Quel Aventure!

Friday, April 30, 2010

Day 3

Friday morning I planned on getting up around 7am but accidentally hit my alarm and slept in until 8:45am! Zut alors! So I had a nice rushed morning where I quickly rinsed in the shower without washing my hair and grabbed a bite to eat in our cute little kitchen. Ma mere put out cereal and toast for us which I had to eat quickly and then she drove us to the train station so we would know how to find it in the mornings when we would be walking. The route didn't seem too long or confusing at the time. Madame told us it would be about a 10 or 15 minute walk from the house. Too bad that wouldn't be the case when we came home later that night...

We caught the train to Paris, getting off the metro at the Hotel de Ville, and found our class by the Centre de Pompidou without any problems, arriving on time. Then we waited for about half an hour with those who were also on time for the rest of the class to get there. About half of the class was late--some got lost and others got stuck on the metro because of construction and had to wait a long time before being able to get to class. Class was pretty boring...I was antsy the whole time because, after all, I'm in Paris and class was not exactly the most exciting of places to be under the circumstances. I can't believe it was only last week that I was finishing up my last semester. And here I am beginning a new term in the most amazing city ever. Luckily the class is French 365, French Civilization, so the history material is review for me, which is nice.

After our lecture the girls were anxious to do some shopping. It is Paris after all. So we all went to H&M down the street and bought some clothes. I got a top, a sundress and a shoulder bag or, "satchel," as my roommate Callie likes to call it. They're tres chouette. After that we all stepped into a little pastry shop and bought some sandwiches. I had a "Texan," which I know isn't very French, but it was on a long baguette so I think it still counts. It was chicken with yummy salsa on top--tres delicieux! We ate our lunch in the courtyard in front of the Hotel de Ville and then did one of our "Paris Walks." The walks are guided tours that we're required to do for our class while we're here. We have a little "walks" book that directs us around the city. Our first walk is the Notre Dame walk where we crossed the Seine to Notre Dame, went inside and then went into the Crypte du Parvis, a museum that shows the ancient layers under the city that go all the way back to the third century. The open parvis today (where Notre Dame now stands) has been covered by buildings from the Roman times to the nineteenth century.

After Notre Dame and the Crypte du Parvis, we walked to the Rue de Lutece where we walked through a pretty little flower market and then went by the Palais de Justice. This houses the highest court in France, the Cour de cassation (France's supreme court), where trials are still regularly conducted. French kings lived on the site until the 14th century when they then moved to the Louvre. We then continued down to the end of the street where we saw the oldest clock in Paris on the corner of the Conciergie. It has been keeping time since 1370. We also saw the Tour Saint-Jacques, the one remaining tower of a 16th century church that was torn down in 1802. It stands in the middle of an intersection and looks very interesting next to all the more modern buildings (although modern is a relative term as all the buildings in Paris look old).

After our walk we decided to take a rest back at the BYU institute where we have class. We relaxed there for a while and then my roommate, Marissa, and I decided to head back home. We found our way back pretty easily...it took us a little while to figure out how to retrace our steps back through the metro, and we had to switch trains once because the train we got on didn't stop at our station, but otherwise it wasn't too bad. The bad news started when we got to Croissy. We didn't know what way we were supposed to go from the station in order to get home. I think we took about an hour to and hour and a half to find our way back. We probably walked three or four miles around the town. When we finally found our way that's when two people in a row asked us if we needed help finding our way (in French of course). Ha. Then we decided to pick up some groceries from Carrefour, the local supermarket. I learned something new about French supermarkets too. When you buy fruit you have to weigh it yourself and then the scale prints off a ticket for you with the price of the fruit. Since I've never done that before I didn't realize this so I get to the register and the cashier tells me I have to weigh it myself. Even though I knew what he was saying, I didn't know what to do so he just went and did it for me. I felt like an idiot, but hey, I had no idea you were supposed to do that! I also had a minor heart attack because I thought I had lost my debit card. Luckily it had just fallen to the bottom of my backpack (I found this out when I got home and searched for it). We also learned that in France you have to pay for you grocery bags--including the plastic ones. I asked the cashier for some bags in French and then she gave us the number we wanted and we had to pay like 25c for each of them. Next time I'm just going to buy the reusable bag (its cool too because its lime green and has French written on it along with the name Carrefour).

After our adventure in the grocery store we finally made it home and were able to eat at about 9pm. This was three and a half hours after we had left the city. I guess we have to learn sometime!