week 3

In class we’ve been going over grammar and how to phrase sentences in more complicated ways. Our favorite song that we learned this week was “Champs-Elysées,” so we’ve been singing it every time we’re near the road, or if it’s just stuck in our heads. (We have class every morning for an hour and a half or so, and then we usually have something to do in the afternoon or at night. Other than that, we’re free to explore the city.)

Just a general overview of the kind of food I’ve been eating: In general, we eat breakfast at the place we’re staying (the FIAP). I have a croissant almost every morning. (To be more French, I should have a cup of coffee, too.) We also usually take one of the chocolate croissants that they have at breakfast and save it for later in the day. We have a meal plan at the FIAP, so we eat one meal there per day. It’s not horrible food, but it’s not the best either. When we get to eat out somewhere, it’s really fun. Sometimes we do picnic stuff, but also sometimes a sit down restaurant. I actually had my first “real” French dinner the other night. I’m learning that the French really like to put together meat, sliced potatoes, lettuce, and tomato. It’s a really good combination.

We went to the Ile de Saint Louis on Monday, which is in the middle of the Seine. We had some really good ice cream and saw the Notre Dame. The Notre Dame was so crowded—lots of tourists. It makes me wonder what the church was like before it became famous (before Hugo’s book—The Hunchback of Notre Dame). I kind of want to read that book/see the movie again, haha.

I went to see another French movie, Affaire de Famille, which I really enjoyed. We thought it was a comedy, but it ended up being a dark comedy, which we figured out after the first quarter way through. I feel like I’m being able to understand more French, kind of, even though I still can’t pick up on everything they’re saying.

The other night we took this [English-speaking] bike tour through Paris. It was so fun because we got to ride through and see all of these sights we’ve been looking at for so long, but we got to see how they all connected together. It was in the evening, too, so the sun was setting. My favorite part was when we rode through this archway into the courtyard surrounding the Louvre, with the sun setting in the background. It was beautiful. And we got to take a boat ride on the Seine.

Yesterday we went to the Louvre. I wasn’t that excited, just because I was kind of overwhelmed at the thought of how big it is, but I ended up really loving it. I was there from about 3 in the afternoon until 9 pm. One of my favorite paintings was “The Raft of the Medusa” by Théodore Géricault because of the emotion in all of their faces. It’s the point between hope and despair. I also really liked this series of four paintings by Nicolas Poussin. Each painting represented a season and a biblical scene (spring: Adam and Eve, summer: Ruth and Boaz, fall: gathering grapes in the fields, winter: Noah and the flood). There were A LOT more works that I really appreciated and enjoyed, such as the statues “Psyche and Cupid” and “Dying Slave,” and the paintings “The Piesta of Villaneuve-Les-Avignon” and “St. Joseph the Carpenter.” (plus many more) I just really enjoyed walking through everything, even though there was no way I could understand or appreciate it all because there is SO MUCH. Oh, and they also have part of the medieval castle there, which was really cool.

A little over a week left!