Americans in Paris

Hi everyone!

So it's been a while since my last post and I'm running somewhat behind - a semester's worth of work is starting to catch up to me. However, some really exciting things happened these last few weeks and I figure if the evil cat from apartment #1 got some blog time, so should the following...

Two of my best friends, Bailey and Zoe, decided to spend their Thanksgiving break in Paris with me instead of with their families eating turkey. Having friends in Paris was exactly what I could have hoped for over the holidays - the chance to put together a few days and take them around the city was an incredible opportunity to rediscover what I love about Paris at this time towards the end of my trip.

It was also a great way to get in all of the things I had been too busy with class to go to, or had no reason to go to on my own. When they first arrived, we went straight to the Marais, where they were staying, and ate Falafel at L'as du Falafel - unequivocally the best falafel in Paris. Unfortunately (for my case), Zoe lived in Israel for a year and has probably eaten better falafel in someone's garage there, but even she conceded that it was good.

We ended up walking along the Seine all the way to the Musée d'Orsay. There, we saw a pastel exhibit called Mystère d'éclat. Pastels, from what I'm told, can only be shown during a short period in Winter since the light has to be just so. There's also a massive Picasso exhibit split between the Grand Palais, the Louvre, and the Orsay, so we saw Manet's Déjeuner sur l'herbe displayed in a room filled with Picasso's reworkings of the masterpiece.

We ate lunch one day at Café de Flore - one of the really famous cafés on St. Germain that Sartre and Simon de Beauvoir used to hang out. Places like these are all over Paris and iconic, but there's really no excuse to spend that much on a cappuccino unless you have friends visiting who need to experience the "culture". Eating was definitely our main priority, and we had some amazing meals. Zoe's uncle is Parisian and he recommended an amazing and really cheap restaurant in the Marais, right next to the Pompidou museum, called Hangar. We wanted one "chic" Parisian dining experience, so we went to none other than Carrie Bradshaw herself. In the show "Sex and the City," Carrie comes to Paris and eats lunch with a very chic Parisian woman in this restaurant overlooking the Seine. We did some research and found the restaurant, called Kong. I had what might have been the best meal of my life. We could only afford lunch (without drinks), but it was worth it.

We went out on the Champs Elysées with all of the Christmas lights, and made sure to make it up to Sacre Coeur, the cathedral at the top of Montmartre, to see the view over all of Paris. We ate lots and lots and lots of macarons and went to my favorite museum, the Orangerie.

All of the photos from the trip can be seen at:

Friends visit Paris

Until next time,
Stephanie

A Long Weekend in Dublin

Above is a picture of Trinity College in Dublin. I was there a few weeks ago for a long weekend with Jessalyn, one of my best friends from high school who is currently studying in Madrid.

The trip to Dublin was great! It was interesting to see how the city was so different from what I had expected: I think it's easy to assume in English-speaking countries that the culture won't be that different from the U.S., but that hasn't been true at all. And I don't even know that Ireland could be called an English speaking country! Of course, everyone speaks English, but I had no idea that they were required to learn Gaelic in public schools and that all of the signs would be in both languages - and as you can see from this sign, the two have almost nothing to do with each other.

Dublin is also an amazing city to be if you're interested in writing. I was already starting to think about writing my senior thesis on James Joyce, so the Dublin Writer's Museum was the first thing I went to. For a relatively small city, and one that was culturally removed from other major European centers for such a long time, there really was a lot of writing bang for your buck here. Some of the best writers of the last century are from or lived in Dublin.

We saw the Book of Kells, one of the oldest and definitely the most famous illuminated manuscript, at Trinity College. One of my favorite museums that we went to was the Chester Beatty Library. He was basically an American business tycoon who decided to go around the world collecting cultural artifacts. The collection includes some amazing religious texts, including copies of bible pages written in Greek from the year 150 and about ten incredible korans. There are also lots of Chinese buddhist texts and illustrated stories.

In addition to the museum going (we were very good student-tourists), we also did what one has to do when in Dublin - go to pubs. While we were staying right in Temple Bar, the supposedly really cool but touristy pub area, we stayed out of that neighborhood and mostly went out around Grafton Street. We even accidentally went into a really famous pub where Bono from U2 goes all the time and didn't even find out until the next day. We drank lots of Baileys Coffee (definitely NOT coffee with Baileys - we were corrected several times) and everyone was almost shockingly friendly. The pub culture isn't a myth - every single night, every single bar was packed almost to capacity.

