L'itinéraire

Really quick post.

Went to dinner tonight with Emily Haymer and Laura Lapidus (visiting from Michigan on their spring break). We decided to go to a nicer place, called L'itinéraire in the 5th, right near the Seine. It was classic, classic French. Amazingly pure, simple food. The food here is unbelievable...and I haven't even really had much of the "good" food.
Just thought I'd throw out a good recommendation for people coming to France and looking for a decently price (worth it for what you get) restaurant.

http://www.gourmet.com/restaurants/2008/05/firsttaste_itineraires

Pomp and Cirumstance

Life continues on here. I completely feel at home in Paris and in my surroundings. I know the routine, I know what I need to do daily, I feel like I am very comfortable in my situation.

Monday I went to class at La Sorbonne. After that, I came home and sent my resumes to 2 French wineries. I should hear from them soon and then I'll be able to figure out if I'm staying the summer or not. I really want to though. I think the 'provincial' French experience would be an amazing complement to living in busy Paris.

I met Dana Bernstein Monday afternoon. Her friends went to Barcelona and she was leaving the next day for Vienna so she stayed at my apartment. We went to the Pompidou, the Museum of Modern Art. It was unbelievable! 8 euro to get in, which isn't cheap for the student price, but well worth it. We first visited a temporary exhibit of Ron Arad, an Israeli artist/architect/furniture designer. His stuff was really cool! My grandma (Nonni) would love it...very modern and bold. He had models of all his designs, a bunch in Israel and all over the world. He designed a really cool bridge for the 2012 Olympics in London. Then we went to the permenant exhibit upstairs. 1905 - now. It took us a long time to walk through everything...there is A LOT to see. But everything was very cool: Photography, painting, sculpture, movies, sounds, random white canvases that were 'art'. One of my favorites was a room designed by Dubuffet, called "Jardin d'Hiver" or "Winter Garden". it was this really disorienting igloo type thing that you would walk around in. The elevation was all jumbled and it was really cool. There was also a really cool room made by another Israeli artist that was all different colors. I had a great time at the Pompidou and definitely recommend it to anyone who comes to Paris.


Dana and I went home and bought some wine, cheese and bread on the way. 3 other girls came over, along with my roommate, and we cooked dinner. Salad, sautéed vegetables, and chicken alfredo on pasta. Very good. We had a long, French dinner and by the time we finished, it was 11:30. We were going to go out but it we were all so tired by then so we went to bed. Dana left really early the next morning and I had class.

After class on Tuesday, I finally did LAUNDRY! It was not cheap, about 20 euro when it was all said and done. There is a laverie (laundromat) a 2 minute walk from my apartment so that was great. I had to run to an ATM though because they wouldn't take certain types of money...very random. I did laundry, skyped with a bunch of people, then Justin and I went to a bar in the Bastille to meet some people from our program for the Barcelona-Lyon soccer game. We wanted to watch Arsenal but it wasn't on TV anywhere so we stayed for the Barcelona-Lyon game. It was great! Thierry Henry plays for Barcelona and he's a French legend...the game was a 1-1 tie, an upset because Barcelona is really good. I got to speak French with a bunch of people...I spoke with this one guy about how the French are pretty much cold to anyone who isn't 'pure' French. He was born in France but he's Moroccan and he said he's never felt accepted by French general society. It was pretty interesting. The French aren't necessarily racist but they don't really open up easily to anyone outside of their own racial/religious background.

Today, Wednesday, was legit spring. It was 50 degrees outside, not a cloud in the sky, and just gorgeous. I had my art history class today which is going to be very interesting. We learned about neo-classicalism today and the French painter David. After class, I went for a run in Parc Montsouris. It was full of people, very fun.

I'm going to Amsterdam this weekend, my first real trip in Europe. I am going with a whole bunch of people on my program..it should be very fun. France is great, miss you guys, take care. Aaron

Le Weekend

Bonjour tout le monde.

This weekend was a lot of fun. I woke up Saturday morning and met a group from CEA at the Bastille. We got on coach buses and went to Chantilly, about an hour outside of Paris. We first visited Chateau de Chantilly, which houses the Musée Condé (an amazing art museum, second to the Louvre in France) and was the Castle for a rival lineage of the King in the French Royal family. It was pretty cool to see the battles that went on between the French Kings and this family throughout the years over who was more rich and powerful. We had a funny little French man as a tour guide who barely spoke English. It was painful...I wanted to tell him to speak in French but most of the CEA kids wouldn't understand. All the art was specifically chosen and placed by Honore Daumet, who had no heir and donated the Museum to the state, with the stipulation that the art not be moved around or changed. After the Chateau de Chantilly, we went to lunch at a restaurant in the town. I don't think the French restaurants are used to cooking for 100 people but it was still, obviously, very good. I tried to drink the espresso at the end but I could only manage a sip or two. I really don't like coffee.

