So by now, I can safely say we've become professional flâneurs, those who roam around with no
particular agenda, taking in the scenery and enjoying the beautiful
weather. After a few days where there
were occasional rain showers, Thursday was absolutely gorgeous, sunny in the
low 70’s – perfect weather for more strolling!
Hôtel de Ville, much fancier than City Hall in Westfield!
After munching on some delicious ham, egg & cheese
crêpes in St-Michel, Kasey and I walked all the way up past Hôtel de Ville
(city hall) to the St-Paul metro stop where my parents had rented an apartment
when they visited me last time. There’s
a really cool store there called ConfoDeco where they have all sorts of
interesting home furnishings, and I found this cute ceramic owl to take with me
to Forbach as a reminder of my time spent in Paris.
Delicious pastries in the window of "Aux Désirs de Manon," one of my favorite pâtisseries in Paris
From there, we headed back to the neighborhood
where we went to classes at Sweet Briar and ended up sitting with our feet up
on a chair in the Jardin du Luxembourg, where we were consequently scolded by
an older lady who was mad that we were putting our feet where people sit…even
though she clearly didn’t look around us because everyone else was doing the
same thing! We sat basking in the
sunlight, enjoying the peace and quiet, the trickle of fountains and the
chirping of birds.
Jardin du Luxembourg, with the French Senate building in the back
It's hard to take bad pictures when you have such gorgeous subject matter to work with!
Enjoying a break in the sunshine
Apparently this is forbidden, but just for us
Beautiful flowers with Le Panthéon in the background
Le Panthéon, getting a facelift
I enjoyed yet another French delicacy at Les P’tites
Indécisesin the Oberkampf neighborhood: parmentier de boudin noir.
In layman’s terms: blood sausage!
That’s right folks, sausage filled with blood.
This dish in particular was especially delicious – a fluffy layer of
chunky mashed potatoes was topped with ground up blood sausage, smothered in a
light sauce made from apples and onions, YUM!!
It’s really a matter of mind over matter, because if you can get past
the idea of what you’re eating, you can really appreciate how great it is. That’s one of my mottoes while traveling:
step outside your comfort zone and try everything at least once, otherwise you
might miss something great! I had had boudin noir before and loved it, so it
was great to give it another go. And
remember, just because it’s something we don’t eat at home doesn't mean it’s
necessarily bad! Keep an open mind and
you never know what discoveries you’ll make!
My parmentier de boudin noir! Yum yum yum!
Strolling along the Canal St-Martin
Next, we
walked over to the Laudrette Théâtre next to Canal St-Martin to go see a play
by the existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre called “Huis Clos” (“No
Exit”). This was a play I had read a
couple times for various classes in college and found really interesting; the
play’s tagline is « L’enfer, c’est
les autres » (“Hell is other
people”). Existentialism’s philosophy
has to do with the fact that your actions define who you are, and that
pretending you’re something other than you are is pointless; one must live life "authentically." The play is centered on 3 people who are in
the author’s version of hell: they are locked in a hotel room after they die
and stuck with each other for eternity, while they all despise each other and
can never close their eyes to go to sleep.
And while their hell lacks fire and brimstone, each person drives the
other ones crazy. It might sound strange
to those who are unfamiliar with Sartre’s work, but believe me when I say it’s
a very interesting play – this coming from someone who despises reading theater
to begin with! And to top it all off, I
had found the tickets on the French Groupon site and they only cost 9€ each
instead of the usual 19€…I remain a bargain hunter even in foreign lands!
Waiting for Huis Clos to begin
Friday – you
guessed it, more strolling! I almost wish I had a pedometer to track how many
miles we walked throughout the course of the week. Paris is only half the size of Boston, but
I’m pretty sure we took enough steps to cover the equivalent of all its
streets! That morning I made a solo
voyage to Musée d’Orsay, home to the works of the Impressionists & a place
where I spent lots of time during my semester here. It’s a shame you can’t take pictures of the
artworks inside, because they’re simply incredible! But, there is this amazing site by Google, called ArtProject,
which uses its familiar street-view technology to give visitors virtual tours
of lots of the world’s museums, even providing the viewer with extreme
close-ups of the art; Musée d’Orsay happens to be featured on this site!
Inside Musée d'Orsay, housed in a beautifully restored former train station
Click here to take your own virtual stroll through the museum! The first floor has
sculpture, pre-Impressionist and early-Impressionist works, while the second
floor houses post-Impressionist works, and the fifth floor shelters the magnificent
Impressionist works. Using the panel on
the left-hand side of the screen, you can select which floor to look at and
then click through on the right side of the screen to “walk” around. Really amazing stuff, I could spend all day
on this site!