We also saw some important sights like Christ Church, which has a really cool tomb underneath it, and the Viking Museum. We went to the Jameson Whiskey Distillery and I was quick enough to volunteer to be a taster. I don't even like whiskey but I braved through a taste test of Jameson Irish Whiskey, Scotch, and American whiskey. It was really interesting to see the distilling process and how each one tasted so different.

All of my pictures from Dublin can be seen at

Dublin 11/2008

Until next time! xo
Stephanie

Crooked lives...literally

Hi everyone!

So it's been a while since I last wrote, which is mostly indicative of the fact that school is cracking down and starting to become a reality. The constraints of my program makes it difficult to organize coursework with the french universities: we need three grades compared to the two that the french students get, and we miss the final examination since our semester ends in December instead of January. Trying to communicate this with my french professors has been difficult, which means that for the majority of my classes, I still have no idea what work I have to hand in, which means I'm looking forward to what will most likely be a very difficult December.

That being said, I tried to pack in some trips into the remaining time before I get too bogged down. This past weekend, I went to Amsterdam for three days. I went with two other girls from my program. We went the cheap way, which meant taking a bus from Paris leaving at 11pm and arriving in Amsterdam at 6am, which was great because it meant that we didn't have to waste a whole day on travel. After dropping our bags off at our hotel, it was still dark outside, so we decided to walk to another part of town hoping that a breakfast place would be open by the time we got there.

One thing I noticed immediately and just could not get over is how crooked the houses are! (See picture above) The city is built on canals, like Venice, and the canals are flanked by rows of townhouses. From house to house, there's almost a 15degree angle between the buildings sometimes! It almost looks like the whole city is about to topple over, so there were lots of jokes during the trip about whether people walk crooked because their whole lives are on a slant, or wondering how they put furniture against the walls in the houses. It's funny that it's the small things like that that you always remember about a certain city. Crooked houses, and the most delicious waffles ever!

Amsterdam is a really small city and by the first afternoon, we had basically figured out where we were and how to get around everywhere. We saw the Van Gogh museum and the Rijks museum. It's funny to think about what a superpower Holland used to be, at least important enough to make up ten different names for themselves (it's Holland...and the Netherlands...but they speak Dutch?) A lot of the Rijks museum was about bringing Dutch art, like works by Rembrandt and Vermeer, back to the Netherlands after basically selling them to other countries. Amsterdam is also a big diamond center, and one of the big attractions going on right is the exhibition of a human skull encrusted with diamonds, called "For the Love of God" by Damien Hirst. The way they decided to display it was awesome: they let about 10 people into a pitch black room at a time and the diamonds basically glowed enough to light up the entire space. It was truly an experience, and we were really lucky to see it since the exhibit only arrived in Amsterdam November 1.

Everyone who had already been to Amsterdam told us that three days would be more than enough, and I was kind of surprised to find that it was true. While it's pretty, Amsterdam is really small compared to most European cities I've visited, and less packed with touristy attractions. We saw the two museums, went to some coffee shops and walked through the red light district. The red light district is a cool novelty for about 2 minutes, and then it gets really sad. You hear that it's prostitutes in windows and then, it's, well, prostitutes in windows. As much as they talk about these girls being in control and these being the best conditions they can work under in this "field," I couldn't help but feel a little bit of Boston Puritanism rise up as I was walking through.

All of the pictures from my trip can be seen by clicking the following link:

Amsterdam

This week, I'm basically staying in to work work work because in two weekends I'm going to Dublin with Jessalyn, one of my best friends from high school who's studying in Madrid. Over Thanksgiving vacation, some of my friends are visiting as well, so I want to make sure to get ahead before they come.

Again, feel free to e-mail me! When I'm not travelling, I'm usually really on top of getting back to people.

Until next time!
xo
Stephanie

London Calling

Hi everyone!

So I'm back in Paris after about ten days out of the city. My tour wrapped up with a weekend in London, visiting Barb and Jeremy and seeing the sights.

