Running in Paris!

One of my hobbies is running, and it's something I couldn't give up coming to Paris, even though it is a few short weeks. So within the first week I found myself searching for a place to run, but I soon realized, it's not the easiest to find places to run in a city. Parks around here are small, and you can enjoy a small walk at best, but I soon found out about the Plantee Promenade. I ran there twice and realized it was too short for my kind of run. My second run there, the park was closing without knowing it, and I had a guard yell at me in French, I politely stopped, and tried my French, but soon gave in because I was confused at what he was saying. This would not be my first time being stopped, I soon found another great place to run, along the Seine, a long enough run to keep me interested. The first run there was fantastic, I felt like myself again and was finally enjoying Paris my way! The second time, I thought I'd switch it up and run on the other side, bad idea! As soon as the path got smaller, a man, security, came straight up to me waving his arms. I politely stopped again and I was a bit more flustered this time, he started speaking to me in French, and I basically knew what he was saying, that I couldn't run there! Yet I told him I don't speak French well and he still took 5 minutes trying to explain to me that I couldn't run there, like I didn't get it the first time! I'd seen many people running on one side, so I continued to follow their lead. I think most of the runners I've seen must be American, can't be sure, but running isn't something big in France from what I've seen. There are definitely some beautiful places to see here and I want to run all over Paris! For the last 3 weeks here, I'm going to try to run in as many different places as I can, because I've found even if I get yelled at, I'm exploring Paris in a new, fun way!

Love Lock Bridge

What I really have come to love about Paris is the amount of tradition the city holds. A particular tradition are the locks on the bridges over the Seine. Coming from a girl who loves "rom coms" and Taylor Swift, I needed to see these locks first hand. After a pain au chocolat and a café at a restaurant near the Louvre, a few of us decided to check the lock bridge out. The Pont des Arts Love Lock Bridge was covered in locks of all sizes and colors. Some were engraved and others simply had "Jack and Kate, May 2011" written on them with a sharpie. As the sun was setting, couples were all around posing for a picture in front of their lock. Tradition says that couples, when in Paris, can write their names on a padlock and lock it to the bridge. They then throw the key into the Seine to symbolize their undying love. So unbelievably romantic, right? Luke, being the charmer that he is, interrupted my reverie by asking me how much I thought the sellers along the bridge were selling the padlocks for. With convenience and a once in a lifetime opportunity to put your lock on this bridge, the sellers could probably charge a steep price. I decided to go up to one of the sellers and practice my french while asking how much they charged for each lock. Depending on the size, the prices ranged from 3 to 5 euros. Not bad! I nodded my head and walked away and he then called out, "how much do you have?". I told him I wasn't interested in buying a lock and he responded with, "oh, do you not have a boyfriend?". Okay now he has my attention. I said that I actually did have a boyfriend but that he wasn't here and that I believe that both partners in the relationship should be involved in the padlock love bridge process. The seller ended the conversation with a firm "fine" and we both walked our separate directions. As I walked up to Luke, I told him the price and he too, was rather shocked by how inexpensive it was and we both continued looking at the locks. The padlock market didn't ruin this romantic girl's experience with the Love Lock Bridge and I hope it won't ruin anybody else's. Well, until next time Pont des Arts.

Amurica

Games can be a foolish thing to play if you don't do it right. I, for one, have made my own game so clearly I always play it right. I have made up a game to play in the metro to make the stops seem shorter and less suffocating. I love trying to figure out what nationality everyone is simply from their appearance and behavior. This can be tricky because not all people with suitcases are tourists and not all men in Abercrombie and Fitch shirts are American (unfortunately). One of the only ways to know what country they're from is from their language (even that can be misleading) and since I haven't had the chutzpa to approach anyone to settle my score, many people walk away an enigma. I've been told in America I look "so American", if a waiter speaks to me in a restaurant they usually start in English, so what is the give away factor and why do I feel so confident in my snap judgment of people's nationality?
There was a couple behind me exiting the metro and just form looking at them I could tell they were American. I held a door open for the woman and she replied with a "mercy". Not wanting to break the illusion that I knew what I was doing and was a Parisian I just nodded back. Going out at night and during the day I have tried to the best of my abilities to assimilate myself. Apparently I have not done a good enough job blending in since most of the time when I speak to anyone French or not they eventually ask, "American?". Let's see how long it will take to camouflage into this beautiful culture.

Eyewitness's best!

On Monday afternoon, the gang and I thought it would fun to see what kind of secrets are hiding in the pages of Eyewitness Guide to Pairs. So with the leadership of “tour-guide Doug”…we got very lost. I am a little dyslexic when it comes to reading street directions (especially in French) so we ended up wandering around the Opera Quarter looking for a restaurant that was in “Farther Afield”. Finally we pulled up Google maps and realized that we were in the completely wrong area, so we hopped on the metro and rode it the outskirts of Paris to hopefully find the restaurant Ma Pomme, witch according to Eyewitness serves excellent food “with a smile in a bright–yellow dinging room with temporary art collections on the walls. Expect unusual dishes with ingredients such as ostrich and kangaroo” (314). Well…that’s not quite what we experienced—to say the least. We walked away from the main street, and found ourselves in a rather sketchy area, and there it was! Ma Pomme was a boarded up shack with graffiti, brown stains, and steal bars overlaying the windows—not quite the “bright-yellow” dining room we were hoping for! We had a good laugh and continued walking down the street, hoping to come across another restaurant. We stumbled upon this quaint little place facing the ‘projects’ of outer Paris (it was quite the view, tour-guide Doug really delivered). We sat down, and to our surprise a lovely waitress greeted us with a smile! She was excited to speak English, but she told us that we had to respond to her in French. So we got a little French lesson, while she got to practice her English. It was so great on multiple levels! The food was awesome (one of the better meals that I have had) the service was really friendly, and it was reasonably priced! IT WAS A MIRICLE! We left very satisfied, and had a fantastic rest of the day exploring the Les Passages and Shakespeare and Co. Sometimes you need to be lost to find your way! 