After lunch, we took the bus to Royaumont Abbey. It was a 12th century abbey for monks and it was really cool. The entire place was very peaceful, and we saw the ruins of an old factory that they had and the complex that they used. The stain glass windows were gorgeous and the grounds were very cool. We wandered around there for a while and then came back to Paris.

After getting back to my apartment, I rested for a little and then met my friend Dana Bernstein who was in town from Granada, Spain. I went to her hostel and we went out to dinner with her, her roommate, and her roommate's cousins and brother. I was the translator...and I was definitely needed. The waitress kept making fun of the girls accents...which were pretty bad. The waitress was funny though and we all had a great time at dinner. After dinner, the 6 of us came back to my apartment, where we joined my roommate, some other CEA people, and a bunch of girls visiting from Barcelona. In all, there were about 20 people jammed into our apartment. It was crazy. We all took the Metro to the Champs-Elysée and went to this club called Showcase...very swanky. There was a group of 20-30 Americans and you could just see everyone staring at us. We ALL got turned away. I went up with Dana and her roommate Carly and the bouncer looked at our shoes and then said no. haha. If you go to places like that, you have to dress really nice and go in small groups and look like you're important.

So we walked to another club called Duplex. Everyone sort of got split off into different groups and all ended up in different clubs, but I was with Dana and her friends. This club asked us where we were from, I said "Les Etats Unis", then they checked our I.D.s and then let us in...very weird. It was a lot of fun though...besides the BO and creepy French guys that kept hitting on the girls...and sometimes the boys.

I woke up the next morning pretty late and went to a diner called the American Breakfast in Paris. It was so nice to get a burger and a milkshake! All the waiters were American and it was decorated with movie posters that had diner scenes...very fun. I did some homework that night and relaxed because I was just exhausted from the weekend. I went to bed early and slept great!

Finally, a routine

School is going well. I have had all of my classes except for one. I started my Phonetics course this week...8:30 a.m.. Thankfully, phonetics is only every other week. My Wednesdays and Thursdays are going to be insane. I have to wake up at 7:40, get on the Metro at 8:10, class 8:30 to 9:30, walk to my next class (through the Luxembourg Gardens...so amazing) which takes 30 minutes. Grammer from 10 - 12, then I have to RUN by the Pantheon to my lectures.

I had my Current Events lecture this week (Thursday). It was definitely hard to have a lecture in French, especially when you have been in class since 8:30 and went out the night before. But I got the gist of what was going on and I think it will improve. I am really excited for the art lecture that starts next week. It's very funny sitting in class (at rue de Fouarre for my Grammar class) and hearing the Bells of Notre Dame every half hour. That's how I count down the minutes. My phonetics class is funny. For 30 minutes, we learn grammer rules from my very peppy teacher. Then we sit in un labo with headphones and repeat phrases that she says. We can then listen to how we said them and do it again. La viande est cuite. Ils arrivent en deux heures. You have to connect the words in certain places...Ils arrivent is pronounced "il za reeve".

I went to L'as du Falafel again for lunch this week...délicieux! Let's see, what else did I do:

- Cooked dinner with my roommate on Wednesday. I bought chicken, broccoli, apples, onions and garlic from a market nearby...I didn't have trouble telling them what I needed, but it's pretty easy. We're slowly but surely getting into the cooking mode...although the other night, we looked at the clock and it was already 10 pm so we decided that instead of cooking, the McDonald's around the corner from our apartment would be a fine substitute. That's the only time I've had American food!

- Cleaned by apartment! We bought a bunch of cleaning supplies and actually cleaned up! We keep the place pretty neat...but we this anti-baceterial cleansing was long overdue. Laundry is my next big task...maybe I'll do it Sunday...or Monday.

- Made a list of all the place I need to go in Paris. I want to try and check one or two things off a week...but I'm happy I made the actual list. I'm sure it will grow pretty quickly as I keep hearing of more things to add.

- Knocked the first thing off my list and went to the Pantheon. Notable things about the Pantheon: 1) It's FREEZING! I was so cold inside, colder than I would have been outside. I think it's because there are so many tombs in there? 2) It was a church but then it was changed into a place to honor great men in France (and now women too, Marie Curie was the first). 3) There was a really cool monument to all Frenchmen who helped save Jews from deportation in WWII, some Jewish, some non-Jewish. 4) The tombs of Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, Louis Braille, Rousseau, Voltaire, and Alexandre Dumas. 4) It's an amazing, classically designed structure that really stands out in Paris. It's architect is buried there too and he is widely celebrated in France. The architecture of the whole place is unbelievable. 5) Foucault built an unbelievable pendulum that swings in the middle of the Pantheon to prove that the earth is rotating.


