Mini Blog: A day to flâner

Daniel and I took advantage of a day on call with no calls to flâner in the Marais and go shopping at Les Halles today. He is looking for some specific things (a suit; shorts with zipper pockets). I am looking for things that are nice to wear and bien soldé.  He was also looking for a cooked breakfast so we went, inevitably, to Breakfast in America. I was not in a hurry to go back--as I've said, I do not go to Paris to eat American food. But he was THRILLED.

(Granted, in this pic he looks more demented than thrilled.)

I've realized that BIA makes me very depaysée. Look around the restaurant, I'm in the U.S. Look out at the street, I'm in Paris. And I cannot figure out what language to speak. 

But the coffee was really good.

On our shopping round we discovered Uniqlo, a store I'd have been better off not knowing about. Something about Uniqlo ticks all my boxes. We also went into the Swatch store where they polished the crystal of his watch to take a scratch out for the princely sum of 0€. We went by the Musée Carnavalet and peeped into the garden; we passed by L'As du Fallafel before the line had started to form. (Unfortunately that was right after BIA, so no falafel for me today.) We tried on clothes and heard many iterations of "So, you are from Québec, right?"

More of the same at Les Halles, a mall that is very comprehensive but also kind of stuffy and airless because it's underground. By midafternoon it was time to take a break for a drink and a snack so we passed through a small pedestrian market and fetched up at a café called Etienne Marcel. Outside it looks like a traditional café but the inside looks like late-series Mad Men with primary colors and molded plastic furniture. It was nice to relax in a quiet place with comfortable seats for a while!

Finally on our way out, I talked Daniel into stopping into St. Eustache, built in the 16th and 17th centuries and then restored in the early 19th after the Revolution:

Chapel of the Virgin

The altar

The organ has 8,000 pipes and is supposed to be the largest in France!

Here is what it sounds like.

The organ keyboard is right out where you can see it.

To cap off this excellent day we had dinner with Dr. Kirk and his wife Betsy at Rouge Pomme, which is becoming our go-to place for dinner/dessert/coffee/a drink. I always get a galette du sarrasin for dinner there but the Kirks both had tartines that looked amazing. Then we bought chocolates at Leonidas for dessert. Say what you want to about Paris but the food is hard to beat. So are the cathedrals and the shopping.

Tomorrow, Vicki and Robert and their kids come over from London. We are going to the Louvre tomorrow night. And on Saturday I am going to see Alvin Ailey at Théatre du Châtelet. It's gonna be an excellent weekend!

Paris HQ 2015

Daniel and I arrived at CDG (I have learned that the French call it "Roissy") on Sunday morning, June 28, after a turbulent flight from Atlanta and some fun speaking German in the Frankfurt airport (Taschentücher = Kleenex). This year we were the advance team who came over early to set up the office and classrooms and make the last-minute arrangements before the students' arrival on July 1. We hit the ground running but we also hit the ground sweating, arriving in time for France's most severe heat wave in a dozen years. And I had to hit the ground speaking French, as we'd decided to be 100% Francophone once we arrived in Paris. For 3 days I spoke French almost exclusively; by the time the group arrived yesterday I actually felt a little strange speaking English. Not to say that my French is perfect but it's easier when you're surrounded by it. Immersion: it works!

This year is my third on the European Council Paris program and I am amazed by how my reactions to Paris have evolved. Last year I was surprised at how much I remembered from year one. This year, it feels a little like I never left. And people remember me, which is always a surprise. Mme. Gabrielle, who is the concierge at IPT (our classroom building), knew who I was, and even the front desk staff at Maison des Étudiants d'Asie du Sud-Est (where I stayed last year) remembered me. Probably because I went all Loud American in their lobby last year while checking students in. This year I am back in Maison des Provinces de France where I stayed in 2013. Daniel and I have a "Studio" room which has a double bed, a huge desk for the his-and-hers laptops, a kitchenette, and a decent-sized wardrobe. It is an improvement over the hotel room we used for our first 3 nights, which was as small as only a Parisian hotel room can be. On the other hand, the room was impeccably clean and the staff were very nice. In fact, we have dealt with so many friendly people on this trip so far. Perhaps the Parisians' reputation for coldness owes something to Americans being intimidated.

We spent Monday and most of Tuesday preparing for the students' arrival--interspersed with a few breaks on café terraces--and trying to beat jet lag while simultaneously learning to sleep through Paris street noise (I'm getting pretty good at it). On Wednesday, arrival day, we took the RER out to Roissy to meet the first group of students that landed at 10:45 a.m. Everyone stayed until the last group came in around 1:20; then, we loaded the buses and most of the students slept through the ride into Paris.

I almost did not get on the bus myself--a student lost an important item on her ATL-FRA flight and I went to the Lufthansa desk to pursue its retrieval. I was unsuccessful but I learned something: when you think someone might tell you "No," but he also hasn't really committed to saying "No" ("Eh ben, vous savez, c'est difficile parce que . . . Fin, peut-être si c'était . . . Mais ça c'est différent . . . Alors"), the trick is just to keep standing there till he decides to help you. ("Je peux téléphoner à quelqu'un.") I got the definitive "Ce n'est pas possible" just in time to get on the bus, and today we managed to replace the lost item.

Today was also a pretty good day for passing as French, as I had to take a student to the doctor and then to the pharmacy, and we were asked twice for our Social Security cards. The doctor said I spoke French very well (which I always like to hear). Then I wanted to tell the pharmacist that her English was very good but I was afraid it would be patronizing. I guess I think everyone but Americans knows a second language (most likely English).

