Paris!

I apologize for the delays on the Parisian news. I’ve received many complaints, but I do from time to time have to do homework and thus the blog takes second place.

Pictures from Paris can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010535&l=89cec&id=1158900089

And here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010536&l=3314b&id=1158900089

First of all, I would like to open this entry by saying that I’m refusing to come home. I’ve decided I like it here even if there isn’t skim milk, and I’m not sure I can give up having a new adventure every weekend, even for skim milk. Thus, I’d like to extend a blanket invitation to everyone to come visit me, since I won’t be back. Please bring plain M&Ms, the Italian M&Ms I bought taste weird. What would be ideal is just going home for a week—long enough to eat some M&Ms, drink some skim milk, speak some English, and pick up my skates—and then return here to benefit from the warm weather, amazing bread, and general French-ness.

This past weekend’s adventure was Paris! All I’d seen of the city before today was the airport, which was—well—an airport. Thus, I was quite excited to get a chance to actually see the city. Mireille gave me a ride to the train station early Friday morning, which was nice, since I didn’t have to take a taxi that way. No one was seated next to me on the train, which I liked, and it was a quick ride, just over two and a half hours. I’d purposely picked a TGV that didn’t have any stops between Avignon and Paris. Once I arrived, I was led around in circles by the signs in Gare de Lyon who were giving me very different instructions about how to get to Line 1 of the Metro. They led me in the completely wrong direction, and thus I had to wander around in circles for a good fifteen minutes before I finally found it. However, once I did find the stop I was looking for, I managed to purchase my ticket, select directions, and get off at the correct stop without any problems. I was most proud of myself for that. Once I got off at Tuilieres (I made it off at the correct, stop, too!) I took about three steps in what I thought was the right direction before realizing that I was walking towards the Louvre, not away from it, so I quickly turned around and due to the prominence of street signs (compared to street signs in Rome, anyway) I found my way to the hotel quite quickly. I was surprised that I didn’t get more lost, but I’m not going to question my luck—instead I’ll be grateful for it.

The hotel was lovely, despite my inability to understand the concierge (three times in a row) when he was welcoming me there in French. I’ll choose to blame it on the fact that he was talking too softly and with a Parisian accent rather than accepting the fact that I still, from time to time, have trouble understanding French. However, the hotel did have an endless supply of free marshmallows and gummy bears, which I certainly enjoyed. One of my friends (Paul) from Marquette was flying in to Paris for the weekend, and he got in just a little bit after I arrived. We set off pretty soon for lunch at Place de la Madeline, where we had yummy sandwiches and Madelines, which are delicious pastries. I had a caramel one—it was caramel flavored, with a little bit of caramel in the middle of it. Quite good. We walked around Place de la Madeline for a while, and peeked in the church in the middle of it, which was gorgeous. Then we started walking towards Place de la Concorde, another gorgeous plaza with a giant obelisk stolen from ancient Egypt. I believe my friend Paul has memorized the ancient history of the entire world, so please feel free to ask him for the details and he will give them willingly.

After Place de la Concorde, we started to walk towards the Champs Elysées. It was at this point that my luck started to go its usual way and the rain came along. We stopped briefly at Monoprix to purchase umbrellas and postcards (We had only one for three of us and that one broke rather rapidly), then continued on our way towards l’Arc de Triomphe. It thankfully stopped raining briefly at l’Arc de Triomphe, and I liked getting to see that. I risked my life taking a picture of it from the middle of the street, but I made it out alive. We walked back down the other side of the Champs Elysées and stopped at what was called a drug store but was really like a department store. I had fun browsing around the book section (no surprise) and a huge selection of newspapers, but alas, there was no Chicago Tribune. Upon exiting, we saw that the rain had started up again, and thus, our leisurely walk through Tuilieres Gardens was…less than leisurely. More like trying to avoid being drowned to death, really, since there were puddles everywhere. Nevertheless, it was fun to see

After arriving at the Louvre, Paul’s brother went with their parents and we met up with Sarah (a friend from MU) and one of her friends, Renée. Paul worked in Paris last summer and spent much time going to the Louvre then, so he had basically internalized a map of the place and we set out on a very specific route that would allow me to see the highlights while the others (who had all been there before) could see some new things. Paul’s knowledge of all things ancient came in handy once again as we received a monologue on why Venus de Milo should actually be called Aphrodite (Greek, not Roman), and another one on why the Middle Egyptian kingdom is inferior to the other kingdoms. Sadly a floor with a lot of the paintings was blocked off (boo), but we did get to see some that I really liked, including one of Pont du Gard that was super awesome because I’ve actually seen Pont du Guard. I did see the Mona Lisa, though I really just wanted to see it because I played a Louvre computer game when I was about 6 at a friend’s house that always opened with that picture, so I felt as though it was necessary.

After our tour of the Louvre was complete and a brief stop at the gift shop, we went to meet up with Paul’s family for dinner, which was quite delicious. Dessert was even more delicious—I cannot remember the name of what I ordered, but it was a bread-like pastry sandwich with ice cream in the middle and chocolate sauce all over it. Yummy. We walked back to the hotel from there, and I fell asleep quite quickly (though I was awakened at 6:30 am by a wake-up call sent to the wrong room. Boo). I meet Paul’s family for breakfast, and we started to make plans for the day.