- Finally met our upstairs neighbors. There are 4 girls from Colgate who live in our apartment building and so on Wednesday, we finally went up and hung out with them. We'd met them before, just hadn't hung out. So that was fun, they were all very nice. Some of our other friends came over and we all went out to a bar in Place Contrascape...on Rue Moufftard. It was a lot of fun, and it's great because it's just a 10 minute walk home so we dont' have to pay for cabs or anything.

- The landlord came by. I was taking a nap today and the landlord knocked on my door. He's a little French man named Claude. He lived in Paris for a long time and then moved back to his hometown in Bretagne. He moved back in 2007 and now he's the Mayor! He talked a lot to me in French, which was fun, while he fixed our overhead lights and ventilator. When I got to the apartment, we had 2 lamps total. Now we have 5 lamps and the overhead lights work in the bedroom and living room. I can see! I'm sure my Mom will be very happy...she always yells at me for not having the lights on when I read. The landlord invited me to call him if I'm ever in Bretagne! Maybe he'll give me a key to the city!

- Dinner with the Fishers. I went out to dinner with Marcy and Rob Fisher, from Detroit, on Thursday. Marcy met my parents at a bat-mitzvah in Tuscon. She and Rob live in Paris a few months a year and they were very nice and took me out to dinner. I went to their apartment in the Marais (Jewish and gay area) for hors d'oeurves and then we went to a great new Italian restaurant. It was really thin pizza and the most amazing ball of mozzerella cheese I've ever tasted! The waitress spoke Italian and fortunately, Marcy knew Italian so we had a great time with the waitress. The Fishers were very nice and welcoming and I was glad I got to meet them.

- "Homework". Well I've definitely been doing my fair share of homework. Every night, I have grammer exercises and this weekend I have a small essay. Classes are tough but I'm getting much more comfortable in them. This week we've had to learn a lot of French idioms which will be very helpful. My initial notebook that I bought at the BHV completely fell apart. All the pages are ripping off...so I bought a new one today at a papeterie, a stationary shop.
The "homework" I'm referring to though is for my friends at CEA. I was there doing my homework this Thursday and a few of my friends came out of their Oenology class (wine). They asked if I wanted to help them with their homework after class...to go drink wine and eat cheese. Why not!? We walked to the Bastille area, found 2 Alsatian wines, paired them with some amazing chèvre and comté (cheeses), bought some warm bread, and had a great hour at my friend's apartment identifying the smells in the wines and arguing over which cheese went with which wine.

- Top Chef - Finale Part 1. I found a great site to watch TV shows on. I've really just been watching Top Chef and The Office. But I watched the first part of the Top Chef season finale...it was good. It's nice to watch American TV every once in a while. I'll also have to stop by a place in the 3rd called "American Breakfast in Paris" that is supposed to be a fun American diner. And there are delis in the Jewish section!

Tomorrow I leave for Chateau Chantilly for the day with CEA. It's only 20 miles outside of Paris. I skyped with my parents today...they FINALLY got a camera. They're skiing in Vail right now. Picturing them skiing makes me laugh. Shabbat Shalom. Miss everyone and hope you're all enjoying your winters!

cooking

Monday morning class - it was not fun getting up early (around 08:50). It takes me just about 20 - 25 minutes to get to class. My classroom is one block from the Seine and Notre Dame. I used to be next to the Pantheon but now I'm in a different building so I take the Metro. I leave at 09:30 and get to class around 09:55...depending on how long I have to wait for the Metro. Class is finally starting to be a little more comfortable. It's definitely a challenge and I'm not that comfortable talking much and asking questions but I felt much better today than last week. After class, I went to L'as du Falafel with my friend Emily and then we went to CEA. I came back to the apartment and tried to organize some travel stuff...it's so difficult! And flights from Paris aren't as cheap as I thought they would be. I also did my French homework. Don't worry, I am studying a little bit now!

We decided to cook dinner with a few people tonight. I was going to shop at the Rue Moufftard market but it was closed when I got there around 5:30, so I went to the Champion grocery store...which is great! It is very similar to an American grocery store. We made pasta with meat sauce (buying the tomato sauce, ground beef, and veggies at Champion) and had mozzarella and tomato salad, and of course, wine. It is annoying to cook in my tiny kitchen with the random things they give us. The knives are so dull (I'll have to buy a new one) and it's very cramped. But it works! Cleaning up was not fun though, especially in a sink with no disposal. There were 5 of us, my roommate and 3 other girls. We had a great time. After dinner, we went to a bar called the Long Hop and met some other friends. Then we went home and fell asleep.

