The Time of Ice Cream and Old Books

Bonjour! This morning, we began lecture in the courtyard outside our hotel to learn about the division of Germany and France among kings. At noon, we were on our own for lunch, so a few of us went to Le Commerce Café and shared penne carbonara (a cream sauce with ham and a raw egg yolk) and a tuna pizza. Though we'd brought notebooks and books to read at the café, we ended up just leaving to walk around the streets.

One of the girls is making a fashion blog with pictures of Paris street fashion, so we approached people and tried to introduce ourselves in French, compliment their outfit and then ask to take a picture for a project du UCLA. Their reactions were so funny, but they loved it! One girl was genuinely completely shocked and surprised to be asked, one older woman was very flattered, and one young woman was super friendly and talked to us (well, to one classmate who learned French in high school). This woman worked at a fashion boutique so she was very touched and told us that her fiancee lives in LA. She only spoke French because she said her English was too poor to speak to us.

At 3 p.m. we left for our daily walk - a long one. I've come to realize that the walks are like personal guided tours that Teo has created using his Parisian expertise. He points out amazing places, but since we have a huge group it's not feasible to actually go there, so we walk by and are encouraged to come back to explore further on our own. It's tempting not being able to go inside, but I'm very glad we are told which places are tourist traps and which are truly worthwhile. 

The metro left us at Odeon once again, and we walked for four hours. Many streets previously housed authors and poets, like Sylvia Beach, and we saw a route that Hemingway often took to Gertrude Stein's house. Our group, with some lagging behind, ventured into Luxembourg Gardens to see where the Parisians relax on Sunday afternoon. The back of the Senate building is across from a dark koi fountain. The rest of the park is lined with paths, statues, flowers, children and small metal café tables for resting. It was filled with jolly people.

We were allotted 15 minutes to spend inside a classic church called St. Sulpice, adorned on the outside with huge columns. Inside, we saw stained glass, high domed ceilings, candles at altars and wicker chairs littering the floor. 

Teo took us to his favorite courtyard in Paris, Place de Furstenberg, which isn't famous or grand or anything, but it's a cute, tiny nook that is quiet. Well, today there were boys playing soccer there, but normally it's a little courtyard the size of our hotel room with a lamppost and buildings all around. I love that the buildings are only ever six stories high, because it makes it feel homey rather than like a skyscraper city. 

Finally, we walked by Shakespeare and Co. and Notre Dame. The latter is insanely impressive, and I can't imagine it being built nowadays. We saw the arches and the gargoyles and the pointy peaks piece the sky. Teo said the gargoyles were built to serve the purpose of ejecting water away from the building through their mouths. 

Some classmates and I are planning to return to actually go inside. 

Teo left us at Berthillon across the river, where he said they sell the best ice cream in Paris. So we all got in line, filling the sidewalk and attracting other tourists who saw the line and joined too. I ordered a scoop of pistache and one of caramel beurre sale for 5,00 euros. While it was a little expensive, it was very worth it. Instead of icy like American ice cream, it was so soft and smooth and creamy. Although I don't usually like pistachio, I ordered it because the employee said it was the best - and it was! YUM.

After sitting on a ledge to eat our cones, a group of us went back to Shakespeare and Co. to browse around. It's quite small and crowded, and many of the downstairs books can be bought in America. There are many classics and a whole Shakespeare section of course. Upstairs, there are old books with dusty spines and crammed couches to read. 

Once we arrived back in our neighborhood, we wanted to get dinner. After looking online, we saw an Indian restaurant that looked good to a lot of the students who loved Indian food, so we went out to try to find it. We ended up not being able to find it, but we found another Indian place that was good. I had butter chicken with rice because I don't have Indian food often and it's pretty simple. 

Humorously, the employees thought we were British because they heard us speaking English. I guess, similar to how we can't tell French accents apart, they can't tell English accents apart but it just sounds like the language. 

