Fun fact: Paris is only a little more than 10 times bigger than Westwood, and it is about 20 square miles smaller than my hometown of Thousand Oaks. It is about the size of Santa Barbara, slightly smaller than San Francisco, less than a 10th of the size of Los Angeles, a little bigger than Manhattan, about an eighth the size of New York City, a sixth of Chicago and Madrid, a 15th of London and about a 60th of Shanghai.
You get my point, Paris is small. It’s been five days and I already feel like I’m getting the gist of navigating Paris. It’s amazing how fast one grows accustomed to a new place. I remember back in grade school when weeklong summer camps would feel like a lifetime, and when after five short days together, it felt like leaving a home behind.
The first few days have left me a good kind of exhausted each night. We started class on Monday. Our weekly schedule includes class from 3:30 to 5:30 every afternoon except Tuesdays and weekends, for French 4 and 5. The other levels have slightly different schedules, but we all have at least one full day off. Even the days that we have class, there is still so much time to explore.
On Monday, the first thing on the agenda was getting our domestic phones. After meeting up at the only location we all knew (the CIEE center), we went to a nearby Orange store (not the fruit, or so much the color). From what I deduced, Orange is like the French equivalent of AT&T or Verizon, etc. There, they have plans for a monthly rental for phones and or SIM cards, perfect for short time visitors. Although I was unable to get my iPhone unlocked, my family had a few “dumb” phones that were unlocked for previous trips, so I brought one with me and hoped for the best that it would be compatible. (It was!) The SIM card costed me 20 euro with activation (or something, I’m actually not sure what this other cost was) of 9.99 euro bringing my source of communication and lifeline to cost me 29.99 euro (about $40).
Since this brilliant investment, I have had much more reliable connection to my fellow travel study students and have felt much less nervous moving around the city alone. I have also gotten to exercise my T9 skills and gotten a newfound appreciation for my iPhone touchscreen. (I’m using an old Samsung that has ancient touch screen technology…it either presses every button but the one I need, or it presses none at all. I kind of miss my flip phone swag from past years, believe it or not!)
After finishing this one chore, we still found ourselves with a few hours to kill before class. The day before, during my stressful trip home, I walked by this station called Les Halles and it seemed interesting and busy which struck my interest. After getting home, I googled it and found out that it was a sort of underground shopping mall. Kind of like Taipei’s underground web, but much less convoluted. It was more like an American style shopping mall, but connected to the Les Halles metro station. It is located across from Paroisse Saint-Eustache in the 1e (short for premier, or first) arrondissement, and is a 6 minute walk away form my host family apartment and about a 10 minute walk from the CIEE center. Inside, there is everything from Zara to Claire’s to Starbucks and McDonalds, a giant bookstore and a movie theater.
After walking around a bit, we decided that the shopping needs to wait. As I mentioned before, sales increase as the month goes on, and the second markdown was due soon. We decided to go up and grab something to eat. We wandered out and onto a street. I wasn’t sure if the street looked familiar or if everything was starting to look the same. But soon I realized that this was the street my host family showed us on the first day. Rue Montorgueil is full of affordable eats, small grocery stores, bakeries, and specialty stores. On Sundays, they also have an open market. Even that first day when it was raining, I knew I loved that street. It didn’t feel infested with tourists, it felt busy but in a bustling city way and it is small and intimate.
We decided to stop for some Greek food that had a pretty long line. We ordered their traditional sandwich that was basically pita and meatballs with your own selection of condiments. It also came with delicious Greek yogurt that we suspected was Fage repackaged…either way, for 6,80 euros, it was a bargain compared to Café de la Paix, and it was nice to sit out on the street. We ran into an American family who decided to give the place a try as well. I can see us going back to that place more than once in the coming month.
Pretty soon, it was back to the center. There is another program that goes on in the center before ours, but they were mostly in class so we hung out in the lounge area, did some homework and read the travel books they had there while we waited for class to start.
Once class finally started, I wondered if time passes by faster in Paris. Because usually, I can barely sit through a 90 minute lecture, but this 2 hour intensive French class passed by in a breeze. We started off with review, but the coolest part is that we do practice that reflects real life situations that we literally use on a daily basis here. A part of homework each day is for “Connaître Paris” or to get to know Paris and write a little bit about observations and such. We also have a 15 minute break halfway through class where we have time to run over to Starbucks (I know, not very French, but believe me it is the only nearby place with fast enough service to get us back to class in time, time may seem to move faster but man do people move slower here!).
The terrifying part is the fact that my French 4 final is next Friday. French 4 is usually a 1 quarter long class, meaning 10 weeks of class and 3 midterms before the final, but nope, we just have 7 days of class before the final. The French 5 final is two weeks after that one. I’m terrified, but I’m just going to cross my fingers and hope for the. best!
After class, we return to the host family for dinner. But more importantly, football. Monday was the game between France and Nigeria, so dinner waited.
The next day, I slept through so many alarms. We have breakfast at the apartment every day, but thank goodness we don’t have it with the family, or I would have felt sooo bad. Instead, breakfast food is set out on the kitchen table for us to help ourselves. This means cereal, fruit, toast, baguette, yaourt, confitures, lait, jus d’orange et thé.
On Tuesdays, we have no class, so the only thing on the agenda was to picnic by the Eiffel Tower!
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Except it was drizzling when I left the apartment. There goes that. Regardless, we all met up by the Eiffel tower and walked around, munching on snacks from the street market and making our way to the Palais de Chaillot across the Seine for a breathtaking view of the tower. Crossing the Seine meant crossing over to the 16th arrondissement, the Beverly Hills of Paris. Needless to say, after walking past a few of the pricey cafés, we decided to make our way back to Grands Boulevards for lunch.