Tuesday - Class in the morning. Was pretty good. Now just cleaning the apartment and getting organized. I think I'm going to go for a run up in Parc Montsouris in a little.

Les Cours

(This picture is dinner that my roommate and I cooked) Monday - I went to get the results of my placement test. The bureaucracy of it all was soo French. You go to different rooms by last name. I was in the "M - S" room. You wait in a really long line...but it goes around a corner so nobody knows where it ends. When you finally get to the front, you get to enter a room. You THINK you've finally gotten to the end but no, inside the room is another line. But this time, everyone has a chair. Each student is called up one by one to get their class schedule and have it explained to them. As the first person in the line goes up, everyone scoots down one chair. This repeats 25 times until you get your placement. In the meantime, you listen to people try and argue their placement with the stone-faced Sorbonne lady. I got placed into Intermediate Level at the time I wanted, 10 - 12. I was fine with that.

That night, a bunch of the other kids on my program and I went to Chinatown for a cheap dinner. We wandered around, looking at all the "menus" (menu in french doesn't mean the same thing as menu in english) and finally picked a restaurant. The Chinese food was pretty good...but definitely not the same as American Chinese food. I had some chicken dish with a weird sauce...and hearing the Chinese owners speak French with a crazy Chinese accent was very funny.

Tuesday - Classes started. I went to my classroom, which is only a 20 minute walk from my house. The class was 3/4 people from Japan, Korea and China. There were 4 South American girls and 2 other Americans. The teacher was an old woman with glasses and her hair in a bun...very French. A lot of the people are older - married, with kids, or working as au pairs for French families. It was not what I was expecting at all! Class was fine...we started learning some stuff that I definitely already knew. I think I'm right on the border of Intermediate and Advanced French. I wasn't thrilled with the first day just because it was all stuff that I had learned a while ago, in high school French. The school is also pretty interesting because it's not a community at all. I'm in the Sorbonne CCFS program (Course de Civilisation Francaise de la Sorbonne) which is all international students. The campus is spread out over the 5th, 6th and 14th districts and you pretty much go to class and leave. The buildings are strictly for class. I bought my books for the class at Gibert Joseph, a major textbook store in Paris. 17 euro total, VERY different from buying American textbooks.

After buying my books, I went out to lunch with my friend Emily. As we were sitting in a sandwich shop, eating our food, the couple sitting next to us just starting making out. The tables are very close together too, mind you. In France, people just make out everywhere! Waiting in line for a movie, on the metro, at a restaurant for lunch! It's a little uncomfortable.

Wednesday - Busy day! I had class in the morning. I was a little frustrated because we read a comic strip and talked about what happened in it...and did some really easy grammer stuff. I asked my teacher if I could switch to Advanced at the end of class. She said that nobody was allowed to switch until Friday, but I had some other friends in different classes who were allowed to switch. Of course, all the Americans that wanted to switch were freaking out and harassing their teachers and calling the secretary's office. I called the people at CEA who set up everything with the Sorbonne. I spent the day speaking to them all in French. Because I think I did a good job of speaking in French and talking to them about how to switch, they put in a good word for me at the Sorbonne and around 5 pm, I got an e-mail telling me to go to a new class the next day, niveau avancée (advanced). Between 12 - 5, I had to take my phonetics test and sign up for classes. They put you into classes by the country you come from, so I'm in a phonetics class with all anglophones. The time I wanted was full but none of the other times were going to work so I convinced the woman to put me in 8:30 - 9:30 a.m., the time I wanted. It's early but I'll be able to leave after 12:00 on Fridays to travel. Then we walked through the Luxembourg Gardens to another Sorbonne building to register for our lecture classes (we being 4 other people from my program), but when we got there, they told us we were at the wrong place and it was closed now.

I met my roommate after that to look into train tickets to Nice. It would have been $270 euro because we wanted to go this weekend. We went to an SNCF boutique. SNCF is the French train company and they have travel agencies all around Paris. Then we went to Gare de Lyon, a major train station to see if we could get a Eurail Pass and use that to go to Nice, and then use the rest of it later. Nice was sold out for Eurail tickets so we decided not to go.

That night, there was a DJ named Justice playing at a club in Paris. We went to the club but they were not letting anybody in who wasn't on a list - there are a lot of very exclusive clubs in Paris and I usually don't go to them but we wanted to see this DJ. We went to another bar in the Bastille instead. The Bastille is a really fun area to go out in.

