Well, I have successfully survived a week in Paris. Major
pat on the back. I’m now getting better at saying hello and goodbye to people
in the elevator, avoiding eye contact on the Métro and getting hit by scooters
and bikes on the street, eating dinner at 8pm, figuring out what arrondissement
I’m in, and dressing appropriately for the ever-confusing weather (it’s harder than you’d
think, the weather man is never right and I also don’t know Celsius yet). But besides all the little things, this week
has been pretty great. Classes haven’t started yet, my first will be this
coming Wednesday, so I’ve had a lot of time to explore the city and get to know
all the other Tufts students. In fact, I think I’ve only spent about 5 hours a
day at the apartment, not including when I sleep (which is constituting less
and less time, I might add). Lately I’ve been waking up, eating breakfast
(which here consists mostly of liquid and for me about 15 slices of baguette
because they’re so tiny), then leaving for the day until about 8 o’clock at
night. Then after a dinner that usually lasts about an hour and a half, I watch
the news with my host parents and then go to my room to read the Tintin and
Asterix and Obelix comic books I’m borrowing from the little library usually
reserved for their grand-children.
Thursday, September 13th
This was the day we had a test to see at what level our
French is at. It was kind of a rough awakening, after not having been in a
French class since May, but it should be ok. Then we had more orientation
sessions about health and safety, student life in Paris, and cultural opportunities.
There are several magazines that publish huge lists of everything that’s going on
in Paris that week, from festivals to movies to museum exhibitions. And there’s
even a free magazine published just for Anglophones, called the FUSAC. For lunch we went to a really popular café in
the area that has a “formule”, like a lot of cafés, where for a fixed price,
usually about 7 euros, you get a choice of sandwich, drink and dessert. I chose
“pain au chocolat” (a chocolate croissant) for my dessert, and somehow got two!
Best day ever. When our orientation sessions were over, I went on a walk with
two other French students from the Tour de Montparnasse down the Rue de Rennes
towards the Seine. At the end of the road is the Louvre, the Tuileries garden,
and just a really pretty district in general. That night my host family had
invited over another family that was also hosting an exchange student. They
told me she was American, but actually she was from Zimbabwe and studying at
Amherst. It was really nice to meet another exchange student outside of Tufts
and see how her experience has been. She’s only staying the semester, but
hopefully our families will have dinner together again. It’s nice to not be the
only young person sometimes, as my host family’s children have all moved up.
For dinner that night we had a salad with vinaigrette and chicken gizzard
(which is delicious), rabbit with mustard sauce, cheese and baguette, and tarte
aux Mirabelles, which are a sort of small plum. After the other family left, I
went out to an Anglophone pub with two other Tufts students that also live in
Neuilly. A lot of the people there were businesspeople that work at La Défense,
but I don’t think we were the only English speakers there. After leaving I
tried to take the Métro because I was really tired, but after waiting on the platform for several minutes, I
realized I had missed the last train as the last one leaves at 1am. Luckily I
was only a 20 minute walk from my street, but in the future I’ll have to learn
how to use the night buses.
Another view of the bridge I mentioned earlier that has all the padlocks on it.
A view of the Louvre from across the Seine.
Me on a bridge. The Louvre is to my right.
Some guys in the Tuileries playing petanque (boccie ball) which is like playing horseshoes or chess in the park in the U.S.
Friday, September 14th
Today I went on a tour of the Marais with the Tufts group.
The Marais is a district in Paris that is known as the Jewish and also Gay
district. It’s a pretty neat area. There was one really creative memorial to
the children that died in the Holocaust. The Holocaust museum was right next to
a school, and in between was a small alleyway. Using some acoustic something or
other, the artist amplified the sound of children’s voices coming from the
windows, which echoed in a weird way in the alley and sounded very ethereal and
kind of creepy. For lunch we went to one of the many falafel stands in the area
on the rue des Rosiers. In the afternoon we went back to the Tufts office to
choose our classes. In France this process is even more complicated than in the
United States, especially for exchange students. This is because French
students choose their career track when their about 15, and thus follow a set
schedule of classes throughout their college career and don’t really have to
choose anything. What’s more, almost nothing is actually posted on the
internet, such as course descriptions, schedules, and locations, until the last
minute, if ever. You have to go to the department at the school and get
brochures with all this information if you want it in a timely manner.
Thankfully Tufts will do most of the registration stuff for us, otherwise this
would be a nightmare. For me, the main issues are finding classes that fit the
requirements for my IR major, and that meet at least 3 hours per week so they
count as a full credit. After several hours of deliberation and
cross-referencing like 5 different brochures, as there are three different
universities we can take classes in (and nothing is systematized), I finally
decided that I will take the three classes offered by Tufts, a history class at
Paris I on the history of contemporary Arab societies, and a class on French
literature at Paris III. Hopefully I’ll stay with this schedule, though I don’t
yet know at what time my literature class meets, as of course this schedule
hasn’t come out yet. When we were done with that, we decided to have dinner together
and join the Erasmus/Internationals Club for their activities that night. At 8
we met up with the Erasmus group (which is an exchange student program for EU
citizens). The other students were German, Italian, Spanish, possibly some
Brits, and one Australian that I chatted with. That evening the activity was
going up to the Tour de Montparnasse, which offers an amazing view of the city.
