Fun stuff!
As crazy as it’s been, I’ve been having a lot of fun, too. My second night in Paris, a group of us from the hostel bought some food from a nearby supermarket and went to the huge lawn right by the Louvre for a picnic. We watched the sunset with a view of the Eiffel Tower in the distance. It was absolutely wonderful.
MICEFA also had some activities planned for us, aside from all the orientations of course. On Thursday night, we met near the Eiffel Tower and took a boat ride on the Seine.
On Friday we had a cooking workshop in the 11th arrondissement. We worked in pairs and learned to make pastries! I say learned… we were given a piece of paper with instructions and ingredients and given ingredients, and off we went. It was like a cooking challenge on a reality TV show. And I love cooking, but I rarely bake, so it was something new.
After we finished, we got to eat what we’d made! There were chocolate croissants, pear and apple tarts, and chocolate-filled pastry puffs (called choux… I was actually confused for a bit because un chou, sans x, is a cabbage. It’s also a term of endearment. Like, you could call a loved one “mon chou”. I’m not sure where it comes from, mais c’est comme ca.)
We went on to a giant bookstore called Gibert Joseph, and bought the workbook we needed for our class. I also bought a little book with an arrondisement by arrondisement map of Paris, and Tartuffe by Moliere—required reading for our class. We’re actually going to see it performed next week!
Our group met back up in front of a Starbucks (wifi! Starbucks and McDonalds are two guaranteed places for free wifi in Paris. Typical, but this is important, haha.) and we went on a walking tour based on Woody Allen’s Midnight In Paris. We saw the original location of Shakespeare and Co., went into a restaurant called Le Polidor, where a lot of authors hung out in the ’20s (and where Woody Allen filmed some scenes in the film), and stopped at one of the oldest movie theatres in the world, the Cinema du Pantheon. It was built in 1906, and shows a lot of great films– they even have showings on weekends with English subtitles!
Inside, up some narrow stairs, there is a huge bar/cafe with comfy leather couches everywhere, large coffee tables, gorgeous lighting and books everywhere… there’s even an area to sit outdoors. I know I’ll definitely be back here, for both the films and the cafe.
There were a ton of specialty bookstores in the area, but the one that caught my eye was a film bookstore called Libraire Cinema Reflet. Another place I have to go back to.
Geeky thing of the day: We passed by the Pantheon on our walking tour, and across the street on a lampost was scrawled in Sharpie: “I believe in Sherlock!” Ohmygosh, that made me so happy. Sherlock fans truly are everywhere!
Anyway, the next day 2 of my roommates and I decided to be real tourists and take one of the Cars Rouges, aka a red double decker tour bus. Mind you, I’ve been a tourist in quite a few places and I don’t think I’ve ever taken a double decker tour bus! I quickly learned just how lazy you can be if you take a bus tour like that. It drops you off at one place, you have a little look-see, and then you get on the next one. Minimal walking, minimal planning… I’d already done plenty of walking and metro-ing, so it was a bit of a break.
We met at the Eiffel Tower and had lunch, and then began our trip.
From there we went on to Notre Dame, and went inside. Since it was the weekend it was especially busy, but we still managed to go in. I’ll definitely need to go back and take an audio tour or something though, because as beautiful as it is, it felt kind of meaningless without knowing the accompanying history– and I only know the very basics, like… um… when it was built? Haha.
Next was the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysee. We walked down the whole way, and were stopped on our way by a woman dressed in a toilet paper wedding dress. She told us she was about to get married and asked us to sign a petition for something. I actually didn’t understand what the petition was for, and since it was literally just a piece of paper with 1 name on it, it was most likely a joke. But she agreed to take a picture with my friend, and it was pretty hilarious.
We took the bus back to the Louvre, as our hostel is right there, and got dinner at an Italian restaurant next door to our hostel. I had this:
And this (it’s a Dame Blanche!):
Meanwhile, one of my friends had been in touch with a French guy she knows, and he’d invited us out to a club that night. We decided to go, and it turned out to be quite an adventure. We got all dressed up and took the metro to the 11th arrondissement. We only had the name of the club, no address. We asked for directions a few times, but we ended up wandering around looking for it for, like, a half hour. Finally we were told that it was actually on a boat on the Seine. We walked to the waterfront, where we discovered outdoor bar after bar and lots of clubs on boats. It was really lively and the water was beautiful at night! We found the club and waited on line for a while, but it was really cold so we decided to just get some wine and call it a night. We sat right by the water:
Anyway, tomorrow I start my Intensive French class, which is in the mornings and early afternoons. We have afternoons/evenings off this week, and hopefully I’ll be moving into my new place!
