Je suis à Rennes!

After a three-hour train ride (we were stopped on the tracks for about 30 minutes), I arrived in Rennes on Sunday afternoon. I met my host family, who took me on a tour of Rennes and then home for a wonderful French dinner (4 courses is the norm).

I absolutely love my host family. They are so nice and understanding. Carole, my host mom, and Manu, my host dad, love explaining things to me in French and trading cultural information. Manu spent a year and a half in Toronto, so he knows a little English. Last night we had a conversation about "cookies," and Manu found a church cookbook he received while in Toronto. Since Maxime, my little brother, confessed that he didn't know what a chocolate chip cookie was, I have decided that we will be having an American baking party very soon.

Maxime (12) is really smart and funny. He challenges his parents all the time (normal in France), and they correct him. He is learning how to argue and stand up for himself, while at the same time learning obedience (he rarely wins) and French speaking skills (he is often told to say something so that it sounds "more French"). Maxime loves Mario Bros, and for the past three evenings we have played together. Maxime is Mario and in charge; I am one of the mushroom people and do what he tells me to, when I can understand his quick speaking (he is especially fast when playing Mario Bros because he gets so excited). Luckily for me, Maxime is very nice (like his parents) and doesn't care at all when I colossally mess up the mission because I didn't "Attends!" (Wait!) or "Viens!" (Come!) or "Saute!" (Jump!).

I haven't met Charlotte (9) yet because she is on a ski trip in the Alps with her class (how incredible is that?). Her teacher has been posting pictures online, so I've seen her with her in her bright red snow suit and skis looking adorable. I'm excited to meet her! She comes back on Saturday.

I also have a bird to count along with my other family members. I'm not sure what kind of bird it is because it was in French, but I do know that its name is Roucoups (must verify spelling) which is a form of the French verb "to coo." Roucoups coos all the time, so the name suits him well. He fills his little lungs up with air and then ruffles his feathers as he releases the air in the form of a very loud "WOOOOO" sound. Sometimes he does a little dance to go along with his song

My house is kind of like a townhouse--pretty vertical with almost no lawn. There are three floors. The first floor contains the foyer, kitchen, and living room; the second, my family's bedrooms; and the third...is all mine. I have my own bathroom and a loft-like bedroom furnished with a big bed, a desk, and a lounge chair, not to mention the ample closet space and skylight. It's perfect!

My French self is a very adventurous eater. I've eaten raw mushrooms as appetizers, tested out some really smelly French cheese, and even braved fish tonight. (It was actually not that bad. For those of you not in the know, I usually make gagging noises when mushrooms or fish are on my plate.) It looks like Carole and Manu are willing to let me cook with them, so that should be really fun! Yesterday we made a "tarte" (pie) filled with ham, ravioli stuffed with basil, and sourcream mixed with nutmeg, and then topped with cheese. French food has a slightly different taste to it that I can't quite put my finger on. It's very simple and fresh, and definitely more healthy than most American treats.

My first class à la fac (slang for university) is tomorrow. I am taking an English class with French students majoring in English. It will be a great opportunity for me to meet French friends while owning an English class and getting a great perspective on how English works are read and taught in France. My course will cover some poetry by Emily Dickinson and William Faulkner's Sanctuary, as well as the works of one other author.

We'll see how it goes...

Otherwise I have lots of free time which I am using to read books (just finished Ella Enchanted for the fiftieth time, starting on Harry Potter 7 en français tonight), knit (tricoter), and relax with my host family. I watch the news with them and we discuss the headlines. Yesterday we talked about euthanasia and their dislike for the French President Sarkozy ("Sarko"). Sigh. It's just like Madame Allen said it would be. Only better.

Au revoir, Paris!

Well, I have reached the end of my journey in Paris. My bags are packed and my train to Rennes leaves in about three hours.

For my last night in Paris, Carmen, Kristina, and I went to a movie (La Chance de ma vie-- The Luck of my Life), which was very funny and in French, and left feeling victorious having understood the majority of the dialogue. We then went to an Italian restaurant on blvd Montparnasse where I ate penne aux quatre fromages--essentially fancy mac'n'cheese. I know, not very French of me, but after three weeks in France I'm beginning to miss American familiarities. The day before yesterday Kristina and I ventured into the Hard Rock Cafe to eat cheeseburgers (with ketchup!). We felt a tad guilty, but they were too delicious.

