Au Revoir Paris!

So tonight is my last night here in Paris. It feels really strange and surreal, I don't think that it has quite sunk in yet that tomorrow I will be back in Toronto and in a week from now moved into a new apartment and back in classes. I have a feeling that Paris will seem like a distant dream in no time and it makes me a bit sad. These past four months have flown by, but I feel like I have lived a lifetime as well. I have a completely separate world here with a different school, friends, lifestyle, etc. and once I leave, it will never really exist again. I guess that is just how life goes though, nothing stays the same forever, and it would be boring if it did. My sister has been with me for the past 10 days and has asked me a lot of questions about how I view the Parisians, Paris in general, etc., and for some reason I find it really difficult to answer her. I've lived here for 4 months but I haven't really formed a concrete image of what Paris is, maybe that means I will have to come back to figure it out? Who knows. Anyways I think I will end off with one last list for you.

Things that I will miss about Paris:
1) my friends
2) hearing people speak French (it really is a beautiful language)
3) speaking French
4) my apartment
5) my "quartier" (I love the canal, and the fact that it's not a touristy area)
6) the metro (it is really convenient, cheap and well organized)
7) the centrality (it's really easy to travel to other cities/countries from Paris)
8) boulangeries (freshly baked baguettes and pastries.... yum)
9) cheap wine
10) being able to watch french movies at the cinema

Things that I won't miss about Paris:
1) dog poo on the sidewalks
2) homeless people/beggars
3) creepy men
4) american movies/tv dubbed into French
5) almost everything being closed on Sundays
6) expensive prices
7) constant sirens
8) the bad smell in the metro
9) bad service
10) smokers

Snow in Paris

Language Similarities

While I have been here, I have really started to notice the extent of similarities between a lot of French and English words. Most people who have studied some French will have noticed that many words in French are pretty much the same as the English version with a different ending, an accent somewhere or simply with a different pronunciation. I am always jealous of the people who come from more "latin" countries like Italy, Spain, etc. because they seem to have an easy time picking up French and with a less noticeable foreign accent. But having made friends with people from many different countries here has helped me to appreciate some of the benefits of having English as a first language when learning French. There have been many times when someone will ask about a word in class, that to me is so obvious because it is practically the same thing in English. I think that a lot of anglophones take this fact for granted.

It's getting cold in Paris!

This past week the weather in Paris has been cold!!! Cold enough at least that the ever-present and mysterious trickles of water on the sidewalks have started to freeze. Paris cold seems like a different type of cold to me, but maybe I am just not used to the cold anymore. It has been mild-warm for most of my stay so far, so I was really just hoping it would hold out until I left. At least the sun has been shining brightly, that makes it bearable. I am not so excited to go back to Canada now that I remember what it's like to feel cold though... brrrrr.

I am going to miss my musmus friends!

So dinner was a success, above is the picture of my friends and I! It wasn't really dinner, more like lots of bread, cheese, dips, and veggies, then some dessert, but it worked out really well. It was great to get a big group of my friends together one last time before I leave. It was a very relaxing evening and though I was happy to celebrate my time in Paris with my friends, it also made me a bit sad because I will really miss them. I have met some great people here, who have basically been my life for the past few months, so it will be very strange and sad to leave them, not knowing when I will see them again. I hope to come to Europe sometime in the next few years and do a backpacking trip, so hopefully I will be able to meet up with a lot of them then. When I lived in Europe before as an Au Pair, I didn't really meet as many people so it wasn't as difficult to leave. In Quebec last summer I was there for a shorter period of time and since everyone I met lived in Canada it didn't seem like as large a separation when I left. This time I feel like I have just met a lot of people that I genuinely like and it will be hard to say goodbye knowing that I probably won't see them for years. But I should be optimistic about things I suppose, at least I have had the opportunity to meet so many different people, and now have contacts all across Europe as well as some other countries. I will always have the great memories of our time together in Paris and I hope that I will be able to keep in touch with them into the future.

Menu Suggestions?

So I have decided to throw a little dinner party at my apartment this weekend with about a dozen of my friends in Paris. A lot of my friends are leaving to go home for Christmas at the end of next week and won't be back until January so this is the last weekend that we will all be in Paris together. I'm starting to wonder if everyone will fit in my apartment... haha, but I invited the people that I have spent the most time with here and that I'd like to spend a nice evening of wining and dining with. I've asked everyone to bring a bottle of wine and some sort of food item, but I think that I should maybe make some sort of main dish and I am wondering if there are any suggestions for something simple to make in large quantities. Let me know if you have any good ideas!

Picard

Picard is a store in Paris that only sells frozen food. When I first passed by Picard stores I had no idea what they were, inside they just look really sterile and white, because there are just rows of freezers (not the stand up kind though, more like the ones you would have in your basement, but with a glass top). In Canada I associate frozen food with being mediocre and unhealthy for the most part. It's the lazy option and more for satisfying hunger than actually enjoying. Picard however is on a entirely different level, it seems that France really knows how to make good frozen food. I have bought a few different things from Picard previously and they have all been really good. Picard has pretty much everything from pizza, pasta, veggies, fish, potatoes, etc. and a huge variety of desserts and appetizers. You could probably make a really good full course meal just buying from Picard, and it is also not too expensive. I would definitely recommend trying it out.