Saturday morning someone made a surprise appearance: the sun! I was beginning to think that the sun simply didn’t exist outside of Provence, but apparently it does from time to time make appearances elsewhere. We walked over to Notre Dame, and thus got to see the Louvre in the sun (much nicer than in the pouring rain). Notre Dame was beautiful, and it was at this point that I started to make plans for what I would do with all of the buildings in Paris once I take over the world. I like the idea of using all of the gorgeous ones for my personal use. We looked around Notre Dame a bit, then went inside to look at everything in there. It was beautiful to see everything inside, though I think the outside was a bit more impressive. There was a mass going on while we were there, and I think that it must be rather distracting to attend a mass with swarms of tourists around. After looking at the inside, we got in line to climb up to the top of it, which I was really excited about. We waited in line about a half hour before we were able to get in. They very cleverly force you to wait in the gift show until you’re allowed to start climbing, which is certainly one method to boost sales. The climb up wasn’t too difficult, but it felt very circular and I start to get rather dizzy. The view from the top, however, was beautiful. I’m so glad that it was sunny then, because Paris looked gorgeous.

I successfully managed to not fall down the steps on our way out (it felt very steep) and after walking around the building to appreciate it further, we set out for lunch, which was then followed by delicious Berthillon ice cream. I had chocolate and caramel, and the caramel was amazing. Caramel served me well during my trip to Paris—caramel Madelines and caramel ice cream. From there, we took the Metro to the something Galleries, a HUGE mall. At one point in the store they have this beautiful dome. It’s entertaining to see essentially a shopping mall housed in such an architecturally gorgeous building. We browsed around there for a bit before walking back towards the hotel with another stop at Place de la Madeline so that I could purchase another Madeline pastry. I relaxed (I was rather exhausted) at the hotel for a few hours before dinner, which was also quite delicious. At one point when we had too many questions about the desserts, the server brought all the desserts out in front of us and set them all on the table. We weren’t sure if we were supposed to just start eating everything, but it was entertaining to see all the dessert in the restaurant spread out on our table.

After dinner, we took a taxi ride tour of all the monuments at night, which was absolutely beautiful. It was still clear (yay!) so we could see everything. The Eiffel Tower was lit up (apparently they only added lights to it in the year 2000), and everything was gorgeous. We also got to see the building where they imprisoned Marie Antoinette, and after seeing both that and the Tower of London I cannot help but think that American prisons need to start looking more impressive if they’re to stand up to the French and British prisons. We arrived back at the hotel, then I set out to meet up with Sarah again in hopes of going out dancing. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a place where people were actually dancing, and most of Sarah’s friends decided to just go out drinking, something that didn’t interest me at all. And thus I headed back to the hotel, but at least I can claim that I’ve had a taste of the Paris nightlife.

The next morning I ate breakfast with Paul’s family again, and then I checked out of the hotel. I took the Metro over to meet up with Sarah at a market she likes to frequent, and that was definitely fun to see. I’m a bit jealous of all the fresh fruit and vegetables they can get all in one place—it’s a little more complicated in Avignon. We spent about an hour walking around there, then we walked over to the Eiffel Tower, which I still hadn’t seen close up. By this point, of course, it was pouring rain again. This rain thing is getting a little bit old. I decided that I didn’t really need to go up to the top—if it had been sunny, I would’ve enjoyed it, but given the miserable weather, I decided it wasn’t worth it. We walked around the gardens behind it for a while, then took a train to the Latin Quarter so that I could walk around there for a little while. I enjoyed that, and then we went back to the Berthillon ice cream place. I am nothing if not a creature of habit, even if I only get 3 days in one city. We then took the Metro to the Gare de Lyon so that I could take my train back to Avignon. They’d had a first class ticket that was the same price as a second class ticket, so I rode first class for the first time in my life. It wasn’t as exciting as I’d hoped, though I did get a seat by myself, which was nice. I unfortunately left my umbrella on the train, so if it rains again in the next month (and it will, I have no doubt) I’m in trouble. Nevertheless, I adored Paris and when I take over the world it shall be my capital (Chicago can be the second city).

However, one thing that really stuck out to me in Paris was how many people spoke English there. It definitely made me glad that I’d chosen to study in Avignon. In Paris, as soon as people realized I had an accent they started talking to me in English, while in Avignon there simply aren’t enough people who know English for that to happen. Southern France is definitely the place to go if you want to get a chance to use your French.

I leave this Friday for Oslo and Flam. Snow (!!) is in the forecast (for EVERY DAY that I’m in Oslo), which has my friend and I pretty excited—we’re both Midwestern girls who haven’t seen snow since we left. Those of you who have experienced the Midwest winter of late may not understand this desire. However, I was also delighted to see that the sun rises at 6:30am and sets at 8pm, which is fantastic—nice long days. I’ll be in Norway until the 12^th/13^thish (I arrive very very late on the 12^th and probably won’t get home until early on the 13^th), but when I return you can expect to hear about all of that. I make no guarantees about when you’ll hear about Norway, since I have five lovely papers due the first week back (yuck), but at some point by Friday the 18^th there should be an update.