second to last day

So I thought I would walk around Paris today after taking care of some pre-packing things. I took care of all my recycling (papers, water bottles, wine bottles, Nutella pots...) that had been building up all semester - it was a LOT. I did some laundry and started organizing my clothes. After that, I planned to do a last shopping trip and walk around some of my most-frequented places, like the St Germain area and the Marais, maybe get some falafel, a crepe or some ice cream, and finish up in the Luxembourg garden.

Well, it's almost 4pm and I've just finished all my chores, I still have to drop off my library books at AUP, and my shopping areas will now be full of people :( I guess I'll go tomorrow and deal with the tourists/other people swarming around. I think I'll still take care of the AUP books, but I don't think I'll have time to do much else. I have to go look for Renee's camera (again) and then I have plans to go out with Aurelien tonight.

A bunch of my friends have left the last couple of days, and it's been a little sad. Two of my closest friends here and I went out a couple of nights ago for the last time: we went up to Montmartre to walk around and go to this famed little fondue place, then we sat under the Eiffel Tower together until it turned off. The restaurant is really fun and interesting (and delicious, of course) because it's this little building with just 2 communal tables where everyone sits and shares fondue dishes. As soon as you go in they give you an apertif and small dish of tapas-style appetizers (free) then when you get the fondue they give you wine in a baby bottle.

We hung around talking to other people in the restaurant for a while and didn't wind up leaving Montmartre until about 11:45pm, but decided to go to the Eiffel Tower anyway. They light the Tower up at night - it has a bunch of lights and a search-beam type thing, and then on every hour it sparkles for 10 minutes. So we walked around the gardens and sat under it until it turned off, got some gelato and went home (my only cab ride of the semester!). It was fun, but sad because I won't see them anymore.

Tomorrow during the day I'll probably walk around and pick up some stuff I'd like to bring home, but at night I guess I'll have to pack. My flight is at 5:15pm on Sunday, so I won't have a ton of time to finish things that day. And for those of you who will be lost without my little blog here, I will continue for a bit after I get back; I have to finish talking about Italy, and don't think I've forgotten about the Eastern Europe trip! And maybe I'll also discuss a little bit about going back, I'm not sure.

i lost my camera!

My French oral exam went pretty well! I'm glad. We had to draw readings at random to talk about, but I got lucky because I drew a card that said I could pick myself. I chose to discuss Le Petit Prince, so it was good. (except that I forgot how to say "they sit" in subjunctive, sigh)

Natasha is gone and it is nice out again. Typical. Later today I'm going to go to La Defense, maybe, and tomorrow I'll go to Versailles. And start packing, ahh! I can't believe I only have a few days left, that's so depressing. Last night I went out with some friends from my Sorbonne class who are leaving today and they brought 2 girls in their program who just got to Paris and are here for the summer. I was so jealous of them!

Anyway, my wireless is down - not sure why, but we'll see if I can fix it at some point - so I won't be around as much.

our time is running short

My friend Natasha has been here in Paris for the last few days, and I've been staying with her at her hotel near the Eiffel Tower. She's not actually a big fan of Paris and it's raining a lot, so we mostly have been sitting in cafes and pseudo shopping. She leaves tonight, so I'll be able to update more.

I had the written part of my French exam on Saturday and it went very well, I thought. Based on the practice exams we saw it was average difficulty, but I was particularly pleased with the essay topic (what role does reading play in your life and what do you read). Of course, I realized I did make a few mistakes: I wrote "sa elegance" (stupid mistake!!!) and I couldn't think of the opposite of "qualities" even in English.

Anyway, in about an hour I have the oral part of the exam. I should leave to go meet Dmitriy, actually. A bientot!

why aren't i sleeping?

I guess because I (again) missed the last Metro and had to walk home. This time, though, it was only from Aurelien's, which is just 4 stops away and one road the whole way. It was about 50 minutes. I really should stop doing this. Though I've never had any problems it's really not the safest thing to do; Aurelien was highly unconvinced when I told him it was perfectly fine.

