Paris (Say it with the French accent, you know you want to) Part One

Just last week, I took a school trip to Paris. Did you know that it's the 3rd most visited city in the world? It gets more than 42 million visiters a year.. 58 of those were my class. We took a bus from Rennes to Paris - that's a glorious five hour drive, I believe? And it snowed on the way, too! Just the light, wet snow because it's France and it's not really supposed to snow here.

Bus buddy + diet coke = A wonderful five hours

Our first stop was Versailles. It's right outside of Paris, so before we actually made it into the city we stopped there. It was freezing. And it's huge. You have to go in with a goal, otherwise you'll get stuck in one room with a pretty ceiling and you'll stand in awe as you try to compare your own house to just that room, and you know, they're probably around the same size. You could probably fit your house and your neighbor's house into that one room, if you really tried. Plus there's the part where the ceilings are so carefully painted with so much detail, and thinking back you remember that your ceilings are white. If you're lucky, you have the popcorn ceilings to add some pizazz - if you're lucky.

©Laura

This isn't even the full thing. This is practically the entrance, the prologue to a very, very, very thick book. It's also crooked. 

Ba-BAM (Use the Raven Symone voice from That's So Raven, s'il vous plaît).

©Laura

The ceilings!!

 ©Laura

And the gardens! (Think gaaaaaaahdens, dahhling)

Strolling through these gardens was a completely different experience for me this time (I visited Versailles with my mom, sister and Auntie Andi in the spring of '07, when the sun was shining and it was much warmer). This stroll was more of a light jog in an attempt to not lose all of my fingers and toes to the glorious temperature outside. 

©Laura

I don't really know what's happening here, but our hotel was right by Place de la Bastille, which was a lovely place to be. 

Snow! (And oh look, it's Melanie in the bottom left. Hi Melanie!) It never, ever snows in France. Not in Rennes nor Paris, at least. So this was exciting, unexpected, and cold.

©Laura

On our walk to the Musée d'Orsay.. it was still snowing!

A lot of bridges in Paris have locks locked to them. Couples & friends attach a lock to the bridge and throw the key in the water to represent their never ending love or something cheesy like that. 

At the Musée d'Orsay, we were free to explore at our leisure, no tour guides, no school groups, just a big museum and a lot of time. Jenny and I snuck away from the direct crowd headed for the center stage and went up to the 5th floor: Impressionism. There were 5 rooms filled with Impressionist paintings, and we spent hours staring at them, looking at the frames, the colors, the details and the blurs and discussing what we liked and what we didn't like. We were speaking in French, too, and played this game where, when a French person was nearby, we'd go up to them and ask how to say a certain something in French. Like watering can. Looking at a Degas painting of ballerinas, there was a watering can in the corner, but we weren't sure how to say that. We asked a kind-looking older woman next to us, and not only did we learn that arrosoir meant watering can, we learned that they used them to pour something (I can't remember what) on the floors so that the ballerinas didn't slip. 

After the Musée d'Orsay, some of us had a show to see. We were split into two groups, one group to see a show at La Comédie Française on Sunday, and one to see a show on Monday. So after the museum I headed off with Laura and Darby to La Comédie Française to see Troïlus et Cressida, a Shakespeare play translated in French. 

We got lost.

Here we have the Paris metro. Let's take a look at number 1. That is where the Musée d'Orsay is, and where we started. Then let's follow the arrow to number two. We sort of followed the river, crossed a bridge, crossed back, walked away from the river to the middle of the city, and then followed the tip of the Eiffle Tower to find our way there, to find a metro station. We get on the metro, take two different ones, and end up at number 3, Palais Royal, our final destination. Let's just say we were a bit late for the show. 

©Laura

©Laura

These were our "Oh, look, we're in Paris and we're at the metro and we're kind of lost" pictures. Cute, right?

However - it was an adventure. There's nothing like coming to know Paris by getting lost in Paris. And we weren't lost in the oh-my-gosh-where-do-we-go-from-here way, but more of a wow-we're-kind-of-displaced-let's-find-the-nearest-metro. Proper usage of dashes? Probably not.

Blast from the past! I was but a babe the last time I visited Paris..

This Shakespeare play though.. I was not particularly captivated, but uh, neither were many other people. So once we reached intermission we were given permission to leave the theater and roam the streets of Paris, which we did, starting with a café.