The window behind this clock offers amazing views of Paris
And, for a great example of the super-zoom feature that
belongs to lots of the collection’s more famous paintings, check out this. If you roll over the smaller version of the
painting on the right side of the screen, you can move the slider to zoom
waaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy in, and then move the little box around on the smaller
painting in order to see amazing details of the real painting. With this Renoir, you can see every little
brush stroke, and even right down to the texture of the canvas in some spots.
Bravo, Google, you've outdone yourself once again!
Sacre-Coeur as seen from the clock window
We grabbed
some sandwiches on crispy baguettes and then walked over to Ile St-Louis’
famous ice cream shop, Chez Berthillon, for a refreshing afternoon treat. While their ice cream is a little pricey –
pretty sure I paid a bit more than 4€ for two scoops on a sugar cone – the
taste is to die for! A velvety scoop of
dark chocolate perched atop some salted butter caramel ice cream…miam miam! Buyer beware: many cafés on Ile St-Louis
advertise that they sell Berthillon’s ice cream, but don’t be fooled! Go straight to the source: it’s on the main
drag almost all the way at the island’s farthest end from Ile de la Cite, with
a brown façade on the right hand side!
Chez Berthillon
Enjoying our glace from Berthillon’s we meandered
down along the Seine to the Jardin des
Plantes, Paris’ botanical gardens.
While the peak season for blooming flowers is behind us, they did have a
lovely garden full of dahlias and sunflowers, making for a picturesque
afternoon.
At the Jardin des Plantes
Right around
the corner from the park is one of the city’s ancient Roman vestiges: Les Arènes de Lutèce. Tucked away around the block from the Jussieu
metro stop you’ll find the remains of an arena/amphitheater built to hold
15,000 people during the 1st century AD, when Paris was then the
Roman settlement of Lutetia (or Lutèce, en
français). Now more of a park with
free wifi access and a place where kids kick around soccer balls down on center
stage, les arènes aren’t the only
remnants of Antiquity still visible in Paris.
Les thermes de Cluny, remains
of a large bath house, are located near the St-Michel neighborhood and form
part of the Musée de Cluny, a museum highlighting works from the Middle
Ages. There’s also the crypte archéologique located under the
square in front of Notre-Dame – while I’ve yet to visit it, I hear that there
are excavations from Roman times as well as settlements from the Middle Ages
here…it’s definitely on my To-Do List next time I’m in town!
Les Arènes de Lutèce
Part of Les Thermes de Cluny
We decided to
save a bit of money that night by cooking at our apartment. Kasey, Eric and I concocted a gourmet feast
of chicken with sautéed peppers and onions cooked in a red pepper pesto sauce,
all served over rice, had a bottle of wine each, bread with an
expertly-selected cheese plate, and finished it all off with some cheesecake
topped with blackberry glaze. Our
apartment at 125 rue de la Glacière may not have been a 5-star restaurant, but
it worked for us!
Our gourmet home-made dinner!
You can see the Eiffel Tower's spotlight from our living room
Saturday was
my last full day in Paris, so I got up early and once again returned to
Montmartre, easily one of my favorite neighborhoods. Although it can be crowded with tourists at
times, the area is so artsy and quirky that I can’t help but love it. Paris is a relatively flat city, but
Montmartre is the one spot where it gets a little steep – literally meaning
“hill of the martyr,” you get a good workout walking up steep sidewalks and
climbing endless stairs to reach the top, but the view and cultural attractions
found there are definitely worth it.
One of the neighborhood's many street performers
Oh, Paris...
I had just
recently discovered that there exists a Musée de Montmartre. Housed in an old building once home to
Renoir’s studio, the museum exhibits a vast array of posters, paintings,
drawings and lithographs all from the hands of artists who called Montmartre
home at one point or another.
Fresh pears waiting to be picked in the museum's gardens
Through
the artwork you get a sense of the convivial atmosphere that pulsed through the
neighborhood during the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. From posters advertising
entertainment venues like Le Chat Noir and Le Lapin Agile to sketches of
burlesque performers dancing the can-can by Toulouse-Lautrec, this relatively small museum had a
surprisingly impressive array of artwork on display.
An original poster from the collection at the Musée de Montmartre
The property
also includes Les Jardins de Renoir (“Renoir’s Gardens”), whose various
characteristics provided the inspiration for some of his most famous paintings. For example, the swing in the backyard was
central to Renoir’s “La Balançoire,” and when you take a seat in the yard, with
a bit of imagination, you can almost see the artist posed with his easel and
palette just beyond the tree…
Renoir's "La Balançoire"
The swing from his garden, serving as his inspiration
The backside
of the property is home to one of Montmartre’s best-kept secrets: les vignes. I had no idea that Paris still had a
fully-functioning vineyard in its boundaries, but my nose led me to the sweet
smell of ripe grapes and voilà. While
the vineyard isn’t open for visits, I hear they have a harvest festival there
sometime in October where you can volunteer to help pick the grapes right off
the vines…maybe I’ll add that to my bucket list?
