Les Weekends

"In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language." - Mark Twain

Normandy

Everyone arrived in Paris on Monday September 9^th; we started orientation on Tuesday, and went on a group trip to Normandy on Thursday. Needless to say, everyone was still jetlagged and exhausted from exploring the city, which made for a very funny, overtired trip.  Since we left Paris at 7am on Thursday, we made it to Normandy by about 10 and went immediately to a museum that covered WWII in general. We then went to one of the famous D-Day beaches and ended the day with some group bonding activity on the beach next to our hostel.

The program leaders like to feed us very French food, so we had duck at the museum for lunch the first day (which they told us about beforehand) and rabbit on the second (which they didn’t). I thought the rabbit was just really yucky chicken, but apparently not! Dinner was at an adorable little restaurant out in the countryside and it really was chicken this time, but with lots of cream, in the French style. How they stay so thin is still a mystery to me.

We also woke up early the second day and went to another museum. I’m not sure what this one was about since the tour was all in super fast French, but they had a really neat animated D-Day exhibit. We spent some time wandering around Omaha Beach and then had the rabbit lunch. After that charming surprise, we went to the American Cemetery. It definitely had the intended effect of being overwhelming and shocking. We noticed some of the markers had Jewish stars carved into them, which is cool. Overall, my trip to Normandy was a lot to take in so soon after my arrival in France, but it was a good thing to see and an important part of history.

Omaha Beach

 

The American Cemetery

Versailles

Some of my friends and I took a little day trip out to Versailles, since it’s very easy to get to by commuter train from Paris. My host mom’s granddaughter lives around this area so Madame often goes out to see her on the weekends.  Although it’s been a few weeks since we went, I still am not over the fact that actual people lived like that. I would’ve been pretty mad too if I was a French peasant that had nothing to eat but rabbit and bark, or something like that, probably.  Something I didn’t know was that several of the Napoleons also lived there after the French Revolution and before it was turned into a museum in 1837. We explored the palace, took some selfies in the Hall of Mirrors, had a picnic in the gardens, listened to a “musical fountain show” (I think they just piped some music through hidden speakers and then charged me 8 euros, in true Versailles fashion. Whatever, it was a nice soundtrack to pretending I was a princess), and walked through Marie Antoinette’s “little” cottage. I don’t have much else to say about Versailles other than that it’s stunning, so I’ll just show you some pictures.

The king's bedroom.

 

The ultimate selfie is the Hall of Mirrors selfie

 

The royal gardens and a magical fountain

 

 

Marie Antoinette's Petit Trianon where she could go to hide from Louis XVI and the stresses of court life, which apparently wasn't all roses and cake

The front gate

 

The back of the palace

Royal chapel

 

Inside the front courtyard

Giverny

Oh man, Giverny. The things I would do to live there. It’s unbelievable that Monet built himself this little Eden in the French countryside and it was wonderful to see the exact spots that inspired some of his most famous paintings. I really like Monet and the Impressionists, especially because their paintings make me feel like I could totally do that and be a great artist. I’ve never tried my hand at painting, so we’ll see. After wandering the gardens all morning we had another delicious lunch of wine and more chicken in cream sauce, then went to a museum on the grounds which had a special exhibition of this modern Japanese artist who is trying to imitate Monet. This was interesting because Monet had originally been heavily influenced by Japanese prints of nature, so things were coming back full circle.

The pond where Monet painted "Nymphéas" or "Water Lilies"

 

Secret garden

 

His house

 

 

Hippodrome de Longchamp

Our friend Grace came up with the great idea to go to a horse race one Saturday afternoon. I’ve never been to one before and it was great! Apparently it was a pretty big deal and everyone was all dressed up with the little fancy hats and pinstripe suits. Of course, we rolled out of bed and stumbled over in sweatpants, as Americans are wont to do. You could make little 2 euro bets and boy, what a rush. I didn’t win anything, but our friend Ben won 8 euros (he spent about 20, but says he had a lot of fun, so it’s a wash I guess). The races were every 30 minutes and went by in a blur, but afterwards the jockeys would walk the horses back by and we could also watch them in the winner’s circle, which was very cool.

The racetrack. You can see the Eiffel Tower in the background if you squint

 

One of my loser horses 

The Marais

The Jewish quarter in Paris is called the Marais and is located pretty near the Seine, on the right bank. It’s our favorite place to visit on Sundays, partly because it’s one of the only things open and partly because it’s awesome. Every weekend that we’ve been in Paris we’ve gone to the famous falafel restaurant called L’As du Falafel, which is apparently recommended by Lenny Kravitz.

I don’t know what As means, nor do I know who Lenny Kravitz is, but I adore this falafel.

 

It's just like Jordan, only without the food poisoning and 103 degree heat!

All the falafel in the quarter is the same price and pretty much the same ingredients, but I haven’t tasted any of the others because I only go for the best, obviously. I should probably do a taste test before I leave though. There’s also a block of “Kilo” stores in this neighborhood where they charge you for your clothes by weight. Finally, and best of all, we have discovered two wonderful cheesecake stores near the falafel place. The layout of the Marais is very cool and we’ve spent many hours there, but we’re always discovering something new.

Hotel de Ville on the edge of the Marais. It's the mayor's house now, but there used to be a guillotine in that plaza. Fun fact: France guillotined their last person in  1977.

One day we wandered into a beautiful big building that turned out to be the national archives museum and it was displaying some pretty neat medieval tapestries inside. Europe is just the best.

Some medieval tapestries, no big deal