Portes Ouvertes à Ménilmontant

This weekend was Portes Ouvertes in Ménilmontant, which is the neighborhood where I live. There are lots and lots of artists in my quartier, and maybe 100 of them opened their studios to the public, so we picked up a map and went exploring!

The artists worked with all different sorts of media; some was fine art, and some was more folk art or craft-y. One artist did paintings and drawings, but also had these wonderful whimsical animals lanterns:

I think one of the coolest parts of Portes Ouvertes was seeing the hidden places of Ménilmontant. There are an incredible number of gardens and courtyards here that I never would have imagined exist. This is a little dark, but there was so much green back here!:

And another little alley:
Here is one of the ateliers (workshops). Lots of the spaces were set up like galleries, but in a lot of them it was very apparent that it was also the artist's work space, which was really interesting to see. 

Soon I will have a post about my trip to Cateau-Cambrésis! There is always too much for me to do here. 

Monuments are Better at Night

The monuments of Paris are even more spectacular at night. Last weekend some of us went out to Montmartre, bought a bottle of wine, and sat on the hillside looking out over the city. It was pretty perfect.

The Louvre is open late and free for all (though it is always free for me!) on Friday, so Natalia and a couple of people we know from the foyer went over that way. The building is lit up spectacularly, and it looks even more grand:
The pyramid is equally beautiful, lit up from the bottom.
We arrived a little late, so we couldn't see all that much, but we saw some French sculptures and then found Napoleon's appartments, which are absolutely spectacular. The picture does not do it justice, but here you go:
Then we hopped on the metro and went to the Eiffel Tower. It was my first time there ever! It's less crowded at night (so I am told, and it seemed to be so.) I couldn't believe how big it is, because it does not seem nearly so large from a distance. 
After this we hung out on the Champ de Mars for a little bit, just being Parisian.

Amazing Encounters

I have stories! (As always, but these are a little more suprising)

On Saturday, I was sitting by the Medici Fountain in the Jardin Luxembourg, waiting for Sam and Michelle, when who finds me but a Goucher student who graduated last spring, and had been in the same fall semester French class as me. A couple minutes later, his friend also found us, and she had also been in the same Cinéma Maghreb class. Just so you can appreciate the unlikelihood (I'm not quite sure that's a word; my English is beginning to fail me) of the situation, Goucher has about 14oo students in total, and the French class we had together had nine students. So basically, we had a third of Flo Martin's class standing there in the Jardin Luxembourg, an ocean away from Goucher.

Second story: Tonight Natalia and I decided we needed chocolate, so we trekked over the the ever-open boulangerie on Rue de Charonne. On the way back we thought about taking the Rue des Amandiers shortcut back to the foyer, but opted to go via Boulevard de Ménilmontant instead. As we were passing a cafe, I heard someone yell "America! Goucher!" and turned to see two girls from Marseille who I had met when they came to Goucher a year and a half ago to put on a play in French. It turns out they recently moved to Paris.

Evidently I have a talent for meeting people I would never expect to run into. This happened to me when I was in Poland a few years ago as well. It's so funny how these things happen. I wonder who else I will meet here?

In other news, I began my internship at Ni Putes Ni Soumises on Monday. It is a 10-minute walk from where I live, so I am very lucky in that respect. People seem really friendly, and it sounds like I will have some choice in terms of what projects I work on, so I will get to do things that really interest me personally. 

First Visit to the Louvre/Fun at Museums Part 1

I went to the Louvre for the first time on Sunday with Natalia and Michelle. It is free for us to get in whenever because of our Sorbonne student cards, so I can take my time and stay for as long or as short a time as I want to without having to worry about trying to get the very most out of each visit.

We mostly saw Northern art this time: German, Scandinavian, and lots and lots of Dutch. There was an entire gallery of works that Reubens (I think?) had done for the Medici family. 

I found some Friedrich works, which made me pretty ecstatic. I love how he does landscape, and the expression he puts into it. This is a bad picture, but here you go:

One of my favorite things about art/art history is the humor that one can find in it, so I think I am going to start doing some blog posts with the funny art I find. Here is today's! I have no idea what is going on on or in their heads. Feel free to create captions for this one:

And a detail, just so you can appreciate that face:

In other news, I had my interview with Ni Putes Ni Soumises, the organization with which I will be interning beginning next Monday. The interview was a bit more rigorous than I'd expected. The woman I spoke with asked me questions about the motives and goals of the organization (which I just know about at a very basic level), what I knew about cultural relativism, my knowledge on the issue of the veil in France. And keep in mind this was all in French. I feel I did not express myself quite as intelligently or eloquently as I would have liked, but I had an hour-long written exam to look at my capabilities in written French. One of the questions was about my motivations in working with the organization, and I felt pretty good about that one.