Thursday - I started class in Advanced Thursday. It started out pretty quickly with a quiz on verbs they had learned yesterday! I didn't know everything but didn't do horribly. The class moves at a brisk pace, and the teacher speaks quickly. It will definitely be hard but I think I will be able to handle it. It's a lot of complex verb tenses and literary works. The people in the class seem pretty smart. I bought new books after class and returned my old ones. I took it easy Thursday night, watching some episodes of the TV show "The Office" with Emily and going to bed on the earlier side.

Friday - Class again in the morning - it went pretty well. After class I went to a cafe to do some homework and had some hot chocolate. Then I went to the CEA office for a walking tour. Every Friday, CEA offers tours of different parts of Paris. We went to St. Eustache church, where they have the biggest organ in France that is played every Sunday at 5:30 pm for a free concert. It was gorgeous. We also went to Place Vendome (the ritziest street in Paris), and a bunch of other places on the right bank. The tour ended at Angelina's, the most famous hot chocolate place in France. There were about 10 of us and we all got hot chocolate, paid for by CEA. The hot chocolate comes with whipped cream on the side and is the richest, thickest, most delicious hot chocolate you could ever imagine. I could barely finish one cup, although one of my friends, Johnny, gulped down 3.

Friday night, Justin (my roommate) and I went out to dinner with 2 other girls, Emily and Caitlin, on Rue Moufftard. Went to a place called Le Pot de Terre. It was very, very good. We ordered le menu (16 e) which includes an appetizer, main course, and dessert. The food was unbelievable. We didn't end up getting back from dinner until around 11:45. Then a bunch of our other friends came over and we went out to a bar. We left around 2 a.m. and I got home around 6:30 a.m. It was very fun!! Of course, I slept in the next morning!

Saturday - I woke up late and got a move on around 1:00 pm (13 h en francais). I decided to go explore some more of my neighborhood, going over to the banks of the Seine and the National Library (Francois Mitterand) in the 13th. It was stunning. There are some amazing bridges and it was a very clean, modern area. I got some great pictures of the Seine and the library campus.
There, I met a friend of mine who was visiting from Seville, Allie. We went to an exhibit at the National Library about children's books in France but it was all in French and we weren't really in the mood for an exhibit. So we left and went to a bar in the student area for happy hour. We were both the Presidents of our respective fraternities/sororities and we had said that once we were done with our terms, we would go out for a drink. That didn't happen until Paris! But we just talked about the good, the bad, and the ugly from our experiences. She left to meet her friends and I went back to my apartment. I had a small dinner and then went to meet some people from University of Illinois. One kid is studying in Paris and 2 others were visiting from Barcelona. We hung out at his apartment for a while and then went to a bar in the Bastille. It was very fun to see them.

Sunday - I got up and met my friend Johnny at the Jardin de Tuileries. It was a beautiful, sunny day and tons of people were out. It was great to walk around. We walked to the Musée Rodin (the sculptor) and walked around the garden there. "The Thinker" is there, very cool statue. Rodin was pretty amazing and was inspired by some really interesting stuff. There was a lot about Freud and psychological principles, and a lot of references to Dante. After walking around for a while, we went to lunch at an Italian restaurant near Montparnasse (the 14th). It was great! I just told the waiter to bring me his favorite pasta dish, which ended up being linguine with mussels. I'm not a huge fan of mussels but the pasta was great. We then met two other girls at the Père Lachaise (it's the biggest cemetary in Paris). We went to Jim Morrison's grave, Oscar Wilde's grave, and a few other random ones along the way. The cemetary was very cool. I'm writing this now, having finalized some spring break plans and feeling very tired!


I hope everyone is well and if you haven't already, GET SKYPE SO WE CAN VIDEO CHAT!

A Visit from My Father

Friday - Dad coming to visit

My Dad was on business in Germany but decided to make a stop in Paris to see me, and to meet with some business people in La Defense (a city right outside of Paris with big skyscrapers). He came in from Germany and went right to La Defense, so I had the morning to see people.