The week has gone by in a flash so far. We had orientation today (presentations followed by a quiz game with prizes and then a scavenger hunt), tomorrow is the first day of classes, and Saturday is our first field trip day. Once we get into the routine I hope to post more regularly. Meanwhile here is a photo of me with some of the students from MGA. Arrival day was also our first official day as Middle Georgia State University so I wanted a photo to commemorate:

Ten Things I Miss/Look Forward To About Paris (Mostly Food & Drinks)

1. Un café 
2. L'Écir (in my head this is "our" café as it's down the street from the classroom building)
3. Carte Noire 
4. Badoit Rouge (intensément pétillant, and isn't "pétillant" a nicer word than "fizzy"?)
5. Falafel in the Marais
6. Volvic au Jus d'Agrumes (and pretty much anything else aux agrumes including Volvic Citron)
7. Amorino gelato 
8. Boeuf tartare 
9. The RATP
10. Les soldes

Friday, July 25: Pardon?

I am good at French and can me débrouiller (get by, solve problems, sort myself out) in a lot of situations. However, my listening comprehension fails me at odd moments because, unlike in English, I don't always know what's coming at me and thus cannot respond automatically. This phenomenon is difficult to describe. Think of all the interactions you have with people that require a response, but you've given that response so many times that you barely have to listen to the question before you give the answer. Of course, it's possible to be TOO automatic:
Store clerk: How are you doing today?
Customer: Just looking!

Person who knows it is your birthday: Happy birthday!
You: Thanks, you too!

These are the kinds of interactions I'm talking about, especially the ones that happen in the world of retail where the clerk has to say the same thing 1,000 times per day and thus says it very quickly, not very clearly, and without necessarily looking straight at you. Here are a few that I've collected:

"Sur place ou emporter ?"
This phrase means "For here or to go?" and will be asked of you right after you place an order, anywhere "to go" is an option. Bonus: even in small cafés that mostly do takeout business, you will sometimes get real cups and saucers instead of paperware if you are having your coffee sur place.

"Vous avez le 0,05€ ?"
"Do you have the 5 cents?" This one happened to me this morning. I was buying something that cost 7,05€ with a 10€ note and the lady asked if I had 5 cents so she could give me back 3€. Unfortunately she asked me while looking down into her cash drawer and I had to ask her to repeat herself. People like it when you can faire l'appoint (make exact change), which I am almost always too lazy to do.

"Avez-vous une carte de fidelité ?"
"Do you have a loyalty card?" Just like in the U.S., businesses here have rewards cards, shopper's cards, whatever you want to call them. I am always asked this at Carrefour, so I've gotten used to it. Sometimes (usually not at Carrefour where the cashiers are in a hurry) you will be offered one. I usually say "Non, merci; je n'habite pas ici." (No, thanks; I don't live here.")

I think it's strange that I can answer complicated questions ("What are you doing here in Paris?") more readily than simple ones ("Do you want a small or a large?"). Language acquisition is a curious phenomenon.

Wednesday, July 23: . . .

Don't worry; Wednesday was perfectly fine. But, all things considered, let's just move on, shall we?

Monday, July 21: Woodshedding

Mondays are typically the busiest day of the week for the program but also the least exciting to blog about. Here's how my day went yesterday:

8:30-10:30 a.m.: Taught my class (World Lit. I) about the Qur'an, which was new for me and extremely interesting.
10:30-11:30 a.m.: Meeting with Dr. Guglielmi and Dr. Kirk to debrief the Chantilly trip and plan for next year.
11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.: Ate a sandwich while reading/writing email and working on a new documentation form.
12:30-1:00 p.m.: Faculty meeting.
1:00-3:00 p.m.: Worked (or, some of the time, "worked") in the office--graded assignments, answered more email, helped students print train tickets for the coming weekend.
3:00-5:00 p.m.: Finished up two meeting agendas, some program evaluation questions, and a leftover cookie from lunch. Also ran to the post office.
5:00-6:00 p.m.: Weekly program meeting with entire student body, followed by Q&A, locking up the building, and heading out.
6:30 p.m.: Dinner and some conversation with Prof. Pukis about photography.
8:00-10:30 p.m.: Personal email, call Mom & Dad, tidy up, a bit more work email, Facebook, and BED.

Gotta get up for another adventure tomorrow!

Sunday, July 20: Une grande flânerie

This morning I wanted to get out early and go over the route for my Tuesday field trip a second time. The first time I psyched myself out thinking that getting off at a different metro stop would be "better" when in fact it made my destination much harder to find. Lesson learned: Just do it the way everyone else does! The 5th arrondissement is very pleasant and peaceful at 9:30 a.m. on a Sunday. On the side streets you could hear people's televisions and radios playing softly out their open windows, the window boxes were blooming, and the weather was very mild. I got to the Grand Mosquée quickly, noted the directions in detail, and walked from there to the Arènes de Lutèce. There I was surprised to see the Sapeurs-Pompiers de Paris playing 7-a-side soccer. The game looked quasi-official: they were all wearing matching t-shirts and one team had on fluorescent vests to distinguish them from the other. Maybe there is a Sapeurs-Pompiers league and they were scrimmaging?