While strolling back to the hotel, we spontaneously decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower to watch the lights. It's very pretty at night, and there are tons of picnickers on the lawn. You can see some strange people there, like stupid tourists with selfie sticks in the middle of the street, or this one nice French woman with her husband who said it was her birthday and offered us her leftover champagne because she couldn't finish it and was leaving. Though we didn't drink it, she was very nice to us.

The Time of the Rain Misadventure

Today we began with a lecture in an outdoor gazebo again, but we only had about an hour before lunch. Each day Monday through Wednesday, Teo is taking 13 students to a formal lunch and I went today. Since Teo knew the employees, I deduced that he must frequent the restaurant, which had a long wooden table set in a darkened room with red curtains. The way we ordered was by each choosing one entree (which I learned is an appetizer because it means "enter"), one main plate and one dessert. Teo was very insistent in teaching us to say, "Bonjour madame. Sil vous plait je voudrais..." when we order, to always be polite.

Out of entrees that included a poached egg, escargot, and melon and ham, I chose the plat du jour - ravioli.  The mini raviolis came baked in a little ceramic dish and supposedly were filled with cheese, but it was green and thus perhaps spinach too. The entree ended up being my favorite portion, because the delicious pastas were bathed in a cream sauce, as in pure cream, with almost burnt cheese on top. They were cute pillows of goodness.

The main plat was a choice between items like duck, steak, poisson du jour (fish of the day), etc. I chose the steak because the day before, Teo told us that we have to try it the Parisian way, which means less cooked. He said there are three ways to cook French steak: bleu, rare and mal cuit (badly cooked aka well done). I ordered it cooked medium, knowing it would be mostly pink because I wanted to try it less cooked than normal. Some people ordered medium-well or well done, but Teo translated it jokingly as "mal cuit" to the waitress, who knew what that meant and laughed. 

I never understood when people say meat can melt in your mouth, but this steak did because it was soft. The sauce was really good as well, maybe like worcestershire sauce or gravy. Even the potato slices were soft with a smokey taste.   

 A few dessert options were a cheese plate, fruit crumble, and mine: moelleaux au chocolat. I didn't even know what it was when I ordered, but I wanted chocolate. It ended up being like a lava cake, with a soft center like bread pudding. The drizzles were berry and vanilla.

Since I've gotten used to only eating bread for meals, this made me extremely full. I had a café creme afterwards, but this was the most food I've eaten in a meal in a while, maybe because it was rich or because of my recent habit of simpler foods.
It was nice to eat this meal in courses and talk to the other students, but there were definitely several times when I noticed how loud some of the girls were laughing or talking. It's sometimes embarrassing when we just go with our habits instead of being mindful of the customs here.

At 3 p.m. we began our walking tour of the day, taking the metro to Odeon near the 6th arrondissement I believe. He said the center is part of the older, original part of France. We walked down narrow cobblestone streets where revolutionaries met. The Café Procope, as he pointed out, is the oldest restaurant in Paris, where Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson would eat. It's still in business too! The street reminded me of Diagon Alley in Harry Potter.

I really enjoyed thinking about the historical meaning of the buildings that are older than the entire United States and which people walked where I was. Also on the tour was the house in which Picasso painted Guernica, covered by a huge iron gate.

At one point, we peered across to where the Lock Bridge had been recently taken down, as some sort of red and white material covered the side of the bridge. I'd always thought that the Lock Bridge was just a single, packed bridge, but instead there are locks on almost every single bridge in Paris. Every time we cross a bridge, there are locks attached.

Some locks are cutely heart-shaped or have French flags painted on, but others are truly ugly with purple gym lockers with number codes. Teo commented that this trend developed a few years ago and called it truly heinous and ugly because it obstructs views through the rails and he hates it.

While we were looking at Place Dolphine, it began to pour rain so we stopped under some trees but it didn't stop. It had been very drizzly but now we were soaking even with umbrellas, so we kind of shortened the tour and will continue tomorrow. We stopped just past the Saint Chapelle gates and the oldest clock in Paris.