Les Vignes de Montmartre
Harvest season's right around the corner
And then it
was once again time to pack all my life away back into my 2 suitcases, for
Sunday I was finally moving to Forbach.
I’ll attribute my superb packing skills to all the time I've spent
playing Tetris on my phone over the years…
After successfully receiving my visa, I had under 2 days
left in the USA to finish packing, go out with my friends one last time, and
bid everyone adieu. I had been so wrapped up in my visa ordeal
that I hadn't had much time to mentally prepare for leaving everything and
everyone I love behind for 9 months…so unfortunately those last two days at
home were equally stressful! It was
great to see everyone one last time, but then I was reminded just how much I
hate goodbyes. Although saying goodbye
was extremely hard, I realized the only reason it sucks so much is because I am
so very fortunate to have amazing
friends and family in my life – and for that, I wouldn't change anything.
And so the strenuous journey begins!
On Saturday, September 14, my parents drove me out to Logan
Airport in Boston to meet up with my two friends, Eric (my housemate and best friend from Paris
who lives in nearby Stafford Springs, CT) and Kasey (another one of my best friends
from Paris, who lives in Maryland) who are also doing TAPIF – we were able to
work it out so we all flew over together.
Unfortunately, I had a bit of a surprise when I went to the counter to
check in with my beastly luggage. We had
booked our tickets through a website called Student Universe, which gives crazy
discounts to anyone under age 26, and only paid $344 for a one-way ticket from
Boston to Paris, quite the bargain! I
had been surprised that in addition to the amazing price, they told me that
IcelandAir allows trans-Atlantic passengers not one, but TWO free checked bags,
and that instead of the usual 50 pound limit per bag, we were allowed 70
pounds! It sounded too good to be true!
…And like most things of that nature, it was. The nice man at the counter informed me that
the website had provided me with false information, and then said it would only
cost a mere $120 per suitcase to take
them with me. At that point, it’s not
like I could easily unpack 40 pounds of clothes and shoes to leave with my
parents, so the guy felt bad for me and thankfully only charged me for one bag. After a painfully teary goodbye with my
parents, Eric, Kasey and I boarded our IcelandAir flight and watched out the
window as the North American mainland disappeared far below us…
Got a little lesson in Icelandic lullabies on the plane...
Next stop: Iceland!
We landed in Reykjavik at midnight local time and had an hour and a half
to try some interesting Nordic sandwiches for dinner, and then boarded another
plane bound for Paris, where we arrived on Sunday morning at 6:05 am Paris
time.
Dinner time in Iceland!
Not sure how much I paid exactly, but it sure did hit the spot
After much research, we had decided that renting an
apartment for our week in Paris and splitting the cost three ways was more
economical than staying in a hotel or a hostel where we would have to spend
lots of money going out to eat for every meal.
We found a small apartment on Rue de la Glacière in the 13tharrondissement of the city – Paris is
split up into 20 different neighborhoods – that ended up costing us each only
the equivalent of $170 or so for the week.
One small problem: we were on the fifth French floor
(equivalent to the sixth floor in the US). With no elevator. We each had 100+ pounds of luggage with
us. And we were exhausted due to lack of
sleep during our flights.
Quick caffeine break at the airport before our 6 am struggle-fest
Let’s just say that we received many strange looks from
Parisians, muttered a multitude of choice words and thankfully found solace in
lots of laughter as we made our way from Charles de Gaulle airport onto the RER
train into Paris, struggled from the train stop to our apartment, and made the
arduous journey up a millions stairs to our place.
We finally made it!
After a 3 hour midday nap, we all rallied and went out for
dinner at an Italian restaurant on our street; despite our love of French food,
we were in no mood to spend more time wandering the neighborhood looking for
the perfect spot. Two bottles of wine
later, everyone’s spirits were lifted and the three of us set off for
Bastille Pub, our absolute favorite bar when we all lived in Paris while
studying abroad. We chatted it up with
the bartender and ended up closing the bar, and he loved the fact that we, his
new “American friends,” had chosen to come back to France and back to his bar
so much that he gave us all free shots.
Not bad for our first night!