Leaving the soccer game behind, I smelled fresh baked goods and followed my nose to a boulangerie for a chausson aux pommes--croissant-type pastry dough with applesauce filling, my new favorite pastry. At the boulangerie an American lady was ordering about 6 pastries and 4 cups of coffee. I wondered where she was going to take them, and how, and whether I should tell her that if she's going to order quantities by holding up fingers she should learn the French way of doing it: thumb first, then fingers--an American "2" is likely to look like a French "3," not that extra croissants are a bad thing.

I put my pastry in my bag (poor choice; it got crushed and made my wallet a bit greasy) for the metro ride to my next destination, viz. the vicinity of Notre Dame where I was trying to find a souvenir to send my my beloved Daniel. Due to circumstances, I have an unused "Postexport" envelope, which is a prepaid bubble-wrap envelope that you can use to send something under 250g anywhere in the world. I knew what I wanted to send because I saw it before but didn't buy it on the spot, so I sort of had to wrack my memory to work back to the right souvenir shop. On the way I slid through Notre Dame cathedral thinking I would attend Mass, but it was 11:00 and the next Mass was the international mass at 11:30, which already promised to be packed. I did learn, however, that when a Mass is upcoming the cathedral staff opens a separate entrance for those going to Mass rather than just visiting the cathedral. Pro tip: there is nothing other than fear of divine retribution (or the possibility of spoiling it for everyone) to stop you from using the Mass entrance and then visiting the cathedral instead.

From souvenir-buying and not-Mass-attending, I walked past the Hôtel de Ville (where the FNAC Festival was already sound-checking at noon for an 8 p.m. start time) to the Centre Pompidou and cruised that area a bit. I went completely around my elbow and kept ending up at Arts & Métiers when I was trying to go to the Place de Vosges. Finally I got fed up and took the metro to Bastille partially just to have a chance to sit down. It turned out to be a good choice--or happy accident--because I discovered the big street market that takes place at Bastille on Saturdays (and Thursdays, the Internet tells me). I could have walked out of there with fish, produce, jewelry, scarves, olives, a marinère, pork chops, men's socks, a new bra, and a fedora. Oh, and some Marseillaise soap.

But I exercised restraint and arrived in the Place de Vosges at last, where gelato was duly ordered and consumed. All due respect to Berthillon ice cream but I go out of my way for Amorino gelato instead. It was a pretty afternoon but some forbidding clouds were piling up. As I walked through the Marais, which was thronging, it started to rain. I stopped into a couple of stores (Lush has been calling my name) but got worried that the skies would really open up. I returned to the Hôtel de Ville, got back on the metro, and was back to home base around the time our students started getting out and about for the afternoon. Talked to Daniel on Skype, worked on my class for tomorrow, answered some email, ate dinner, and soon enough it will be time for bed. Where do the days go?

Click through for pics--I took a few with my phone.

Friday, July 18: Cultural experiences are everywhere.

It's been quiet-ish on this blog this week because I have been busy handling some problems that students were having, and for obvious reasons of privacy I can't say much about the specifics. But I have been thinking about it and I feel okay saying that I've accompanied students to the doctor's office two days in a row, so now I know what at least one Parisian doctor's office is like and what at least one Parisian doctor (we'll call him Dr. Garnier because that's his name) is like. When students need to go to the doctor, one of us assistant directors always goes with him/her, mostly for translation purposes. It would likely be possible to find an English-speaking doctor but the program has worked with the same cabinet medical for a few years and they have been great about same-day appointments and generally giving good care, so we do this instead.

However, yesterday we could not get an appointment with the regular doctor till late evening--it is summer and everyone, including doctors, is taking vacations. We wanted to be seen sooner if possible so I did some digging and found a cabinet that takes walk-ins. One of the regular doctors there is at least nominally Anglophone but he was (guess what) on vacation, so we saw Dr. Garnier, the replacement. The office was very bare-bones compared to what we are used to at home: no front desk, no receptionist, no nurses, just a waiting room, a couple of exam rooms, and presumably a couple of other spaces. Everything was perfectly clean and nice but not at all fancy. No TV in the waiting room (thank God, says this blogger), no paintings on the exam room walls.

Since it was all walk-ins, Dr. Garnier would escort the previous patient out and stick his head into the waiting room to ask who was next. When it was our turn we went into the exam room and he took the patient's name and date of birth, then asked about the problem. He asked lots of questions, explained things really well, and probably spent 20-30 minutes with us each time I was there. He did not automatically do the routine things that a nurse or medical assistant does at every single appointment I've ever been to back home like take the patient's weight or blood pressure. I don't know if that's because he was flying solo or if it's always like that. He asked about symptoms and then did only what needed to be done based on what the patient told him.

At the end he printed out a prescription and also gave us a form that we will turn in to our insurance (special coverage that students get as part of the program package, to cover them while abroad) but I think is normally used for something to do with France's national health care system. The office visit was 23€. Twenty-three euro! At the current exchange rate that's $31.11. Not much more than a lot of people's co-pays. I wonder if he still gets paid something by the national system for seeing foreign patients who pay at the time of the visit? Prescriptions were also very inexpensive.

Both students who saw Dr. Garnier said he was very nice, and I agree. He explained the diagnosis and treatment thoroughly and he was conscientious about speaking slowly (and using small words when necessary) so that we could understand him. To be honest I also thought the atmosphere of the office was nice. It was less polished and "professional" than a lot of doctor's offices but it was quiet and not bustling with a million staff members and phones ringing off the wall. Even as walk-ins we waited less than I've often waited for appointments, and there was no fooling around with waiting in the waiting room, then going into an exam room where the nurse takes your blood pressure and then you wait another 15 minutes (especially annoying at the gynecologist, where you wait another 15 minutes while wearing a paper smock).