©Laura

©Laura

Darby and I have a small obsession with mustard. Black & white to make us classy!

That's enough for today, don't you think? Yes, I do believe so. Have a lovely whatever time of day it is!

...In other news, my email is backed up to the moon with harassing emails from colleges, so feel free to send me something. Anything. I'm begging you.

A Mélange of January and February

I've been harassed for the past two months to write a blog post. I suppose I should write one now, what do you think?

What have I been up to since exams? I can't believe it was that long ago since I've written. I think apologies are due, but I'm stubborn, so here's a post. The thing about writing a post is that you have to remember what you did, and everything that I do has just mooshed itself into one big pile of France. And how do I decide what is big enough to deserve a blog post? The daily life in France is so significant to me, but so natural, and how can I possibly capture the good feelings and the atmosphere and the smell and my surroundings? Not a single picture can fully encapsulate that rush I feel when I am walking home and I remember, I'm living in France! My writing certainly isn't up to par to take the scents and sounds and bumps as you pass a grumpy French man and recreate this life of mine for your own eyes to see.

Pictured are some of my host family, Bernard, Nathanël, Marie and Raphaëlle. Some of these cold nights in Rennes, we like to have what's called a raclette. A raclette is where you melt cheese (see that big grill-like thing over by Bernard?) and pour it over meat and vegetables and potatoes; it's always really fun to make. 

©Laura

We were invited by a French high school to come for a day of games! We played trivia and guessing games, and tested our knowledge of each other's culture. 

©Melanie

©Melanie

Rennes was blessed with a snow day sometime between January and today. I can't quite give you the date because, like I said, France has become just one very long, exciting day. That's probably because I never go to bed. But yes - A snow day. All of Rennes shut down. She didn't quite know what to do with herself, no buses, no stores open, the sidewalks still covered in the single centimeter of sticky snow. What was one to do? I ventured over to Melanie's house along with Rachel and Laura where we stayed all day drinking tea, watching movies and causing a ruckus for her poor host family.

©Laura

©Laura

While wandering the streets of Rennes, Omar, Laura, Melanie and I stumbled upon the steps of the Opéra to watch an ongoing protest. What they were protesting, exactly, we're still not sure. These pictures don't exactly montrer... I mean present... that we were at a protest or at the Opéra, but I'm telling you, we were!

There's this funny thing that keeps happening, too. I speak in a lot of Franglais - a mélange.. uh, mix.. of French and English. The French words pop into my head before the English sometimes, and you get a lovely mix of poorly conjugated and oddly mixed word-hybrids. I hate to admit this, but I had to google what the English word for montrer was, that I so poorly used above. It's not that I don't know the meaning of words anymore. I know them! But connecting an English word to them is so much harder. Have you ever used a word, and in usage you know exactly what it means, but taking that single word out and trying to define it is practically impossible? Montrer means montrer, can't you see that?! 

Then there was that one day where Darby and I both felt that sweatpants were a necessity.. Actually, this was decided at about 4 am that morning (does anybody actually sleep anymore?). So after lunch we ran to the center of town to H&M, up to the men's department, grabbed sweatpants two sizes too big, and ran back to school. Have I stopped wearing them since? No. 

And then there was Paris!

This Makes Me Sad

...because I'll be back in America before my phone runs out of credit for the last time.

Exam Week.

This is how I'm feeling:

Yeah, I don't know.

Shall I Tell You A Story?

It's really not much. There aren't even pictures to go with it! It's funny though, just go with it.

In Paris, my mom wanted to go to a specific restaurant, so for lunch we walked across town to find it and waited in line - for a long while. It had lots of stars next to it's name though, and the wait was expected, so we suffered on. Once seated, the waitress came - no menus were given, and thinking like an American I ordered our drinks (in French because I just felt like the fanciest thing in town). The waitress didn't leave though. Instead she said, how do you want your steak? I obviously didn't understand because I thought I had just ordered drinks - was my accent really that horrible that she mistook water for steak? I tried to explain, no, no, I didn't order steak! I just ordered drinks! To which she replied that everyone got steak. You don't pick what you eat, they do! So steak and fries it was, for lunch. And it was good. The end.

P.S. The restaurant was called Le Relais de l'Entrecôte. I believe if you look past the shiny stars next to it's name and read a couple of reviews, someone is bound to mention the itty bitty fact that it only serves steak and fries.