Looking back on my time here, I find my favorite moments are the smaller ones: my jog around the Latin Quarter; my exploration of the menagerie at the Jardin des Plantes; quiet reflection in Marie Antoinette's hameau as the sun was setting; taking goofy pictures of armor and weaponry at the Hotel des Invalides; spending two and a half hours in a small restaurant enjoying a three-course meal. The places I was expecting to really strike me, like the Louvre or the Eiffel Tower, ended up being too crowded with tourists to encourage deep reflection or create memorable moments with my friends. I wish I had had more time here to do more of these small things--perhaps sit in a cafe and people-watch or take a languorous walk down Rue des Rosiers.

I meet my host family today: the family Berthaut. They are a married couple with two children: Maxime (boy aged 12) and Charlotte (girl aged 9). I'm very excited to meet them but a little nervous, too. Classes start tomorrow, so that will be exciting/scary as well. I have chosen my class preferences, but they won't be official until tomorrow. Right now I have two history courses, medieval and Renaissance architecture, translation, English as a Second Language (teaching English in French elementary school), and phonetics in addition to two required French courses. It sounds like a lot but the French university system doesn't believe in overloading students with homework so I should be ok.

Well, I better go have my last Parisian cafe lunch and then I've got a taxi and a train to catch.

Until Rennes...

Mon pèlerinage à Versailles (My Pilgrimage to Versailles)

I can't believe it's already been six days since I crossed the threshold of Versailles. We had to take a special train linked to the métro to get there. I was expecting the palace to be in the middle of the country as it was 220 years ago, but to my surprise Paris has long since overflowed its Revolution-era boundaries and stretched out to the Sun King's realm.

The glory of Versailles.

The palace itself is ridiculous. The entire exterior is covered in carvings and statues, and most of the front facade (the home of the king himself) is lined with gold that reflects the rising sun. It is extensive--a three-floor monstrosity with three wings. For how large the palace is, it is almost shocking how little is open to the public. I saw the chapel, a small succession of rooms dedicated to royal history, the king's apartment, the Hall of Mirrors, the queen's chambers, the converted-museum portion, and the dauphin's (prince's) apartments--probably less than 7 percent of the palace's interior. The rooms of the courtiers and the servant quarters were completely left out, as were the private (and infinitely more interesting) chambers of the king and queen. Little information was available about the day-to-day lives of the inhabitants of Versailles, which frustrated me as those little day-to-day details are what I find most fascinating.

Le Grand Trianon and le Petit Trianon, the more secluded residences of the royal family, felt more accessible in that they actually seemed livable, but the French public/private space mania remained apparent. For the French, members of a state that is almost completely centralized, the separation of private and public space is essential. People must protect the small portion of their lives that belongs solely to them. For instance, when an American invites a guest to her home, she welcomes the guest like family, giving her a tour of the house (maybe even of the bedrooms) and inviting her to "help yourself" and "make yourself at home." When a French person invites someone to her home, she allows the guest to enter only the rooms that are necessary: the foyer, the living room, the dining room, and little else. The home is a private space, one to be guarded from the public. As a king, Louis XIV recognized the necessity of his private life to be on public display; he lived for his people. For this reason the courtiers were allowed to attend the "levé" (rising) and "couché" (going to bed) ceremonies of the king and queen. Being allowed to attend such ceremonies was a matter of personal pride, and the courtiers would vie for the right to enter the royal apartment to see the king roll out of bed and powder his face. An actual gate separates the king's bed from the rest of the room to keep overexcited courtiers at bay.

Barrier to keep out the king's overenthusiastic groupies.

In contrast, le Grand Trianon (residence of the kings' mistresses and later Napoleon and King Louis-Philippe) and le Petit Trianon (private mansion of Marie Antoinette) are structured for more private living. By the sheer structure of the buildings we were allowed to see a greater portion of the residences. I even got to see Marie Antoinette's toilet.

Marie Antoinette's throne.