So, to sum up: A+++, would go to the doctor again except I hope we don't have to. Everybody wash your hands regularly, eat healthy, and get some sleep!

Sunday, July 13: Un dimanche à Paris

The idea that there isn't much going on in Paris on Sundays is only partially true. A lot of stores are closed but a lot of museums are open, the metro runs, and some big businesses or popular locations open their doors (although I think they pay some kind of tax penalty for this privilege). For instance, I was surprised to discover that the Orange (mobile phone) store on the Champs-Elysées is open on Sunday afternoon. But they are clearly making money via people who need some kind of service at that time. I happened to be there right at the opening time (1:00 p.m.) and there were at least a dozen people waiting, with more coming in once the doors opened. I like the idea that not everything has to be open 24/7--it makes you plan your life better and act more patient. There may be some truth to the idea that the French embrace their downtime a little too enthusiastically, but I can attest firsthand to Americans' culpability in not taking downtime seriously enough. We get less vacation time than most other developed nations and then when we get it, we don't take it! At minimum it makes for an interesting clash of cultures when the 24/7 Americans meet the 35-hour-work-week French.

Since I was in the neighborhood (sort of) I took the recommendation of an esteemed friend and went to the Musée Jacquemart-André this afternoon. This museum seems much less well known than the others I've been to--on a rainy Sunday afternoon, the day before Bastille Day, there was no line and it was not bustling with tourists. It is a 19th-century mansion built by a wealthy banker's son, Edouard André, to house and display his and his wife's (Nélie Jacquemart--she was a painter herself) art collection. When he died, the house and its collections were left to the Institut de France and it opened as a museum in 1913. It is a beautiful space: elaborate but not overwhelming. And as an 18th-century specialist, I was in heaven. A lot of the art dates to the 18th century and the styling of the house itself--as it is presented now--recalls that era. The special exhibition on display was focused on the fêtes galantes paintings of Watteau, Fragonard, and other artists who participated in that style: a sort of dressed-up version of the pastoral in which elegant people in beautiful clothes have a lovely (and sometimes slightly risqué) time in a fantastical woodland setting. The more paintings I'm exposed to, the more I enjoy looking at paintings because I often encounter familiar themes or people I recognize  Two of the paintings by Nicolas Lancret that I saw today incorporated La Camargo, a celebrity at the time Lancret was painting. Most of the fête galante paintings don't depict actual people but the idea of an idyllic party in the country, possibly featuring some shenanigans, certainly reflects things I'm familiar with from eighteenth-century culture. And like many places I've been recently, it's worth going just to see the building. The tour includes 3-4 rooms from the Andrés' private apartments. I always love seeing how people lived "back then," though I still can't quite imagine living in such an elaborate space every day--and with corsets on, at that.

At the end of my tour through the museum I decided to have a coffee in the café and read my roman polar for a while (have learned the difference between a polar, which is more like a noir thriller, and a policier, which is just a regular detective novel). It was only a little more expensive than at a regular café and I got to enjoy being seated next to a gentleman of a certain age and his young Swedish girlfriend, speaking English to each other because that was the language they had in common, and him holding her hand the entire time. To his credit he seemed unable to believe his luck, as well he should have been. Across from me were 2 women, one of whom was wearing several thousand dollars' worth of accessories (Gucci loafers, Birkin bag, and a watch I couldn't identify because I'm not fancy enough) and who wouldn't stop being rude to the server. She was like a caricature brought to life; I didn't think those types existed. Between the coffee (which was very good), the book, and the other patrons I got my money's worth out of that museum café.

Got a little lost coming out of the museum and walked too far through the 8th arrondissement in search of a metro. I don't know what it is about the 8th--maybe just lack of exposure--but I usually get turned around when I go there. Finally I found Gare St. Lazare and made my way back in time for dinner and laundry. Tomorrow is Bastille Day; I'm thinking of going out for the parade but it will all depend on the weather. A little blue sky is peeking through right now, but what will tomorrow bring?

Tuesday, July 8: Le Rouge et le Noir et le Pizza

Today was my World Lit. I class's first field trip. We went to the Bibliothèque Nationale-Richelieu to see Greek vases from the collection of the duc de Luynes and the other objects in the permanent collection on display as the "Museum of Medals, Coins, and Antiques"--about four rooms full of cameos, medals, coins, vases, figurines, and other good stuff. The Richelieu site is worth visiting just to see the building, as it is rather grand. We were disappointed that we could not go into the Salle Ovale but you have to have a reader's card (which costs money) and they do not allow photos. Nor would they have looked kindly on a dozen Americans trooping through, gawking, and chatting. We've been working with the students on their "Paris voices." It's true, I'm afraid, that Americans are loud--especially young American women with higher-pitched voices that carry farther. I have all of a sudden discovered a lower register of my voice to use; it's very handy!

We ended up being very early to the BNF; I was worried about being late and the reservation confirmation sounded very strict about the need to show up 15 minutes early. In the event, we were about 25 minutes early and the exhibit did not open till 1:00 p.m., which was our assigned time. On the up side, however, we did not have to pay. Ancient artifacts: good. Free access to same: even better! I asked the students to find a Greek vase that depicted something they recognized from mythology, a question to answer via research, and another object that they thought was interesting. I found a few bits of recognizable mythology, a question that I got answered on the spot, and LOTS of interesting things, all of which you can see after the jump.