London has such a different energy than Paris does - much bigger and faster paced. Barb and Jeremy were great tour guides - we saw so much in the short time that we were there! One of the first things we did was go to the Tate Modern, where there's a big Mark Rothko exhibition going on. It was really interesting, since it's the first time that they've had such a large series of his works collected in the same place. They weren't necessarily ones I was familiar with (every college student has a Rothko print somewhere in their room it seems), but seeing that many of his larger canvases in one gallery was an experience in and of itself. There was also something downstairs about it raining in the future and all the sculptures growing and people living in bunk beds - very abstract, but we got some cool pictures.

We also went to a huge outdoor market and had real fish and chips for lunch, which were delicio

us and very much not part of the "get less fat in Paris" plan, but well worth it. We did so much walking that day that it's almost hard to keep track!

I know for a fact I harassed the police men in the funny costumes because there is photographic evidence. We also went to Buckingham palace that day and took lots of pictures of the building. Sadly, Prince Harry was out of town (we checked up on it, not embarrassing at all)...

That night, Marisa and I went out to pubs in Clapham, near Barb and Jeremy's house, the details of which I will spare you all. The next day, we went to Westminster Abbey and saw the poets' corner. Unfortunately, you can't take pictures in the church, but it was really cool to see the graves of basically everyone I've read in the last five years or so (I'm not sure if that's a morbid thought or not...)

We also went to the Tate Britain to see a Francis Bacon exhibition - the general consensus was that if you took all of your childhood nightmares and had them painting, his work is what you'd get. There was also a really cool thing going on - as a sort of installation piece, runners would sprint down the main gallery in one minute intervals. So imagine looking at a painting and having someone whizz by behind you. I got a few pictures of them, but obviously they're blurry since they were running pretty fast.

The next day, Barb and Jeremy were nice enough to get us tickets for a special Renaissance Portraits exhibition going on at the National Gallery. It was great to see that many museums because Marisa, the friend that I went with, is an art history major. These pieces were also so iconic that even with my limited background, I could easily recognize some things. I even noticed that some of the portraits were borrowed from the Prado and that I had seen them when I was in Madrid a few years ago.

The night after getting back to Paris, I went to a wine tasting organized by my program. It was incredible - the sommelier was only a few years older than us but definitely knew his stuff. We tasted six wines - two champagnes, two reds and two whites, all from France, and they were all paired with really really good cheese. It was a nice way to get re-introduced to Parisian life. Work has definitely started to kick in and the weather turned awful the second we got back, so we're all staying indoors until Halloween tomorrow night. I'm being a French girl, and pictures will be posted!

All of the pictures from my trip to London can be seen by clicking the link below:

London

Until next time,
xo
Stephanie

Cezanne was here...

This past week I went to Aix-en-Provence with a quarter of the students on my program for our scheduled home-stay trip in a different part of France. It was great to get out of the city for a while and get to know a different area. The painter Cézanne is from Aix, and it's amazing how much you can see the inspiration for his paintings.

The first day, we went to an incredible bastide (kind of between a chateau and a villa) for a cooking class with a really famous chef, whose name I'm now of course forgetting. He made poisson à la marseillaise, poulet au vin, and a tarte aux poires right in front of us. Then we got to walk around his massive home and gardens, complete with a pigeon aviary, exotic bird pen, 4 pointers and 6 pugs, donkeys, and god knows what else. Then we sat down to our delicious catered meal - the chateau life is definitely one I could get used to.

In the afternoon, we drove to the chateau at the Beaux-de-Provence, about a half hour away. The chateau is at the top of this giant hill. Back in the day, there was a Roman village there, and you can still see the ruins from the kitchens.

The next day we were left with our families in Aix, and I went to the outdoor market in the morning. Everything was delicious, I thought, except for a pastry that the region is famous for called calissons - not necessarily my taste. The outdoor market, however, definitely was.




The next day, our families got together for what we were told was a walk on the beach. Apparently a walk on the beach in Aix means a hike through the cliffs and mountains that happen to look out at the ocean. After being made fun of for not wearing proper shoes, we did a two hour trek to find a perfect rock to sit on on the shores between Marseille and Aix-en-Provence. The weather was beautiful though, and it's always amazing to see the ocean. All of the pictures can be found at the following link:

Aix en Provence, Marseille, Sainte Victoire

On Monday, our group went on a guided tour to Marseille. We took a boat to the the frioule island off the coast and embarked on what we were again told was a walk on the beach. This time, it was a steep rocky cliff overlooking the ocean. We stopped and had a picnic by the water before going back into Marseille, where we went to the top of the city to visit the Notre Dame cathedral there.