My favorite by far was le hameau (hamlet) of Marie Antoinette, built for her by her husband (or rather on his bill and by his orders) in 1783. Beautiful in its simplicity, her hameau is a true paradise, and also a clear indicator of why the French Revolution went down. As a working village, the hameau romanticizes the hardships of peasant life, and, adding insult to injury, is an extravagance paid for on the peasants' dime. For me, however, romantic thinker that I am, the hameau represents Marie Antoinette herself. A simple, beautiful young woman who did not want to be queen but instead dreamed of being a humble peasant girl, she was forced to live her daily life under the cruelly scrutinizing eye of the French court as la Reine de la France. Her hameau was her escape from this harsh spotlight, a place where she could imagine a life different from the one for which she was fated. Victim of the anger of an unjustly ruled people, she met her tragic end at the Place de la Concorde in 1793. Thousands of Parisians cheered as the guillotine blade sliced through the air and the executioner lifted her bloody head above the crowd. As the sun set on her peaceful paradise, emphasizing the crumbling walls, the rusted gates, the unusable staircase, the barren earth of January, I felt Marie Antoinette in her garden. I could see her swimming in the pond and laughing in her gaiety. It was truly haunting, and I have decided to return to Versailles this week for the sole purpose of returning to her hameau (plus I've chosen the hameau as the topic of my research project for the Paris class).

At the hameau.

Other high points on the Paris menu:

-Centre Pomidou: modern art museum. The first exhibit we came to was an entire floor dedicated to feminist art. Score! I was enraptured (and a tad disturbed) for a good two hours. Fabulous. I was then too mentally and emotionally exhausted to enjoy the more famous pieces on the next floor (Matisse, Picasso, and all that jazz), but it was worth the sacrifice.

-Musée Carnavalet: museum about the history of Paris. Not quite as fascinating as I was hoping, but I saw some really cool Parisian artwork and explored a beautiful building.

-Hot times at the French cinéma. Saw one movie (Love et autres drogues, in English) on the Champs-Elysées and another (Le Fils à Jo~ The Son of Jo, en français) at a cinéma near our hotel.

-Hôtel des Invalides: French war museum and old armory. I was amused by the size of Napoleon's tomb, enthralled by the wealth of information in the exhibits on the First and Second World Wars, and amused again by the treasury of medieval armor.

Me with my knight in shining armor.

I've also figured out how to find great food in Paris for cheap. Oui!

I'm feeling really high on life right now, and I'm so glad to be here in France with so many wonderful people.

Five days until Rennes.

Inondée et ravie

It's official: Paris has overwhelmed me. There's just too much to take in. Not only is the city sensationally insane--crawling with Parisians, tourists, mopeds, cars, buses, and trains rushing to and fro; medieval streets zig-zagging in all directions; six-story buildings rising on all sides; noises, smells, and colors pressing in from all directions--but it is also emotionally over-saturated. So much has happened in this place, and the reality of this history follows me everywhere I go. "Who has walked here before me?" is a thought runs through my head frequently.

Unsurprisingly, a lot has happened since my last post. One of the biggest developments is probably that we've begun to use the métro, and using the métro means we have started to venture outside our quartier (neighborhood). My realization on this point is that we are staying in a really nice part of Paris (a.k.a. the part reserved for tourists and the rich Parisians). On Saturday a group of us decided to go to Montmartre (north Paris) because it was a clear day and the view from Montmartre (if you climb the hill to Sacre Coeur (cathedral of the Sacred Heart)) is fantastic. Professor Barjasteh warned us to be on our guard because the pick-pockets are notorious in Montmartre, so we were all clutching our purses and cameras pretty voraciously. The view was indeed gorgeous, and we had fun taking out a map and picking out all the monuments that we could see as we looked out over the Parisian skyline (Panthéon, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Centre Pompidou, etc.). After exhausting our Kodak moments for the day, we split up and Taryn and I took a walk around the quartier to find the Musée de l'Erotisme (yep, the Museum of Eroticism--what a place!). Contrary to the Latin Quarter, this neighborhood was filled with deteriorating buildings with graffiti smeared on their walls. Trash was scattered about the streets and a a foul-smelling stream of sewer water flowed down the center of the alleys. A good portion of the immigrant population lives in this area, and poverty is a major problem. But this place, too, plays a part in the great drama of Paris. Possessing its own sense of vivacity (and maybe even humor, if you can appreciate the ridiculousness of the sex shops boldly proclaiming their services in flashing neon), this area contributes to Paris's personality, taking it out of the fantasy world of croissants and the Eiffel Tower and plunging it into the more tactile reality of a modern city where real people live, work, and struggle to survive.