From there, a few girls and I walked around the same neighborhood on our own, so we could enjoy it at our pace and without a loud group of students. The oldest and most beautiful buildings merely housed little boutiques, like coffee bean shops, jewelry stores, and a book store where we bought some vintage postcards. It felt like a genuine experience speaking basic polite French to the employees and walking around, hair and shoes soaking wet, on this misadventure.

We went into two chocolate shops as well, with beautiful desserts and macarons and pralines and fudge and chocolate shaped like the Eiffel Tower or Sardines or Turtles. We discovered that many of these local French employees are extremely friendly when you try to speak in French, except it can get awkward if they reply in French and I don't understand.

 Eventually we wandered through the maze of side streets and cobblestone and settled at a café on a street corner. Poking out from behind the red awning, we watched the rain fall on the pavement as we sipped café, tea or chocolat chaud.

The Time We Were Tourists

Teo says we aren't tourists, because we will become Parisians. Since we don't visit many tourist locales in class, some of us decided to go to the Arc de Triomphe ourselves. It was easy on the metro, as we emerged from the tunnels to this huge looming archway. I had seen pictures of it but none of them can convey the huge scale of this piece of architecture. It's enormous. 

What's more, the cars racing by are essentially in a six-lane roundabout but with no lights, signs, or lane markings - they just wait for each other and weave in and out of each other's paths. A tunnel takes you under the busy street and right below the Arc, where you can see a fire and flowers that pay tribute to soldiers, and get a more up-close look at the detailed structure.
From there, we bought a ticket to walk up the many flights of spiral staircases; it was a calf workout but we eventually made it to the top. The view is certainly worth the pain: you can see all of Paris in every direction.
In America, we never plan out cities so that major roads will all intersect in a spoke-like pattern, leading to a giant archway in the middle. It was astonishing to see the stone roads all connect to the Arc, and seeing rooftop after eclectic rooftop and iron shutters and ivy on buildings. Of course, the Tour Eiffel stands above it all. It's like the Empire State Building view but better because everything seems better in France.

The hike back down was much easier, and some girls left to go rest at the hotel. I stayed with a friend to people-watch across the street near the Champs Elysees. They're mostly tourists striking weird poses in front of the Arc, like ballet poses or peace signs or pretending to pinch it. The two of us strolled down the shopping street but it was just filled with tourists, and I decided it was the Times Square of Paris, but older. 

At 7:15 p.m. the group met in the hotel to go on a picnic in front of the Tour Eiffel to celebrate the holiday today. The lawn was packed with picnicking groups like us. Teo and his wife Scarlett distributed baguettes, sausages, salami slices, chicken, brie cheese, bleu brie, and some soft cheese that was either fig/nut or chive and tasted just like flavored cream cheese. We also had small pickles, cherry tomatoes, oranges, cherries, and chocolate cookies. 

At about 9:30 we left for Teo's surprise: a boat ride along the Seine! It began at 10 p.m. when it is still light in Paris. We piled into this open-topped boat and were sprayed by mist as we sailed along, watching the water splash against the cement canals. There are bridges everywhere whose decorated lights began to shine as the sun set. The boat took us past many famous buildings of Paris like Notre Dame, the Louve, and many we didn't yet recognize though every building lining the radiant water was old and classic. 

So many of the passengers just snapped photos the entire time, but I've really been trying to limit myself on photos so that I can just enjoy the atmosphere in the moment. I loved dusk, watching lights beam on as the sun set across the water. People were sitting on the edge of the canal, singing and dancing and shouting and eating and drinking to music, even though it was 10 p.m.

By the time we got back, we were absolutely freezing cold from the boat, but the Tour Eiffel was lit up and began to sparkle at 11 p.m. on the dot. 

Walking home, I got lost with a couple girls as we found the metro rail that runs down our street, but we weren't sure if the hotel was up or down so we walked to wrong way and eventually took the metro back at midnight. 

Today, we began to learn how to be Parisians, but we also let ourselves be tourists for a day to sight see some of the many must-dos of the city.