Ma vie à Paris

Monday - 10/21

Chorizo and Olive

Today was Gracie's birthday so we tried to go eat at an Indian restaurant. However, their website, which said they were open on Monday nights, lied to us and it was actually closed. Because most of the other restaurants in the area were also closed, we settled for some pizza, which turned out to be delicious.

Veggie

4 cheese

Seafood

Tuesday - 10/22

Just an ordinary Tuesday will film class and some work. I went to the Ménilmontant farmer's market in the morning to get some fresh fruit.

Wednesday - 10/23

Tonight I attended another Concert au Louvre, this one performed by a very talented 22 year old named Daniil Trifonov. His playing was absolutely fantastic and the poor kid ended up giving three encores! It's unbelievable to think that a kid who is only two years older than me has reached such a high level in his musicianship. I hope that one day I can be just as successful in whatever I choose to do.

Thursday - 10/24

Opéra Garnier

Double whammy of spectacles for this week! I saw my first opera called Cosi fan Tutte by Mozart at the Opera Garnier. This was one of my bonus spectacles and I am super happy that I got it because the opera house as beautiful, inside and out. The white marble and gold-detailed exterior was lit up with warm glowing lights. Men and women where arriving in fancy and exiting the metro in crisp suits and stiletto heels, everyone rushing into the opera house in the last fifteen minutes before the show started. It was exactly as I has pictured it.

Doors to our box seats

The interior of the opera house should be a museum because it is a work of art itself. The architecture featured marble and precious stones erected in majestic columns and expansive stairs. Romantic balconies overlooked the grand entrance hall on three different levels. Even the audience seating was exquisite. The ticket that CUPA gave me was a box seat on the second level. In order to reach our actual seats, we had to wait for an usher to come by and open the door with a special key. Each box had seats for 6 people in rows of two. I am pretty sure my ticket said I was seat 3, but since I was the first one there, I took a seat in the front row. I'm glad I did because it is impossibly difficult to see from the other two rows due to the walls that separated each of the boxes. I think this has to do with the nature of operas when the opera house was first built. The upper class, who were the only ones to come see this sort of thing, used the opera house as a place for business and socializing more than anything else. Thus, the seats gave you an excellent view of the other people in the audience so you could gossip and compare outfits and what not. Being able to see the actual performance was not the top priority.

The incredible Chagall ceiling in the opera house

View of the audience from my box

Waiting for the show

Bravo!

Before I went to see Cosi fan tutte, I did a little bit of prior research so I wouldn't be completely lost during the performance. It's a good thing I did because the opera is in Italian and the subtitles were in French. The general story is about two friends who are elated over the faithfulness of their wives. However, this old guy named Don Alfonso has to add his two cents and says that women are fickle and he can prove it, making a bet with the two men. He makes them play a trick on their wives by pretending to go off to war, then disguise themselves as Albanian men to try to woo the other's wife. Although the women remain steadfast at first, the guys are basically showering them with presents and kisses and eventually the women give in, flirt back, and "fall in love". a stage an impromptu with the Albanians. The guys are completely distraught and stage the revealing of their trick to their wives. The women realize what happened, everyone is forgiven, and they all live happily ever after. The end.

Tutus of the opera
(Swan Lake is on the left)

During the intermission, we went out and explored a little. In the basement, there were glass cases filled with costumes from famous performances. I thought that the case of white tutus was especially exquisite. We also went down to the orchestra level seating so we could get a better view of the pit as well as the mural on the ceiling. It is a collage of scenes from difference operas and ballets with the name of the composer written next to them. A few that I could pick out include Swan Lake, Marriage of Figaro, Giselle, and Romeo and Juliet.

Friday - 10/25

Porcelain bridge

This afternoon, Aly, Gracie, and I tried to go the the Musée de l'Orangerie, but they didn't seem to take our art student cards. (which was just as well because I seemed to have forgotten my wallet at home.) We ended up walking around the Gardin de Tuileries instead and saw lots of installations for the FIAC (Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain event, which was only open for that week.

Eventually we sat down in some lounge chairs around the fountain and chatted away under the safety of our umbrellas against the on-and- off drizzle. It was a perfect spot to people watch and debate about random topics. Even though today was slightly disappointing because we couldn't get into the museum, we were looking forward to our trip to Versailles on Saturday.