Journeying back to the land of fantasy, on Sunday we spent the day shuffling between Notre Dame and the Louvre. We went to a Gregorian Mass at Notre Dame in the morning, then walked to the Louvre to spend an hour or so with the French masters. (Ellen and I focused on David's Les Sabines: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Sabines .) After a light lunch à emporter (to go--it costs more to sit at the restaurant) in the Tuileries Gardens, we walked to the Conciergerie (where, among other things, the prisoners of the French Revolution were held before being guillotined) and then returned to Notre Dame to listen to the organ audition (an organ prodigy plays every Sunday afternoon in the cathedral). We had just exited Notre Dame when we heard an explosion. Unsure of what had happened, we waited until we saw a stream of people running toward us to decide we needed to get out of there. Another stream of people greeted us as we crossed the Seine, and that's when I realized that it was some kind of organized demonstration, a grève (strike) or something similar (quite normal in France). We calmed down, especially after seeing the police out in force, but man, what the adrenaline rush, especially after our visit to the Conciergerie! As it turns out, the explosion was a firework and the over-excited mob was a religious group honoring St. Genviève. They paraded en masse past our hotel, banners and lit torches in hand as I watched from my balcony.

Another piece of big news: yesterday we (the Rennes group) met with the students that we will be studying with in Rennes. There about 40 of us total, all hailing from different universities around the United States. Everyone was super nice, and we enjoyed a laughter-filled dinner together at a restaurant near the Louvre. I'm really looking forward to going to Rennes. I have about eleven days left in Paris . We bought our train tickets today. I will arrive at the train station in Rennes to meet my host family (ma famille d'accueil) on Sunday, January 23rd at 4pm France time.

We go to Versailles tomorrow. I have been dying to go to Versailles for over seven years, ever since I became obsessed with Marie Antoinette in 7th grade. At last, j'y irai!

L'âme de Paris (The Spirit of Paris)

Today marks my fourth day in Paris.

Everything is going well so far. Paris is such a vibrant city and there is always something going on. Our room faces a rather busy street, and I'm kept up at night by the sound of the cars and mopeds that speed by the hotel. I really like the Latin Quarter (le Quartier Latin). There are magasins (shops), boulangeries (bakeries à la française), and restaurants everywhere. My favorite is Au Vieux Campeur, a camping and sporting goods store that is literally everywhere. My theory is that if it were in the United States it would be a huge store like REI, but since it's been crammed into the 250+ year-old buildings of le Quartier Latin, it has been divided into different departments. For example, the Au Vieux Campeur on the corner near our hotel has hiking supplies while the one on the adjacent street (about 30 yards away) sells swimwear. The result: an Au Vieux Campeur everywhere I turn.

One of my biggest stresses here in Paris is food. Food is SO expensive! I would say an average dinner in the Latin Quarter costs about 20 euros (about 27 dollars). It's only 15 euros if you decide to drink water. Soda here costs as much as wine (and sometimes more)--about 3-5 euros (4-7 dollars) for one glass (no refills!). I've not had very much success at French restaurants, and most of them cater to tourists anyway (while obviously hating them at the same time). My best dinner so far was strangely enough at a Chinese restaurant on la Rue de St-Germain. Because both we and the server suffered from a language barrier, there was a certain understanding, maybe even a solidarity, among us. We ate a delicious spread of soup, rice, homemade noodles, pot stickers, and tempura to the wonderful sounds of the Backstreet Boys, Lady Gaga, and Beyoncé. Tonight we had success at a Mexican restaurant called Fajitas! It's owned by a woman from Massachusetts and serves pretty legit Mexican (not quite, but closer than expected).

