These first couple of days in France have been such a whirlwind! Just to fill you in on the nitty gritty details, while my study abroad program is in Montpellier, in the south of France, the other William and Mary students and I are spending a few days in Paris at the Hotel Minerve before heading to Montpellier on Sunday. So, since we’re in Paris, we’re doing mostly tourist-y things, which have been a lot of fun!
If you’re a former resident of mine, you’ll appreciate this, or perhaps just chuckle, but I’m going to do this blog in numbered bullet points.
Le 25 juin (June 25th)
The plane ride
1) Easy peasy. My luggage all arrived on time and intact, and there were no delays.
2) I <3 AirFrance. Their food is so good, and their movie choices were excellent. I watched He’s Just Not That into You on the way over.
3) It was really nice having friends to fly with. Two other girls from my program were on the same flight as me, and one of them sat next to me, which was great!
4) I understood all of the captain’s announcements in French! I felt so proud of myself.
Au café
1) After arriving, the three of us on our flight took a shuttle with Professor Fauvel (the W&M professor leading the program) to the hotel.
2) We dumped off our luggage and went straight to lunch at a cute, tiny café by Notre Dame with another William and Mary student who had already arrived at the hotel.
3) Lunch tasted amazing, as I was starving! I had a crepe jambon fromage (ham and cheese crepe).
4) Our serveur was so impressed with our French skills and spoke to us exclusively in French during our whole meal; it just made my day.
L’hôtel
1) I’m staying at the Hotel Minerve in the Latin Quarter of Paris.
2) It’s a fairly small hotel, but very clean and with decent amenities. The wireless internet is very cheap for Paris (only 1 euro for 30 minutes or 6 euros for a day), but it’s hit and miss sometimes.
3) My room is teeny tiny, with only maybe 6 inches between my bed and my roommates’ bed, but our housekeeper is really sweet. She made my bed this morning with my stuffed animal sitting on it all neatly.
4) The petit dejeuner is not worth 9 euros…fromage, croissants, baguettes, nutella, le thé, le jus de fruit, le pain, le yaourt, le jambon froid, et les pommes sont les choix (cheese, croissants, baguettes, hazelnut chocolate spread, tea, juice, sliced bread, yogurt, cold ham, and apples)
Notre Dame
1) After lunch, we went on an epic excursion to purchase European phones for some of the students on our trip, then several of us ventured to Notre Dame de Paris, which is only a 5 minute walk from our hotel!
2) To get to Notre Dame from the cell phone store, I got to ride the Paris metro without help from any French people for the first time! (When I was in Paris with my exchange program in high school, I did ride the metro, but my family was with me)
3) It was just as beautiful as it was the last time I saw it. I can’t get over how much there is to look at both inside and out and the amount of time it must have taken to complete it.
4) Beware of gypsies! If you ever go to Paris and someone asks if you speak English, ignore them!
Le Jardin de Luxembourg
1) An attempt was made to go to the Musée D’Orsay (the French impressionist museum), but we decided that the line was too long. Instead, we went to the Jardin de Luxembourg and people-watched, napped, and hung out for a couple of hours.
2) French people are far too affectionate in public. Ew.
3) While we were there, a crane was brought in to move a giant statue of a head, and we got to watch them do it. It was super-cool as the French like to say.
4) The French really like manicured gardens, and don’t you dare step on the grass. You must sit in the metal chairs next to the grass or else…
Le soir
1) Everyone from the W&M program met back at the hotel to go to dinner. We went to a gourmand not far from our hotel.
2) In France, they have menus called prix fixe where you can get an appetizer, entrée, and dessert for a fixed price if you pick from certain things on the menu. (Think Friday’s mix and match dinner deal). I highly recommend using this menu. I only paid 9 euros for dinner, and I got vegetable soup, an herb-roasted chicken breast and leg, a baked potato, green beans with carrots, and ice cream!!
3) Back at the hotel, I ended up having to use the hotel next door’s internet because mine wasn’t getting a connection. Fortunately, the concierge was incredibly nice and really enjoyed having me and my friends over there. He chatted with us while we used my laptop to check email, facebook etc. He also gave me a fabulous compliment – I started out by speaking French to him, and he automatically answered in French. He continued to speak with me in French for a few minutes before pausing to ask where I was from. He couldn’t tell I was American!!!
4) By the end of the day, the whole world was swimming around me in circles because I was so tired. I crashed as soon as I hit the pillow.
I just feel so privileged to be able to be here and keep blinking to make sure that I’m not dreaming.
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