Orientation in Paris

(7-11 September)

So anyway, we arrived in Paris on the evening of the 7th of September. We met our host families at Trocadéro, which is the spot in Paris that has the nicest view of the Eiffel Tower (and it really does). My host father came to pick me up with his son, Alexandre, and they were immediately very excited, and very easy to talk to. They picked me up in a car, thank god, because my bags were so heavy, and would have been absolutely miserable in the metro.

We got to their house after a good drive through the city, and it is absolutely amazing—they live in a huge house in the 14th arrondissement—I live on the top floor, and my room is fairly adequate. It turns out that there is another American student living with the family, Michael, who I share a bathroom with. He is a nice kid and we get along fine.

When I arrived, Madame was working (her law office is in the house), and I think she was in a meeting with someone. After a few minutes, she called me downstairs and introduced herself. She was very nice and welcoming, but I could tell she was very busy. She raced through all of the house rules and procedures so quickly that I could barely understand her, and then she had to leave to go to a meeting across town and said she wouldn’t be dining with us that evening. I got the impression that she is a very busy, hardworking woman, but she was very friendly nevertheless, and I liked her right off the bat.

That evening at dinner, we had chicken. Michael was not around that night either, so it was just Monsieur, Alexandre and me. It was very enjoyable, and I had quite a good time talking to the both of them. Monsieur is very nice and incredibly friendly, and I like him very much. He is an endocrinologist, and has a private practice (at least I think), somewhere in Paris.

The next day, I woke up and left the house early, because it was our first day at Reid Hall (the school), and I had never been there before, and no one really told us how to get there, and so I wanted to make sure I could find it okay. So I left the house and started walking when I realized that I had no idea where the metro station was. I didn’t panic, but I just kept walking in what I thought would be the logical direction for the metro station. Well, after I asked a butcher, and a baker (not making this up), I finally found it. The station is actually quite far away (it takes me about 8 minutes to walk there from my house) compared to some of my friends who live right next to their stations. It is no problem though, because it is a very nice walk.

The ride to school on the metro is fairly painless—it is only 4 stops away on the same line, so it takes less than 5 minutes to get there. After I exited the metro, I had no idea which way school was, so I just walked. Well, I ended up at the Tour Montparnasse, which I knew was not the correct direction, so I had to turn around and walk back. It was not a bad walk at all though, and I still made it to school fairly early. After a few minutes I saw Adam, so I wasn’t by myself for very long, and then one by one everyone started showing up.

We had a few little information meetings, and we met Joelle, the assistant director for the program, who is very nice and agreeable, and also American. After a while we were free for lunch, and then we met Marie-Laure, our tour guide, to see the Sainte-Chapelle and the old Royal Palace, which is the present day Palace of Justice. The Sainte-Chapelle was absolutely amazing—it is a huge old church on the île de la cité, which is a small island in the middle of the Seine River. The Notre Dame Cathedral is on the other side of this island.

After visiting these cites, we took a river cruise across the Seine, which was so much fun! We saw so much from the boat and took so many photos, and just had so much fun. I am definitely planning on taking another river tour with some friends because of how fun that was.

The next day, (Wednesday), we went to the Cluny Museum, which is the museum of the middle ages. It was certainly enjoyable, and they had this one series of famous tapestries that I’d never heard of before, but were very old and very beautiful. I was a bit bored with that museum though, and I was a little sick of walking to be completely honest. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the Latin Quarter, which is a very eclectic, old area of the city. A lot of cool bars and clubs are located there, and I have been back a few times since.

That afternoon I finally bought a French cell phone, so I could finally be in contact with my friend there, and actually have a social life at night. So, that night, Adam and I met back at the Latin Quarter, and just hung out with a bottle of cheap rosé at a local café, and just bonded over old funny stories. We had quite a good time.

Thursday, we went to the Louvre—this was so much fun. I did not know, but apparently The Louvre is the biggest museum in the world. There were so many amazing works of art, and I can not even begin to talk about which ones I liked best because of how many there were. The Venus de Milo, of course, was absolutely breathtaking. It is one of those things that you don’t realize until you’re standing right in front of it. The Mona Lisa was okay. I know that people are often disappointed by its size. To be honest I was not disappointed with the size at all. After all, it is a portrait. Portraits are never huge, but it certainly wasn’t small. I thought it was an adequate size for a portrait. I was most disappointed by the fact that you can barely get close enough to it to look at it because of how many people are crowding around it.

That afternoon we went to Montmartre, located on the highest hill in Paris, all the way in the north part of the city. There is an amazing view of the entire city, and I got some really cool photos. Montmartre is where a lot of the famous writers and artists lived in Paris in the 19th century, and so it has a very liberal, artsy, eclectic feeling. The Moulin Rouge is located there as well, and it was pretty cool to see that in person.

Friday, we went to Versailles, which is a huge palace built by Louis XIV, located about a half hour south of Paris. The palace was so ornate and absolutely beautiful, but the gardens were even more incredible—probably the most beautiful gardens I have ever seen in my life. Not to mention they were absolutely immense. That afternoon, a few of us just sat around a table at a café in Versailles and had a great time enjoying each other’s company, and enjoying the beautiful weather.