Our happy bartender friend at Bastille Pub
The next morning, despite the fact that I was still
exhausted, sore, and covered in a mural of bruises from lugging my suitcases
all over creation, I set off for a solo stroll around the city. I love people-watching and taking pictures,
and Paris is a great city for that! With
no particular agenda, I took the metro to Notre-Dame, walked around the
St-Michel neighborhood, strolled around the Louvre and through the Jardin des
Tuileries to Place de la Concorde.
The ever-beautiful Notre-Dame, celebrating her 850th birthday this year
Flowers in the Tuileries
L'Arc du Triomphe du Carrousel, guarding the path between the Louvre and the Jardin des Tuileries
Entering Place de la Concorde
Gold, gold, everywhere
Hieroglyphs on the Obelisque
The boat, one of the symbols of Paris, whose motto is Fluctuat nec mergitur, Latin for "It is tossed by the waves, but never sinks"
For
whatever reason, I had been humming songs in my head and when I got to Place de
la Concorde (where the guillotine once stood and publicly severed the heads of
thousands during the French Revolution), the song Heads Will Roll by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, whose refrain is “Off with your head!”, was ironically
the tune of the moment – call it fate or just my subconscious, but I found it
pretty amusing.
After grabbing a crêpe oeuf-jambon-fromage
(ham, egg & cheese), I enthusiastically ventured inside the Louvre to go
say bonjour to my favorite works of
art. Much to my chagrin, it had started
to rain, so all the tourists in Paris decided to head inside as well. But at least I had held onto my student ID
card from the Université de Paris, which grants the bearer free admission, so I
sneakily covered the 2011-2012 school year with my finger and was admitted free
of charge!
I'm so nerdy that going back to the Louvre was almost like being reunited with a long-lost friend!
Hey there, Mona
Hands-down favorite work in the Italian sculpture gallery: Cannova's beautifully lit "Psyche Revived by Love's Kiss"
Underground entrance to the Louvre
"You've really got to hand it to Venus de Milo...I mean, how else would she eat?" (sorry, couldn't resist this one from my art history days!)
Now totally drained of energy, I met up with Kasey, Eric,
and his Parisian friend Zoe at Café Penty, where we had a delicious thé à la menthe. The bartender fills a tall glass with tea
leaves, a fresh sprig of mint and multiple sugar cubes, adds some boiling water
and tops it off with a handful of pine nuts (interesting combo, I know) – et voilà! Hands down the best tea I've ever had.
After whipping up a quick stir-fry back at our apartment, I
set off with Kasey to go get the keys to her apartment. She’ll be working as an English teaching
assistant in the 19th arrondissement of Paris but also found another
job as an English-speaking babysitter for a family who lives in the Parisian
suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt. In
exchange for picking the kids up from school each day and entertaining them for
the afternoon at their house, the family is renting their studio apartment in
the 15th arrondissement to Kasey for a mere 71€ per month, which is
insanely cheap for Paris! Her apartment
is small but cozy, and I hope to be visiting her there a lot when I have free
time to go back to Paris!
How exactly does one "smoke quietly"?
That night we decided to explore our own neighborhood to see
what the 13th arrondissement had to offer, as none of us had been
previously familiar with it. This area
of the city is far away from touristy attractions (which are always noisy,
crowded, and full of English-speakers) and thus provides a better look at the
slice of life led by many Parisians. Of
course, this includes nightlife as well!
We found a quiet little street with a couple of bars where we started
chatting in French with some locals who turned out to be really cool. It was amusing for us because we played the
“guess-where-we’re-from” game, and when they decided that we definitely weren’t
British or American, we must therefore be Czech! Bizarre, I know…
Eric and I enjoying a drink in the 13th arronidssement
Cool graffiti in our neighborhood
It gave us confidence to know that our French had definitely
improved since our first stay in Paris, when we would never have dared go to
local bar (where the bartenders would switch to English the second they
detected a non-French accent when you ordered your drink), never mind strike up
a conversation with a couple 20-somethings.
Without trying to be overly stereotypical, in our experience, Americans
and anything to do with our culture (music, movies, fashion, etc.) are
fascinating to French people for whatever reason - one of our new friends was
even swapping quotes with us from the hit TV show Breaking Bad, which happens to be one of my favorites! It’s always
nice to find people who share common interests with you when you’re so far from
home.
My favorite - macarons! Delicous French almond-based sandwich cookies that come in every flavor imaginable. Today's selection: salted butter caramel, blackberry, passion fruit & basil, almond & vanilla, and coffee
By Tuesday we were all really exhausted – sugar and caffeine
can only keep a sleepy, jet-lagged traveler moving for so long! – so it was a
pretty low-key day. We strolled around
Montmartre, one of my favorite neighborhoods & once home to the
Impressionist painters, admired the beautiful Sacré-Coeur basilica, checked out
some of the area’s quirky little shops and headed back to the apartment to
regroup.
