Tuesday

Today was Tuesday and I had a bunch of class. But fun things happened too. For example, I took the bus two times and the metro only once! +2 points. At lunch I went to the Franprix (tiny grocery store) across the street from my school to get something to drink with my lunch. Ok, and dessert. And the Franprix is really small and there's always this one woman working the checkout. I know because I go there at least three times a week for my drink and dessert combo. So today I get up to the checkout and the lady sees me and starts laughing! Admittedly I am a bit silz, but no where else can you get a drink and dessert for under 2 euro. So +2 points for making the lady laugh instead of making her cranky and +2 points for getting mini éclair balls dipped covered in chocolate pudding for 1 euro 40 centimes. Then I watched the news to prepare myself for my oral comprehension test next week and was treated to a long section on all the international politicking going on (ie, the G20 summit). +2 points. The French news and the NY Times also told me about French workers detaining their bosses in their offices for like 24 hours to pressure them into keeping workers on through the recession, or at least giving them better severance packages. I have to say that I wouldn't want to be the boss- the news showed like 20 Joes crammed into an office, putting their faces right up by the poor guy's face and not really saying the nicest things. He is not going anywhere- and what happens when lunch rolls around or you need the bathroom? It's happened in three companies so far. I'm not sure which way the points go on this one. However, today was a win.

Walking towards tall things usually produces good results

Today I didn't have any class or any plans (other than picking up the easter package from my mom-thank you!), so I decided to do two things- take the bus and walk towards tall things.

After picking up the package I went to the Viaduc des Arts near my school. This is tall. Its an old viaduc that now has art stores under it and a path with lots of plants and greenery planted above it (like that pretty white fleur). I want to take a longer walk along it someday because I think it goes quite a ways, but I needed lunch.

Then I got on the bus and headed towards Place d'Italie, an area on the left bank that I haven't explored yet. When I get there the tallest thing I see is a mall. For the sake of my bank account and my culture conscience I avoid it and strike off down one of the large avenues leading away from the place until I get to a cute little street called La Butte aux Cailles (a butte, those are tall). And its so cuuute! There were smaller buildings than elsewhere in Paris and it felt like a little town rather than a big city. And then I saw another tall thing and it was a church. So I went there and was the only person in there, which was kind of creepy as emtpy churches tend to be. However, I learned that it served as one of many charitable institutions for the 13th arrondissment during the 19th century, when the neighborhood was one of the poorest in the city. Chouette.

I took the bus half way home, getting off at Sevres-Babylone because I saw a papeterie and I needed to get a card. And I saw a tall thing that turned out to be the Église St-Sulpice! The church was so huge, it felt even bigger than Notre Dame. They're renovating one of the towers so I couldn't quite get the effect of the whole place, but it was great all the same. One of my top five cathedrals fo sho.

After coming home (lamely, on the metro) I read at a café for awhile and gorged on easter candy, then went out to eat more food with my two amigas. We ate grecs, which are basically the French version of gyros. They kind of make my stomach hurt, so I got a vegetarian one, and my stomach still hurts. They're kind of McDonald's quality food, but quite popular.

So that's all I know for now. I'm going to bonbon detox and you keep walking towards tall things.

Sainte-Sulpice and fountain.
Rar! Lion on the foutain.

La Défense

Today, at the request of my host-mom's little nieces, we ate lunch at McDo. Read- Mcdonald's. I've kind of been wanting to eat there because I've heard its different from chez moi. However, Mickey D's was still Mickey D's. The hamburgers tasted the same as the ones I ate when I was five years old (kind of disgustingly delicious). I once read in the Economist that the price of a BigMac was a better indicator of a currency's value than the exchange rate. For example- it would be way more expensive in England than in the US, but somewhere in between these two in the Eurozone. Sadly, I forgot to note the price, so I might have to go back for a McFlurry once it gets a little warmer out.

After lunch we had to drop the girls off at their grandparents house out by La Défense. This area isn't actually in Paris, but it basically still is Paris. There are tons of high rise apartments and even taller office buildings- think downtown Chicago. Even though I wouldn't necessarily want to work or live out there, the sun shining on the reflective sides of all the buildings made the neighborhood look pretty sharp. However, there were no cafes or stores around the huge office buildings, just impenetrable looking towers, which would be pretty depressing on a cloudy day.

Bagels and the Bois de Boulogne

La Sconita ate a lot of food today. And it was all delicious. Really, if I could eat like this every day...well I'd probably weigh a lot more than I do now. But wow, would I be happy.