The French really do like French Fries....

When I was in Marseille I had my first "Kebab Sandwich." Basically there is a menu with different types of meat and you just choose one. When I got my sandwich I opened up the nice wrapping to see a mound of fries, not beside the sandwich but on top of it. Apparently this is common practice in France, I think it's often called the "Americano," haha. I've seen this done with hotdogs, regular sandwhiches and kebabs. If you go to a boulangerie and buy a baguette sandwich then you'll get just a plain sandwich, but any type of fast food kebab/pizza/sandwich place will most likely serve you fries as a topping. Enjoy!

Canadian Food Update

Previously I wrote about the ERASMUS fair that our school had, and the poutine gone horribly wrong. I had trouble thinking of many Canadian "food specialties," but today I came across a really good website that lists cool, not-so-well-known, places in Paris. On that list was a bar called The Great Canadian Pub, and being Canadian I was obviously curious so I went to their website and this is what they stated about their menu:

"Goûtez nos spécialités canadiennes comme les crêpes servies avec du sirop d’érable, le cheesecake, la tarte à la noix de pécan, le café « Tim Horton », la salade César, le jus « Clamato », la bière canadienne, les ailes de poulet les plus délicieuses de Paris.. et plein d’autres bonnes choses…"

For those of you who don't speak French:

"Try our Canadian specialties like crepes served with maple syrup, cheescake, peacan pie, Tim Horton's coffee, Cesar Salad, Clamato Juice, Canadian beer, the best chicken wings in Paris and many other great things..."

Aside from the syrup, Tim Horton's and Canadian beer, are any of the other items specifically Canadian??? I really have no idea, I suppose they are most likely North American... but either way that menu sure makes Canadians sound healthy ;) It is a pub though, so I guess it can't be expected to serve much healthy food.

French Toilets

So in France there are still many traditional/old schoool toilets (pictured above). I have had the unfortunate pleasure of having to use one, and it is really inconvenient and just plain difficult, not to mention kind of gross. Two of my fellow ERASMUS students who live in studios near Montmartre have these types of toilets in the halls outside of their studios...and nothing else. I suppose you would get used to it, but honestly I like to be comfortable when I go to the bathroom... not to perform a balancing/aiming act. I came across some of these toilets in a club that my school was throwing a party at the other night as well and it just seemed like a bad idea to me. Do they really expect drunk girls to be able to use these toilets properly? Especially the French girls who seem to take drinking to a whole new level. Anyways, to state the obvious, I avoided those toilets and used the one regular one in the bathroom. I just wonder why they still have these types of toilets here, what is the benefit? Does anyone actually prefer them?

Enjoying the Weather

The weather in Paris has been pretty gorgeous lately. You would almost think that the seasons were changing to spring, not winter. There was a pretty cold period in October (around the time when all my visitors came!), but since then it has been fairly mild. The past week has been a bit rainy but there always seems to be some point during the day when the clouds break and the sun comes out and it just feels great to be outside taking in the view. Yesterday morning started off really rainy so I put on my rain boots and brought out my umbrella, ready to slosh through the puddles. But about 10 minutes after I left my apartment the sky cleared and I was able to have beautiful walk along the canal and then into the Marais. As soon as I got back to my apartment the rain started up again, so I had great timing. Today started off pretty miserably, but once again it has cleared up and I managed to go for a run along the canal (which is great to do on Sundays because they close the streets off to vehicles, so I don't have to worry about being run over). Anyways, I am hoping that this kind of weather lasts until my departure because I know come January and February I will have lots of snow waiting for me in Canada :) The picture above is one that I took from the balcony of my room early one morning a few weeks ago.

Salon du Vin: Wine Tasting

My landlord was nice enough to give me free tickets to the "Salon du Vin" that took place in Paris this weekend. Yesterday was the last day so I went with two of my friends to check it out. It was held at the Paris Expo and it was huge! When we got in we had no idea where to begin because there were just rows upon rows of stands all representing different independent wine makers. We each received a free wine glass and just ventured from stand to stand to try out wines from various regions in France. It was really fun and most of the people at the stands were very friendly. It was a great experience and definitely something that seems "typically French." I'd like to learn more about different wines, maybe when I start making money I will invest in some good quality bottles and start to hone my tastes. But for now, on my student budget I will stick to the grocery store variety :)

A Weekend in Marseille

I just got back from a beautiful weekend in Marseille! I've been to Marseille before, but just on a day trip a few summers ago while I was living in the south of France. I just wandered around the city, through the different markets and huge crowds of people out for a nice Saturday afternoon. It seemed like a very lively, southern, Mediterranean city, but it was just a glimpse. This past weekend I was lucky enough to have a friend from Canada to stay with just outside of the centre. He is also doing an exchange at a business school and his friend was gone for the weekend so my friend and I were able to have a room to stay in for free. It was really interesting to see another type of ERASMUS lifestyle. Unlike in Paris, most of the exchange students were living in one big residence a short bus ride from their school. It was almost like summer camp or first year university, everyone was really friendly and they did a lot of group activities together. There were communal kitchens where there were always groups of people cooking up a storm. It has much more of a relaxed, southern, style. We went out to a few different bars while we were there and saw a bit of what the nightlife in Marseille is like. It is definitely more casual compared to Paris, but it was a lot of fun.
We also did a lot of sight-seeing in and around the city. We tried some seafood at a really nice restaurant downtown as well (which was much cheaper than it would have been in Paris). My favourite part was going to "les calanques" which is what is pictured above. We hiked for around forty minutes to get there and it was well worth it. The view was absolutely breathtaking and it was really refreshing to breath some fresh air and be surrounded by nature. It made me miss the south of France, it is such a beautiful place. Overall the trip was really great, my friend was an amazing host and it was nice to get out of the city for a bit and experience some new things.

