Ma vie à Paris: Paris Week 6 (10/14

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.