Okay. I last left off on Sunday, I believe. Brigitte took me to a free exposition of Yann Kersalé's art, "Seven More Times In the West". He's a French architect/artist that basically designs light exhibits for French buildings and monuments and illuminates them in really interesting ways. A little difficult to explain, so check it out. He was hosting an expo of his latest art that was inspired by the four elements. Each piece mixed light, sound and video in really, for lack of a better word, interesting ways. The longer you stood in front of a piece, the more it changed; at first, for example, I thought one piece was showing images of trees but the longer I watched it I realized it was actually waves on the beach. Here are some photos from the exhibit, they don't give nearly the full effect because the hall was very dark to better view the pieces, but it gives you a (very small) idea of what it was like!
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| Look Ma, I'm art! |
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| Brigitte really enjoyed sticking me inside the exhibits and taking photos. |
I don't remember if I did anything else on Sunday, tant pis, so on to Monday! Being in Paris does not mean that I'm going to stop baking (cue collective eye roll, you know who you are), so I attempted my first baking experiment, metric-style. Quite difficult since I had to translate everything not only into French, but into grams and milliliters! Everything is weighed on a little scale, which is something that's starting to become fashionable in the States as well, but it's a lot easier to do when you know you want around one cup of flour versus 56.7 grams. All differences aside, the banana bread I made was not a failure, although to me it definitely looked and tasted different from the one I make at home (the texture and consistency of the flour here is definitely not the same). Next up will be zucchini bread, so stay tuned! In the afternoon, I went to the 4ème because we had a date with our French university 'buddy.' I went a couple of hours early so I could explore the area, and ended up visiting France's Holocaust museum. Not a light and fluffy Parisian affair, I know, but it was certainly very interesting, especially to see examples of the war from the European standpoint. They also had a beautiful memorial room that was very well done. After the museum, I wandered around some more just looking in all the little boutiques and seeing what there was to see. Then it was time to meet up with my buddy! She took us to the Hôtel de Ville, seen here:
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| Not too shabby. |
Most of Tuesday was spent doing orientation related paperwork and continuing to prep for my course choices. In the afternoon during the break between Middlebury courses, I went to the movies with Brigitte and we saw "The Artist." Despite the fact that the two of us were by the far the youngest people in the theater, the movie was good (although perhaps not 10-Oscar-nominations-worthy...) and I didn't have to worry about misunderstanding the dialogue since it's a silent film! Brigitte and her friend from Toulouse, who stayed with us for a couple of days and is quite a riot (she told me I absolutely must find "a very rich husband" because of all the jewelery I like to wear, and that I have "the most amazing eyelashes" and have no need for mascara...apparently very long eyelashes are very fashionable here, as Brigitte once asked me whether I was going to put on some false ones before going out for the evening. Nope.) went out to dinner together and so I had one of my solo-dinners required by the program (sup falafal and hummus pita!). After dinner, I went the École Normale de Musique because they were hosting a free piano concert by a young Russian pianist, who played beautifully and chose a really good program, including Bach's Chaconne arranged by Brahms for the left hand alone. (Also, for my musician buddies, in France "Clair de lune" is the name of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata." Fun fact) Anyway, the hall was packed and the concert was a lovely way to spend the evening! I would also just like to point out that I am aware that my daily choice of activities makes me sound like a seventy year old frugal widow instead of 20-going-on-21 American college student, and, well, yeah...
Wednesday: I actually had class. I'm here to study? Ha! Both Middlebury courses were actually, surprisingly, really great! The professors, who are French professors that come to Midd to teach us, were very interesting and friendly and approachable, so no worries there. The language and culture class should be very useful, and the professor is very energetic, which helps for an early morning class. My "Feminine Novel in the 20th Century" course is fabulous, the professor really knows his stuff, and it was so interesting to hear what he had to say, even about teeny little excerpts from certain novels that at first glance seemed really dry and didactic but actually contained all sorts of hidden emotions. Whoo! On Wednesday night, our neighbors, who are an incredible nice couple who have five adorable, tiny, French, wild little monster children, took me to one of their daughter's (daughters'? Crap, English grammar, stop leaving me...) flute concerts, since they knew that I played the flute and wanted to introduce me to her flute teacher on the off chance that she was available for some lessons while I'm here. The woman was very nice and I sent her an email last night about setting up a preliminary session, so we'll see! The highlight of the night was cuddling with five Frenchie bébés who kept wanting me to speak in English so they could hear my "cool American accent" (they learn English at school, but from a British teacher).
