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.