Le Cote d'Azur

This weekend, Rachel, Justin, and I ventured southward to the Cote d'Azur. What a beautiful place! We toured, we beached, we ate tons of seafood. It was the perfect weekend. I was tempted not to come back to Paris and stay there forever.

We started the weekend in Antibes, where there are other American University students "studying" abroad. It was certainly a different life than studying abroad in Paris and made me a little bit jealous.

Beach in Antibes

Antibes

Saturday night, we walked around Monaco. We saw the palace, walked into the Monte Carlo (some of my friends played the slot machines, but I was more interested in keeping my money), and got drinks on the harbor while we watched the million dollar yachts coming and going.

Palace in Monaco

Monaco at night

the Monte Carlo

the Monte Carlo (left) and the Hotel de Paris (right)

Sunday, we spent the morning in Antibes. We went to an outdoor market that was truly Provencale. Then we spent the afternoon in Nice before our train left at 9pm. Nice was by far my favorite of all of the places. It was beachy and relaxing like Antibes, but had a little more of the city energy I missed from Paris. It's certainly somewhere I hope to go back to one day.

beach in Antibes

Nice

Old Town Nice

Sunset on the beach in Nice

Making it to the Top

After a month in Paris, I finally made it to the top of the Eiffel Tour. It was a beautiful, clear day and the views were amazing. I can't wait to go up again!

Journees du Patrimoine

This weekend was the "Journees du Patrimoine" in Paris, which means that many state buildings were open to the public for viewing. Palais d'Elysee (where Sarkozy lives), the Assemblee Nationale, and other government buildings would have been amazing to see, if not for the predicted 6-7 hour lines that formed outside of them early in the morning.

After our 12 hour journey to northern France yesterday, waking up early didn't sound so good, so we decided to take a different route. Justin, Rachel, and I headed up to Montmartre to the Moulin Rouge, which was open to the public for viewing for the first time. Unfortunately, we didn't turn out to be the only people who knew about this and didn't make it inside. But, after seeing Moulin Rouge the movie and comparing it to the outside of the building, I can pretty much guarantee that I'm better off remembering the movie's version of the interior.

the famous Moulin Rouge

the line to get into the Moulin Rouge

While we were in Montmartre (northern Paris) we decided to wander through the cemetary and found a couple famous graves.

Emile Zola's original tomb

(now he's in the Pantheon)

Edgar Degas

Le Cimitiere de Montmartre

When we got to the Jardin de Luxembourg later in the afternoon, we saw that the line to get into the Palais du Luxembourg (the Senate office building) was moving quickly and we decided to go inside. The building is close to 500 years old and full of interesting history. It was a really cool experience and I'm glad we got to see it.

l'Hotel de la Presidence

Office of the President of the Senate

A view of the gardens from inside

Inside the Palais du Luxembourg

La bibliotheque (library)

as my friend Justin rightly put it, "there are books in here that are older than our country"

Salle dea Seances

Palais du Luxembourg

Monet's Gardens

I managed to get some photos of Monet's house and gardens with the help of my friends and their cameras (see previous post for gushing commentary):

Rouen & Giverny

Today was my first excursion outside of Paris and it could not have made me more excited to travel! The people in my program and I were taken on a one day trip to Rouen and Giverny, which were both absolutely beautiful in their own different ways.

Rouen is the city where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. A lot of it was destroyed during the bombings of WWII, but a section of the old town still remains. It is as pictoresque as you would imagine it to be. Narrow, cobblestoned streets, lots of flowers, tiny little apartment buildings and houses. Here are just a few of the photos I took:

Rouen's cathedral

conveniently named the Notre Dame

A side street in Rouen

In Giverny, we visited Claude Monet's home and gardens. No place has ever made me fall in love like this place did. It was beautiful beyond words. Unfortunately, my camera battery died just after I got there. But, one of my high school English teachers used to say that a translated book is like a broken pot that has been glued back together - it looks the same, but it will never hold water. I feel the same way about the few pictures I did take at Giverny. They just could not do it justice. The colors were so vibrant. The house was breaktaking. Even the air felt different. I cannot imagine living in a place like that. To wake up every morning and open the big french windows of every room and look out onto the gardens must have been incredible. Unfortunately the house isn't for sale, so now I can be jealous of Monet for more than just his artistic talent.

I may not know what I'll be doing two years from now, but at least now I have a plan for my life in 50 years: I will be a carefree old woman living in the French countryside tending to my gardens.

My New School!

I finally got to visit my university, Paris X - Nanterre, today! The campus is a little bit west of Paris and about a 45 minute commute. The campus is bigger, and more American looking, than most French campuses. At first, I was unimpressed. The architecture is nothing like it is in downtown Paris. But, as we toured the campus, I started to really appreciate it.

The campus seems relatively easy to get around and everyone is very friendly. It was hard to get a real sense for what it will be like once the semester starts because so few people were there. But, we got to look at the enormous library, pool, fitness center, tennis/basketball/vollyball courts, and academic buildings. A lot of the architecture is very contemporary and the buildings are very interesting on the inside. I wish I had taken pictures!