St. Martin Canal

  Unfortunately I have not made any progress with my skateboarding in France. I have been meaning to get a board but I have not made the time to do so. It is torture to see fellow skaters riding around when I cannot. BUT, fortunately I have still been able to connect with local Parisians over another love of mine, French Cinema.
  The other night me and some members of the program went down to the St. Martin Canal.  As soon as I stepped off of the metro I instantly recognized the canal from one of my favorite foreign films, Amelie.  Later while walking down the canal I begin to strike a conversation with some local French dudes.  We began to talk about Amelie and how it was filmed right where we were standing!  They were not as excited about this fact as I was since they had both been to the canal and seen Amelie over a thousand times.  I then started to talk to them about another favorite film of mine, La Haine.  As soon as I said, "La" my new friends instantly knew what movie I was referring to.  After talking about several of our favorite moments in the movie and just how fantastic the film is in general one of the French dudes started to talk to me about his work as a screen writer.  I instantly bonded with this particular Parisian  because I hope to be a screenwriter myself one day.  He told me how he studied film at UCLA and how he hopes to move back to LA one day.  I then asked him where I could find some of his work and he gave me his website information.  I am happy to say that I now have film connections in France since that is what the industry is all about.

Taking the day to myself to work desperately on my project that I unwittingly left to the last moment, I was travelling to the American Library in Paris and I noticed a coffee shop. The sign literally said "Coffee Shop" so it really wasn't that hard to notice (I think it would truly prove my unwitfullness). I was intrigued because I have yet to see a coffee shop that focuses on coffee, rather than being a sit down bar/cafe/bakery/sandwich shop/Godonlyknows. I was feeling extra Parisian with my cheap ugly scarf (which does NOT have the Lea approval) and walked in like I owned the place. I ordered, told him it was to go, and asked him how his day was perfectly, until he started to motor-mouth in French at me. Jaw goes slack, eyes glaze over, and I respond with my wittiest French response, "Quoi?" So he keeps motor-mouthing at me! I smile, shake my mush-for-brains filled head and say "Je parle francais un petit peu" and he goes "Ahhhhhh, anglaise?" "Oui." "I just need to check outside and I will make your espresso. I thought you were French, you act like you are."


Slacked jaw reels back in, smiles, and responds with a pleasant "Merci, Monsieur. Á bientôt."

"If only Frances could see me now..."

Photography/France Fun Fact!

See the original materialhttp://www.eurogallery.org/news/general-info/interesting-facts-about-the-history-of-photography-50/

The first areal photography was carried out by French inventor Turnache in 1858. He shot Paris from his balloon!

Thanks for the pic Frances! So glad I have this group to experience Paris with! We need a good one with Amy next time! xoxo

First Blog Entry

The other day Julia and I went to the train station, Gard de Lyon, to purchase tickets to Provence for this weekend. A simple task we thought at first, turned into an afternoon full of hectic running around. We started our little adventure at the Accent center, trying to purchase tickets online, yet every time we tried to finish it, another problem would arise. We soon realized we had to go to the train station to purchase tickets. Of course “anything that can go wrong, will go wrong” and that’s just what happened when we got to Gare de Lyon. Train stations like Gare de Lyon, are already a hectic place, people coming from every which way, you have to know what and where you’re going, or else you will get pushed around. Not sure where to go we got in line at information to figure out where we needed to go. Up to this point I’ve had small interactions that have grown into more frequent comfortable interactions with the French, but just how I felt overwhelmed at the train station, everyone else did too and they were looking out for themselves. One woman was bouncing around from window to window, when it was almost my turn up in line, she cut in front of me and started speaking very fast French to me, and I had no idea what to say, so I just walked away, because I was already feeling stressed. A man came up to me, asking if I needed assistance, but I didn’t even know what to say, I just said “No” and walked away. Julia remarked to me later on that even though she knows French in stressful stations like the one we were dealing with, it’s difficult to think clearly. I’m not the biggest fan of crowds, specifically in a place like a train station or airport, but what I was more concerned about was being in a place I’d never been before, people speaking in a language I don’t know and not knowing where to go. I love cities and Paris has grown on me greatly, but this experience was definitely a test of patience. I just count this one experience as learning one, in the moment, it was stressful and upsetting, but looking back on it, we handled the situation to the best of our ability. Being here a little over a week, I have been to many parts of Paris and have begun to feel comfortable with the metro and commuting to the point that I’m starting to really embrace and appreciate Paris.