentucky and they said, oooohh we have a niece in Philadelphia - as if they thought they were close to us. Oh well, they were from Belfast and I couldn't tell you where in Ireland that is either.



After that, Aubrey and I went to some bookstores to get some books for our classes. Then we walked around the Marais. We ate fallafel for lunch, which I had actually never had before. It was actually delicious and I want to get it again! Then we shopped at some vintage stores, but didn't really find anything. I'm searching for a winter coat since I didn't bring a big one, mainly because it wouldn't fit in my suitcase! I'm sure I'll find one before it gets too cold. I stayed in last night because I'm fighting off a cold. I would love for it to go away, hence why I'm taking a ton of vitamin C.

On a side note, I'll be meeting Stephen at the airport in Paris in TWO WEEKS! Oh my goodness.

Medieval city, six course meal, and...falconry?

So today was a GREAT day. NYU was sponsoring a trip to Provins, France. This is a medieval city about 80 miles from Paris. We had to meet at a metro stop at EIGHT in the morning. SO early. Unfortunately, it was the metro stop almost at the opposite end of the line where I live. So I got up at 6:10am, got dressed, ate some breakfast and then hopped on the nine line. I sat on that metro for almost 40 minutes. Goodness. It took so long. I listened to my ipod, so it wasn't horrible. We all got on the buses and we left at about 8:15. I rode next to Aubrey and slept for about an hour of the trip, which took about an hour and a half total.

We pulled up into Provins and it was really pretty. It was surrounded on all sides by a wall and it just looked so medieval. Imagine that. We split up into groups of about 10 to go around on different tours. There was a really cool tower that we were able to go up. From the top, you could see all of the inside of the walls of Provins and then off into the countryside. I really enjoyed it, but it reminded me of Browns Summit and Lillington, NC. Gotta love big open fields.

The other big part of the tour was the main square where they used to have markets where people would come from all around to sell stuff. It was pretty neat.

After the tour is where the real fun began. NYU treated (well, probably not, I assume we/our parents paid for it in our tuition, but that's besides the point) to an absolutely AMAZING lunch. They brought us down into this beautiful dungeon-like dimly lit stone room where there were a bunch of tables set.

First, they served us this drink as l’apéritif which for those of yall that don't know, is supposed to prepare your stomach for the rest of the meal. It was decent, but I wouldn't go out of my way to have it again. Right after serving this they served something akin to bruschetta. It was delicious! We each got our own serving of this tomato/onion/spice thing to dip pieces of bread in. Delicious.

aperatif: kir

They then brought out this salad with this mixture of FOIE GRAS and pork. By the way, foie gras is made from the liver of duck/goose. As disgusting as that sounds, it was amazing. It all had the texture of meat loaf, but much much better tasting. This could have legitimately been a whole meal, however....there were still a ton more courses to come.

YUM

The MAIN course, as if we hadn't already had way more than enough, was duck! Woo! With this duck was some type of potato concoction and a broccoli and cheese mini quiche. I wasn't very fond of the sauce the duck was in, but I ate a few bites. The quiche and the potato thing were so tasty. Mmmmm.

Moving on, we were then served brie. This is probably my second favorite type of cheese, next to camembert, of course. It was amazing because it was again very legit and not the store bought kind that the starving students buy.

Don't think we were done just yet. Onto DESSERT. Yum. It was this pyramid of chocolate and vanilla mousse. I cannot even explain how delicious that was. I was in heaven.

Salivating NOW.

Finally, we had some small doughy things that I really don't know what they were. They were pretty good, but we were all STUFFED beyond belief at this point.

Then we had espresso. Perfect ending to a perfect meal. Don't worry, I do not eat this much food on a regular basis. All of this food is probably more than I eat in one day here. Yikes! But it sure was delicious. I can't even explain.

After lunch, we went to a medieval falconry show! It was so lame and ridiculous that it was actually fun. The first five rows were filled up with kids probably in middle school...and then there were the college kids! We felt really mature, obviously.