New Year's Eve and All That Jazz

So my writing has been in the toilet lately. And by lately I mean in the past month. So I'm sorry. I hope you all had a wonderful New Year's (this phrase always gets me. New Year's? New Year? But the year, although new, isn't over, so how do you know if it was wonderful? New Year's Eve? But that was last year, and we're in the New Year!). Anyway. That night where the clock hit 12:00 or maybe 00:00 depending on your location, how was it? And your holidays before that? Great. :)

My darling mother and sister came to visit me for New Year's (the eve and the first day, not the full year - just clarifying). Straight off the train from Italy, I went to their hotel and was greeted by Emily, joyfully using the free wifi, and my mother who was tearing up because she "got dust in her eye". I wish I had some pictures of our reuniting, but unfortunately my camera man was on vacation so you'll just have to deal with this image: Girl, 17, gross looking because she'd been traveling since 4am, big sweatshirt, holding bags, a little bit wary because she knows the waterworks that will greet her. She walks into the hotel, prepared to ask the clerk at the desk which room was "Ollero", but is surprised to see that both mother and sister are sitting in the - what is it? lounge? - waiting for her. Mother, xx years young (I've got your back, ma), leaps from her chair to embrace daughter after being tragically separated for four months. Sister, almost 14, sitting in the background using the computer, "Hey Goose!". Enthusiasm at it's greatest, ladies and gentlemen. Girl, 17, is taller than mother. Cue applause, mother has been doubting it would happen since forever - ha. Girl looks around, sees 500 suitcases for mother and daughter, sighs (oh Americans - they change their outfits daily?), smiles, grabs some bags, and heads for Host Family's apartment (a short walk for the avid Rennais, apparently 50 blocks for the sister).

Well, that was random and grammatically incorrect. Enjoy deciphering that! We stayed at my host family's apartment, as they were out of town for Christmas. We stayed in Rennes for 2 nights, and bright and early on the 29th we departed for Paris!

Because this blog is a depiction of my life, yours truly has decided that even the roughest photos must be included at some times, because that's me, and that's my mom, and we're in France together! 

Rough.

We took the fancy metro (or train, or subway, according to my New Yorker of a mother) to our apartment where we were going to be staying, just a few blocks from the Champs-Élysées! 

I had already visited Paris before with my mom (and Em has too but don't bother asking her about what she thinks of it ;) ), so we took this trip to walk around leisurely in an attempt to do what real Parisians do. Result: Fail, we were still so touristy. Oops! We walked along the Champs-Élysées, visited the Eiffel Tower, Sacré Coeur, Arc de Triomphe, you know the drill. And if you don't, that's basically the drill. 

Arc de Triomphe - and it rained! What a surprise, France, really switching things up (Note: this is sarcasm. The purest of sarcasm).

And our umbrella broke! Woo! Party!

Em, Jim Hayne and I!

We went to this really awesome dinner at Jim Hayne's (an author) house. Every Sunday he has up to fifty random people from all over the world come to dine at his house, and you walk around, eat food, meet a ton of interesting people and have a really great time. I met some really cool people, ate some really good food, and had a blast. If you find yourself in Paris anytime in the year, you should check it out. Sign up in advance, because this guy is popular. I highly recommend it!

We did end up finding ourselves in a part of Paris that wasn't touristy. It was like a breath of fresh air. I found myself falling in love with the city again - if I could, I think I would live there. 

We happened upon le Village Montmartre at Sacré Coeur, with little booths selling food and knick knacks surrounding the church. 

After we did the rounds at Sacré Coeur, we walked over to this square right next door that is my absolute favorite. It's filled to the brim with artists, and I love looking at the paintings. It's just so cute!

J t'adore, Paris!

We spent the magical night of New Year's Eve in our apartment (France was being cranky as usual and raining, yuck), cracked open a bottle of champagne and skyped my dad as the clock struck 00:00. It was only 6:00 his time; it's kind of weird thinking that our grand celebrations were simply dinner time in another place. But hey, he was talking to the future! 2012 to 2013, aren't we the coolest? We said goodbye to Paris the next day, and my mom and sister said goodbye to France the day after. My mom had some dust in her eye again, and Em was just weird (as usual, love you baby!); it's weird thinking that the next time I'll be seeing them, I'll be coming home to stay. Here's to the next five months!