C'est Une Parfait Parisian Jour!

The past 24 hours has been perfect :)

Last night my friends and I grabbed a few bottles of wine and met up at my homestay. We then walked through Montmartre to the top of the city and drank them on the steps of the Sacre Coeur, which has the most amazing view of Paris! And yes, drinking in public is basically legal here.

We spent the time getting to know each other better, and also chatting/mingling with some of the other people visiting Paris. We talked to one group all the way from Australia! Which reminds me that I saw a man wearing a Michigan hat on the metro today! It is a small world.

 

Then today we explored Montmartre a little bit.  We got drinks at this little café where the waiter said if we gave him our number he would give us free drinks... only in Paris! Then we got baguettes and I finally got to see the number one destination that I wanted to visit while in Paris (yes more than the Eiffel Tower)... The Moulin Rouge! We didn't get to go inside because it is 240 euros per ticket but just seeing made me so happy! It is my absolute favorite movie, and I can pretty much recite every word.  And then I of course visited the gift shop where I bought a set of "Moulin Rouge Paris" engraved shot glasses, a little Moulin Rouge box and also some red lipstick that says Moulin Rouge on it!  It says it is the same one used by the dancers, so I guess this is as close as I will get to being one of them haha

Today was also day one of my History of Art class site visits.  Today we learned about Notre Dame and we also got to visit the Saint Chapelle and learn about it at the same time.  The program I am in is so cool, each week we meet in the classroom Mondays, then the rest of the week we actually meet at the places that we are reading about! My professor is amazing as well.  He told us we can call him Howard, and since the French do not pronounce H's, it sounds like "Oward" haha so I spent the day practicing saying it in my French accent (which is getting pretty good).  But Howard is just so passionate, knowledgeable, and engaging with everything he is talking about that it makes the "studying" part while being abroad a bit easier.

 

Paris, Je T'aime!

Bonjour!

Well so far Paris has been this magical adventure that I can't accept as being real life yet... But it is and it is perfect! I am in love with this city already. The first night we were here, we met up with a big group of us from the program and got fondue for dinner. Then we walked around and ended up buying some bottles of wine (which are only 2 euros!!) and hanging out in a fountain in the middle of a square in the 5th arrondissement, which is an area where a bunch of students hang out, also known as the Latin Quarter. 

 The next day we decided to get to know the neighborhood that we live in, by the Rue Barbes. And what I found out is that it is in a "rough and tumble" part of town. Just walking to the metro you are guaranteed to get a million catcalls and French men saying "baby I love you! Come home with me!". We are also on the edge of Montmartre! Yes the VERY Montmarte from the movie the Moulin Rouge which just happens to be my favorite movie of all time.  So naturally, we started at the Sacre Coeur. This is a beautiful church on the top of a VERY high hill (lots and lots of stairs!) that gives a breathtaking view of Paris!

We then spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the Cite, or the little island in the middle of the Seine.  This island separates the Left Bank from the Right Bank and is home to such beauties as the Cathedral of Notre Dame as well as the famous "Paris Love Lock Bridge".  These are very touristy sights, but things you have to do while in Paris. 

Then my friend in the program has a friend who is a native Parisian so he decided to take us out for the night! So he bought us tickets to a club called "Showcase". We first went to this little bar called "The Wall" for pre-drinks.  I asked the bartender to make me a drink "avec beaucoup des fruits et beaucoup des alcohol", so he made a little concoction and it was so good that I had two! When I asked what it was called, he asked what my name was, and then told me the drink was called "The Jessica" haha so I told him I would be back soon and will want to get "The Jessica". So then we rode the metro to the Champs Elysees where the club was at. Well really it was under it, or under a bridge that goes over the Seine. The bridge had beautiful views of the Eiffel Tower at night (which just happened to be sparkling) so of course we had to take many pictures. Then we got to skip all of the lines at the club and go straight to the front! It was so cool and the club was unreal. Lots of house music, which isn't necessarily my favorite, but dancing was still a lot of fun!

Then the next day we met up with all of the people from UofM in the my program, "Arts in Paris".  First we went to the most famous falafel place in Paris and all got falafel... which I didn't know was just fried chickpeas haha but it was delicious!  And then we all got to take a boat ride on the Seine! It was sooo hot but being able to see more of Paris was great. Our professor came with us and basically gave us all a free lecture on what each of the things we passed were which was really cool! And then we walked around more of Paris and at the end of the day I bought a baguette and a macaron and slept from 9pm until 12pm the next day... oops!