First and Second Impressions

Getting from Biarritz to the train station in Paris was easy. However, getting from the train station to my homestay wasn’t so easy on account of my heavy luggage. I wouldn’t have made it without the help of: the young man who carried my heavy suitcase up two flights of stairs exiting the Metro, the man who let me in the first door into the building my homestay is in and his directions to where I needed to be and the woman who let me in and held the door at the second entrance. But, it doesn’t matter how it happened, I got here!

My homestay is wonderful. I’m staying with Stephanie from Minnesota, and our “house mom” as it’s been dubbed by other students is amazing. She’s supergrandma of the world because she watches up to 8 of them on the kid’s day off of school while the parents are working and cooks dinner for the older kids from time to time too. She doesn’t speak the best English, but that’s perfect because it gives me the opportunity to practice my French all the time. I couldn’t have been luckier to have been placed into an apartment with Stephanie and Madame Raynaud.

My room

Monday should’ve been eventful, but it wasn’t. We had orientation, but I knew a lot of the info because of my recent experience in Paris. In the evening they set up a welcome dinner for us. The restaurant we were at had a pianist and we heard a wonderful mélange of French and English songs – that was awesome! A lot of people were still getting over jet lag so like I said, uneventful.

The next couple of days consisted of site-seeing for part of the day and going to class for the other part. French classes start next week so we’re using our time while we still have it. We’ve been inside Notre-Dame (I’d only seen the outside at night before,) to the Luxembourg Garden (very big, we saw chess players and pétanque players,) up the bijillion narrow winding stairs of the Arch de Triomphe and le Sacré Coeur (huge ultra-catholic church on top of Montmartre – the highest point in the city) to see the beautiful Parisian sky line, and down Le Champs Elysses (a famous street w/lots of stores.) This is incredible: at one of the stores, there was an advertisement on a moving TV screen. It moved up and down between the floors!! I almost forgot - our program went on a boat tour. The reason I almost forgot is that it was ok, but there wasn’t a lot of info given about the different things we saw because it had to be repeated in 4 different languages and a lot of the things we were looking at were behind trees. Mais, c’est la vie.

Unique view of Notre-Dame Cathedral from the Siene River 

 Eiffel Tower from the boat

Paris skyline from the Sacré Coeur Basilisque

Art classes have been really cool. My professor is a French professor (with an emphasis on art history) from the States and he has a quirky sense of humor – it keeps things interesting. Also, there are field trips almost every day! We’re discovering the art in Paris by seeing it, not just hearing about it. In the past two days we’ve already seen numerous churches and spent a couple of hours in the Carnavalet Museum.

 This is St. Denis. He was martred at a Mont which is now known as Montmartre because of his story. On the day before his behedding, and angel is said to have come down and given him extra powers. When he was behedded the next day, he was able to stand up after and pick his head up, take it to the river to wash it off and walk 3 miles away where he then passed on. 

This is "the wall of those of justice." During the holocaust, these people protected and/or smuggled the enemies of the Hitler regime to safety.

This used to be a ballroom where the types of dances seen in Pride and Prejudice would have occurred in  France. 

Tomorrow should be a little more relaxed, I’m preparing my sore feet and legs for this weekend – trip to Normandy and Mt. St Michel!! I’m unbelievably excited; I’ve been dying to go to Mt. St. Michel since I first learned about it! 

A to Z: About Biarritz

While Paris was exciting, new and a tad hectic, Biarritz was charming and relaxing. The ocean is beautiful, and thanks to the city’s strict building regulations, all of the houses match making it look like paradise (especially for those who like matching things.) The reason the houses match is that they’re in the Basque style. Don’t know what Basque is? I didn’t know what it was until Annie, the friend of my family we stayed with, explained it to us yesterday. There is a Basque culture in southern France and northern Spain. Nobody knows where they came from, but the language is different from most others (not a romantic language or any other grouping.) The Basque architectural style is white walls with red or green trimming and a burnt orange/red roof.

Basque houses

Annie did a fantastic job orientating us into the French culture. She cooked delicious French meals for us, and Christine and I now know we like Rosé wine. I learned a lot of random facts like their milk is pasteurized differently and it can be left out of the fridge for up to 6 months until it’s opened – then it’s only good for about a week. I’m now a fan of Pâté (mixed meat used on sandwiches) and Orangina (a beverage.) In case anyone’s wondering: women do in fact sunbathe topless. Don’t show too much skin when you dress, but going topless on the beach is fine? Europe is bizarre. Also, the streets and drivers are crazy. I understand that the streets were built after buildings so they’re winding and narrow and the drivers have adapted to them, but they’re dangerous!

 I spent three days with Christine down in Biarritz during which we shopped, took a surfing lesson (we were both first timers,) picnicked on a beach in Spain, saw the sunset over the ocean and explored a good portion of the Basque country. It was absolutely lovely.  