Here are some of my observations/interesting things I learned about Marseille:

1) It is the second biggest city in France (over 800,000)
2) It really does deserve its reputation as the "dirtiest city in France." The downtown streets were covered in litter.
3) You can definitely see certain differences in immigration trends. There is a lot stronger North African presence in Marseille, you can notice just by looking at the people and by the fact that there are kebab places on every corner. There are a lot of kebab places in Paris as well, but not nearly as many. I also noticed that there seemed to be a lot fewer Asian people in Marseille, I didn't see a single "Traiteur Chinois," or Japanese restaurant (which are both abundant in Paris).
4) I think that the people in Marseille speak slower, which is definitely good for understanding their French. I was told that there would be a really noticeable difference in accents, but I think the speed was the thing that I noticed most.
5) Marseille has a metro system, though it only consists of 2 lines (unlike Paris which has 14). The bus system is a bit strange though because it is really easy to just walk on a bus without a ticket, or without validating one (meaning you can just use it again). Once you validate a ticket it lasts for 1 hour and you can use it again within that hour. The only "control" that they have is random officers who will stop buses and check everyone for tickets, and fine those who don't have one. I didn't see any of these officers though and we took the bus quite a lot.

Chèques

The cheque is still a pretty common method of payment in France, unlike in Canada. In Canada the only things that we use cheques for are rent, paychecks (though direct deposits are becoming a lot more common), school trips and monetary gifts (birthdays, graduation, etc.). I rarely ever use my checkbook or see anyone paying for any commercial good with a cheque. I don't think you're really allowed to pay for much with cheques these days in Canada anyways. In Paris it's a different story, you can pay for your groceries, restaurant bill and many other thing with cheques. I've seen many a sign in stores reading something like "you must have 2 pieces of ID to pay by cheque." Usually the larger the amount of money, the more pieces of ID you have to show. I really started to notice the prominence of cheques here on my first day of class. It was my first business class in French and the teacher brought out the box of shiny new textbooks ready to be purchased. So the French kids started lining up to pay for a book and 80% of them had a checkbook in hand and began scribbling out the amount. I became a bit nervous thinking that maybe the teacher only accepted cheques as payment, but then I saw some students with cash in hand and breathed a sigh of relief. I never ended up getting a French bank account since I'm only here for a few months, so I can't exactly pay for anything with a cheque :)

The Algerians are REALLY Excited

The streets of Paris are filled with ecstatic Algerians. Algeria just beat Egypt to qualify for the World Cup next year and they are celebrating like crazy. There is a large Algerian population in Paris and I'm pretty sure that every single one of them is out at a bar blasting loud music or driving around honking their horn like mad. It sounds like one huge party outside.

Scooters

Kids in Paris love their scooters... and apparently so do some adults. I have seen quite a few adults rolling about on scooters here and I don't really know what to think about it. I always associated scooters with childhood play but here some adults seem to use them as a legitimate mode of transportation. I'm not sure how practical scooters really are, personally I've never been a big fan of them. It's just a funny sight to see a well-dressed "grown-up" riding around on a scooter in the city. I guess it is a good way to be environmentally friendly, but there is also the much more practical "velib" (public bicycles in Paris). I see people on their way to work/school on velibs every day, and wish that my school was more easily accessible so that I could do the same without fearing for my life.

Name Days

Yesterday I found out that in Sweden and Germany (and probably in some other countries that I am unaware of) they have "name days." The most popular/traditional names in the country are assigned to a specific day of the year. I don't really think that your "name day" is a huge deal, my Swedish friend just said that her parents give her some candy on her day, but I think it is a neat idea to have a day dedicated to your name. I guess this type of thing wouldn't really work in Canada considering how multicultural it is, and the fact that I wouldn't even know where to begin to make a list of "traditional" Canadian names. I did however find out that in Sweden "Viktoria" day is March 12th.

You can read the Wikipedia entry about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_day

Poutine the French Way

Today at my school we had an "ERASMUS" day, so the exchange students were supposed to give ideas for recipes from their respective countries and participate in games, etc. in the cafeteria. I couldn't go because I had class but I heard a horror story from my fellow Canadians. So the Canadians decided to submit poutine as the recipe for Canada, but it was the Parisian students who actually made the food... and that is when disaster ensued. So the first mistake was that they decided to make the fries yesterday and then reheat them today, personally I always find reheated fries disgusting so that would have ruined the whole dish for me. Secondly they used barbecue sauce instead of gravy... I can only imagine. Day old fries with barbecue sauce and cheese curds...mmm, sounds appetizing! Apparenty the Canadians were asked to stop serving their dish because it was so bad. So now you can imagine the wonderful idea that the French students have of Canadian food. I love poutine when it is made well, but I don' think I would have tried the French version of it if I had been there today. I'm not really sure what else could have been served that might have been easier... I have a hard time coming up with any other food/meal that is distinctly Canadian aside from the stereotypical maple syrup, beaver tail, canadian bacon... any ideas?