On Tuesday, we went on what we were actually warned was a hike - a three and a half hour trek up the Mont Sainte Victoire near Aix. Our guide was Provençal to a tee - instead of "manger" he said "mangier" and "pain" became "paigne." The hike was definitely hard, but it was amazing when we came down to see how high we actually went. We hiked all the way up to the cross at the top of the mountain and then did a detour on the way down towards a lake. Cezanne painted lots of landscapes of Sainte Victoire, and I'll think of the hike every time I see one from now on.

I'm back in Paris for just a night before going to London for the weekend, so I'll post after my trip!
xo
Stephanie

The big pink dog...

This past week, I finally started my classes at the Sorbonne. I don't understand a lot about the university system here, but the Sorbonne is made up of Paris I and Paris IV, but I can't really tell what distinguishes them. They share buildings, and my classes are scattered everywhere in Paris, but one is right next to the Pantheon which is pretty cool.

Because lectures started but discussion sections didn't, I had some free time to go down to Versailles for an afternoon. Jeff Koons, a living American artist, has some of his work displayed in the Palace.

His stuff is very contemporary, some of it selling for millions of dollars. A lot of people are completely outraged by the exhibit, but I really liked the idea of contemporary pieces being displayed this way in an old space. Some highlights were this pink dog above, and a sculpture of a dinosaur in the gardens outside. Nothing, however, compares to the outdoor gardens.
For more pictures of my trip to Versailles, go to

http://picasaweb.google.com/stephanierichards2010...They're all there!

Until next time,
Stephanie

Airports and Airplanes and Customs Oh My...

Hello everyone!

After a week in Montreal and three days in Spain, I'm back in Paris for the long(ish) haul of the semester. While I wasn't in Montreal for the best of reasons, it was still nice to see the whole family. It was a sad weekend, but it allowed for all of us to be together which doesn't happen very often. 

I had already made plans to go to Madrid to visit my friend Jessalyn and decided to go through with them instead of coming straight back to Paris. My classes hadn't started yet, so it was a convenient moment to get some traveling done.

I loved Madrid! I can barely remember being there in high school because it was such a different experience. When you're with a group of Americans being herded from one destination to another and too young to 

really enjoy the nightlife, a city definitely seems different. Some things though, like the Plaza Mayor are pretty unforgettable.

The first night in Madrid, I was somewhat tired after having done an overnight flight from Montreal with a short stop in Paris. I met up with Jess at my hostel and we walked to a nearby tapas bar. Another thing that's great about Madrid is that it's SO much cheaper than Paris! I almost laughed when we got our first bill - an entire meal cost less than a salad does in Paris.

The next day, we brought lunch to the Plaza Mayor and went to see La Guernica at the Reina Sofia modern art museum. We had both been before, sin

ce we participated in the same exchange in Madrid during high school, but La Guernica is the kind of painting that you can see again and again. That night, we managed to get into a flamenco show at Casa Patas. The manager was nice enough to let us in at the last minute even though we didn't have

 reservations. The show was amazing! I love flamenco music. It was separated into three parts, one with a female dancer, then a male dancer, then the two of them together, all with a five person band behind them. That was the one thing I wanted to do while in Spain, and I was so excited that I got the chance.

After flamenco, Jess and I went to meet some of her friends from her Duke program, and we went out to the discotecas. All

 techno music like most European clubs, but it's always fun to see how people dress and dance differently.

My flight was leaving at 5:00 on Sunday, so we only had a little bit of time in the morning. We went to the rastro, which is a HUGE outdoor market. I bought a really nice purse for 5 euro and a scarf for 2. Overall, Madrid was a great trip. It was nice to have a little bit of a buffer between Montreal and Paris. And I was pleasantly surprised that I had retained most of my spanish - I was worried that a few years off from class would but a

 dent in it, but it was easy to get back into. People in Madrid are also so friendly, which is a refreshing change from Paris, where they're a little bit more reserved.

I started classes this morning, but only had my grammar class with my program. Later this week, I'll be starting classes at the Sorbonne, which I'm excited about. It's weird to think about my friends at Yale starting midterms when I haven't even started, so my semester will seem really short. Next week, I go to Aix-en-Provence in southern France for a week-long homestay with a family, and the following weekend I go to London to visit Barb and Jeremy. A lot of things at once, but I'm excited!

xo

Stephanie