I started out the morning by going to le marché Edgar Quinet (read farmer's market) and buying some raspberries to munch on as I walked around the Montparnasse cemetery trying to find Baudelaire's grave (I failed, the maps they give you are no good and its creepy walking around a cemetery for too long by yourself).

Next I go to meet a friend by the metro Notre Dame des Champs. We have to go to the Louvre and look at some paintings for our art history papers and decide to eat lunch at some point. This point came sooner than we expected when we walked past a little place selling...brownies and bagels!! Oh gods, they do have bagels in France. I'm never leaving now- the delicious tomato and herb bagel with cream cheese, tomatos and cucumbers has me convinced. Really, really missed the bagel. I ate them what, twice a day, at home? Needless to say, I will be indulging in this delicious lunch option quite often.

So we make it to the Louvre and then back to our respective homes to work on our papers. Thankfully, my host mom provided me a distraction in the form of a journey to the Bois de Boulogne to pick up her two nieces who were there horseback riding. The bois- totally legit. Its a HUGE park/woods on the edge of Paris where one can do pretty much everything you would think of to do in a park- including camping (if only I had my tent). However, she told me not to go there alone and not to go there at night since that is where the prostitutes hang out. Ok, no camping for me in the bois. When we picked up the nieces we had to wait for one to finish her lesson and had some coffee that actually wasn't super, super strong for once. Yay!

And finally, dinner, where we had my newest favorite dessert- raspberries and strawberries. It reminds me of Grandpa sconnie's ice cream smothered with strawberries from his garden :)

Also, a point of pride, I rode the bus for the first time! Buses are somehow much scarier than the metro, but so much more enjoyable to take, and I have vowed to become a busrider by the time I leave this country. Progess reports to follow.

Another thing I love about Paris is that they always put a little explanation on their street signs as to where the name comes from. Personally I think they're really interesting and pretty educational as well. At home once I looked up the history behind all the street names in downtown Madison- equally fascinating (ok or maybe only to me, but still).

Rue Stanislas- first name of Louis 18th given to the neighboring middle school

Rue de l'Armée d'Orient- Street of the Eastern Army- the army in the Balkans during the first World War

Thanks Montmartre.

So the last few days the weather has been crappy and I've kind been of sloth like. Attempting to do something worthwhile every day is tiring. Today, however, it was extremely delicious. A friend and I decided that we hadn't gone out for a really good French meal yet, so we found a restaurant and headed off to the Montmartre neighborhood. Typically, the place was closed, but we found an extremely good alternative called Le Sancerre. I got this dish of shredded duck covered by potatoes and a salad and hot chocolate. YUM.

The Church Saint Jean de Montmartre. Built around 1900, it was scandalous for being built out of reinforced concrete.

Moulin de la Galette

I wander, get tired and recuperate with hot chocolate

After braving the post office (the lines are just as bad as at home) to mail a job application to the States yesterday, I decided I needed an adventure. I started out by going to the Maison de l'Amérique Latine (House of Latin America) where they had an exposition on this writer André Pieyre de Mandiargues who went to Mexico and bummed about with the Mexican literary elite. Then I wandered over to Invalides (see photo), which was built as a hospital for the army and now, among other things, houses Napoleon's tomb. However, since I didn't want to pay 6 dollars and had already seen it in high school, I didn't go in. (All the art history cards I have that let me into museums for free are making me very spoiled- I never want to pay to get into places). However, his tomb is pretty legit. There are like seven layers to it, all made of different materials like wood and stone. Its also below ground level, and when you enter the building theres an opening so that you can see it (while having to bow your head to him, aha). That same neighborhood also houses a bunch of government buildings, like the ministry of defense and the ministry of education and all that fun stuff. Then I saw the Eiffel Tower and knew it wasn't extremely far away, so I walked towards it (tall things, like the tower and church spires, are very useful- you just walk towards them and evertually you get there and get to see something interesting). After about 20 minutes I got there, took some pictures and decided I was tired.

Today after class I was planning on wandering again, this time to a canal that is supposed to be really pretty, but I decided that I was still tired. So me and my Molière biography headed to my favorite cafe by the Place de la Bastille (where the coffee is only 1.20 and a small hot chocolate 2.00- the cheapest by FAR that I have seen in this city) and recuperated with some chocolate. Yum.

Here you go Mom...