Men with Guns

The police in Paris always seem to be carrying around these huge guns and I find it really frightening. Yesterday on my way back from school I saw a bunch of guys in army gear carrying guns like the one above, just standing in the metro station casually. Police with large guns also stand guard at the bottom of the Eiffle Tower, and I've seen them around other places as well. Even the "regular" police that patrol tourist sites and try to prevent public drinking have visible (though smaller) guns. I find it really terrifying that these people are just allowed to carry these huge guns around in public. Yes they are police, but that doesn't really make me feel any safer, accidents happen and when there is a real emergency or situation who knows how they will handle it? I'm not really sure what the firearm policy is for Toronto Police but I've never seen one with a gun. These huge guns make me feel intimidated, not protected.

French Men's Shoes

Recently one of my friends pointed out that most French men wear a similar style of shoe. I hadn't really noticed up until then because I don't normally pay much attention to men's footwear. At the bar the other night I actually took a moment to look at shoes and realized it was true, most French guys wear pointy shoes. Ever since then, I can't help but look at the shoes that men are wearing here. I am really not a fan of the pointy-toed shoes on men, to me it just looks a bit sleazy and I'm not sure why. It's probably just more of a European style that I'm not accustomed to seeing. I couldn't find a great picture but hopefully you get the general idea from above. The shoes that I've seen tend to be even pointier and shinier.

Vintage Shopping

Vintage shopping seems pretty popular in Paris, I've seen quite a few vintage stores around and yesterday I went to a vintage sale with my friends. The sale cost 7 euros to get into... which I was not too happy about because then I felt like I should buy something since I payed to get in, but most things were really expensive. There was furniture, clothes, shoes, etc. and a lot of the stuff was designer so the prices were well beyond my price range. I saw a few bags that were relatively cheap but nothing really caught my attention. I'm not too big into vintage shopping, I find in general a lot of items are overpriced and I just don't really like the idea of wearing clothes that have been who knows where... I understand why people enjoy it though, I think it has a lot to do with the excitement of coming across a really good find, and also there's an aspect of uniqueness and history behind a vintage piece.

Favela Chic

My friends and I went to a cool place for dinner last night called Favela Chic. It's a restaurant/bar and we went a few weeks ago for drinks and decided that we would have to go back to eat since the food smelled so good. Luckily we managed to get in last night, even though we were a huge group (around 14) and didn't have a reservation. They have really long tables and benches so it's the perfect place for large groups. The food is Brazilian and most of the meals contained some sort of meat/seafood with veggies and rice. The food was good, though expensive so I don't think I would go back for a meal just because of my student budget...haha. But I would recommend anyone to try it at least once. The atmosphere is great, very lively and warm and the staff is very friendly as well.

I finally tried a French "hot dog"

So I finally tried a French "hot dog." It looks something like the above picture, basically a hot dog in a baguette covered in melted cheese. They have them at all the sandwich places and I've been wanting to try one for a while and finally caved in yesterday. I was nervous that if I tried one I would really like it and then I would want to eat them all the time, turns out I had nothing to be worried about. What you can't see is that there is some weird sauce inside underneath the hot dog, I think it's some sort of mustard but it was really hot almost like Wasabi. The hot dog itself was also not so great, it wasn't really cooked enough for my taste. So I'm glad that I finally tried it and no longer have to be tempted because it is definitely not my kind of food. It might be different depending on where you get it from, but French sandwiches pretty much always have some sort of sauce or butter inside them, unless they're called something "sec" aka "dry" in English.

Paris is Dirty...

Okay so I know I'm sounding a bit pessimistic with this title and the last post... but Paris just seems especially dirty lately. I think one of the main contributing factors is the heating in the metro. The metro is always hot, but now that the weather is getting colder and people are starting to layer more on I think it has become even hotter, stuffier and smellier. The urine smell that's always lingering in the stations has seemed especially strong the past few days as well. I've also been finding it frustrating to always have to look down when I'm walking so that I don't accidentally step in a giant pile of dog poo that someone has so kindly neglected to pick up. And to top it all off, I was sitting in the fancy Starbucks near Opera with my friend last night (this place has chandeliers) and I saw a mouse run across the floor... The funny thing was it didn't even surprise me. I find it interesting that Paris has this reputation as a romantic, glamorous, classy city yet it is so dirty in some ways. Sometimes I find that these contrasts give the city more character, but at the moment it's getting colder, darker and drearier outside and it's becoming more difficult to view these aspects as charming.

Germaphobia

I've started to become a bit of a Germaphobe lately when it comes to the Paris metro. I keep on forgetting to buy a bottle of hand sanitizer to ease my worries. I think it all started when I saw a man cough into his hands and then grab one of the metal bars for support. It wasn't just a regular cough either, it was one of those flemmy cringe-inducing coughs that no one really wants to hear let alone see. Sure we all know that thousands of people touch the same pole that we grasp onto everyday, but it was just really disconcerting to see such a blatant transfer of germs.