It’s amazing how fast a place starts to feel like a (temporary) home. Or at least, a sort of home base. That’s what the 1e and 2e arrondissements feel like to me, especially because I live with the only host family so close to the CIEE center. I already feel like I know where the stores are and where to go. We ate lunch at a Prêt a Manger, which is like a fast serve restaurant where you grab sandwiches or salads and sides and drinks from the fridge and can order coffee, pastries and smoothies at the counter. The people are super friendly, there’s wifi and a bathroom inside, perfect when it isn’t lunch time (lunch time gets super crowded in this area). Since it is practically self serve, unless you want to order something else, you don’t really have to speak much French, and if you struggle (like I did), the cashiers will try English.
After lunch, we strolled over to the Galleries La Fayette. If Les Halles was like the dixiajie (underground malls) of Taipei, Galleries La Fayette is like the baihuogongshi (department stores). It also reminds me of the Caesar’s Palace Forum Mall in Vegas. Super glamourous, but real. And so so crowded because of the sale. One observation that I found a little entertaining was that I saw more Asians inside this building than I have for the past few days throughout Paris. In fact, almost every store and kiosk had someone who spoke Mandarin to cater to all of the Chinese tourists!
Although it was pretty cool seeing all the 40%, 50%, and 60% off signs, I still couldn’t even afford a plain t-shirt. 50% off 600 euro still hurts my heart a little. Maybe when the next round of markdowns comes around…
Nearby, there are more familiar and cheap options, such as H&M (which was so crowded it was actually humid in there…) and Sephora. The cool thing about a lot of chains like H&M and Zara is that they actually sell different stuff here and back in America, so it is still worth checking out, especially during sale season.
Another note: allocate time for check out. Because it takes a really. Long. Time. Maybe I’m just too impatient, but no one else seemed like they were in a hurry or at all rushed.
We finished off our day back at the café where we went during orientation. This time, instead of coffee, we made sure to take advantage of happy hour. Whatever drink this is, it tastes like cough syrup, so don’t order it.
By the time I made it back to the apartment, I felt so drowsy that I almost fell asleep before dinner! Apparently laying down in bed was not a good idea..
dîner chez le “host family”
We still had a four course meal: melon as appetizer, some sort of meat and mashed potatoes for the entree (they didn’t specify, just called it viande, or meat), cheese platter, and yogurt and homemade chocolate mouse for dessert. French people really value meals, they see it as family time and talk a lot, taking their time, sipping wine and nibbling on cheese and baguette. I’m usually full by the entree, as I usually don’t eat dessert after dinner at home, so I have felt perpetually full here. At home, and at school, I’m usually all about the greens: kale, spinach, bok choy, etc. I don’t think I’ve seen more than some lettuce salad or some arugula in a sandwich here. Even their vegetables of choice tend to be starchy. In addition to all the carbs consumed with every meal, I literally have not felt hungry since my plane landed!
A little note on the cheese plate. I’m not a huge fan of cheese. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty sure mac n cheese and cheesecake are some of my favorite food groups, and I am a sucker for a gooey grilled cheese or a light caprese salad, but I loathe goat cheese. And many of the pungent cheeses I’ve encountered here remind me of goat cheese. This first time we were presented the cheese plate, I felt obligated to make the most of my French experience and try un petit peu of each cheese they had, none of which had familiar names. I found a couple to be decent, but there was one cheese (can’t remember the name) that was some kind of goat cheese. To be polite, I found myself burying the cheese in the baguette and washing it down with a lot of water. I’m glad I put myself out there and tried them all, though! Now at least I know which ones I prefer! And I feel a lot more cultured after the host family walked us through how they eat cheeses (which ones to eat the rind of, etc).
After dinner was another important event, football once again. But this time, it was to represent the USA. We started off trying to go to a Canadian bar in the Latin Quarter, but since it was Canada day, it was super crowded and we ended up at an Irish pub. Downstairs in the basement, we basically hand the room to ourselves, and there were probably around 20 of us from the program there. Even though the game didn’t fair too well for America, it was still a fun outing, mingling with the others and seeing all the other Americans in the city congregate.
What was a little less fun was cutting it close to the metro. Basically, the metro closes at 1 am, but the last metro varies, depending on the line. We left before the game ended (because it was depressing), and caught the second to last metro. Unfortunately, we also had to transfer metros and ran through the station to get to the other platform, making it on to the very last metro of the night.
Ninety seven steps later, plus a few more to get to the second floor of the apartment, we were exhausted.
Wednesday we had class again. The great thing about the CIEE location is that it is right around the corner from Les Grands Boulevards, which are bustling during lunch time. In fact, when I did come upon a café that wasn’t packed to the brim, I found myself wondering what was wrong with it! Since everything was super crowded, we ended up buying food to go from Pret a Manger and bringing it back to the center to eat and work before class.
After class, we wandered back towards Les Halles to shop for a while before heading back for dinner. The host family was not home for dinner, so they prepared the meal for us. Of course, since no one was watching, we gave in to our inclination to eat everything in a different order. It was funny how rebellious we felt, eating the entree (tabbouleh) before finishing our appetizer (ham) and then eating some cheese before getting seconds of tabbouleh.
The past few days have been so exhausting and exhilarating that it was Wednesday night before I realized the amount of neglected work I have accumulated. Even spending the night in, working and skyping, I felt content. I left my window open as I worked, and periodically peered out as the sky slowly faded into night. Bonne nuit, Paris.