 Biarritz, will you marry me?

Being silly :P

Le couché du soleil J

When Christine left, I slept in late a few days getting rid of the last morsels of jet lag. I finished my reading for my “A history of Paris through its art and architecture” class and finished off a book for fun. Annie helped me find a French phone through the company Orange – I’m now the proud owner of two cheap pay as you go cell phones: my US phone and my France phone. Also, Annie took me to a market and also to a supermarket where I was astounded to discover that while their supermarkets aren’t everywhere like in the States, the ones they do have a ginormous! Biggest I’ve ever seen ginormous. It was incredible. Between all that and spending a couple of hours a day on the beach, the remainder of my three days in Biarritz flew by.

It was very sad departing from Biarritz. I was headed back to real life with times and places to be and the dreaded hw. On my last night, Annie took me up to the lighthouse with the best view of Biarritz and we walked all around town. It was the perfect ending to my time discovering the non-city French culture. A million thanks to Annie for showing us Biarritz et le Basque Pays! 

Parisian Chronicles

It’s been a week and let me tell you, things have been absolutely crazy! There’s so much to cover, it’s impossible to do in one blog. So I’ll be doing it in two.

I left off last time after our first day in Paris. We’d seen the Arch de Triomphe (easily once we found the secret underground entrance since it’s sitting in the middle of a very busy circle) and the Louvre (which involved a lot of asking for directions, seeing as it’s so big, one can’t help but get lost; also, did you know it used to house the French royalty?!) and retired to the hotel a bit early to sleep off the rest of our jet lag.

Day two we tried to set out for Versailles early in the morning. There were two problems with that plan. Number 1: I had control of the alarm and when it went off, I subconsciously turned it off, so we had a late start. Number 2: My checked suitcase hadn’t arrived at the hotel the night before like the lady at the airport promised. This resulted in a good hour of playing “how to dial out of the hotel and contact the correct person,” all of which was useless by the way; they just said it had gotten put on a later flight than originally anticipated.

Versailles was beautiful, although a bit crowded. I’m starting to hate Asian tours – I literally got swarmed by one! I’m really glad we took the walk down to see the Grand Trianon and the Petite Trianon, because their real-life-back-when-men-wore-wigs set-up was worth the painful journey in flip-flops. Also, the gardens were absolutely gorgeous. We even managed to discover secret houses on the property – they were built for various queens over the years and buried waaay in back. I hope I’ll get to explore the garden again while I’m here. More specifically, I hope I can find a way to explore the garden on bike this time!

Les jolis jardins

One of the Trianons. Marie Antoinette's touch is evident in this pink themed room.

The pavement at the end of our cobblestone tortured journey.

After Versailles, it was 7pm, and we were starved. We’d had breakfast, but that was it; reasonably priced food at Versailles is harder to come by than at Cedar Point! So we headed towards the Eiffel Tower, in hopes that we’d find somewhere to eat. Let me just say that there’s not that many places to eat late in a country that eats later than we do. Eventually we found a place and after a franglais dining experience, we headed toward the Eiffel Tower. It was too late by then to go up, but we wanted to see it lit up. And a lit-up Eiffel Tower did we ever see!

The next day we got up and returned to go up the Eiffel Tower. All seemed hopeless when, after having dodged the illegal miniature Eiffel Tower vendors (illegal b/c they ran when the police walked nearby,) “Top closed due to congestion” appeared on the screen. However, it all worked out in the end. By the time we got up to the second level (there’s three levels,) they’d reopened the top level. We even made some friends from Michigan there – a dad touring Europe with his son who’d just graduated U of Michigan. We made great picture buddies! And whether we sneaked a pic of them for the memory, that’s between us and our cameras ;)

After the Eiffel Tower, we headed to the highest point in Paris, Montmartre, named for St. Denis whom was martyred there. Somehow, we got our hands on a false Metro stop for Montmartre and when we got off, there were no sights to be seen. An elderly man stopped and asked us where we were trying to go. We asked if he spoke English, and after replying no, he spent 10 min trying to give us directions in rapid French. I speak French, but I’m not that quick! It was quite annoying. We did, however, comprehend which Metro stop was correct, and after we got rid of him and some more walking and Metro stops, we finally found what we were looking for. Once there, we passed by a square full of artists selling their works (I may have to go back there and look for something to bring home) on our way up – numerous stairs were involved – and when we reached to top, we came upon a beautiful church. As we walked around, we came upon some beautiful sights of Paris from our perch, happened across a public puppet show portraying Noah’s Ark, and found le Mur d’Amour (Love Wall) on which “I love you” is written in jillions of languages. I’m a fan of Montmartre.

La Mur d'Amour. That group of girls on the left? A very giggly bunch of bachelorettes who insisted on standing in front of the wall people want to take a photo of for eternity.