Halloween in Paris

Halloween has always been one of my favourite "holidays." In Canada it's a pretty big deal. As a child you get to dress up as scary creatures, run around with your friends and get lots of candy. In university it's undoubtedly one of the biggest events of the year, everyone goes all out with costumes, and there are crazy parties all over town. Halloween is only just catching on in Europe and has a long way to go if it wants to live up to North American standards. Luckily there are some Canadians here and Joce was visiting, so I had some people around me who were into the spirit. One of the other erasmus students had a halloween party with decorations and there were a few people dressed up, so it was a decent start to the evening. However we went to a club that was having a "halloween" party, and they wouldn't let us in! I'm not really sure what happened because I went to the bathroom at a restauarnt with some girls and came back to the line to find that most of my friends had already been kicked out. Apparently we were "too rowdy" but I have a feeling they were just not into our costumes. No one in the line was dressed up except of our group, and this was for an event advertised as a halloween party! Anyways the night ended up going very well, I was kind of glad that we didn't make it into the first place because the cover was 15 euros. We wandered down the street a bit and found a cute little bar and just danced the night away. We were a big enough group that we probalby would have entertained ourselves wherever we ended up!

I just short-circuited my Kitchen...

Yesterday I decided to make banana bread because I had some old bananas leftover. I was only missing one ingredient: butter, so I went to the store to do some food shopping. When I came back to my apartment I unpacked all my groceries and couldn't find the butter anywhere... so I checked the receipt to make sure I had actually bought it, which I had, and then after a lot of fruitless searching I decided I must have left it at the store. This morning I poured the milk that I had bought over my cereal only to discover chunks in it... so I decided a return trip to the grocery store was necessary and I picked up another stick of butter along the way. Everything was going well, I made the batter, greased the pan and put the banana bread in the oven... then I decided I should make some hot water with lemon and honey because my throat has been feeling a bit sore. I decided to use the kettle and put it on the electric burner (which I have never done before)... and then a few minutes later I realized that the burner wasn't working anymore, and neither was the oven. After that I also realized that the fridge and microwave were no longer working either. So I called my landlord and apparently it was a bad idea to use the electric burner at the same time as the oven because it uses a lot of energy. It seems a little impractical to me, but I guess I've learned my lesson now. I put the batter in the fridge... which isn't working...haha, so we'll see if that banana bread ever ends up being made.

I'm Back!

Sorry for the lack of posts... my parents and godparents came to visit last week and school has picked up so I've been really busy lately. Seeing family was really nice and comforting. It's great to be able to share this experience with people that really know me, especially so that later when I'm back in Canada complaining about how I miss Paris, my family will actually know what I'm talking about since they've seen my apartment and a lot of the places that I've been enjoying here. We walked along the Seine, went on a boat cruise, saw the arc de triomphe, eiffel tower, Sacre Coeure and Montmartre, Versailles and just did a lot of walking around the city! Tomorrow Joce is coming to visit me from England which is very exciting! Having guests is fun because it makes me do more touristy stuff again. When I first arrived here I was really into sight-seeing and exploring different places, but now that school is underway and I've settled in I've become sort of lazy and there are still so many things that I need to see!

Cell Phones!

Everyone in Paris is obsessed with their cell phones! I mistake at least 5 people a day for being crazy because they are talking into earphones/a small headset and at first glance it just looks like they are talking to themselves. I went to a museum the other day, and every room had an employee in it sitting in the corner to "watch" and make sure that the exhibits weren't touched, and every single one of those people were texting or browsing on their phones. I think it's also really noticeable for me because you can get reception on the metro in Paris so I see many people chatting away underground as well. In class a lot of people just have their cell phones sitting on their desk in front of them. Canadians are pretty cell phone obsessed as well, but I think that we are a bit more discrete about it than the Parisians.

LUCKY LUKE

So "Lucky Luke" is coming out in theatres this week, and it is pretty popular with the French from what I can see. It's based on a Franco-Belgian comic book that is apparently on the same level as Asterix and Tintin in terms of popularity and is one of the best-selling comics in Europe. It's about a cowboy in the American Old West who can "shoot faster than his shadow."

French kids are cute!

French kids are really cute. There seem to be a lot of kids in France, and they are all adorable! I've had conversations about their cuteness with many people. I think part of it has to do with the way their parents dress them (very nicely), but also with their genetic make-up. They all seem to have really nice hair that is either blond/sun-kissed, or really dark and curly. They also have big, round eyes a lot of the time. I think the fact that they speak French also makes them a bit more adorable. This does not only apply to kids in Paris, because the kids that I looked after in the south of France and their friends were also really cute!

L'affaire Farewell

This is a trailer for a French movie that is out in theatres, I couldn't find one with subtitles but it has something to do with spies and the cold war. The main actor in it is one of the few French actors that I know, and I have liked him ever since he was in "The Beach." His name is Guillaume Canet and I think that he has become a pretty big actor in France. I've only seen him in one or two French movies so far, so I might check this one out.