Golden gates of Versailles

Saturday - 10/26

Super fun day at the Chateau de Versailles! By now, it is a common theme that a miracle has happened when we end up getting to where we plan on going. Aly, Cerise, Gracie, Helen and I planned to meet at the candy shop right outside of the metro exit in the Montparnasse train station but people were late and there was some mix up about where to meet. We ended up missing the 1 pm train my a minute or so, but the next one was only half an hour later. The ride to Versailles was only around 25 mins, and because it was the weekend, the trip was free with our navigo cards.

Chateau Versailles 2011

I visited the chateau with my family the summer before freshman year of college. We spent a lot of time carefully going into each of the rooms and listing to our audio-guide, but we didn't have time to go into the garden. Versailles is the largest palace in France covering over 2000 acres of ground with 230 acres of garden. Today was second to last day of the fountain shows in the gardens so we decided to make exploring the grounds a priority.

Louis XIV in front of his humble abode

Samosas = happiness

On the walk to the Chateau from the train station, Gracie and Helen stopped to get a bite to eat at a South Asian restaurant. They each came out with two hot and steamy samosas and ate on them on the walk to the chateau. At first, the weather was really nice and sunny, but it seemed the closer we got to the palace, the colder and windier it got. Fortunately, it was only intermittently cloudy and did not rain.

Ceiling under reparations

Grand foyer

Hall of mirrors

We tried to go relatively quickly through the rooms of the chateau so we could have plenty of time outside meandering through the gardens. There was a fountain show at 5:20 pm at the Neptune Fountain. I expected it to be super extravageant, with water pulsing to the rhythm of the music, however, it was just he fountains on full blast for the duration of the music. It was slightly under-whelming and we were sprayed with sulfuric water.

Afterwards we headed to the Hamlet of Marie Antoinette which was a half hour walk away, but well worth the effort. Both the house and the gardens ~~were far more modest~~ less huge. The sunset was gorgeous, the sky looked like it was on fire and the sun cast golden light on all of the buildings.

Versailles at night

We caught a bus back to the station, right on time to catch the 7:47 train back to Paris. It was an express train, with standing room only and everyone was squished one on top of another. Every time the train swayed the whole group toppled from one side of train to the other. It was a pretty hilarious sight.

Missaratou and Jean-Claude

Rather rare meat

Chocolate almond cake

The other girls went back to the Indian restaurant, but I was heading home because I was invited to a birthday dinner for my host dad's brother, Jean-Claude. He works in the film industry and looks frighteningly similar to actor Steve Buscemi. We had a lovely dinner with a poached roast that was super rare. I decided to pass on that course.

Sunday - 10/27

Day light savings actually ends a week earlier in France than it does in the US so I enjoyed a lovely day of extra sleep!

Monday - 10/14

Today we had our second visit for the Lieux de mémoire class. We met at the Panthéon to look at the crypt below and discussed a little bit about collective memory vs. cultural memory, and civil memory. I was here before with Mary and Gracie, but this time a lot of the doors to the tombs were open so you could go inside. I don't know if the people are actually buried in there, but I came within inches of Victor Hugo and Marie Curie.

Medallion of Alchemy

Afternoon mass

With the last half hour of class, we took a quick trip to the Notre Dame to see a medallion that we had been talking about in class. We discussed how alchemy became a forgotten science after Newton ushered in the era of modern science. If you go on a guided tour of Notre Dame, none of the guides will correctly identify the medallion as representing alchemy; most will say it represents education because of the books in her hands.

Dinner was an assorted veggie salad (bell pepper, tomatoes, shredded carrots, and cucumber) and the rest of the pot au feu from last friday.

Tuesday - 10/15

There seems to be fewer and fewer people in film class as the weeks progress. Thankfully, this means more table space and a cooler room temperature. This week, we were analyzing two films about nuclear warfare Fail Safe by Sidney Lumet and Dr. Strangelove by Stanley Kubrick.

During the break, Sydney (another CUPA student in my class) and I met Michael and Miles. Being from America always seem to be the hot topic of conversation, but I'm used to it by now. Miles is actually American but he was born in France and grew up here his whole life. Michael is French, but he wanted to practice his english with us. His cute french accent was kind of interfering with his pronunciation, but he was able to string sentences together fairly well.