Thomas, my program director, got a positive response from NPNS, so I guess it went okay. I will have real projects to do there ("pas de photocopies!" she said), which makes me both excited and a little nervous, because while I'm fairly certain I will be quite capable, there is always that grain of self-doubt. 

A Very Parisian Weekend

I have survived my first week of classes! We began phonetics class on Wednesday and that one is particularly interesting to me, as it breaks down the sounds and constructions of spoken French, and already after three days I feel like I have a better grasp on how to actually speak French. That is a very welcome change, since it is terribly frustrating not being able to be understood all the time. I manage all right, but it can be rough sometimes.

Anyway, it is nice to have a couple days off for the weekend. On Friday morning, Natalia and I went to the market on Boulevard the Ménilmonant, which also continues on to Boulevard de Belleville. I picked up some veggies, etc. to put in the fridge we bought. The grapes were especially delicious and also super cheap, making them even better!

On Friday night, Natalia and I went with one of my neighbors to a night club called Duplex on the Champs Elysées. I had some reservations, since that is not really my scene, but I actually had a great time. We didn't get back to the foyer until about 6:30AM. 

After that, I took it kind of easy on Saturday. I did homework in the morning/afternoon and then later went with a friend to Parc Buttes-Chaumont, which I think might be my favorite in Paris. It's not neatly designed like Luxembourg or Tuileries, but rather has a kind of savage quality to it. I didn't have my camera yesterday, but I took some pictures the first time I was there with Michelle, Sam, and Natalia. Enjoy!

So I AM actually here to study...

I finally began my classes at the Sorbonne on Monday! I am in the "avancé" level, and my professor is a very classy French woman who (as one would hope) speaks beautiful, flawless French. People in my class come from the US, Sweden, the Netherlands, England, Indonesia... I loved being at liberty to explore the city, but it is nice to finally have some semblance of a regular schedule.

Today was particularly long; I left my foyer at 9 AM, and didn't return until 8 PM (that was after a disappointing search with Natalia for "box pasta"- sort of like fast food pasta, but really delicious and good quality, and portable since it is served what is basically a Chinese food container). She and I did buy a fridge today to share, so now we can cook and eat real food!

The foyer had a samba class tonight, and it was fabulous. Right now I am watching The Office in French, and it is also fabulous.

A Busy Weekend.

I've spent a lot of this weekend doing mostly touristy things, but I think that is also an important part of being in Paris. The weather on Friday was pretty nasty: chilly and rainy, so Sam, Michelle, John and I went to Angelina on rue de Rivoli for some of their famous hot chocolate. As we were about to go in, we saw this:

It's a little tough to see, but these were two models doing a fashion shoot. I don't know if it was for a label or some editorial, but rue de Rivoli is beautiful and chic and very Parisian, so it is a good place for that. 

The Angelina hot chocolate is rather expensive, but a pot can easily be shared since it is almost like drinking melted chocolate. 
After that we went to Les Halls to do some shopping. I bought a dress and I think I will wear it on my first day of class tomorrow.

On Saturday we went and walked along the Champs Elysées and wandered around some of the neighborhoods around the Arc de Triomphe. We didn't do any shopping there (trop cher!) but the people watching was excellent.
After that, Sam and I went to find a photography exhibit in the 8th which apparently didn't exist, so instead we hopped on the metro to the 9th and went to the Musée de la Vie Romantique. It is tucked back in this little alley, which then opens into this amazing court yard/garden. The picture doesn't do it justice, but here you go:
The museum is small, but very pleasant. The house used to be owned by the painter Ary Scheffer, who held salons attended by Chopin, George Sand, Delacroix, Ingres, etc.

The first Sunday of every month is free museum day in Paris. Michelle, Sam, Max and I really wanted to go the Musée d'Orsay, so we showed up at 9:00, half an hour before opening and were some of the first ones in.
There is a Max Ernst exhibit that is in its last week, and I am very happy I was able to see it. I feel like I need to read some things on Dada now, though. We didn't get to see everything we wanted to, but there is plenty of time to do that. 

The view from the museum terrace is magnificent:
Bisous!