Paris Nightlife

This past week I went out to two different clubs in Paris and really enjoyed myself. Both places were pretty big, had really good DJs and were very crowded. The first place that I went to was called Club 75/Social Club and it seemed to be a cool spot for the hipster crowd. Everyone was crowded around the DJ who was playing techno beats and there were green and blue lights flashing. The second place I went to was called CAB/Lelounge (apparently most clubs have two names here...). It was right beside the Louvre, and it was more upscale appearnce wise, but the crowd seemed to be more immature. The music was mainly dance and hip-hop, the type of songs you'd hear at most dance places.

Here are some things that I've noticed about the nightlife in Paris:

- As in most of Europe, the night starts and ends later (usually you don't get to a bar before 12, and you leave after 3).
- Most places have 10-20 euro cover, but you can often print a kind of coupon off the internet that gets you in for free or at a discounted rate before a certain time.
- Drinks at clubs are very expensive, at a more casual bar they usually average around 6 euros
- The average french 20 year old drinks way more than they should... I know this from the numerous stories I've heard about/from the French people at my school, and from seeing 4 people get sick outside the club I went to on Saturday
- The French are really into PDA (public displays of "affection"), there are always many couples/strangers/acquaintences being extremely friendly with one another everywhere in the club.
- It is really difficult to get a cab late at night if you are at a popular club because everyone is outside waiting for them, you have to be really patient, or find somewhere else to wait, but most cabs that drive by have their lights off meaning that they already have a passenger. The lines at the taxi stands are also huge late at night.
- They don't ID very often here, but it does happen occassionally so it's smart to always have it with you.
- The clubs are very hot, dont' wear long sleaves or anything too heavy because you will get sweaty and overheated! It's hard to stay on the dancefloor for long because the heat along with the crowd can be overpowering.

Movie Theatres

Did you know that in a lot of European countries, seats in movie theatres are assigned? When I went to the movies with my friends last week, they were telling me that in their respective countries (Germany, Finland and Belgium) you have to buy tickets in groups to make sure that you get seats beside one another. It is like going to a concert or a real theatre. I found this really strange, because I've never even heard or thought about that, but apparently it's common across Europe. In France the movie theatres are the same as in Canada, but there are some differences:

1) The prices: night is more expensive (10 euros), they have cheap morning prices (4 Euros), when you buy a ticket it usually comes with a coupon for some sort of deal (food, discount ticket, etc.)
2) The popcorn: they have salty and sweet... but salty is just with salt, not with butter, I haven't tried sweet yet...
3) They dub over most of the English movies (which I'm pretty sure they never do to any foreign film in Canada)

Evian Roller Babies

I saw this commercial at the movies last week and I think that it's kind of creepy.... it just looks so unnatural to me. I'm not sure if this ad was made for France or Europe specifically because there is an English version as well. From the comments on youtube most people think that it's really cute, but I just find it disturbing. What do you think?

Le Pliage

This is the most popular bag in Paris right now, it's by Longchamp and it's called Le Pliage (which means folding in French). I see at least 3 people with this bag everyday and it comes in a variety of colours, shapes and sizes. I don't really see the huge appeal in having the same bag as a million other people... but I guess it is pretty practical and not overly expensive (the price ranges from 44-78 USD according to the website).

Washing the Sidewalks

In Paris, the sidewalk or troittor is cleaned on a regular basis with water. The city workers use high pressure hoses to spray debris off the sidewalk, and people often hose down the area in front of their stores and apartments as well. This makes for some awkward manoeuvring while walking in Paris because I often find myself jumping over puddles or taking odd routes to avoid being sprayed by with water. I'm not sure if this is common practice in Europe, or more of a Parisien thing... I haven't seen it done that often in Canada. I wonder if it is an effective process? Maybe it's not even a cleaning process and is done for some other reason that I don't know of....

From Tokyo to Paris...

UNIQLO is opening in Paris! UNIQLO is a Japanese clothing store that has a lot of basics and is pretty reasonably priced, I've bought some things from the store in Tokyo before. The Metro station Opera has been covered in ads for the store since I've been here, so I am excited to go check it out. Anyways, this is just an addition to the large Japanese presence I've noticed in Paris. It seems that the Japanese love Paris, and the Parisiens seem to have an appreciation for Japan too... or at least are trying to cater to the many Japanese tourists. There are "Japanese" restaurants on almost every street (though I've been told most are owned by Chinese or Korean people). Paris even has a street with mostly Japanese stores and restaurants on it as well as a large Japanese bookstore. I'm sure that there are many other Japanese things in Paris that I have yet to come across. I know that in Tokyo their are tons of French-inspired patisseries, boulangeries and cafes. All of the high-end French designers have huge stores in Ginza as well. I suppose that the relationship between Tokyo and Paris makes sense when you consider how trendy both cities are, it's almost as if they are trying to keep up with one another.

Parisiens and their cats...

I mentioned before that I saw a cat eating tuna on top of a gravestone... and recently I saw an even stranger thing. I went to a bar on a boat on the canal near my apartment with some friends last week, it was a typical kind of neighbourhood bar with lots of French people who all seemed to know each other. So I was just sitting at a table with my friends, enjoying a beer when I turned around to see an old woman standing behind me talking to some people while petting her cat that she had tucked inside her coat, with its head peeking out just under her chin... very strange. It seems that French people are really attached to their cats and sometimes take their fondness to a whole new level!

