Les hommes (redux)

Had coffee at said cafe.
Up close, not so cute.
dang it.

anywhoo...i found my long lost twin:

Jardin du Lux

I just got back from the Jardin du Luxembourg. It was sunny today and it seemed like all were out to enjoy the nice day. The garden was full of people, lots of really cute french families with their really cute french kids. It was such a great day! We were there for at least three hours...reading, watching, pretending to do homework. I could definitely get used to this!

The Louvre (part 1)

The Louvre. Friday nights at the Louvre are free for students under 25 (whew, just made it). I wasn't sure what to expect, the louvre has been so built up in my mind...it's supposed to be the museum of museums and let me tell you, I was not disappointed. The entrance to the museum was spectacular. The glass pyramid is beautiful at night and that juxtaposed against the palace...don't even get me started. We didn't arrive there until 8pm, so we only had about an hour and a half to see the "masterpieces". We zoomed straight for the venus de milo then headed straight for the Mona Lisa. It was very surreal seeing works that I have studied for so long, and although there were crowds of people, the works were truly amazing. I was most interested in seeing the works by Jacques Louis David, he was the artist of the french revolution and a national treasure to the french. His works are huge in scale, and they had hall that was full of most of his major pieces(that's me staring at one of his works). I can't wait to go back next friday!

Les hommes

Every morning I take the same route to and from school. I walk by the same cafes and boulangeries and always peak in to check them out. Well...the cafe next to my school looks like it has great coffee (it's always busy) BUT there is also a really good looking barista behind the bar. There are alot of good looking men in Paris (of course) but they all have that 'my mother still reads me bedtime stories' look. No, not this guy...he is a-good-lookin! Yesterday my friend and I decided to go there after class for a cafe, but said man was not there! And the same today! I don't know what's going on but I don't like the looks of it. we shall see...

Le Feu Follet

This is so french. Last night I went to the Cinematheque Francaise to watch an old black and white film called "Le Feu Follet". The Cinematheque Francaise is a mix between a library/museum/theatre, and right now there is a film festival dedicated to the actress Jeanne Moreau. First of all, the building was designed by Frank Gerry...and if anyone knows Frank Gerry's work they know that his style does not really fit with typical Parisian architecture. It was kind of like finding a hidden gem, my french teacher (who told me about this event) wasn't even aware of this. It was amazing to see an old black and white film on a movie screen, and although I only understood half of the dialogue, it was a great film. Very 60's with the odd camera angles and overdramatic acting, i loved it.

Hi Everyone! I am officially welcoming myself back to blogland. Sorry for the lack of blog this past week...no camera = boring blog. Anyways, I've been settling into my new apartment as well as starting my french class at the Sorbonne. A week prior we had to take a placement test to see what level of french we would be enrolled in, and I was so frazzled by this exam that I signed up for 8am classes (what was i thinking?!?!). Other than waking up before the sun rises, my course is great. My teacher is this really cute middle aged redheaded woman who slightly resembles a leprechaun: ) Candida and I have been settling into our apartment. We went grocery shopping last night and cooked our first meal at home last night. As I am writing this blog I am sipping on a glass of wine..oh, Im so french already! This week we went to the Musee D'Orsay for the first time. I proceeded to completely nerd out, I'm an art history major, what do you expect?!? Besides the AMAZING artwork, the building itself is a work of art. Yesterday we went to the Montmatre area of Paris, this is where most of the film Amelie was filmed, it was very whimsical and frentchy. We sat on the steps of the Sacre-Coeur for about an hour and listed to the random french street musicians singing pop songs in english. My favorite was "Hello" by Lionel Richie.

Until next time! Love and peace!


Near the Champs-Elysees

The entrance to the Musee D'Orsay

Our first dinner at home!

Mon Nouveau Appartement

When I first laid eyes on my little french studio I thought, "Ok, it's Paris, it's supposed to be this small." The apartment consisted of a small room with two twin beds, and a little surprise in the closet...a kitchen! We were shown the apartment by our director, Holly, she later told us that she was shocked at the size and would be moving us within the next week. Candida and I basically lived out of our suitcases for a week...and that's always fun.



We got the call on Monday that we would be moving. Rather than moving down the hall as we suspected, we moved to a new building a few blocks away. Our new apartment is amazing! Its is only a bit bigger than the last but has a great view of the city (we are on the 7th floor) and has a real kitchen. It is most beautiful in the morning when the light hits the window. My next move is to jazz this place up a bit with some art and kitch!!!