Monday, July 7: Conversations (Translated for Your Convenience)

Scene: Franprix grocery store, where I have gone in search (unsuccessfully) of pens and Scotch tape.

Around the corner from me, I hear a crash, followed by "Merde!"
A large but friendly-looking man comes around and addresses a nearby employee: "I dropped a jar of jam."
Employee (not listening at first): "Pardon?"
Man, starting over: "Okay, I did two things. I broke a jar of jam, and I said a bad word."


Scene: Pizzeria where I am placing an order for tomorrow night's dinner. The clerk is young and friendly and knows Dr. Guglielmi, thus he is not put off by the arrival of an American lady wanting 25 pizzas delivered. He also speaks English.

Clerk: "English or French?"
Me: "Umm . . . French, because I have to practice."
Clerk: "You are absolutely correct."
Me, realizing I'm being teased: "Thaaaaanks."
Clerk: *doubles over laughing*


Just another day at the office!

Sunday, July 6: Rainy Sunday

It was rainy and blustery until perhaps an hour ago but I can’t complain too much. The weather was a good incentive to stay in my room and get some administrative work done. My students’ discussion posts needed grading, my email was building up, 2 meetings required agendas, and most importantly I needed to get a handle on my “official” phone. Dr. Guglielmi bought me an inexpensive phone (this one) to use during the program and it had me flummoxed. At length I got it sorted out although I still can’t text on the dang thing.

With my phone in working order I set out to scout the route for Tuesday’s field trip. We are going to see a collection of Greek vases at the Musée des Medailles, Monnaie, et Antiques, which is at the “Richelieu” site of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. The Richelieu site is the original BNF site, if my memory serves; they have since outgrown it (not hard as the BNF is France’s national book depository, like our Library of Congress) and moved into the “François Mitterand” site that we got to tour last year. I am excited about this field trip as I think there will be lots of good stuff to see beyond the Greek vase collection. It is easy to get to from here and it’s across from a passage with some appealing antique book stores. I know where I’ll be going once I dismiss the students from the field trip.

Tomorrow we have our weekly faculty meeting and the first of our weekly program meetings, so once I got back from my recon mission I met up with Dr. Kirk to go over the agendas. We met in the café/restaurant down the street called Paris Orléans (Vicki, Samantha, and I had lunch there last year) where I had a “Parisienne” salad that turned out to be mixed greens with whole slices of ham and Swiss cheese laid on top, plus tomato slices, hard-boiled egg, and cornichons off to the side. All served on a flat plate that was very difficult to navigate. Note to Paris Orleans: Salad is served in a bowl for a reason. Despite my baffling lunch it was a very nice meeting and we got everything squared away for tomorrow.

On my return I did the work that the meeting had generated and then talked to my beloved Daniel on Skype. We went through the mail that had come for me since I’ve been gone, so I can say I’ve done admin tasks on both sides of the Atlantic today. Finally I had done all the finagling that I could, and cabin fever was setting in, so I took a walk back down by Porte d’Orléans. Passed a boulangerie/patisserie on the return trip where I bought a small baguette and some Tunisian sweets called something like “mokhoub.” [Update: It's "mokrouth"! Here is a recipe.] This place is 2/3 traditional French items, 1/3 Middle Eastern goodies so I went for something unfamiliar. Next time I will get one of the small lemon tarts that have “CITRON” written on them in chocolate drizzle. In case you are offered one and want to know what it is? I ate several mokhoub with my dinner while watching episodes of Un Gars, Une Fille, and the sun finally came out so I took some pictures of the view out my window. The construction site is not very appealing, I will admit, but it’s better than facing onto the street because construction stops at night and traffic does not.

Saturday, July 5: Up and down (mostly up) in Montmartre

Today was our long-awaited (in the sense that we signed up for them in May) walking tours in Paris with professional tour guides. The students had 3 choices: le Marais, Montmartre, or Montparnasse ("I forgot which one I signed up for. . . I think it starts with an M?"). Originally I was supposed to go to Montparnasse, which I'd chosen because I've never visited there. But no faculty were signed up for Montmartre so I went along with that group instead. Our guide Orane was one of the guides on the visit to the Louvre last year. She recognized me even though we'd only seen each other once or twice before. I made a concerted effort to speak French--something I'm working on more diligently this year--and maintained what I'm pretty sure was a pleasant and intelligent level of small talk during the metro ride from Porte d'Orléans to Blanche. For future reference, when you get out at Blanche you will be directly in front of the Moulin Rouge, and that's pretty cool. In fact it's one of my overall favorite things about Paris: the prospect of coming up out of a metro station and finding yourself right next to something beautiful (Aubers station--turn around and you see the Opéra Garnier), famous (Blanche--Moulin Rouge), or important (St. Michel-Notre Dame--right across the street from Notre Dame cathedral).

Orane gave us a great, well-planned tour of Montmartre. The weather was not ideal--it drizzled intermittently--but the heavy rain held off till the tour was over and I was ensconced inside a crêperie. Because Montmartre is one huge hill, touring it is always a strenuous walk. However, there are lots of good places to stop and take a look around: in addition to the Moulin Rouge we saw the Montmartre vineyard, the Lapin Agile (originally the "Lapin à Gilles" because someone named Gilles painted the rabbit on the building--I love a good French pun), the Moulin à la Galette (one of only 2 remaining windmills in Montmartre, of which there used to be 30), and the café from Amelie. I used to turn my nose up at guided tours but I always end up learning something and seeing things I wouldn't have sought out on my own. So no more guided tour snobbery for me; I've been converted.