All in all, Provins was a solid trip.

First French Play

So last night I went to my first French play. Like I said in a few earlier posts, it was the play that we read during my preliminary course, but I went with my Theater and Politics class. The play was called Combat de nègre et de chiens by Bernard-Marie Koltès. Surprisingly, I was actually able to understand a large portion of what they were saying. Sometimes when they were yelling or doing drunken voices, I had trouble understanding, but I guess that's not too bad. It was in a theater in the 20th arrondissement called Théâtre national de la Colline. It was really neat. It was in a modern building and we actually had pretty decent seats. The play lasted about two hours. I think I'm going to really enjoy being in this class and going to different plays.

Les pois chiches

pronounced "lay pwa sheeeeeesh," these are pretty much my favorite thing ever. It's French for "chick peas." So delicious. I made dinner tonight with them. I mixed them with sliced tomatoes, steamed broccoli and some olive oil. I found a recipe for them online and added the veggies just because I love them. It actually turned out pretty well! Plus, it made two servings, so now I have dinner for tomorrow night! Woohoo!

Today was a really good day. I feel like I say that everyday, but still. Today was the first day of classes. I had Advanced Composition from 9-10:30 and then Theater and Politics from 10:45-12:15. Both seem like they're going to be really solid classes. We actually get to go see many of the plays that we read in my theater class. We're actually going to our first one on Wednesday evening. It's funny because it's the play that I read in my preliminary course -Combat de nègre et de chiens. I'm actually really excited to see it. Both of my professors are French and are really cool and nice.

After class, I grabbed a ham sandwich at a bakery and it was delicious, as always. I then headed out by myself for a random two hour exploration walk around Paris. I know, call me Sarah Columbus. I really wanted to walk over to the Louvre just to look at the building and I was going to take the metro, but decided to walk a little ways and then catch the metro the rest of the way. It was such a nice day that I ended up walking all the way. I'm not quite sure how far I walked, but it was at least three or four miles, but I bet more. I really enjoyed it. It's fun to hang out with friends, don't get me wrong, but sometimes it's nice to explore by yourself.

Tomorrow I have my Theater and Politics class again and then my European Painters course. Should be another good day.

ALSO. I just bought my plane ticket to visit JACOB EICHHORN, a friend from Wake Forest, in PRAGUE! I'm so excited. I leave on Thursday September 30 and come back on Sunday October 3.

Unexpected finds are the best

So I got up and went for a run this morning along the Seine. It was a beautiful day and I loved it. It's really cool to use the Eiffel Tower as a reference point when running. SO neat.

I then met up with Aubrey to go to some more sites that aren't normally open to the public. We first went inside La Sorbonne, the University of Paris founded in the 13th century. It was absolutely gorgeous. Here's the courtyard:

Then we went to the Pantheon. This is an amazing building with tombs of a bunch of famous people in the crypt. Here are some pictures of the interior.

We saw the tombs of some really famous folks: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Emile Zola, and Voltaire. It was really neat to see all of those.

From here, we went over to the Institut de Curie - where Marie Curie and her husband Pierre did all of their experiments. That was pretty cool. Hopefully there's no more radiation in that building. Here's here laboratory:

Aubrey and I walked around in this area some more and then decided to go check out a bookstore called Shakespeare and Company, near Notre Dame. It's an all-english bookstore and it is very famous. I had gone there last time I was in Paris and really wanted to go back. The bookstore is on the bank of the Seine, facing Notre Dame. It's really old and tight, but has so many books. It's really charming. They have a random piano in it and some man who didn't work there was just sitting and playing it. They have a board you can write notes on and leave it. Here's what I wrote:

We both bought a book and checked out. As I was checking out, a really old man came up to me and said that they were having a tea party on the third floor and that everyone was invited. I walked outside and told Aubrey about it and we decided we'd go check it out. We figured it'd be a real leisurely event with tea and "biscuits" as the man called them sitting on a table. I thought we'd grab some and leave. So we walked up the back staircase to the third floor. We reached an apartment that said "George's house." We didn't know what to do. To knock or just walk away? So we knocked on the door and a British woman opened the door to a very small room - smaller than my dorm room last year. There was a table in the center with a mix-match set of tea cups and a plate of cookies. There were three or four other people in there already. The woman asked us our names and where we were from. She made fun of my Southern accent when I said North Caroliiiiina. Apparently, the man who had invited me to the tea party was 96 year-old George Whitman - the owner of the bookstore. Over the course of the next ten minutes, the lady gave us tea and more people walked in. It was the most random crowd. There was a man that had to have been 90 and his daughter, both from San Francisco. Next to them was a retired British journalist. Then there was an older Australian writer and an American man. Two Americans from Michigan walked in soon after.

Apparently, they hold this event every Sunday from 4-6pm. There were about 10 of us when everyone was in there. The woman in charge who was probably in her late 70s asked if anyone wanted to recite poetry. The old man recited two or three over the course of the two hours. He had a weird accent and I couldn't understand a word he said. His daughter who was probably in her 70s, was apparently an opera singer and she sang a song for us. It was the oddest but coolest thing I have been to since I've been here. The best part is that I just happened to stumble upon it. The lady asked Aubrey and I if we had any poetry that we could recite, but unfortunately we couldn't think of anything. The British man read some poetry that he had written. The woman in charge had written a poem that she had put to a rap and so she rapped it for us. SO hilarious. Then we got on the subject of rapping. I almost died when the older Australian woman said, "Did any of you see the movie with Em-AND-Em (Eminem)?" She was referring to the movie 8-Mile and she said "I just thought the way they rapped back in forth was wonderful. Rapping is basically poetry" - with which the woman in charge agreed. Man. Never thought I'd be sitting at a tea party and hear that.

All in all, we stayed for 2 hours and it really was a treat. I had such a good time and I'm so glad we decided to go to it. I might not go every week, but I would love to go back sometime.

Loooooong Samedi

Saturday was such a good day. First, I got up and went for a run. Starting the day off right.

Then, I met Aubrey, Melissa, and Anna at Le musée d’Orsay, the impressionism art museum. The building is absolutely gorgeous, but no photography is allowed inside, which absolutely killed me. We saw works of Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, and so many more. It was really neat and I really enjoyed it. It was tiring and took a couple hours, but it was totally worth it. Students get in free, so I'm definitely going back. Hopefully my art history class will go there this semester.

I thought this one was especially pretty.

Here's a picture of me outside with a big version of Van Gogh's famous painting.
After going here, we went and grabbed lunch at a cute corner café where I got a delicious vegetable soup.

This weekend in France is what is called les Journées Européennes du patrimoine. It's basically when the government opens up all of these buildings that are normally closed to the public. It only happens once a year, so it's a pretty big deal. Aubrey and I decided to check out L'hôtel de ville, which is basically a really old beautiful government building in Paris. I believe the mayor works there. It was gorgeous inside and I'm so glad we went.

View out of the back - with Notre Dame in the background.

Then, we decided to go check out Chez Sarkozy. NBD. The President's house is only open these two days each year, so it's a really big deal. We headed over, waited in line for two hours in the cold, and finally got in! Sadly, Nicolas and Carla weren't there. It was SO neat.  I guess the equivalent is going into the White House, except this is probably a bigger deal because you can take tours regularly of the White House. It was this beautifully, ornate building and we got to see his office and all sorts of rooms, from the massive dining rooms to the board rooms. I loved it and I'm so glad we waited in line to go in.

French extravagence at its finest.

Official business takes place here.

Sarko's desk. NBD.

View from the back

Obligatory. The French flag is behind me. EU flag on the left.

We also got to go outside and see all of his cars. Wow. This man loves his cars.

Get em, Sarko.