But going there I got possibly the best reaction to saying I'm American: a guy was advertising for some sort of improv theater and after talking for a bit I said I was American (he had assumed I was British) and he immediately asked, "Are you a Puritan?"

sorry...

...for the lack of updating as promised. Turns out I was [am] actually sick and now I'm starting to study for my final on Saturday. So probably no updates for a couple of days unless I need an extended break!

italy updating...

I've finished going through my Milan pics, look for an entry (or a few) tomorrow! I feel rather icky because of my allergies..I hope I'm not actually getting sick again

st jean de luz

For our final day, Sunday, we took a very early train out to St Jean de Luz, and got there around 7:15am. Perhaps you can imagine what a small French town looked like at 7:15am on a holiday Sunday: completely uninhabited. This was good in a way, as we got pics of the town without people in the streets and such (though I have not gotten those yet) but at the same time, we could not even find a place to eat. We walked through pretty much the whole town - it didn't take long - and took note of some shops we wanted to visit and places we might go.

The whole reason we went to St Jean de Luz, however, was to go up a nearby mountain on a train Holly recommended, and at the top there is an even smaller, more Basque town peopled mostly by shepherds. She said they are really friendly and will hang out with tourists and drink beer. However, since it was Pentecost, the trains were not running often and the schedules did not work out in our favor. At first we were really disappointed by this, but when we saw how cool the town was, it was okay.

St Jean de Luz is a small, very old beach town that is both gorgeous and quaint. It has a medieval look, and yet it is a type of medieval I was completely unfamiliar with: it did not feel like France, Spain, or even Italy or Germany, but something distinct. Basque, I suppose. Nearly all the buildings had red and green - Basque colors - prominently incorporated in the architecture, and again there was that strange, almost German style. You can also see the typically Basque geometric embellishments on most buildings.

The town used to be more important than it is now, because it was a convenient port. Louis XIV (Versailles, Sun King) got married to Maria Theresa of Spain here, as it is really close to the Spanish border. The house he stayed in still has some of its rooms set up as they were when he was there, and it is a neat little museum. The composer Ravel also grew up there.

So after checking out the town for a while we saw things slowly start to open; we were particularly interested in a market we had seen earlier. We decided rather than finding a boulangerie or something for breakfast we'd go through the market, grab a feast of traditional Basque food, and have a picnic on the beach. All the vendors were really nice when we asked them about the crazy-sounding Basque dishes, and I got many compliments on my French. Our feast consisted of: 2 types of paella (one that had a lot of whole sea animals in it), 2 types of Basque cheese (delicious!), bread, a type of potato salad, a veal salad-thing, mini gateaux Basque in both plain and the traditional black cherry flavor (a dessert, sort of like a cross between pound cake and cheesecake, something I can't remember! and some Basque wine. My friend took pics of all the food; when I get them I'll put them up.

By the time we finished our brunch-feast, everything was pretty much open. Walking back into the center we couldn't believe it was the same town: the streets were filled with people, the cafes crowded, and vendors had set up their wares on the sidewalks. It was also gorgeous by then, so we were content to just stroll around. I really wanted to see the cathedral where Louis XIV was married, so we made our way there. As we rounded the corner there were suddenly hordes of people lined up, waiting and watching the cathedral entrance, and lots of little girls dressed up in outfits similar to those flamenco dancers wear.

We were thoroughly confused for a few minutes until I started to listen to the music coming from the cathedral. It was a Latin prayer set to contemporary gospel-meets-Spain music; I realized this was all part of the Pentecost celebration. The French are big on Pentecost, I'm not sure why. Anyway, a few minutes later we saw a parade wind its way through the main road, with people in traditional costumes (big red dresses with large ruffles, suits with swords) riding horses and girls and women doing little dances in the street. It was really entertaining, but there were so many people we decided to walk along the beach instead, to a very green hill we had seen before. You can kind of see what I mean in this picture:


So we ambled along the coast, stopping at the curious "Festival of Pubs", and climbed the hill. It was a green I've only seen in Ireland and had amazing views of the harbor.