By that time, it was full out panic mode. My suitcase still hadn’t arrived and we were leaving the next day. It had been promised Friday evening and it was Sunday. Nobody would pick up the phone that could tell me where my bag was; what the heck! After more phone calls, it was suggested that we go down to the airport ourselves. So we gave up 2.5 hours of our precious time in Paris on a train ride and a chat with baggage claims. It turned out that the bag was being delivered as we were speaking and our trip had been for nothing other than the satisfaction that I wouldn’t leave Paris without my suitcase. The kicker of the story is that they told me there that my bag didn’t have any priority over regular bags and the story I got from my parents is that it was accidently sent to Italie – they called my house asking whether it was ok to send it to my US address since that’s what I’d put on my bag tag. Stupid airport, they don't even know what happened to it!

At this point it was getting dark, but Christine and I weren’t leaving Paris without one more adventure so we headed over to Notre Dame. Let me tell you, it was soooo worth the effort! It’s beautiful! After pictures, we realized our stomachs were angry at us for ignoring them again, and we went in pursuit of a restaurant. Numerous places were closed, so we ended up at an expensive restaurant, but hey, it was open! After dinner, we realized the metro might be closing soon and our hotel lobby closes at midnight – we had to book it. And book it we did: we literally ran from the metro to our hotel. We walked in at 12:00 on the dot and after knocking for a minute in despair, the lobby man came around and let us in. He even gave me my suitcase! We headed upstairs out of breath and glad to be back.

Now if anyone thought that our adventures were uneventful so far, just keep reading. We woke up at 4:30 AM to get out of the hotel and on our way. We caught the very first train out of where we were staying at 5:30 AM and rushed to the SNFC (the big trains for cross country trips.) We had 15 minutes to print out our ticket and board the train, when what happens? The ticket kosick acts like a butt. It was a touch screen and it didn’t like our fingers and when it asked for name, it mean last name only, not full name like any normal person would assume. With 4 minutes until our 6:10 AM train departure, we get the tickets out and start sprinting toward the train. A guy with an official looking hat told us to hurry and he kept blowing his whistle. My suitcase toppled over at one point and I almost cried. Somehow, don’t ask me how, we arrived at an open door and Christine threw our stuff onboard and we climbed onboard also. We’d made it! Christine and I have a new saying now: “It doesn’t matter how it happened, we did it!”

Life lessons the quick way

So we’ve traveled from home to Paris and are happily content in our hotel. Here’s what we learned today:

Be careful how much one talks to the elderly lady sitting next to you on the plane; she may befriend the rest of the plane and let everyone know your plans and have them asking questions halfway to Boston.

Don’t eat plane lasagna; heartburn may ensue.

Don’t expect sleep on international flights: one’s butt ends sooo sore (yet never reaches numb) and one’s 

legs object to the cruel and unusual punishment of lack of usage.

Don’t have a carry on w/o wheels. Just don’t. It’s heavy and one’s shoulder bruises.

Don’t literally ask a French person for the bathroom, it’s “the toilette” and they’ll think you’re asking for a bath!

Don’t lose the map of the metro.

Pay close attention to the signs at the metro; the name under the line number indicates which direction it’s going in, and it’s very easy to get on in the wrong direction.

Don’t expect your checked luggage to be on the same flight as you if you have a layover; it may get lost and have to arrive later. (That’s why I’m soooo glad I packed the essentials in my carry on!!)

Hitting enter does not always work like clicking ok.

Hold on to the rail when riding the metro; otherwise, you’re in for a bumpy ride!

No matter how touristy and warm the tennis shoes are, don’t opt for the flip flops. Especially when trying to cover the entire Louvre in 5 hours!

Ensure camera is charged before going sight-seeing. Double check it. And make sure the back-up camera batteries are not already used.

And that’s all folks!

Excitement, nervousness, and fatigue

Tomorrow I leave for the biggest trip of my life. Even though I’ve been planning for this trip for years, it truly snuck up on me! It seems that yesterday I was sending in the application and tomorrow I’m leaving!

Right now, I’m honestly too tired to tell an amusing anecdote, things have been so very hectic and tiresome. Just understand that there were numerous moments of “oops, I almost forgot that” and “that wasn’t supposed to happen,” as well as moments of “wow, that worked out perfect” and “other person ‘did you bring blahblahblah?’ with my happy reply of ‘already packed!’” Packing up one’s life in three bags is serious business! The fact that Christine, the other half of my brain, is packing for the same thing truly comes in handy; especially since she spent a month last summer in Europe for research, so she’s done this before.

Anyways, my bags are finally packed, my travel plans are finally ready, and, France, watch out because here I come! 

P.S. Thanks for bearing with these boring I'm-not-even-in-France-yet-blogs :) Seeing as I'm leaving tomorrow, things will definitely get more interesting!