4 girls from Michigan who were in Barcelona, and their friend from Wisconsin, came into Paris this weekend. Friday morning, I went to the Musée d'Orsay with them and Emily Haymer, from Michigan on CEA-Paris and is in their sorority. The girls were staying in a hotel about a 10 minute walk from my apartment. Some of them got up early and went near the museum to walk around. I picked up the late crew and took them on the Metro. I helped them buy a 10 pack of Metro tickets for the weekend. I realized that there was a student-price for Metro tickets that was half the normal price! (***WARNING: this wasn't exactly true, more info further on) so they got their Metro tickets and we went to the Musée d'Orsay. One of the girls, Jenna, ran into someone she knew on the train...very funny. The Musée d'Orsay was unbelievable! I didn't really know what was there at all but they had the most amazing collection of impressionist paintings I think I'll ever see. In each room, I recognized 3 or 4 famous paintings by Monet, Degas, Renoir, etc. It was really amazing. There was also a post-impressionism exhibit with pointillism and other really great paintings, and some amazing sculptures on the main floor. The museum itself is just amazing, built in an old train station with huuuge ceilings and great architecture. I'll have to go back there because I definitely didn't get enough time - and I need to get the audiotour. Those audiotours are worth it just about everywhere you go in this city!










We left the Musée d'Orsay and took the Metro to the Marais - the Jewish District. It was Friday so the place was hopping with Jews picking up last minute things before Shabbat. We ate a late lunch at L'as du falafel, a famous falafel place in Paris. We ordered falafel and hummus for the table as basically an appetizer and I had shnitzel too. Everything was delicious! It was nice sitting down with a group of people I knew pretty well and eating a familiar food. They closed the place down for Shabbat and we had to leave. So I said goodbye to the girls and went to go find my Dad.

I went to my Dad's hotel, which was only a 5 minute walk from my apartment. It was really nice to see him. We went to the 'executive lounge' at the Mariott which was pretty disappointing. There was food all over the place, sticky bottles of soda, and really cheesy music. But we just sat and talked for a while. I went back to my apartment and he finished some work, then I walked back over for dinner. We made friends with Florence, the concierge, who gave us a bunch of dinner recommendations. In the end, we went to a restaurant called La Closeire des Lilals ( ) in Montparnasse, about a 15 minute walk from the hotel. Check out the website, it's really cool: http://www.closeriedeslilas.fr/. The meal was incredible. I had ravioli d'escargot and Dad had foie gras, and then I just picked something off the meat menu that I didn't really know what it was. It was Ballottine de pintade fermière. At the end of the meal, I asked what kind of meat it was - it is basically baby turkey (on the English menu - guinea fowl). But it was amazing. During dinner, we tried to figure out what I'm going to do after college - not an easy prospect. Basically nothing was decided so let me know if you have any suggestions. We had some great cheeses at the end of the meal and we left stuffed. I went to bed early because I had to wake up at 7:15 the next day.

Reims

I woke up early and headed over to the hotel to pick up Dad. We had decided to visit Reims, the capital of the Champagne region. We had a 9:00 train out of Gare de L'Est to Reims, only a 45 minute train ride on the TGV. The train was great - so fast and smooth. I fell asleep on the way there and the way back. Reims was pretty cold and kind of rainy. We walked around the town to find the Office of Tourism and book some tours with Champagne Caves. We booked a tour at 12 and another at 2. We had an hour to explore before the first tour so we went to the Musée des Beaux Arts in Reims, a cool musuem with a bunch of local art and historical art. They had this weird modern German art exhibit that was pretty cool. But I got yelled at for taking a picture of it because I guess since it's on loan, nobody can photograph it. But I have the picture anyways and I'll post it up here.

The first cellar we went to was Charles de Cazanove. Dad used to run a private label through them but I guess the company has been sold since he last worked with them. We watched a short video (in English) about how they make champagne, got a really cool tour of the cellars and saw where they store the wine, how they ferment the bottles, how they blend it, etc. It was really interesting and it's a painstaking process - at least it was before they improved the technology. Then we got to try some wines - a rosé, a blanc du blanc (which is 100% Chardonnay Champagne), and another champagne (a mix of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier grapes). They were very good. This was a pretty small, basic cellar but we were the only ones there so we got to ask a lot of questions and really learn about it. There was a really cool French market across from the cellar so we walked around there for a while, looking at the cheeses, meats, vegetables, fish, everything!

We ate lunch at some place in Reims, and of course we had champagne with lunch! I had a great mushroom omelette. Then we ran to G.H. Mums, our next champagne tour. They are a German family that makes champagne that is pretty famous. It's the Red Ribbon champagne bottles, you'll probably recognize it in the pictures. They had a top-notch operation! The only time that worked for us was the French tour, so I had to listen pretty intensely to figure out what was going on - and our tour guide spoke like Speedy Gonzalez! We watched another video about the making of champagne - that doubled as a promotional video for Mums - and went into the cellars. The cellars were huge and amazing! So much wine there - dating back from 1893. Then we had another tasting of 3 champagnes - a rosé, a Grand Cru cuvée, and a blanc du blanc Champagne de Cramand. They were really great. We asked about the vineyards and cellars in World War I and II. The Mums cellars were spared because the Mums family is German. They had sold the operation after WWI and came back and forcefully took it over in WWII to save it from destruction.