The grass was so enticing that I took a while just chilling out on the side of the hill (I was not actually sleeping - this is mostly to emphasize the peacefulness of the whole area)



And we had some fun taking pseudo-artsy shots


But by the time we came back down it was time to catch our train back to Paris. It was a REALLY long train ride, about 6.5 hours, and I had a final the next day. But it was such a great trip it was worth it to spend the weekend there!

bayonne

To continue my adventure from last weekend...

We (predictably) slept later in Bordeaux than we should have and had to change our plans around a little. We took an afternoon train to Bayonne, only about an hour away, but things were starting to close when we got there.

Bayonne is the capital of the French Basque region, and is known for its nearby beaches and its chocolate. It's a small town, but a little bigger than I expected, and its whole feel surprised me a little: my friend aptly described it as "Strasbourg meets New Orleans." The architecture, anyway, shows this pretty clearly. Most buildings have similar structure and coloring as those in Strasbourg with that pseudo-German feel, but there are some modifications that seem a lot more modern.


The streets are small, medieval, windy and cobblestoney, but the people are much more open and lively than in Strasbourg.

That cathedral in the background is St Marie; it's large but not a particularly lovely or interesting church.



Again, in Bayonne there aren't exactly a lot of things to visit, but we were mostly interested in getting the feel of the town, to see if it was different from the rest of France. It wasn't, much, just perhaps more friendly, but it definitely has a sense of independence. Also, everything is written in French, Spanish and Basque - not necessarily in that order, and not necessarily the same order every time. Here is a picture of a street sign with all the languages, then one of a menu in Basque, so you can see how the words are put together. It's kind of a crazy language.



So we wandered around the city and looked in a lot of shops dedicated to typical types of goods and food of the area. We sampled chocolates (with red pepper, another specialty of the region), apple cider, a few cheeses, and some wine. We also went into a couple kitschy souvenir stores that had traditional Basque berets, flags and other things.

There were little plaques around the town talking about the history, and some of them were rather interesting: for example, the medieval walls that can still be seen around parts of the city are not exactly the city limits, as most are, but rather were built because there was a leper colony outside the city. It was raining on and off while we were there, so my pictures came out rather grey, but it was very pretty and quaint overall.

bordeaux

Finally, updating my travel stories! I don't have any pics of Bordeaux, but I just finished the ones from the Pays Basque.

My friend and I didn't actually do too much in Bordeaux, as most of the activities there have to do with long wine tours just outside of the city. We didn't have the money or time to do those, so we mostly just walked around.

On the way down (around a 3.5 hour train ride) we sat across from a French guy about our age who seemed mildly interested in listening to us, though it didn't seem like he understood much. He was wearing a Mets hat and I was curious about it, so after a while I asked if he was a fan. He said a friend who lives in New York gave it to him, but he's never been there himself. But, he added, next year his company (the Societe Generale) will be sending him to live there for a couple of years. He turned out to be from Bayonne, a city in the Basque region we were about to visit. So he was interested in what I had to say about New York, and he gave us advice about what to do in Bordeaux and the Pays Basque.

The three of us (including Julien, this French guy) got off the train at a station next to Bordeaux, but there was some sort of transportation strike that would make it difficult to get into the city. He explained this and said his sister was picking him up from there and could drive us, too. (Okay, so that sounds sketchy, but he had been very helpful and informative so we decided it was okay to go with him.) She was just as nice as him and drove us to our hostel, and even invited us out with her friends later.

After leaving them we walked to the city center and scouted out places to do wine tasting and get food. Bordeaux has very few boulangeries and patisseries - shops where you get fresh bread, pastries, sandwiches, etc, where we eat most of the time - but an abundance of wine bars. So while it was a challenge finding real food, we got plenty of wine tasting opportunities. We decided probably the people in Bordeaux drink wine all day instead of eating.

The city is very 18th century, packed with elegant and stately brownstones with small wrought-iron balconies and laid out in wide avenues and lots of circles. Most parks and squares have Neo-Classical designs, particularly the area around the town hall. I can't think of an area of NYC to compare it to (sort of like around Columbus Circle, I guess) but for those of you who know Paris, most of Bordeaux resembles the areas of Trocadero or the Ecole Militaire/Invalides.