Montmartre pictures and the rest of my day after the jump.

First day of classes. Horses. Groceries. Mobile phones.

When we last left our heroine she was trying not to fall asleep on a bus. You will be pleased to learn that the effort was successful. I made it to 10 p.m. last night for a total of 34 hours without (almost without) sleep. This accomplishment was only made possible by the massive level of activity that yesterday demanded. Being a site director is very rewarding but very busy. We're always working on current situations and keeping an eye out for future opportunities or problems. I am pretty proud of myself, not just for high-powered sleep deprivation but also for taking the lead on checking students into our building and other acts of Francophone interaction. This year we are split between 2 maisons. I am in Maison des Étudiants de l'Asie du Sud-Est. The house is very pretty on the outside and nice inside as well. I have a huge desk, more shelves than I can use, and a big beautiful tree outside my window. We got checked in last night in record time, took the students on a VERY short tour of their immediate surroundings, went to dinner, ran over to the Institut Protestant de Théologie (our classroom building) to show some new faculty members where it is, and by the time I made it back from that trip it was time to call Mom & Dad and then go to bed!

This morning started early: I walked a group of students over to IPT at 7:40 before teaching my class at 8:30. It was a beautiful clear, chilly morning that turned into a very warm afternoon, really a perfect day for running around town. Worked in the program office after class, had a nice outdoor faculty meeting in the back courtyard, and then managed to beg off for a few hours to get some much-needed groceries and stuff for my room. After a little bit of excess walking I got to Carrefour, where I managed to remember to buy lotion and sunscreen and thus save myself about 20€ over buying them in a pharmacie. (I do love pharmacies, though. They are oddly clinical and posh at the same time.) On the way back I stopped in at Bazar de Porte d'Orleans, a totally necessary but very weird store of a kind seen frequently in Paris. It's like a dollar store crossed with a garage sale, where you can buy one spoon, an incense burner, a 3€ bath towel, and a cell phone cover in a store about the size of my dorm room here. While the cashier was ringing me up I noticed a piece of Arabic calligraphy on the wall behind her and we had a little conversation about Ramadan and whether fasting is difficult. She says "If you have the will power to do it, you really don't think about it after a while." That is some serious strength of mind, especially since the days are so long here. She said she can only eat between about 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. I couldn't do it, especially not here where we walk so much.

Finally I had to return to IPT to meet students who wanted to go to the Orange store to get phones/SIM cards. It turned out to be a large group and a small store. After taking the first few students inside and using my best translation skills it became clear that another approach was needed. We encouraged independent research followed by a return to the store in a smaller group. God bless the gentleman that waited on us. Customer service gets a bad rap in France but everyone I've dealt with the past two days has been a gem. The front desk staff in our maison has already seen too much of me and been very kind. The lady at the post office gave me directions and was only a little skeptical when I asked if I could use a card without a chip in the ATM machine. (La Banque Postale is a subsidiary of the French postal service--could be something for the USPS to consider as a solution to their liquidity problem!)

Funny things from today:

• On Boulevard Jourdan near Cité U. I saw four large vans (like tour buses but without windows) whose livery indicated that they carried horses. One specified that it contained the horses belonging to Qatar's national equestrian team. I was glad I saw them because it reminded me that I'd seen an equestrian event advertised. Some Googling got me to Paris Eiffel Jumping, which is this weekend and which unfortunately is sold out. Quel bummer! 
• I was asked for directions twice today. Why does this continue to happen?

In short, everything is happening and nothing is happening. It's a million small things a day. To be honest, when I agreed to be site director I was not sure I was ready for it, but having that challenge to rise to is good for me. Pushing myself to wade in and take care of things is good for my confidence. And having been here before makes a huge difference. I'm surprised at how much I remember from last year without even having to try. 

We are all excited for tomorrow evening when we have a dinner cruise on the Seine. Can't wait to get my camera out! Photos incoming!

French Trains For Noobs

Most of us from non-train-taking parts of the country are perplexed, at least at first, by the wealth of rail-based transit offerings in Paris and throughout France. Maybe we group them together under the broad heading of "The Train" (or even "The Métro") and try to generalize about them on that basis. However, the generalizations will not be sound or helpful. Herewith, what I've learned about French trains so far. May it serve you well. (And may you correct me if I get things wrong.)

You should know that there are (approximately) 3 types of trains that will take you around and in and out of Paris. They are:

• The Métro: The métro is what New Yorkers would know as the subway or Londoners would know as the Tube. It runs (mostly) underground within Paris, with trains running every few minutes from roughly 6 a.m. to midnight. It is run by the RATP, Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (Paris Public Transit Company, which also runs the buses and tramways within Paris). If you have a transit pass such as a Navigo you can use it on pretty much any métro train, bus, or tramway and also on the funicular that takes you up the Butte de Montmartre to Sacre-Coeur. 
• The RER: The RER is a small train that runs within Paris and out to the Paris suburbs. The letters stand for Réseau Express Régionale, i.e. Regional Express Network. For certain destinations within Paris it is easier to take the RER than the métro. If you go outside the city center to a place like Euro Disney or Charles de Gaulle Airport, you will take the RER. It is run jointly by the RATP and the SNCF, Societé Nationale des Chemins de fer Français (French National Railway Company, which also runs the grands lignes). The RER, like the métro, runs from roughly 6 a.m. to midnight. Your Navigo will take you only so far on the RER, so be careful. If you are going to Charles de Gaulle, for example, you will have to pay extra because it's a longer trip.
• The grands lignes ("major lines"): Run by the SNCF, these are proper trains that will take you from the main train stations in Paris to other cities in France and beyond. For this type of train you have to buy a ticket and, in many cases, get a reserved seat. They leave from one of the seven main stations depending on the direction/region they serve. The hours are more limited because the journeys are longer. The SNCF runs several different types of trains, including the well-known TGV high-speed train. 