Dad and I took the TGV back to Paris and got to the hotel. I got to watch TV for the first time in a while (I have no TV at my place), and I passed out in the huge bed. It was so relaxing. Around 7:30, we walked back to my apartment so I could show it to Dad. I think it's fine...cleaning will be the only issue. I can make it look neat but I'm not so adept with the cleaning of the bathroom, kitchen, etc. We went to dinner with my roommate Justin and my friend Steve at L'alouette, a brasserie on my street. It was really good! A typical French place that was pretty lively with good, basic food. A neighborhood joint - but a little out of the typical student's price range. We had a great dinner. In France, if you dont' ask for the check, it won't come. It's considered rude to bring the check before the customers asks for it because you are seen as pushing them out of the restaurant. So we had a nice, long dinner. Dad went back home and I went to my apartment. Later that night, I met up with those girls from Michigan and we just hung out for a little. Then I went to bed.

I woke up at 9 this morning and went over to the Hotel. I worked out in the hotel gym, something I haven't been able to do yet in Paris. I need to figure out how they gyms work but I think most people exercise outside. Gyms are really, really expensive - like 600 euro for a year membership. Then I had breakfast at the hotel with Dad. He left for the airport and I went up to the hotel room and showered in the nice hotel shower.

After that, I decided to take a long walk around my neighborhood. There is a great market on Sunday mornings that I caught the tail end of. Most places were just about packed up but I'll have to go back, it's only 5 minutes from my apartment. I explored rue des Buttes aux Cailles, a fun street in the 13th with nice bars and restaurants. Then I made my way through a really weird sort of flea market, where people were selling dishes, clocks, old records, anything you could find. It was a sketchy group of people, so I kept my hands over my pockets and walked by quickly. Then I got to Cité U (it's the international dorms for students in Paris). A lot of kids on my program live there. It's gorgeous! There is a huge park that reminds me a lot of Boston Commons across the street - definitely a good place to go running when it gets nice out. There were tons of kids and families playing in the park.



It was a very fun weekend, seeing people from Michigan and my father. I didn't have to spend any money!! And I got amazing food. Now I'll be back to reality, with classes starting in 2 days and the beginnings of a normal schedule almost in place. I am sitting here eating a baguette with jam and butter, the weather is sunny and brisk, all is well in Paris.

Wanderings

Wednesday night - after Versailles:
I met a bunch of my friends and we had drinks in the 5th, at a bar called the Mayflower. The main beers I've had when I'm out (which are always the cheapest) are Stella Artois and Carlsberg. I've also had Leffe, a Belgian beer that is pretty good. Beer is not cheap here: Usually 5 euro for a pint. Anyways, we were at this bar and the French men at the table next to us were clearly making fun of some of the people I was with. Some of the people on my program aren't really into the whole "adapting to another culture" thing and they speak really loudly and obnoxiously, with huge American accents, and say things that they think the French won't understand (but they do). So these guys were clearly making fun of some of the girls I was with, which was just getting the girls more angry and making them speak louder. I was trying to understand what they were saying, and I couldn't make out much because they were talking to each other, but they were making fun of a red head girl I was with.

Eventually we started talking to the French men sitting next to us. They were a little creepy towards the girls, as is usual. Any time French men see a blond girl at a bar, they touch her hair...it's weird. But I got to practice my French and try to figure out what they were making fun of us about. The pretty much told me that they like when Americans try to speak French and they shouldn't be so loud in public...that is not the French way. In the cab on the way home (the metro was closed after 12:30), the taxi driver took us in a circle...I think trying to rip us off. They also really dont' like when there is more than one stop in a taxi, which of course we had.

Thursday:

I woke up and decided I needed to buy some French cologne before the end of the sales. There is a huge mall a 10 minute walk from my apartment so I ventured to the centre commerciale. It's called Italie 2, and it's a Place d'Italie, a huge roundabout in the 13th. There were a ton of stores and it was a lot like an American mall. I browsed through a bunch of places, just checking out clothes and stuff, getting a feel for prices, etc. Clothes are really expensive here. I guess they buy less clothes and taxes are 20% on the purchases. I went into Printemps, a big department store. I was looking through the colognes, using the tester sticks, I really had no idea what I was doing. Someone asked me if I needed help but I said "non", because I didn't want to expose my lack of French skills / my lack of cologne knowledge. I ended up buying something that I recognized because I did a report on the French Perfume industry for my Business French class last semester. It's called A*Men by Thierry Mugler...I've gotten thumbs ups so far.