Our tour was led by the student who runs a group for integrating international students. As we walked with him through the campus, he kept stopping to talk with various other groups of students. The first group was the Spaniards, the next were the Germans, and we were perpetually presented as "the Americans," so I get the sense that it's a very multicutural campus, which is exciting. Tomorrow night I might be going to dinner/party on a boat on the Seine to get to know other international students. I'm really excited about it so I hope I am able to go!

I also hope that I'll be able to take their placement exam soon so I can pick my courses and FINALLY have an idea of what my life will look like for the next few months!

La Vie Dure

Life has been rough this weekend. Yesterday after classes, we took a walk down to the Eiffel Tower and got some homework done in the park there.

Then we had a picnic on the Pont des Arts, which is a pedestrian bridge over the Seine near the Louvre. It was vraiment (truly) French with 5 baguettes, mirabels (a small plumb), cheese, nutella, and of course, cheap wine. Check out the beautiful sunset:

After the picnic, we walked over to the Louvre. It was such a perfect time of day to be there. Everything looked even more incredible than usual. And, to top it all off, there's a man who plays his cello there in the evenings. It's like something out of a movie.

That night we went to a caberet called the Lapin Agile, which a gather used to be a pretty happening place. We were basically required to go by our academic program in order to complete an assignment for Monday. I was always under the impression that cabaret involved a lot of half dressed women in fishnets. After seeing the middle-aged men and women performing, I was happy to see that cabaret has more than one definition. These performers sang old French drinking songs, which was fun for about a half hour. When we found out the show typically lasts until 2am, we left at our first chance. At least it's something I can add to my list of French experiences.

Paris X it is!

I had a meeting with the director of my academic program, MICEFA, today. We (mostly she) decided that I will go to the university Paris X - Nanterre this semester. I am really excited to finally have that decision made! I will visit the school next week to take a placement test. Based on the results of that placement test, I will be able to enroll in classes in their department for foreign students and potentially in other departments at the university. I probably won't get to actually decide my classes until the end of September. And classes start October 5th!

It's about a 45 minute commute, which isn't terrible but wasn't my preference. Hopefully it will be worth the long ride. I will only be taking 2 or 3 courses there, so I may only have to go twice a week. I will also be taking a course through MICEFA called "Les Francais a travers le cinema," which means French through film. I think that will be a lot of fun! I may take one other course through MICEFA depending on what's available at Nanterre.

The rest of my day was spent in class and wandering through a fun neighborhood in Paris called le Marais, which has a lot of fun boutiques and art galleries. We even found a frozen yogurt place, which a favorite pastime in DC!

les petites choses

Tonight, I had a long, in depth conversation about life in Paris versus life in the United States with my host sister.

You may have read over one of the words in that sentence too quickly so let me repeat it for you: CONVERSATION

So far my conversations have been like this:

IN FRENCH: "Lauren, blah blah blah blah blah blahhhhh (telling me a story about their days)"

Me: Ohhh ouiiiiii

IN FRENCH: "Lauren, blah blah blah blah. Do you understand?"

Me: Ouiiiiii. Je comprend. (I understand).

IN FRENCH: "Lauren, do you like dinner?"

Me: "Oui! Merci beaucoup."

Occasionally I would have to answer a question with a full sentence. Usually I practiced this full sentence on the Metro/walk home because it was likely to be the answer to "What did you do today?"

But tonight, I spoke many full sentences. And they were understood with very little eyebrow crinkling. I also learned a lot about French culture, especially regarding my generation. Tres interessant!

This may seem like a very small step to you. And, in the long run, hopefully it will be just one small step. But I've spent the past week and a half feeling like I had no way to express my personality through French. I had started to wonder if my host family had any hope left that I am not the most boring person in the whole world. And tonight, I think I finally convinced them that I could be fun as well as shy and confused (which I still am a little bit). Hooray!

L'Hotel de Ville

Language immersion classes began yesterday and I think my mind is still processing the drastic change from summer. Three hours five times a week + homework has been a quick adjustment. Fortunately, the program is also putting our money to good use by organizing outings in the city. As I posted earlier, we took a ride on the Seine over the weekend. And, today, we got a guided tour through the Hotel de Ville, which is essentially city hall in Paris. It is the location of the mayor's office and receptions for foreign leaders who come to Paris. It's a very old and beautiful building. In typical old, European fashion, everything is very ornate with gold embellishments and murals painted everywhere. We spent a portion of the tour in "La Grande Salle" (translation: the big room), where I would like to think French kings held lavish parties centuries ago. I'm not sure if this really happened, but it's a nice thought. What do you think?

Weekend #2 in Paris

It's hard to believe that I've been here for more than a week. I'm beginning to feel less like a tourist and more like a resident, which is a scary but exciting feeling. Unfortunately, the more time I spend here, the more I run out of things to do. It's been nice to have free time to explore the city, but all of that free time has allowed me to see a lot in a very short time.

So, instead of a monument or museum, we ventured to the outskirts of Paris to a park today. The park is called Buttes Chaumont and it is absolutely beautiful! There were lots of rolling hills (I got my workout in just climbing out of the Metro) and incredible views. It was the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

view of the Sacre Coeur from the park