If you know the differences among trains you can figure out how to get where you need to go and how to pay for it. The métro and RER are very easy and fast once you learn to use them. The major lines are a great way to see some countryside en route to your destination.

We Talk Pretty

When I read David Sedaris's Me Talk Pretty One Day, I laughed until I cried on multiple occasions. Listening to this segment from This American Life is even better: still funny, but also profound. Ultimately he gives a good answer to the question of why we take the risk of entering a foreign culture: the slight strangeness of everything and the need for heightened observation are exciting (albeit occasionally defeating). It is probably preferable to experience gaffes in foreign countries as adventures rather than as humiliations--unless one is David Sedaris and can make such fantastic material out of the humiliations.

Also, frankly, I love the way he transliterates his hardware-store French. "And now I have come to find a table that might work with my iron."
Him Talk Pretty Three Days

One day more

For our last day in Paris we split up to visit the things we most wanted to see (and, in my case, run some unglamorous and non-touristy errands). Daniel went to play poker at Le Cercle Clichy Montmartre--I was surprised to find out that this is not a random hole in the wall but a beautiful historic building.  (Why was I surprised? Isn't everything in Paris in a beautiful historic building?) I went with Vicki and Samantha to visit Notre-Dame (we had been on the premises but not been inside). It is spectacular. Vicki especially loved it.

They then headed on to the Orangerie while I went back to Cité Universitaire to see if they had my camera charger. I think I must have left it in my room when I moved out, but the Maison de Provinces de France did not have it. It never turned up in my luggage, so I will have to replace it. Sigh. That's also why these pictures are from my iPhone. The visit to Versailles was the end of my camera battery.

Friday afternoon I decided to take up someone's suggestion to visit Sainte-Chapelle and I am so glad I did. It costs a bit of money but it is worth it: an incredible little chapel from the 13th century whose walls are practically all stained glass. Beyond gorgeous.

I had just enough time to finish my last mission: writing some cards to friends to post from Paris before we left. I sat at a café behind the Centre Pompidou and then felt really proud because I successfully followed the café waitress's directions to the post office. Back at the apartment it was nap time and then over to Brasserie Vaudeville for our last Parisian dinner. It was delicious (again)--Dr. Guglielmi gets all the credit for introducing me to it. This time I skipped the appetizer (okay, I mooched some of Daniel's foie gras), had beef carpaccio and frites for my plat principal, and chose crème brûlée (always yummy) for dessert. We drank a carafe of Beaujolais, cracked jokes with the waiters, and generally had a great time.

Our intended after-dinner destination was Parc Tino Rossi for a bit of alfresco dancing, but I got the directions totally wrong (wrote them down but didn't bring them; remembered them wrong). I took us to the Pont de l'Alma instead of Pont d'Austerlitz. We would have been very disappointed but we happened to come out of the métro at about 9:54, just in time to see the Eiffel Tower light up at the top of the hour! What a great ending to our visit.

One of the things I like about Paris is that even when you don't end up where you intended, you usually see something great anyway!

It was a little hard to go to bed knowing we'd be leaving the next day. But Paris will be there when we get back.

An Average Parisian Day

I've been meaning to do this for ages and finally got around to it on our last day of classes. Here is my day in pictures. 

Wake up & get ready in my room.

Walk down to the RER station.

Await the train.

CROWDED.

Crossing Place Denfert-Rochereau on the way to the Institut Protestant de Théologie where our classes are held:

Breakfast!

I always wonder where people go when they disappear through doorways. This is the doorway through which I disappear.

The front courtyard at IPT:

Up to my classroom. This is where I am for most of the day.

If not in class I'm in the faculty office:

The resident cat at IPT. Several of the students have given him various names; one calls him Jambon because she feeds him some of her ham sandwich at lunchtime. So I call him Jambon also.

Get the train back at the end of my afternoon class.

Today I did some work on the terrace of the café at Cité U.

Then I had to go into the library to use a computer there. While there I picked up Le Point (Newsweek-type magazine) to read about "Better Living with Aristotle and Plato." (Only in France where philosophy features on high school graduation exams.)

Dinner at FIAP Jean Monnet, another student residence, because our cafeteria is closed for renovations.

Walking back from FIAP as the sun begins to think about maybe setting in another hour or two. (This was around 8:30.)

And so to bed.