Today I got up early because I couldn't sleep and went for a run around the Quartier. It was about 7am, but in Paris the sun doesn't rise until 9 or so, so the streets were still lit by lamps and I got to see Paris rub the sleep from its eyes and begin its day. Only 5% or so of Parisians do any sort of exercize at all, so I got a lot of funny looks from the people I passed in the streets: restaurant owners sweeping the side walk in front of their establishment, street cleaners spraying the street, suited businesspeople walking to work, and the crowd of students making their way to the Sorbonne for class. It was a great run despite the stir I caused and I got to explore the Quartier in the best way possible. I now have a good map in my head and I know a few places to find cheap (but delicious) food on the petites rues that the tourists don't know about.

As for my explorations in Paris, so far I have yet to leave the Latin Quarter except to travel the 6 or so blocks to the Ile de la Cité to see Notre Dame. Here is the list of places so far:

-Musée du Cluny (largest collection of medieval art in Paris; 2,000 years ago the Romans used it as a gymnasium and bath; during the Middle Ages it was a monastery; now it is a museum--Voilà the great span of history of Paris!)

-lots of churches (really cathedrals) including Notre Dame, l'Eglise de St-Etienne (prettier than Notre Dame!), and a hidden church on the Ile de la Cité called l'Eglise de St-Louis

-Pont Neuf: one of the oldest bridges in Paris that provides a great view of the Seine

-the Panthéon (huge! and also very beautiful)

-la Sorbonne and the Université de Paris

-Arsènes de Lutèce: 2,000 year-old arena now used for plays that is in the middle of a garden riddled with paths

-Jardin des Plantes: beautiful garden that contains several museums of science and natural history as well as a menagerie (really more of an all-out zoo complete with kangaroos (kangarous), peacocks (paons), camels, guinea pigs (cochons d'Inde), leopards, raccoons, snakes, geckos, tarantulas (mygales), monkeys (singes), ostriches, yacks, and flamingos. Great vocab exercize and so neat to see a French zoo with "exotic" animals like raccoons and guinea pigs!

-Rue Mouffetard: old street in Paris (not unlike all the others) that is too narrow for cars and is therefore a treasure trove of restaurants and small boutiques. I bought my first pair of boots (des bottes, pronounced like "day butt") today there for only 25 euros--a great deal considering the next cheapest pair I found was 69 euros and most cost more than 150 euros.

In the same neighborhood as Rue Mouttefard there is an école élementaire (elementary school) and the sound of children's laughter was echoing off all the slowly-deteriorating stone buildings when we passed it this afternoon. Those walls are witnesses of the French Revolution and both world wars, a fact I was reminded of by a sign by the gate of the school in memory of the Jewish students who died in the Holocaust. A few blocks down from this school are the remains of the building where one of the French kings of the 12th century was born. The mildewing bricks tumble into the street, held in place by two apartment buildings (probably built in the 18th century) that some Parisians still call home today.  As Professeur Barjasteh said in class the other day, in Paris "l'histoire défile dans les rues"--history parades (in a sense chronological, metaphysical, and spiritual) in the streets. I have spent a lot of time thinking about the people who have walked on these cobblestones before me, those who have lived, laughed, and loved in these buildings and died in these streets (French Revolution). In Paris, you can feel the connections you share with all humanity: past, present, and future.

Je suis à Paris!

Bonjour à tous!

My plane landed at the Charles de Gaulle International Airport at 8am Paris time (1am Minnesota time). I was a little queasy today, which was truly unfortunate, but I made it through and was able to keep down a ham and cheese sandwich at the boulangerie across the street from our hotel this afternoon.

Our hotel is located in the center of the Latin Quarter, a young and vibrant neighborhood full of shops and restaurants. I'm sharing a room with three other girls, including mon amie Carmen. Out of our window we have a lovely view of the Rue des écoles.

I spent the day napping, exploring the Latin Quarter, and eating (and drinking) at an Italian restaurant a few blocks from the hotel. All the Parisians have been super friendly so far, and I already feel my French has improved. Tomorrow we begin our étude of medieval Paris and visit the Musée du Cluny (only 3 blocks away) and hopefully the cathédrale de Notre Dame.

Internet access is mediocre at best, but I'll try to update as much as I can. I am exhausted and must go to bed now!

Love from Paris,

Erin