Aux Champs Elysées

I have had this song stuck in my head ever since I've been in Paris! I'm not even sure if I've actually heard it here yet, they used to sing it a lot in bars in Quebec City last summer. I think it just pops into my head whenever I hear the name of the street, which happens often now that I'm actually in Paris.

French Music

So I haven't really had the chance yet to listen to much French radio or watch TV, but I was just looking at the MCM website (the French Music Channel) and the above video is currently #1 of "Le Top 50." If you want to see what else is on the list here is the website: http://www.mcm.net/programmes/top50/. It's about half French music, half English music. To be honest though, whenever I'm out in Paris at stores, bars, restaurants, etc. they usually only play English music. I think the most popular song right now, that I've heard blaring from cars and at school is "Sexy Bitch" by David Guetta and Akon... which is currently #4 and quite a contrast from the above song.

Paris at Night

The other night my roommate and I were lucky enough to get a tour around the city at night in our landlord's vintage car. It was a spontaneous outing and it was absolutely fantastic. If you ever get the chance to see Paris at night by car, don't hesitate! First of all it's nice to see the city from the passenger's seat of a car, it really is a different experience. I felt that my sense of orientation improved in just that one hour and I now have a better map of Paris in my head. Paris really is the city of lights and it comes alive at night. The lighting on the Eiffel Tower is really well done, and personally I like when it starts sparkling like a diamond, it's almost hypnotizing. Just driving along the Seine provides a breathtaking view as well. There are so many beautiful bridges and monuments that are illuminated at night. Don't get me wrong, Paris is nice in the day as well, but there is just something almost magical about the city at night.

Homeless in Paris

Paris has a lot of homeless people and beggars (I'm not sure if they are homeless, or just poor)... more than I have seen in any other city. I pass at least 5 a day. They tend to be mostly in or outside of the metro and there are a few different types:

1) The "typical" homeless man: he's usually scruffy and dirty and sits on the stairs at the metro holding a sign and a plastic cup, sometimes you can find him in his sleeping bag on the sidewalk. Sometimes he has a really cute puppy with him.
2) The beggars who step onto a subway train and launch into a speech about how they need money and then wander around the car until the next stop.
3) The Muslim women that kneel with one arm out, hand cupped, eyes closed. Sometimes they have children with them, I even came across a pregnant woman, and a woman who was in fetal position with her hand cupped on the ground.
4) The mentally ill ones, who sometimes ask for money and other times just rant and make abrupt movements. They can be a bit scary sometimes, and are more likely to harass you.
5) The people who wander around outside carrying a small piece of paper with some sort of written plea on it that they show to anyone who passes by.
6) The ones who come onto the metro cars with a musical instrument, puppets or some other form of entertainment and actually put on a show to try and earn some money.

I feel like I've already become very desensitized to the whole situation and it just seems normal to have so many homeless people around. It's strange that Paris has such a wonderful international reputation and is known as a gorgeous, sophisticated city, yet it has such an obvious dark side. I don't really know much about the issue, but from what I gather it doesn't seem like the city does very much about the problem.

I love the Paris Metro

The Metro is one of my favourite things about Paris, here are some reasons why:

1) It's cheaper than in Toronto (monthly pass = 55 euros)
2) It really covers all of central Paris, you can be walking almost anywhere and find a metro station in under 10 minutes. You can also usually go from one end of the city to the other in under 40 minutes.
3) The trains come fairly often, and there are always electronic signs with the time, and next 2 trains shown (Toronto has those new TVs in some stations, but you can usually only read them if you are close by)
4) It is really easy to navigate, there are signs everywhere to point you in the direction that you are looking for.
5) You can usually get a seat pretty easily.
6) It is more economical than in Toronto. Not every door opens at every station; you have to press a button, or move a handle to open them. Also the seats by the door fold up, so that when it's rush hour there is more room, and when it's not so busy there are more seats.

Parisien Style

As everyone knows, Paris is a very fashionable city. In general I would describe Parisien style as elegant and classic. Everything is pretty simple, but it's put together in just the right way. Here are some of the things that I have noticed:

- heels are the most common footwear, followed by trendy boots and flats (sneakers are pretty rare for girls)
- bags are the "it" accessory, everyone seems to have designer brands, even the men
- it's not cool to wear colours... only shades, the crowds on the metro are usually a sea of black, white and grey
- over-sized blazers are a must-have for women these days
- long and loose-fitting tops are everywhere (though they tend to look best on the naturally thin French women)
- plaid is in style right now (one of the exceptions to the colour rule)
- you should have a scarf to go with every outfit

These are just some general observations that I've made. Of course like most big cities, Paris has a pretty diverse population so there are many different styles out there. I might also have more exposure to the fashionable side of Paris because there seem to be a lot of rich, fashion-obsessed kids at my school. It's a private business school, boasting an entire program on the "luxury industry," so as you can imagine, the majority of the students come to school dressed to impress, in heels, dresses, full hair and make-up. It's definitely a change from Canadian universities where it's common to go to class in sweatpants and not feel at all out of place. Though I doubt that I will ever live up to Parisien standards, I'm hoping some of their fashion savvy will rub off on me so that I can return to Canada just a little bit more stylish.

