Study Abroad endorses and encourages Practice Visits. Yesterday we practiced going to the IPT (our classroom building), so this morning everyone knew how to get there and was right on time. The classrooms are very nice: tables in a square like an American "seminar room" with big windows and a good-sized white board. I enjoyed the first day of classes and I hope my students did too. It is interesting to work on connections between what you're reading and what you're experiencing. Everyone had something smart to say, which is the best possible outcome!
I have a 2.5-hour break between classes (it's a nice schedule, I'm not gonna lie) so after my AM class I walked out and had coffee in a randomly chosen café. Drank it standing at the counter and felt massively Parisian. Must quit café crème in favor of regular coffee, though. Un crème is a little pricey (but so delicious!). After my coffee break I walked around some more just to see what was in the quartier. It is not a tourist area at all so it was full of regular people doing regular stuff, which is one of my favorite things in Paris. Pretending to be a local is fun--I don't know why! But it does lead to being asked for directions, which happened to me twice today. I helped the first lady, who was on the correct street but did not seem to know how house numbers work, but the second guy asked me for a particular street and of course I did not know it. He was nice about it, though. Parisians have a huge reputation for rudeness and of course some people are rude (often occasioning mutterings from other locals) but nearly everyone I've encountered has been lovely. If they are not lovely they are at least polite, which is good enough.
As soon as afternoon classes ended I set out on another Practice Visit, this time to Versailles where my class is going tomorrow. The train ride was slow--through inattention I did not get on an express, so we stopped at every station between St Michel-Notre Dame and Versailles Rive Gauche. But even with that mistake the whole trip only took 75 minutes door to door, which was about what I estimated. After walking up to the palace gates and being reminded that holy moly, Versailles is enormous, I headed back toward the station. On the way in I'd passed a small courtyard (and its many promotional signs), the Cour de Senteurs (Courtyard of Scents?). So on the way out, I went in and discovered that it's 4 little shops: a restaurant called Le Nôtre after the gardener who designed Versailles' gardens; a glove shop (!!!); a Dyptique shop (fancy candles, €€€€€), and Guerlain which of course is perfume. Guerlain was a really pretty store, and I like perfume, so I went in and chatted with one of the saleswomen for a few minutes. They have an exclusive fragrance at that location (don't they just), called "Versailles." It is lovely and of course it is €210! Ah well. It was a nice little experience to make me feel like I was off the clock!
Back at Cité I went to the grocery store again (forgot dish soap yesterday) and I've finally found a grocery that I like. It's called G20 (no idea) and behind its narrow and slightly grubby facade is a ton of selection. Ended up getting a bag of salad (quote from a colleague: "If I don't eat a vegetable soon I'm afraid of what might happen"), salad dressing, and a bottle of Badoit Rouge (fizzy water that I like) in addition to my dish soap. And I had my Georgia Public Broadcasting reusable bag in my tote so I felt validated in having brought it. Probably the only exemplar ever to visit Paris--I need to take a photo and send it in!
More tomorrow . . . stay tuned!
I'm dying to visit Versailles, so can't wait for your post. I read Caroline a novel about a girl whose father was a gardener at Versailles during Louis XIV's reign -- she had a talent for mixing perfume and ended up in the intrigue at court. I loved it. Would LOVE to have stopped in the Guerlain shop.
ReplyDelete