All around the houses

Annabel used this expression last weekend in reference to buses with roundabout routes: they go "all around the houses." Perfect for a day like today. We kicked off with an excellent excursion to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, which is a cool place to visit. It is a research library and the official book depository for France (like the Library of Congress in US), so visiting is not quite as simple as going into a normal public library. I had booked a guided tour and we got this very nice guide named Edouard who told us a lot about how the library works and about its history. It is comparatively new--built in the 1990s after the BNF outgrew its old space near the Louvre (Bibliothèque Richelieu), but the Richelieu site is still used to house historic manuscripts, the BNF's coins/medals collections, etc. This new building--Bibliothèque Mitterrand--is comprised of 4 towers with a garden in the center and big corridors connecting the towers. It's a little hard to describe but very impressive! We got to see the reading rooms, which instead of being beautifully medieval or beautifully Victorian, are beautifully mid-century modern. We saw two enormous globes, one of the earth and one of the sky, that belonged to Louis XIV (mais bien sûr) and are now part of the BNF's maps collection. We went into the basement to see the system of tracks and receptacles that ferries books between parts of the library. If you have seen the part in Monsters, Inc. where Sully and Mike are flying around the factory among all the bedroom doors, you have an idea of what this system looks like. Each reading room has a selection of books that is open to the public but the vast majority of their holdings are in closed stacks. It takes about 40 minutes to retrieve a book once a patron has requested it. To get books from the closed stacks you have to be a credentialed researcher and even then you cannot leave the library with your books--hence the gorgeous reading rooms. It was a great tour and good material for our discussion of the rise of moveable type printing in British Lit.

I left the BNF with Dr. Guglielmi to get some lunch before a meeting with him and Dr. Kirk. Métro line 6, change at Denfert-Rochereau (not at Raspail which is an easier change but then you double back on yourself) to line 4, out at Port d'Orléans. As we ate salads on a café terrace--fueling my love of café terraces--we noticed the sky darkening and the wind picking up. By the time we hurriedly paid the bill, the paper placemats were trying to escape and patrons' napkins were rolling down the street. The rain started as we dove under the tram station's overhanging shelter. Normally we would not have bothered to take the tram two stops to Cité Universitaire but by the time we got out at Cité it was pouring. We waited for small breaks in the heaviest rainfall and dashed from the tram stop to the Cité entrance. As we waited it out there, Dr. Guglielmi got a call that our meeting was canceled. Dr. Kirk appeared 5 minutes later with an umbrella (smart man). By the time we got the meeting rescheduled, the rain had ended and we all went our separate ways, battered but unbowed.

Between 2:30 and 6:30 I managed to do two loads of laundry (consecutively, not simultaneously), go to the post office, hit the library computers to update my grade spreadsheets and take care of some necessary record-keeping at MGSC, go to the grocery store, and start this blog entry. At 6:30 I was in the "red room" (one of the common rooms at Cité) to help organize this week's pizza night. At 7:00 we had an informal faculty meeting. And now it is bedtime. I feel like I've been all around the houses today!

There's only one thing that I know how to do well

Today was a regular class day plus a faculty meeting at lunchtime and a program meeting coming up at 5 pm. My classes are going well and, in fact, doing parts of my job for me. My Special Topics class ("Dangerous Liaisons: Anglophone Cultures and France") had two short pieces of reading for today, but I had gotten a day ahead of myself and prepared for Wednesday's class on The Sun Also Rises. I had no notes at all on today's reading! So after some general discussion of various impressions and experiences I set the class to review both pieces and pick out the ideas they would want to highlight if they were teaching the material to a class themselves. It is a small group (5 students--small class sizes are a side benefit of study abroad) so this approach worked well; I knew we'd have time to review everyone's conclusions. They re-read everything, made and compared notes, and finally shared their best ideas. The two readings were really disparate (an essay by G. K. Chesterton and an interview from TheHairpin.com) but we found that they highlighted the same idea about experiencing a foreign culture: that slavish imitation is risky and staying true to yourself is best for a number of reasons. I hope wearing a scarf a lot more often is not too slavish. I am still true to myself but I'm true to myself with a scarf on!

During lunch we started talking about next year's trip--I can't believe we are already planning it. It looks like the dates will be roughly the same as this year's but we may structure the first week a bit differently. We are also hoping to add more students to the program. This year, there was a wait list and some students were turned away.

This afternoon after classes I looked up a post office online and went to mail my postcards. Unfortunately the automated machines would only take coins (I didn't have enough coins) or a credit card with an embedded microchip. These cards are common in Europe but only beginning to be available in the US. I was able to get one from Bank of America but not my local credit union. Most of the time I've been able to use my regular debit card with no problem; however, you occasionally run into a card machine--like the ones at la poste--that will only take a chipped card. So I'm waiting till tonight when I can go to the one at Cité and either pay in notes or use my other card. I've been following the advice that it's best to carry as little cash and as few cards as you can get away with. Good advice but with occasional inconveniences attending.

I've also been working on planning my day trip to Caen with the help of Nicole's friend Françoise. She called me earlier today and when I called her back she passed along some facts and figures about the sights we could see in Caen. About 4 students have said they are interested in going with me and I think that's a perfect size for a group. We will probably go to the Abbaye aux Hommes where William the Conqueror is buried, maybe to the Abbaye aux Dames, possibly to the château to see Impressionist art (although Françoise says the best Impressionist art is in Rouen), and hopefully out to Ouistreham to see the Atlantic coast from the other side. She is sending me the opening hours and prices for everything and then we'll have to see how much we can squeeze into a day. The train journey is only 2.5 hours so if we leave a bit early and come back a bit late we'll have plenty of time.

Program meeting is in 15 minutes and I'm desperate for a snack, so I'm going to go and look for either a fruit stand or a vending machine. Have not been able to do pictures today but don't give up hope; it will happen! À bientôt!

Ooh, ooh! Did I tell you I am going to the ballet on Wednesday? SO EXCITED.