Nice Weather = Packed Parks

People in Paris LOVE their parks. If the weather is nice you can expect every park in the city to be crowded. Maybe their appreciation stems from the fact that the majority of them probably live in small apartments with no backyards. In Canada we are lucky to have so much land, but I've come to see that maybe we take it a bit for granted. I can't remember ever seeing a park as crowded on a nice day in Canada as it is here in Paris. Today the weather was gorgeous, probably 25 degrees and sunny. I went to Parc des Buttes Chaumont (pictured above) with my friends, it's a gorgeous park near my apartment, and it was quite a mission to find a place to sit down. There were families, couples, kids, etc. sprawled out on every inch of grass availiable. This may sound a bit claustrophobic, but it was actually kind of nice to be sharing the beautiful weather with so many people.

Exploring Paris

Paris is an amazing city for walking. You can walk from one monument to the next easily and with and amazing view along the way. Yesterday was a gorgeous day, we were supposed to go to Disneyland Paris, but of course the exchange coordinators didn't manage to organize the tickets in time and things didn't work out. So I ended up walking around Paris with some of my friends. We decided to go the Latin Quarter which is known as a trendy student area. We took a tour of La Sorbonne which was really beautiful inside, bought some delicious paninis and ate them in Jardin de Luxembourg, walked along the Seine past Notre Dame, and then ended up at Rue de Rivoli where we walked past many shops and then down some really cute streets full of cafes. It was a great, and exhausting day and I was glad to be able to take advanatage of the beautiful weather. The picture above is of the libary in the Sorbonne, it was a really amazing place.

The French Education System

I finally had my first class this past Friday and lets just say it was a typical French experience. The class that I had was Supply Chain Management, I know it sounds really boring and it is, but I signed up for it because it was supposed to be in French and I've already taken some classes on the subject in English so I figured I would be able to follow it well while improving my French. But as I have learned nothing at my school is very organized. I went to speak to the international coordinator the day before my class to ask some questions about my schedule and she told me that the SCM course was actually going to be in English because she had talked to the professor and he had said that if even one student in the class spoke English, then he would teach it in English. So the course description was changed less than 24 hours before the class, marking it as an English course. Of course this resulted in half of the class being French students with poor English skills, a quarter being exchange students with limited knowledge of French, and a quarter being students who had abilities in both languages. So as you can imagine the first half of the class was kind of disastrous as the prof tried to switch back and forth in between French and English, confusing 75% of the class. During lunch the prof worked out some sort of other schedule with the non-french speaking exchange students, and the rest of the class was conducted in French. I actually understood a lot more than I expected to and even managed to answer a question (he was asking for the English term for something he described in French). Yet another example of how despite the many delays, complications, etc., things seem to work out in the end here.

Stairs, stairs and more stairs!

I have come to the conclusion that I must climb at least 15 flights of stairs a day. My apartment is on the fifth floor of a building with no elevator, and I leave it at least twice. Then there are the numerous stairs in the metro, some metros have escalators but not all, and even if they do there is usually still a flight or two of stairs to climb. This along with walking around the city has been my main source of exercise so far. I tried to go jogging the other day but I haven't gotten into it yet. Jogging seems to be really popular in Paris though, I see people out all hours of the day, so maybe their energy will rub off on me. I think that once school really starts and I get into some sort of regular routine it will be easier, but at the moment all of my sight-seeing and other activities are keeping me busy and tired. The picture is of the stairs leading up to Sacre Coeur, which I climbed the other day.

Open Bus Tour Gone Wrong

Yesterday night there was a free Open Bus Tour arranged for all of the ERASMUS students. We were all excited to get to see the city of Paris from above ground after weeks of taking the metro everywhere. Originally they told us to meet back at the school at 6, then they made an announcement saying seven (they do this for almost every event here...) so we decided to make our way to school for 6:30 to be safe. We got on the bus and then waited... and waited, and finally found out that there was a problem with the engine. So we all got off the bus and waited for another bus which eventually came around 8. Everything seemed to be going well from there, there was singing and cheering, we saw the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe from many different angles and then it started to rain... At first it was okay, just a light drizzle and we all just pulled up our hoods or scarves, some people even had umbrellas, but after about 5 minutes of that the rain started pouring down and we all rushed to the stairs to try and squeeze into the lower level of the bus. As you can imagine it was not the most comfortable of situations so the bus tour came to an abrupt end. The driver was nice enough to drop us of near a metro station rather than take us back to the school which is pretty far out of the way for most students. A group of us then found a cute little pub to sit in and enjoy a drink. So in the end though things broke down, started late, and left us cold and wet it ended up being a pretty good outting. I've noticed that a lot of things in Paris seem to fall into place like that, you just have to learn how to be patient.

The French vs Hollywood

The French seem to have the need to change most Hollywood films into French versions of the original. If you want to see an American movie that is not dubbed over in French you have to make sure that it says v.o. (original version). They also like to change the names of movies to ridiculous titles. There are posters everywhere in the metro for the movie "The Hangover," which is a comedy about a group of guy friends who go to Vegas for a bachelor party and get into a bunch of trouble. So the French have decided to re-name this movie in English as "Very Bad Trip," with (Hangover) written in brackets below. First of all, I'm sure there is a French equivalent to the word "hangover," second of all if they are going to dub it over in French anyways why would they go to the trouble of re-naming it in English and with such a ridiculous name? It boggles my mind...