Paris Chapter 1: Friday

Very early Friday morning I bundled up for my first weekend expedition; Paris! 2 hats, stockings & pants, as well as 4 shirt layers. At the train station I met my first conflict, over come by a little mangled French. I thought I would be smart and go through my wallet and only take the cards I needed. Unfortunately I remembered wrong which credit card I used to purchase my ticket. Of course, though everyone else says normally someone speaks English there, I have never been so lucky. We established together that I would be charged on the credit card I had, and the other would be reimbursed in a month. phew. One problem avoided. Richard had an even earlier train, but Mark was on mine. We all met up again at Paris Est along with Richard's mother's husband's sister's daughter's boyfriend's father or something a long those lines! Didiel only spoke a little English, so it was a quiet beginning. And COLD! We bared out the morning with a traditional French breakfast; croissant with jam, baggette with butter, and some tea or coffee as preferred. I was just supposed to hold up the Tea Pot, not actually be in it!

 Didiel introduced us to the metro system and took us downtown to the Republique. We walked through a the park there. 

King Louis XIII

King Louis XIV

We went on into Musee Carnavalet Histoire de Pairs. It was good that it was the first museum we went to, because nothing could take away from its stunning collection! The museum tracks the history of Paris back from prehistoric times to the present.
 


 The scissors are the Tailor or cutler's sign, and the Chat noir Cabaret sign painted on old medal originally brought from Montmartre. It is a 19th century creation, important to artists and the bohemian lifestyle during that time.

 These are Mascarons from the Pont Neuf bridge, however, there wasn't one that I could find to resemble Chris... Sorry.

Dad's Rule

Cassie: "My nose!!"

Danny: yum

Mom.

I would love to have a fire place like this... just needs somewhere to hang stockings!

 

 

Snow Crystal Chandelier

Pound it!                                                                                            A large shoe for Mindy.

A 19th century art portraying a rebellion

4 wall mural

 Some rooms from 18th Century Paris;

Work Study Room

Bed "a la polonaise"

Claude-Nicolas Ledoux's reception room.

 The gardens are located in the central block of Hotel de Choiseul.

 One doesn't think in awe of the work that was done, until it's there, tangible and in front of your eyes. Every detail is so precise, and this is not even the most decorated room!

I got to leave my remarks; disclaimer I was inspired by someone else, the thoughts are not my own.

"Je suis un poissont mais j'aime set musee"-Me ..."Oui le beef" -Mark !?

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We walked in the direction of the Louvre. Saw the Notre Dame de Paris along the way, and excitedly took pictures of everything we saw.

Aflac. B?  (Inside joke to later be explained)

We grabbed some lunch in a shop though we were all cold more than hungry. I ate a decent salmon sushimi tortilla wrap.
 

These guys...

We only walked in the Louvre but didn't go further because though it would have been free for us, we didn't want to make Didiel pay. We warmed up a little longer with a coffee with so much whipped cream.

 And then we goofed off a little...

 Look! the ice broke in a sweet little shape of an elephant :)

I attempted to capture a picture of the Eiffle Tower

We headed to the Eiffel Tower but unfortunately the top was closed do to ice, so our journey continued northwest to the Trocadero.










 Along the way... we saw a Merry-Go-Round, were harassed by some street venders...

But got to look back occasionally at the Eiffel Tower.

 Alas, the Trocadero, (our halfway point to the Arc de Triumph)

Engraved on it is the philosophic message:

"All Men Create Without Being Aware They Do As They Breathe

But Artists Feel Themselves Creating

Their Actions Involve All Their Beings

Their Beloved Labour Make Them Stronger" 

These birds were too silly!

 We were definitely running short on time before I was supposed to meet up with my room mates at the hostel at 17:00. I will blame my concern for being late for having forgotten to take a picture of the Arch itself!!

Here's another foot for Mindy cat!

Regardless of the rush, we did climb the many stairs that spiraled up and up and up to the top of the Arch de Triomphe.

The view was truly incredible!

 The 6 lane round about was crazy. No lanes.. more than 6 cars going across... What are those people standing outside of their car thinking?

I hope they don't plan to join the Unknown Soldier from WWI in his tomb.

The Arch de Triomphe was built in honor of those who fought and died in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

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 After this excitement Didiel took me back to my hostel; Residennce Internacional de Paris, and the boys; Mark and Richard, went to theirs. I thanked Didiel graciously for his accommodations that day. Then attempting in French, I informed the lady at the desk who I was with. And this is the end of chapter 1.