Tada! Le Moulin Rouge
Le Mur des "Je t'aime," a wall covered in 350 different ways to say "I Love You" (in a total of 211 languages)
Eric went to a vernissage (the opening of an exposition
at an art gallery) with a group of his French friends, so Kasey and I naturally
headed off to Happy Hour and I enjoyed a delicious mojito aux fruits rouges, with blackberries, strawberries, currants and
blueberries muddled in it – délicieux! And then it was time to be super indecisive
about where to go to dinner…we ended up wandering around random streets for
nearly two hours looking for the “perfect” place to eat. What a problem to have, being in Paris, one
of the gastronomic capitals of the world, and not finding anywhere up to our
standards (which, when you’re on a budget, admittedly can’t be too high!). We settled on a place near Châtelet and I
opted for my favorite, confit de canard,
duck which has been preserved in its own fat and is then oven-roasted to fall
ever so deliciously off the bone!
Posing in Montmartre with the beautiful view of the city below
Love it around here! So picturesque!
View of Paris from the steps of Sacré-Coeur
Sacré-Coeur basilica
Place des Abbesses
Wednesday started off with a bit of administrative business,
as the three of us went to La Boutique SNCF (a store which handles French
National Railroad matters) to buy our Cartes
Jeunes. Essentially, if you’re under
26, you get all sorts of crazy discounts on all sorts of things throughout
France, and thus the discount card you buy at SNCF will save you a boatload of
money anytime you chose to travel by train.
As the railway system throughout France and the rest of Europe is
extremely efficient and makes stops pretty much anywhere your little heart
desires to travel, it is often a cheaper, more convenient way to travel versus
flying. You pay 50€ for the card, and
then anytime you buy a train ticket, you mention that you have one (kind of
like AAA) and get a discount. For
instance, before leaving the US for France, I had already gone online and
purchased a one-way train ticket from Paris to Forbach for 70€ (about $90) – it
would have been cheaper to make multiple stops and change trains along the way,
but with all my bags I wasn't about to do that!
When I bought the carte jeune,
I asked if there was any way to retroactively get a discount on that ticket,
and the ticket agent was able to bring the cost down to only 52€! So essentially my discount card only cost 32€
and was well on its way to paying for itself already. The card is valid for one year and is
definitely something to look into if you ever plan on spending extended amounts
of time in Europe.
A little mugshot-esque, but it will do!
After another afternoon of strolling along the quais of the Seine River and eating the
world’s most delicious falafel from L’As du Falafel in the Marais (if you’re
ever in Paris, this is a MUST!! Best 5,50€ lunch in town!), Eric and I headed
back to our old apartment in the 20th arrondissement to spend a
lovely soirée with our host parents,
Béatrix and Quentin. We were elated to
be invited back, and I think we were just as happy to see some familiar faces as
they were. Oddly, it felt as if we had
never left, and we all were able to pick back up right where we had left
off. They are hosting another student
from Sweet Briar College this year, Rebecca, and it was nice to chat with
someone who was about to embark on the same amazing adventure as we had and
reminisce about all the cool things we had done during our own stay.
Mmm, falafel!
Don't be fooled by imitators - this place is worth the wait!
As per usual, Béatrix prepared quite the spread of food for
us: an entrée (appetizer – yes,
totally backwards from the US…in French it actually means “entrance” and is
thus more logical) of hearts of palm prepared two ways, first tossed with
homemade vinaigrette, second mixed with cubes of feta cheese and sliced
cucumbers; the plat (entrée) was
chicken marinated in a spicy chili pepper sauce served over rice, then came a course of
bread and assorted cheeses, and for dessert
we enjoyed
almond cookies served with a scoop of mango sorbet and coconut ice cream – not
to mention a couple bottles of wine!
Dinner with the family: Béatrix, Quentin, myself and Eric
A quick word about the Béatrix’s famous chicken – Eric and I
both distinctly remember having the same mouth-watering meal as our first
dinner with our host family in Paris back in 2011. She then made it again while we were there when her best friend
Chantal came to spend a few days at the house, and here we were again, 2 years
later, eating the same delicious “welcome meal” that we so vividly
remember! We asked her if she had done
this on purpose, and she had no idea of the coincidence! Needless to say it was a great surprise, and
I envy anyone else who heads over to Béatrix and Quentin’s house for dinner;
there, you can never go wrong with delectable food, hand-selected wine, and
great company! It was so nice to see
them again, and I look forward to visiting them again and again throughout my
time in France.
