Senlis/Sunny Sunday

A friend from the program and I went to Senlis, a small medieval town in Picardy, on Saturday. We had to take a train for about 25 minutes and then a bus for 20 to get there. (The bus part made us really confused after we bought our train tickets, got on the train and discovered that the train didn't go to Senlis...scary, until we actually looked at the ticket and figured it out). The population there is about 17,000 people, but the town was completely deserted all day. We visited a couple different things while there- the cathedral, remains of a Roman wall from the third century and two little museums- one on hunting (the kind of hunting one does with hounds) and one on North African soldiers that fought for the French. Senlis is also notable as the place where the first Capetian king, Hugh, was coronnated in 987 and where Joan of Arc beat down the Brits during one battle. I have to say that I've acquired this fear of being pooed on by the omnipresent pigeons, and there were about ten million chilling by the cathedral. There's me in front of the wall -->
And the hunting museum with its million pairs of antlers, which kind of creeped me out-->


So we bumbled around there for a few hours and then went back to Paris. We eventually met up with my favorite Whit and Beags (the soon to be First Couple of District 8) and went out for a few hours.

This morning I started with a plan, but only followed it until about the time when I got to the metro (so more or less five minutes) because it was such a beautiful day outside. I ended up walking through the Tuileries until I got to the Petit Palais (art museum). This is one of the museums run by the city of Paris and is free (except for exhibitions). I found the painting that I want to write my paper on for art history- a portait of Sarah Bernhardt by Clairin. The Petit Palais was also perfect to walk through on a sunny day because its very open and full of windows. After walking and getting lunch in the Marais area I got a drink by Bastille and read for a few hours, returning home to take a nap with the cat. Yum :)
Here is the very pretty Petit Palais-

Fondue/Salon du Livre/Banlieues

Last night I went with a group of students to eat fondue next to the Centre Pompidou. I was fully expecting it to be amazing, but was actually kind of disappointed. I think the reason was the lack of diversity- it was either cheese with potatoes and bread, or oil and meat. Too much cheese= stomachache. Too much meat= not that tasty (and sorry Dad, I'm starting to like my meat really red). ALSO, we did not get dessert like we had been promised. Not an altogether insprining dinner. HOWEVER, later that night the bf and I bought plane tickets for spring break! We're going to the Italian town of Trieste, which is on the Adriatic and conveniently placed for excursions in Slovenia and Croatia. SCORE.

Today I went to the Salon du Livre, which made me absolutely certain that Paris was the right place for me to come. The Salon du Livre is basically the biggest book fair ever, with publishing companies from all around France and Europe represented. They have tons of speakers and different things going on. I spent two and a half hours just wandering around the convention center looking at books. I came out with four books- but I only bought two. I got one for free for being one of the first 1000 people there (although its kind of a strange and random book so I doubt I'll read it). Then when I was talking to one of the sellers he gave me an extra promotional bookie for frizzle. Also when I was talking to the guy he asked me what I normally read and I mentioned some American writers and once he had confirmed that I was American he brought up McDonalds. EW. It turned into a bittersweet compliment when he said something about Americans being fat, but that I was quite thin. OK. But he conceded that he likes their fries. I don't really know what to make of that encounter in the larger cultural sense.

This afternoon I rescued my dear friend Whit from the train station and went out to the airport with her to rescue her boyfriend Bryon from languishing there with no knowledge of French. The airport is like a 30 minute ride outside of Paris, and the landscape is quite different from the areas of Paris I've been running around in. The neighborhoods you go through to get there are not exactly nice. Good opportunity for some reflection on how lucky La Sconita is.

Bonne nuit tout le monde.

Comme d'hab

Today mostly consisted of me shopping (for food and at my favorite store ever- Zara), marching around the Louvre for my art history class (I'll be so happy when we move to a smaller museum), and then recuperating with coffee.

On my way home I went past the Comedie-Francaise and finally found a book that I had been looking for back in Madison- this biography of Moliere by this Russian writer, Mikhail Bulgakov (who wrote The Master and Margarita, which you should all read). In case you don't know, I have a bit of a crush on Moliere (and I'll be bestowing his name on my future feline).

Anyhoos, I'm feeling a bit under the weather, so ciao for now.

Rennes

This weekend I went to Rennes on my longest voyage outside of Paris thus far. It's the capital of Brittany, the most mocked of all French regions I believe (although in close competition with the south). Besides seeing Jack, highlights include the Thabor Park and the Musée des Beaux-Arts. Brittany is also the crepes and cider headquarters of France, which are probably two of my most favorite foods in the world.

It was really nice to be in a city that is about the size I'm used to (Madison-sized). They have one tiny little metro line, compared to more than a dozen in Paris. Also, one could actually eat out without going bankrupt. Quelle surprise.