And then we have Thursday. Oh, Thursday. Was I spoiled rotten on Thursday! I didn't have any Midd courses until the afternoon, so in the morning Brigitte took me on one of her 'press tours.' Basically, on certain days there are specific design stores that are only open to the press, who come and get individualized tours of the latest designs. The part Brigitte didn't mention is that after the tours, you get free expensive French pastries and then they give you a gift bag full of the latest merchandise. Um, oui. I didn't take pictures because I'm sure that would be frowned upon/be seen as über-American/awkward, but suffice it to say that I was definitely in some of the most beautiful buildings in Paris with the most expensive design wares! Ahh!! (But actually, it was not uncommon to see 750euro coffee cups in these places. That's almost $1000, ladies and gentlemen.) After ooh-ing and ah-ing at all the appropriate times, I basically sampled all the food and drinks in each store, shame-free. Ladurée macarons, sugar-coated brioches, perfectly not-too-sweet-but-lots-of-icing mini cupcakes, strawberry and banana smoothies, and then... (although I'm still unclear how this ended up being included in the design wares tour) we got to tour the Maison du Chocolat. Ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod. Heaven. By "tour", I mean a woman took us privately around the shop and we got to sample all the new chocolates for Spring 2012. The Maison du Chocolat was the first chocolatier in France to mix fruit and chocolate, so it's naturally their specialty, and so I had my very first black current and chocolate combination (so. good.). I also got to sample chocolates that had been made from cocoa from all over the world - Brazil, Dominican Republic, Ghana, etc, and it was actually really interesting to learn about what made each kind taste different, and how some were more fruit or nut influenced. And oui, oui, oui there was a goody bag at the end. Currently sitting on my desk is an entire box of "Limited Edition Ganaches" that in stores is probably $60 to $70. The loot from the other stores included Moleskin notebooks, this beautifully decorated floral-print bag, and very fancy, very expensive coffee samples. Oh, goodness, was I spoiled. Completely ridiculously spoiled!
And now we move on to Friday. Where I was spoiled, and ridiculously so, yet again!! Registration went smoothly enough, I'm now in three French literature classes (Writing World War II, The Writer and His Salons, and Human Love vs. Divine Love) and I bought all my books for the classes (which, since they are upper level, I am already expected to have read and finished, since the French register for the entire year in September. Yeah, that's not going to happen by Monday). This afternoon, I went to my host grandparents' apartment to meet Brigitte's sister, who lived for two years in Michigan, in a development near Detroit (things she finds peculiar about America: 1. That you can BYOB of wine to a restaurant, and keep the rest if you don't finish it 2. People ask people to marry them in public places 3. Everything is handicap accessible and 4. Neighbors are friendly and bring you food when you move in). After meeting her and her big mutt of a dog, Toby (adorable Toby who has a horribly frightening bark but is actually super sweet and cuddly and wonderfully well-behaved, Freddie take puppy notes) my host grandparents treated us to my very first hot air balloon ride in Parc Citroën, near the apartment. Ahh!! Pictures, pictures, pictures:
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| Me and host auntie! |
Et voilà. Therein lies my incredible week two in Paris. Now I'm off to a "Building Party" (apparently a French tradition where soon after the New Year, the apartment building is treated to a party by the landlord in the courtyard...snacks and champagne!) so à la prochaine fois!
x R.
ahh i am so jealous!
ReplyDeletealso i have always thought you would look much better with false eyelashes.