Weekend in St. Malo and St. Michel

I got home last night from a beautiful weekend on the Brittany coast. My weekend was exciting and exhausting, all mixed into one. We left on Saturday morning from the Gare Montparnasse train station, and boarded a bullet train to St. Malo. Once we arrived in St. Malo we took a bus to Cancale. Cancale sat on the coast and was full of little streets and shops. Then we were off to St. Michel. At St. Michel we exited the bus and we were able to explore St. Michel for a few hours. There is an abbey that rests at the top of St. Michel...the view from the top was amazing. Unfortunatley, my camera died as soon as we arrived at St. Michel. Later that night we had a traditional french dinner which consisted of yummy things like fish soup. On Sunday we went back to St. Malo. The city of St. Malo is completely fortified and reminded me of something out of the middle ages. Later that day we ventured out to the beaches of St. Malo, apparently St.Malo has the third highest tide in the world. All in all I was a great weekend, full of history and interesting french food!

Pictures courtesy of Candida:
Cancale
Me in grass
St. Michel
Beach at St. Malo


Next blog: New Apartment.

To the young ones...

Candida and I were starting to feel like grandmas...so we decided to show the young ones in our program (who range from the age of 18-22) that we could party like the rest of 'em. Every Thursday MIXCLUB throws the Erasmus Party, an event for foreigners to come and learn about other cultures. I Actually it was nothing like that, we walked in to this large club with blaring techno beats full of sweaty 20 year olds too drunk to see straight. We decided to embrace this moment. We grabbed a drink (free drink ticket for ladies) and hit the dance floor. It was the most ridiculous/amusing thing I have done in a while. I felt like I was 18 again ...in cancun dancing to "one more time" with a drink that tasted like fruit punch in my hand.


This morning we begrudgingly woke up, only haven slept 4 or 5 hours, to go on a Parisian Treasure Hunt. The 'treasure hunt' took us to many parts of the city like the notre dame (again), Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Élysées, Trocadero (a great look out point), and I finally ate a nutella crepe! It was such a great way to discover the city and I feel even more comfortable here everyday.




Tomorrow we are heading to northern France, the Brittany and Normandy region. We will be going on an overnight excursion to St. Malo and St. Michel. I am so excited to see St. Michel!!! Here's a sneak peak of where I will be going:


LOVE!!!

Still a tourist

Bonjour!

I am finally getting settled in to my apartment (well not really, I will be moving in 3 days) and becoming more familiar with my surroundings. Candida and I have already made friends with the man at the little marche as well as the man at the cafe on the corner! Tonight we went to get a cafe creme and he knew our order before we even had a chance to speak. That made me pretty excited. I must say though, that my lack of french is becoming ever apparent. Today we went to BHV (it's a huge shopping center) and this man very politely tried to strike a conversation...it was a bit frustrating because I could understand (a bit of) what he was saying but I did not know how to respond. Argg! This will come with time, i know, I've only been here for 5 days!

Earlier today I went with my abroadco group on a Seine River tour, it was such a beautiful and sunny day in Paris! Here is a little snippet of what we saw:


Notre Dame


Sunny Eiffel Tower


Abroadco group

Well you get the idea...after we finished the cruise we walked around the latin quarter as well as the marais.


Down one of the many little streets in the latin quarter, full of cheap food and junk


I'm a big nerd

Check out my roomies blog: www.candidainparis.blogspot.com

Love to you all!!!

First Days

Paris is AMAZING!!!!

The flight from lax to dublin was not bad at all, the plane left exactly at 4 and it was supposed to be a 10 hour flight but it only took us 9 hours! Once we arrived in Dublin we went to have a Guinness (Irish Beer, mom). Then we hopped on the plane to paris. When we arrived in Paris it was cold but sunny, it was really pretty. We took a shuttle to a hotel near our apartment, our apartment wasn't ready until today so abroadco payed for a hotel for us.

Once we put our stuff down we decided to go on a walk...i think we arrived around 7pm. We walked around the area and decided to get something to eat. Candida and I were both a little culture-shocked and nervous at this point. So we finally sat down at this super-french restaurant and tried to order in french. He spoke back to us in english : ) After that we were pretty tired so we decided to go back to the hotel and go to sleep.


On Monday we woke up and decided to walk to the notre dame. After that we walked along the seine river and made our way to the eiffel tower. Here are some pictures:







Later that night, Candida and I went to see Morrissey at the Olympia Theatre. There were loads of people and it was funny to see french people sing Morrissey songs in english.

I just moved into my tiny apartment and we are trying to get settled in...although we just found out that we will be moving to another apartment this weekend. Apparently the director our program was horrified at the size of the apartment and demanded that we be moved to a bigger room.

This city is so beautiful, its hard to describe the feeling here. I have been trying to use my french as much as possible and I can see I have a long way to go. Its a bit intimidating but I know its only my second day and I have a long time to improve...Tomorrow is the beginning of orientation week, we will finally meet all of the other students and we have activities planned this whole week.

Much love to everyone!!!