Anyways, it was a really nice and relaxing weekend. After a two hour train ride back to Paris (SO much easier than flying) I discovered that my converter (necessary for charging my computer, which was dead) had completely stopped working. Level three trauma which resulted in me dropping another 40 dollars today to buy another because I couldn't exchange it (having had the previous one for more than 15 days) and in me whining all day about technology.

Happy ending- after two pain au chocolats (croissants with chocolate in them) and some candy I have revived myself.

I become tired

The last two days have been extremely long, but not without their good points. Wednesday found me going to two museums- the Cluny Museum and the Louvre- both for classes. The Cluny was for my lit class and was all about the middle ages. I have to say that I was not too inspired, but I think that has to do with the fact that I've about reached my limit on museums for a week or so. The Louvre, for art history class, was an hour and a half jog around the huge building, while scribbling notes and feeling like my arms where going to fall off. At that point, Wednesday was not going down as a win for me. BUT then I went to an amazing bookstore (where I got an awesome book) and a fairly decent cafe where I had some legit conversation with a new amiga and all was right with the world again.

Thursday. Again, not the most promising beginning. For reasons unknown, my university decided to switch our classroom. Ok. Me and two other girls go to find the new classroom and run into about three more girls along the way (half of our class). We find the classroom. It's locked. We wait. For 30 minutes. Something is now obviously wrong and we go to the administration people and ask whats wrong. They insist that we had the room right and that there was in fact a teacher in there. ??? We go back to the classroom, no one there. We look at a map. It appears we are in the correct location. We go back to the administration people, they get crabby. This is when I got crabby. The six of us had been following the clearly marked signs for room C24. Ok. The administration lady takes us to a different set of stairs, where the sign is marked for rooms C12-23. And there is the classroom, with the teacher and the other half of the class. WHAT was going on, I have no idea. In any case, a late afternoon trip to the Musée D'Orsay cheered me up.

I'll be in Rennes this weekend, from Friday to Monday, visiting the dear bf, so I will talk to you all again next week!

Food

I think describing the food I've eaten in the last 24 hours might be a good way to describe what I did during that time as well.

Last night there was a family birthday party for my host sister's 18th birthday and there was an amazing buffet- salmon fresh from Helsinki (thanks to the mom's Finnish bff), lots of dishes of Eastern European descent (due to the mom's parents being from Eastern Europe) and CHEESECAKE. That's right, my mom's very own cheesecake recipe transmitted to the other side of the world. My host mom got really excited a few days ago when she found out that my mom makes cheesecake. So I got the recipe, translated it for her and hoped that everything would turn out ok. And it was a huge success! Everyone loved it and several people asked for the recipe. As always, MamanWinter's cooking makes lots of friends.

Breakfast this morning was the same thing I've been eating for breakfast for a week- bread with nutella and muesli cereal and some coffee. Lots of carbs to load me up with energy for all the walking I was going to do. I wandered around the two islands in the middle of the Seine today, the oldest parts of Paris.

For lunch I met up with some friends and had a very delicious meal at a restaurant by our school. The "formule" (fixed menu type deal) was 13 euro and included a hunk of beef with potatoes, fromage blanc (which is basically yogurt) with fruit puree and coffee. YUM. I was a little nervous while we were waiting for our food- the waiter had asked me how done I wanted my meat...and I didn't have the vocab for it. I really had no idea what to say. So I just said it didn't matter. And it was DELICIOUS. So thank you, lack of vocab (in this case anyways!).

That meal lasted me through a trip to Pere Lachaise cemetry- lots of famous dead people, including my favorite Moliere (and we saw a cat!--see above). On the way home I hit up Monoprix (kind of like a super Target) and got some groceries to make dinner. I found some of my most favorite candy- Kinder Bueno, which is impossible to find at home. YUM.

Chartres

Saturday we had a group visit to Chartres, this town about an hour train ride away from Paris. The cathedral there is famous for its stained glass windows and having the veil of Mary (which probs isn't real, but actually does date from about 2000 years ago so its still legit [how can a piece of fabric last that long?]). We had a tour of the cathedral given by this English guy who has been giving tours there for 51 YEARS. Geez. However, he was really great, which makes sense since he has dedicated his life to studying this cathedral. He explained to us some of the sequences in the windows and told us that you could tell who had purchased the window for the church by the little pictures on the bottom (like little guys making bread meant that the breadsmiths guild had paid for the window). It was also nice to walk around a smaller town, rather than be in the city like we have been. I finally got a pastry- a maple eclair :) Its hard to walk past patisseries and not want to eat everything in the window.

Alas, I do also go to classes (although only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays), so it is time to do some art history reading. Ciao.

Cathderal

Meeee