Dinner was escargot, a raw veggie plate, roasted red bell peppers drizzled with olive oil, and crab. This is turning out to be one of my favorite meals.

Wednesday - 10/16

We went to the mosque for Islam class today. This was a special treat because visitors are usually only allowed into the Mosque if they have pre-registered for an appointment. The mosque was especially busy today because yesterday was Eid al-Adha, a huge muslim holiday.Muslims from all over Paris and the surrounding areas come to pray so the prayer room was reserved for men only. The women had their own separate room on the other side of the mosque for prayers.

Currently, we are learning a lot of Islamology and history, but the whole second half of the course is dedicated to the problem of gender and sexuality in Islam. Right now I am reading a book (in French!) called Le Coran et la Chair by Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed. t recounts his story of being a gay muslim and his struggles to find his own identity and equality in the muslim world. Zahed will actually be coming to speak at CUPA in a couple of weeks, which I am really excited for! Although I definitely have the most work for my Islam class, it is in many ways the most eye-opening and rewarding of them all.

Thursday - 10/17

Art class has officially become very frustrating. All we ever do are the same 20 min drawings without much direction and our teacher Jean-Claude has only two comments: "Gesture! Find the rhythm of drawing!" or "Read what you see! These angles/proportions are not correct!"

Lucy and I tried to explain the importance of doing quick 10 - 30 second gestures to warm up the hand, but I am not sure any of the other students or the teacher understood what we were trying to say. I find this less of a class, and more a free drawing time. At this point, I would appreciate being left alone while drawing, rather than having him stand too close to me, breathe down my neck, and critique my drawing when I am only a minute in. I really wish this could have been a better opportunity. Sigh.

Dinner was with Missaratou again today. There was a movie about prostitution in Denmark, which brought up some intense conversation at the dinner table. Even though prostitution is illegal in France, there is sex trafficking and underground sex slavery.

On the weekends, if you walk up the rue de Ménilmontant towards Belleville, you will see a lot of prostitutes. Both the topic of conversation, and the awkward drawn out pauses / prolonged periods of silent eating made dinner fairly uncomfortable. Not the best of days, that's for sure.

Friday - 10/18

Mostly studied in the Centre Pompidou today. Getting stressed about my Thermo midterm in a week and a half, so much material to learn! And in two languages as well!

Saturday - 10/19

Since I am going to Châteaux de Fontainebleau and Vaux le Vicomte tomorrow, I used today as my rest day.

Sunday - 10/20

CUPA organized a day trip to Châteaux de Fontainebleau et Vaux le Vicomte for the students. Both of them were within an hour of Paris so we all took a big coach bus, which was decked out with foldable tables and a half moon couch seat in the back. I didn't recognize the name at first, but when we arrived at Châteaux de Fontainebleau I remembered that I came here before when I last came to Europe the summer before freshman year.

Trinity Chapel

Napoleon's Throne

As per usual, we had a guided tour and then had some time to visit the gardens. The palace was huge with many types of the same room, used for accommodating guests, courtly meetings, lounging around, who knows what. One interesting tidbit of information that we learned was that the lives of royalty were watched by their subjects 24/7, even when they slept! Also, the beds were much smaller in those days because people slept sitting up. They thought that the position of laying horizontal was reserved for the dead.

Lunch at Vaux le Vicomte

Fish terrine

We had lunch at L'Ecureuil at Vaux le Vicomte. The started was a fish terrine of salmon and white fish with a creamy horseradish sauce. The main was roasted chicken with a cheesy potato tart and an orange-y sauce. Dessert was a cute little pear tart followed by a much needed coffee. I'm not usually one to drink coffee, but after such an early morning, I needed something to get me through the day.

Much needed coffee

Chicken and cheesy potato tart

Pear tart

Vaux le Vicomte

Cutest kids ever

We didn't have a guide for this chateau so we explored the palace and the grounds by ourselves. We rushed through the interior because the weather was beautiful and the garden was vast. We paid Hercules a little visit on top of the hills and had some quality leisurely strolling along the waterside by the fountains. All in all, it was a great day and I had a lot of fun connecting with some of the other students in my program. Now that we are well into our studies, it is rare to see the other CUPA kids on a day to day basis.