Fort Queleu

Last Thursday I went running to Fort Queuleu with Joseph, though my shins were not feeling great since ice skating.




^\The Fort served as a detention center for the French Resistance during World War II.

  

1800 people were detained at this "Hell of Queuleu", though it was not exactly a concentration camp. 

It served as an interrogation center.

   I do want to say thanks to a dog who lead me and Joseph through a hole in the fence that allowed us to test the strength of the fortress that started to be built in 1868 by the French, and see what it looked like from the inside.

The Germans continued its construction after they annexed the area due to  the Franco-Prussian War. 

The upstairs roof was so over grown. 

 36 prisoners died in the camp.

4 escaped through a ventilation shaft.

Other prisoners were transferred to concentration camps as the American forces threatened in presence on the horizon. 

 Other prisoners were transferred to concentration camps as the American forces threatened in presence on the horizon.

 In 1944 the Germans evacuated the Fort Queuleu.

School Begins!

I don't want to confuse you, it's been a whole month since school started, but the work really piled up last week! Apart from the illogical thought process of economics and difficult equations nothing is half as hard as last semester- though I also haven't had any tests yet! Globalization is a lot of reading, though interesting and I realized when I get tired I am more apt to speak my mind. I suggested we just scrap the word globalization if we were going to apply it to as many things as we can apply technology to, because it does not help us to define the direction the world is heading if it has already been there since humans came about. Between that comment, the reaction of another student, and the teacher finally deciding he would begin laughing too, and the rest of the class looking dumbstruck; to recap; at me who just defied the lesson, at the girl next to me who couldn't control her laughter, (she is often very professional, so this astonished herself) and at the teacher who believes in his lessons very passionately.

Then at 13:00 I was on my way to get help from my math teacher when i noticed he was ready to leave. "Will you be back?" -Me. "Yeah I'm just going for lunch." "Like... a French lunch, so you'll be back around 3:00?" -Me. All of a sudden he and a different girl next to me burst in laughter. Though it was a very serious question, perhaps everyone is just over tired! But to say the least, I am growing quite fond of having small classes again!

Further more it finally snowed last week! (as you can see)  My first snow of the year-practically February. And I came back to a nice surprise this weekend- The lake is frozen and people are out walking about on it, (unfortunately it's not exactly legal).

Last Tuesday Kevin brought us to a fantastic concert his brother was playing at; Concert Des Orchestreas D'harmonie du Conservatoire de Metz Metropole et de L'imep de Namur. His brother plays an instrument called the Cor. Go figure, we name an instrument a "French Horn" and the French name it something else. :) But apparently 2/3 people I run into who play instruments it's either the violin or the French Horn :) Good taste in the world.

 
The Orchestre D'Harmonie Du Conservatoire Gabriel Pirene directed by Arnaud Tutin began the 1st part of the concert with Midway March, Fantasy variations sur un Theme de Paganini, Concerto pour percussions 1st movement, note; it starts off with the noise made from pipes whirled around their head like we used to do with the pool pipes, and Moment for Morricone, which Dad will particularly like.
(Though these links I added are not the same group, they are the same songs)

They concluded their part with Tequila; I did manage to record. And thought it was a very fun song to share with you all from France here.

Part 2 was directed by Giovanni Votano; Orchestre a Vents de L'institut superieur de Musique et de Pedagogie. Their songs; Marcia en Sib op 99, Concertino pour Marimba et Orchestre a vents, and Un Americain a Paris.     

Thursday night I also went to a place called Tiffanys, danced with a few friends from ALOES, and had a pretty good time in the club atmosphere. Though I'm still not impressed with re-mixes, the lights and decorations were appealing. Friday I went out and played an awesome game of darts, my warm up was a very lucky bulls eye! I pursued my desire to get people to go to the newly discovered bar latino and do salsa, but they were uninterested once we arrived. I guess dancing isn't a universally enjoyed thing even in France! The following night, Saturday, was my favorite night of the weekend! I practiced tons of french with company that Jean had invited to his flat in celebration of Alex's birthday. I taught them all the Cotton Eyed Joe, and they taught me French. Their job was much harder! But I went to bed that night and actually had a dream in French!            

                                                 
Dear Siyi,
Here is my sad attempt to fulfill your request of talking more about food. Perhaps you will be more entertained in the Paris section! Sauteed vegetables are very yummy. And so is shrimp stirfry avec vegetables.
Your welcome, Olivia