For dinner we Tufts students broke off from the group to eat at a restaurant
specializing in food from Toulouse, a city in the southwest of France. I had
onion soup, a cassoulet traditional, and a crème caramel. For an appetizer,
they also gave us some really thin slices of sausage. After dinner we were
going to join the others at a night club in Neuilly-sur-Seine called Palais M,
but after seeing the line I just decided to walk home, which was a good call as
I really needed to sleep, and some French people told me that it’s not a good
one anyway.
my falafel sandwich
this is called a "religieux". It's delicious.
Cassoulet Traditional
Creme Caramel
Saturday, September 15th
Today was the start of the Journées Européennes du
Patrimoine, which is when all the EU countries open up government buildings,
museums, and historical sites for free to the public. As I love all things
historical and free, this was really excited and I took full advantage of the opportunity.
I met up with some other Tufts students, and we first tried to get into the
Elysée, which is equivalent to the White House but much grander. We realized
that the wait in the line was at least four hours, though, so we decided to
forego it. After wandering around for a bit near the Place de la Concorde, we
decided to go into the Ministry of the Interior, as the line was short. This
ended up being really cool though, as we got to me the Minister of the Interior
(Manuel Vallis), and we saw the prison cells where the Gestapo detained,
questioned, and tortured members of the Resistance during WWII. Next we went to
the Embassy of Great Britain, which was an amazing palace. They even set out
the dinner service that they use for state dinners, and I saw the place setting
and namecard used for the Queen of England! After that we went to the Jardin du
Luxembourg and had some gelato, then went to see the Palais du Luxembourg which
also functions as the Senate building. Normally this is never open to the
public. Among other amazing, historically significant rooms and such, we saw
the bedroom that Marie de Medicis slept in. After wandering around the Jardin
some more, we met up with some more Tufts students and went grocery shopping to
make dinner at my apartment. In my opinion, we cooked a very French meal even
though we have zero experience. We made salad with vinaigrette, bacon-wrapped
dates (in the microwave, as I don’t know how to use the oven), Brie and
baguette, and had chocolate ice cream for dessert. Not too shabby. We then
watched the television show “Nikita” dubbed into French, then went to another
Tufts students apartment for a party his host brother was throwing. It was
great fun, as I got to make some French friends, and discuss French and U.S.
politics with them. Hopefully I’ll get to see more of them, as most of them
lived within walking distance of my apartment.
me in the Senate chambers at the Luxembourg Palace
The Senate Library
The Senate Chambers
Me on a vintage motorcycle in the courtyard of the Ministry of the Interior
this is the place setting for the Queen of England at the British Embassy
These are some goats that live in the Tuileries gardens. Don't ask me why
Sunday, September 16th
This was the second and last day of the Journées Européennes
du Patrimoine. Again the Tufts group met at the obelisk at the Place de la
Concorde, and proceeded to tackle Paris. We still didn’t get to see the Elysée,
as that day President François Hollande was greeting people, and the wait time
was about 8 hours. Instead, we went to the Hotel de Talleyrand, which was a
mansion built by the Rothschild family, that was then purchased by the U.S. government
and used to draft, sign, and implement the Marshall Plan. After that we saw the
Observatoire du Louvre, then crossed the Seine to go down into the sewers. That
might sound kind of weird, but it was actually fascinating, though smelly.
These were the same sewers described by Victor Hugo in Les Misérables, and I’m
pretty sure lots of shady stuff has gone on down there. For the tour, they even
had some actors down there pretending to be Poseidon to stress the importance
of water conservation, and two women from the 19th century explaining
stuff about the history of access to potable water in Paris. After re-ascending
and taking in the fresh air, we then went to see the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. Like all French government buildings, it is super grand and imposing,
and used to be a palace/mansion. Among other things, I got to see the room and
table where the G20 meets. After this I went back to the apartment to see my
host parents as they had just arrived back from their weekend trip to Chartres,
and for dinner we had a really delicious quiche Lorraine which like a pie made
with eggs, cream and bacon. After watching the news, I called it an early
night. Running around all over Paris is really tiring!
a secret door in the Hotel Talleyrand, used by the Rosthschild children to return to their bedroom
weapons found in the sewers of Paris. The fact that someone threw them in the sewer probably means they weren't used for good.
a mural of Jean Valjean (Les Mis) in the sewers of Paris
Inside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the room where the G20 gathers
The United States' place at the table. To our left is India.
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