one week down

We have gone on so many more adventures around Paris in the last few days. (I like to call them adventures because that’s what they feel like each time we stay out all afternoon and evening in a new part of Paris.)

On Saturday, I saw my French friend, Charlene, who had stayed with us as an exchange student a few summers ago. That was really good. We first went to lunch at her friend’s Parisian apartment (which was extremely small—half the size of a dorm room, with a counter and a sink and a shower—and expensive, because that’s what living in Paris is like. It was in one of those tall buildings that look so glamorous from the street. I have been saying all week how I’ve wanted to see one of the apartments, so I was really excited. Inside, even though it was small, it was still cute and fun to hang out there.) I was with three French speakers, so I pretty much just listened and tried my best to understand what they were saying. Then we went to the Eiffel Tower and, after that, a bakery. At night, Charlene’s friend got us in to see two one-hour French comedy plays for free because she works there. I really enjoyed them because I could understand what was going on, for the most part, even though I didn’t understand every single word. Afterwards, one of the actors asked me if I at least understood the part when he said, “You talkin’ to me?” I noticed that quite a few times they said things in English like that, which is interesting.

On Sunday we went to Mass at Saint Sulpice, and then walked over to see Saint Germain des Prés, both of which are beautiful churches that are hundreds of years old. The mass was almost impossible for me to understand. I only knew what was happening because I used to go to mass a lot, so I could guess what prayers and other things they were doing.

One afternoon we went to le Jardin du Luxembourg, which is a nice park in the middle of Paris where the Senate building is (I think...). We started talking to this older French man, Michel (we called him “Mike”), who comes into the city on Sundays and sits at the garden because it’s his favorite place in Paris. We ended up talking with him for a couple of hours in a mix of French and English. It was really nice, and we were really sad when we had to go.

The other day we had a huge excursion, walking around a lot. We started with walking to see the Moulin Rouge, which isn’t all that impressive. Then we walked up to Les Deux Moulins, the cafe Amelie works in, and got coffee. That was really fun. Then we walked quite a ways o Cimetière de Montmontre, which has the above-ground graves. Finally, we made our way up the hills and stairs (it reminded us of SPU) to le Sacré Coeur, a beautiful cathedral. The painting on the ceiling above the altar is breathtaking and overwhelming.

We went to a French movie the other night—to “Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis” which means something like “Welcome to the home of the Ch’tis”. It’s about how this guy gets transferred to a small town in the north of France, where the people have a different dialect and speak French with a different accent. A lot of the story has to do with all of the mix-ups in what each person is saying because they say things in a different way. We understood kind of what was going on, but we definitely didn’t catch all of the jokes. But the good thing is that the chairs were really comfortable, and my friend and I kind of dozed off a little bit... haha. Being in Paris is exhausting sometimes.

We went to the Eiffel Tower yesterday, which was so fun. We just hung out there all afternoon, reading and talking and taking pictures. It’s surreal to see it in person.

I love all of the time we spend just walking around different areas of Paris. We go to a cafe almost every day, just drinking coffee (or for me—hot chocolate, which is actually real chocolate melted in hot milk) and talking. Last night we sat at a cafe for a couple of hours watching the football (soccer) game between France and Italy. It was quite the atmosphere. The place was packed, and so were all of the other cafes around the area, and everyone was just hanging out and cheering for France (even though they lost).

Oh, and we also went to Hotel des Invalides, which is where Napoleon is buried. I must say, he has a very nice place.