I went back to the apartment and met up with a friend to go to the Eiffel Tower. It was nice and sunny that day so we thought it'd be a good time to get to the top. I took the Metro there...the stop for the Eiffel Tower is on my line. While I waited for my friend, I bought my first crepe in Paris! Chocolate and banana...delicious. The Eiffle Tower is enormous! Everything in Paris is grandiose and ornate but nothing is really tall, except the Eiffel Tower. My friend Steve and I (he goes to Berkley), climbed to the 2nd level, which is as high as they let you walk. We then had to pay another fee to get on the elevator to the top. It was really worth it because the view at each level is completely different. At the 2nd level, Sacre Coeur was gorgeous and stuck out as a huge monument in Paris. At the very top, we couldn't even see Sacre Coeur beacuse it was just a little blip in the view. It was a great visit. I had dinner at the apartment that night, just made a little sandwich with turkey, mustard and a baguette.



Later that night, I met a kid from Michigan for drinks. He is spending the year in Paris and has been here since September. We met at the Bastille, in front of the Opera. The Bastille is a really cool area with a ton of bars. We went to this place that you have to ring a doorbell and the bartender looks and decides whether or not to let you in. Of course, they let us in. I guess they really hate when hoardes of tourists come in and take over the bar so they keep it controlled. He just told me about Paris so far and learning French, ect. The couple at the table next to us was just making out the entire time...it was so corny. I don't know why the French love PDA so much...but they are always making out on random street corners and going to bars to just make out.

We were going to another bar when we ran into a bunch of people from my program (it's a small world, even in Paris). We all went to some place that had bras and ammunition hanging from the ceilings. The bartender was excited to get a huge group of Americans so he gave us some free drinks. We all hung out there for a while and then went home. It was good to see someone from Michigan and I had a fun night.

Versailles

Versailles was amazing today. I woke up early and took the train with my roommate, Justin, and two other girls, Emily and Mary. The town of Versailles is about 1 hour from Paris on a train that reminded me a lot of the Metra in Chicago. It's called the RER and it's how people get to Paris from the suburbs or outskirts of town.

The Chatêau de Versailles is about 5 minutes from the train station but we stopped at a Starbucks first. I got hot chocolate...yeahh, I know, Starbucks in France. But we didn't want to sit and have a relaxing café. It was like we walked back into America for 5 minutes! The castle was unbelievable! You walk up to these huge golden gates and it's just gorgeous. We got the audio tour, which was necessary because the place is so big and there is so much backstory. The Chatêau de Versailles was used for so many different things and lived in by so many different people...many Kings of France, the French Government for a time, Napoleon, etc.

There is a gorgeous chapel that King Louis XIV built, so many rooms for the King, Queen, and their subjects, and of course the amazing Hall of Mirrors and the Hall of Battles. The Hall of Mirrors was basically the hallway that the King walked down and met lots of dignitaries. They had official functions there. The Hall of Battles is more museum-like, with amazing paintings of many important French war victories, dating from the 11oo's.

The gardens look amazing but it's winter. I will 100% have to come back in the spring to really appreciate the extravengce of the Versailles gardens.

Here are some pictures:


We ate lunch somewhere cheap before getting back on the train for Paris. Cheap is 5 euro, which is about $7.00 - but it was good. I like all the people I've been hanging out with and there are still people in Paris that I have to see but haven't had a chance to yet. One of the girls, Mary, told us about teaching in Africa for a summer and climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. It made me really miss camp and hiking, and made me really want to go to Africa!

Now I'm just hanging some posters, etc. up in my apartment (Michigan Flag - GO BLUE!) and I'll probably meet some people for drinks in a little. I am still getting the apartment set up...the little things like organizing random toiletries and hanging stuff up. I had some bread with jam (la confiture - NOT preservatif (which means condom)) and le fromage chevre (goat's cheese).

I am going to plan out my class schedule soon and then I need to start planning travel. I think I'm going to arrange it so that I am done with class by 12:00 p.m. on Fridays so I can get out of town and visit places over the weekends. I'll spend a lot of time in Paris because I'll actually have homework and our program has already arranged a bunch of excursions that we don't have to pay extra for, but I do want to visit some places: Barcelona, Florence, Rome, Venice, Berlin, Amsterdam, London, and who knows where else. My dad will be here Friday and Saturday and it will be nice to see him - he is in Germany for business right now. Class starts
Tuesday and there are still so many places in Paris I need to see! But I have 4 months and when people visit, we can hit a lot of the touristy spots.