There is a cathedral in the middle of the city that seemed like your typical late Gothic structure, but it turned out to be very strangely set up and slightly traumatizing for someone who has been studying church architecture. We saw it from far away and noted the two towers sticking up over the buildings of the town. Nothing unusual in that. So we walked towards it and eventually could see the normal-looking facade with the traditional three doors, biggest in the middle, and the portals above them...everything was fine until I noticed that the cross shape seemed off. Normally churches are set up in a cross pattern, and the main entrance is at the bottom of it, so you walk through the longest portion and up to the transept, where the lines cross each other. Sometimes in redoing the entrances, they will make you go through one of the small doors on the short arms of the cross, but the original main entrance is always at the bottom.

This one, however, has its real main entrance - towers, portals, everything - on the left arm of the cross. What?! I walked around to the bottom to see if a change was made to the original layout, and indeed there was evidence that there used to be a door there, but nothing indicating any towers or main portal there. This cathedral is lopsided. The inside was really pretty, actually, but I was very distracted by its outside craziness. All this fuss probably seems like I'm overreacting, but it was WEIRD.

Soon after leaving the cathedral we got a text from Charlotte, the girl who drove us into the city, saying she'd pick us up in 20 minutes. Oops. We had to book it back to our hostel an change quickly before she arrived. She took us to her apartment (very large for a student apartment!), where there were probably 15 other students, her friends. They were all extremely nice and excited to meet us, but hardly any spoke English at all. One guy insisted he spoke well but actually was worse than most Parisians I meet. Another girl had an incredible accent (she sounds British, one would hardly know from her accent that she was French) but a very limited vocabulary.

It was a typical college-type hang out session - with a bunch of people just sitting around talking and listening to music - except the food. The French equivalent of college snacky food is little handmade pizzas, baguettes with a vast selection of cheese, crab, and other random food one would probably never see in an American student's apartment (unless it's me or Carol, I suppose!)

Anyway, all the students were really interesting and cool. The Universite de Bordeaux is the largest campus in France, so I suppose the most diverse, too. They were all eager to discuss politics, language, and cultural differences between the U.S. and France with us, and ask questions about student life in the U.S. We even met a couple of guys from Guinea who are studying there; they were particularly interesting to talk to, and it made me happy to be able to talk with people whom I certainly wouldn't have been able to without French.

Unfortunately my allergies had been bad that week since things had started blooming, and without tissues an such I was fast becoming a mess. Around 2 we went to a club with them but I had to leave soon after, although they tried to convince us to stay out until 4 with them. It was a really good time, and definitely worth giving up some sightseeing time, as we actually made a bunch of interesting French friends.

hm..

So I did probably not the smartest thing today. I walked approximately 5.3 km (3.3 miles) from just beyond the Place de la Republique to where I live. I was surprised at how easy it was to find my way; I was definitely expecting to get lost. Anyway, I was walking in about 2" wooden heels and my feet hurt a lot. I don't think I'll be going to Versailles with my friends tomorrow [today], but I will sleep.

I will never, ever understand why any Metros ever close. Why?! There are always people who need to get places, no matter what the time.

Today I did the catacombs, Notre Dame, and the Luxembourg gardens, the Place de la Concorde/Champs Elysees, and helped my friend sear for her camera, which she left in a kebab place last night. I gave a French lesson and many history lessons. Then we went out with one of my friends to complete the day. Needless to say, I am quite tired. We'll see if I can make the Bastille market tomorrow. A bientot!

yay for comments!

Bonjour mes amis! Wow, I was not expecting so much commenting! But thanks, I love it, it makes me feel good about writing this! I especially love the ones in French :) This will inspire me to update more frequently (I hope!)

Okay, so I have a couple of visitors for the weekend, two friends from Ithaca who were studying in London this semester. Now they're backpacking across Europe for a month, even to a few places I've never been! Paris is their first stop, and neither of them have been to France before. I'm excited to be giving them the grand tour as I'm eager to see their first reactions to all the sites!

They came yesterday evening when most things were closing, but the Louvre is free for students of Friday nights, so I took them there to explore for a couple of hours. I had a rendez-vous avec un francais that I almost forgot about, but I sent them off with directions to the Eiffel Tower and back to their hostel. (One of their goals was to see the Eiffel Tower at night.) They're lucky because today all the municipal museums are free!

She called me today with their list of things to see and turns out they really want to go to the catacombs...which of course I have no problem doing twice in one week! They also want to see Napoleon's tomb (in Invalides), Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Coeur and maybe Pere Lachaise today, because tomorrow they want to spend most of the day at Versailles. Eeee. Ah well, I'll get a quick refresher on both Paris tourist traps and avoiding gypsies! And of course I have to think about the best cafes, where they can get good French-type food that isn't too expensive. Not hard around Notre Dame, I guess, but what if they're hungry as we're on the Champs-Elysees? I got permission from Aurelien to roll my eyes and go, "Tourists!" because I'm apparently now "almost French." (Aurelien, who insists, by the way, that he was not a tourist in NYC, but rather a "traveller" ["voyageur"])

I'm continuing to work on the pics, but there are soo many! Right now the Basque pics are looking easier, as I only had batteries in Bayonne and have a total of about 40 pics.

also, catacombs!

I went to the catacombs today and it was one of the coolest, most interesting things I've seen here. You go down an endless little spiral staircase and come out in a maze of stone hallways, see where it used to be a quarry and read a series of signs describing the history of the place. But then all of a sudden you turn a corner into another set of narrow stone hallways and come face-to-face with a seemingly infinite number of skulls and other bones set into the walls in meticulous patterns. (Too many adjectives? Too long? Sorry.) The contrast between the skulls and joint bones create unmistakable designs, and the people who organized them obviously did so with great care. Mostly the patterns are geometric, but sometimes you come across a series laid out in the shape of a heart or cross. Only a small part of the catacombs are accessible to the public, but even just seeing that part I couldn't help but wonder how many bodies are there. The skulls offer a vague estimate I suppose, but I couldn't even begin to guess how many skulls I saw there. It's creepy, but in a really interesting way.

A brief history lesson just to put things in context a little: the catacombs of Paris were not originally set up to house bodies/skeletons, but they were first just a series of quarries beneath the city. In the mid to late 1700's two serious circumstances cropped up in the city, and the establishment of the catacombs was a way to fix both. First, the quarries had grown so much that large portions of the city rested on virtually nothing, and buildings started falling in. Second, the cemetery grounds had reached their saturation point and heavy rains brought up rotting (but not decomposing, because the ground couldn't take any more) bodies. There was no other place to bury people in the city, so a place for the old bodies had to be found. What they decided to do was undertake a project to reinforce the quarry walls and store the bodies in a respectful way. Since the majority of the skeletons were anonymous and there was no way to preserve them all during transportation, they took apart all the skeletons and set them in patterns in the quarry walls.

Over the next hundred years several cemeteries in Paris were retaken and all the bodies exhumed; they went to the catacombs with the others. Now there are only 3 or 4 major cemeteries in the city (Pere Lachaise, Montparnasse, Montmartre..and I forget) because nearly all of the small church ones have been transferred to the catacombs.

Possibly the most exciting thing about them - and something I did not know before! - is that almost all the Revolutionary leaders' bodies are there! They are anonymous, of course, but it is certain that's where they are! Robespierre, Danton, St Just (my namesake), Desmoulins...all of the guys. Also the Princesse de Lamballe and some other early victims of the Terror were transferred there. I surreptitiously checked out a bunch of skulls as if hoping to find "ROBESPIERRE" or "ANGEL OF DEATH" printed on one, but no such luck.

My lucky mother got a more extensive tour of the catacombs many years ago and I believe got to see some parts not open to the public. She might be able to add something interesting. (hint!)

beginning of the end

These are my last days in Paris, and though that is sad to think about I've been having a great time wandering the city in springtime. I try to go someplace newish every day; I want to get to some of the outer areas soon, like La Defense. It's been gorgeous here and I want to take advantage of that while it lasts!

It's strange to think of going home, and things that will be going on when I go home. My friends are all mostly done with class by now and many are back in Nopo already; the IC kids are going to Turkey soon (I can't believe it's been 2 years since I did that!); I have to start thinking about how to lose my Nutella weight (hee) before the wedding in August; I have a new baby niece. But mostly I have to think about how to say goodbye to France.

Today a couple friends and I discovered a very cool, very local market right next to our RER stop. We never even knew it was there! I picked up some strawberries and pesto gnocchi, but I have my eye on a store that sells all kinds of honey products - yum! I still have to get to Versailles and Reims (daytrips), and I haven't explored much of the northern part of the city.

And even though my time here is almost done I would still like to remind everyone that I greatly appreciate comments! It makes me feel like I'm writing this for a purpose, and not just to babble into cyberspace.

For fun, some of my favorite things recently:
TV: Gossip Girl (very guilty pleasure!)
Music: Saint-Saens; also, "Three Wishes" by The Pierces (taken from Gossip Girl)
YouTube: Draco Malfoy sings with a slightly out of tune guitar (ah, reminds me of my advanced Music Comp days!)
Books: the letters of Ablard and Heloise (couldn't find them in Pere Lachaise :( )
Spanish food: a chorizo dish named after Dante's Inferno :)

update

I've gone through about 250/1000 pics so far, but I don't even have the Milan ones all done. When I do I will post a thing on that and continuing as I finish.

Today is Victoire in France, celebrating victory in WWII, so it is a holiday. I don't have class and it is absolutely GORGEOUS out so I walked around Paris. A friend and I went to Pere Lachaise cemetery, which was really interesting, and walked around Montmartre a little. It is still 77 degrees out! And everything is blooming and pretty...sigh, I love Paris!

Tomorrow I am taking a little trip to Bordeaux with another friend. It should be really nice...we are going to do a short wine tasting course (yes, I know, Mother, I am a wino), visit the vineyards, explore the city, then do a day in the Basque region. French Basques are not as militant as Spanish, and mostly they just enjoy their own culture without making a fuss. The countryside there is really beautiful and we are going to take a train up a mountain near the Pyrenees. Since we didn't know much about the area we talked to Holly and she recommended a bunch of things to do that are off the beaten tourist path (not that many tourists go to the Pays Basque).

These are my last few weeks in Paris! I'm sad. But the next 2 weeks friends are coming to visit, so that should be nice. With one it is her first time to Paris so I guess I'll be doing all the touristy stuff I haven't done this semester - like going up the Eiffel Tower, etc. Anyway, updates on that later.

back in paris

Sorry I didn't get to write at all in Venice; I got distracted by things, I'm sure you understand.

Anyway, for a brief rundown of the rest of my trip: on Friday in Ferrara I met a bunch of cool students who I hung out with that night and some of Saturday. They were 4 Spanish and 1 Lithuanian studying abroad there and they showed me around. It was really interesting to see typical student life in Italy! (which is just about the same thing)

Then I left for Venice a bit later than expected and just explored and wandered around. I didn't have much time there to write, but I took a ton of pictures! Right now they are uploading, and it's on 240 of 1067 pictures. I'll put them up later.

something i wrote about an hour ago

I'm sitting beneath the Castello d'Este in Ferrara, on one of the protective walls around the moat. It's 9pm, gorgeous out, not quite dark but getting there. The moat is rippling a little in the breeze and it makes the castle's reflection a bit ghostly.

The castle is really quite impressive: it's huge and brick with four towers, and all the windows have rich red curtains. It doesn't seem to have changed much since it was built in the 14th century, but I suppose I'll find out when I go there tomorrow.

I'm writing this now because it's so beautiful out and I don't want to go back to the hostel yet. Despite the passing people and cars, and the implications of the castle itself, it's a very peaceful scene.

There is a very small church across from where I'm sitting, but I don't think it's the d'Este one; earlier today I visited the little convent church where Lucrezia Borgia, along with others, is buried, but it wasn't open. Tomorrow.

It would be nice to be the curator of a place like this castle. Not a museum; I'd rather be in a monument, a place where history occured and the evidence is all around.

It's getting a little chilly so I think I'll go. It's just so peaceful I don't want to.