Parisian Outing & Rural Ramblings

Thursday, June 7th, I spent a solo day in Paris except for lunch with a cousin.   It was splendid.  The whole day!  From taking the RER (train) like a big girl (only asked 2 people to make sure the train I was on would actually stop at the station I wanted) to the downpour I got stuck in while crossing the Place de Concorde, it was all excellent!

I must say, I already have a favorite new 'cultural moment.'  More of a lack of finesse on my part with the language, but a fun story to share =)  One of my cousins dropped me off that day at the train station and was going to come in and help me buy the train ticket.  I was trying to say that I'd be fine on my own using the automated machines to buy a ticket.  There are multiple words that can be used for these machines: 'billeterie,' 'guichet,' 'borne' but, one should be very clear that the word one might pronounce as 'bjorn' is definitely not a valid term.  In fact, if one employs such a term, one should know that it's another word for balls (aka testicles).  Ooops!!  Totally not what I was looking for.

I was very thankful that my cousin corrected me right away, rather than letting me go into the train station asking for the testicles.  Can you imagine?  "Pardon me, where might I find your testicles??"  Ha!!  Would have been funny to see the look on someone's face.  Maybe I should have done it nonetheless.  Or if the machine isn't working ...... "Excuse me, sir, your testicles aren't working."  Bah ha!  So much fun to be had.   That's my funny story of the day.

Below are pictures from my outing:

The Louvre.  Where I met my cousin before our lunch.  He took me to his favorite French Japanese restaurant.  It was quite fun, and not what I expected.  Really odd to see him again after 4 years as it doesn't feel like that much time has lapsed, at all.  I have this very bizarre feeling since being back in France that the life I started here in 2008 has just been on pause and I'm just picking up again right where I left off.  It's another really weird time warp experience!! 

After lunch, he headed back to work and I headed to the Petit Palais.  My first experience ever there.  Very cool.   Phenomenally gorgeous building.  As you can see a tiny bit from the picture.  It was breath-taking.  It was on my way here that I got stuck in a bit of a downpour and realized that my 'raincoat' is total crap and did me no good.  Took the two hours I spent in the museum to dry off.  But got to see some really cool art!

The pieces of art in the Petit Palais cover a huge range of styles.  I was impressed by the variety (and by the fact that all permanent displays are free!!  Woohoo!!). They display sculptures, oil paintings of various schools, and ancient artifacts.  My favorite part was the really ancient stuff.  There was pottery and sculpture from 700 B.C.  That is so incredible to me!  They had an iron pot handle sculpted in the shape of a lion.  What?!  I still couldn't create something that looked that good with all the tools we have today.  I remain impressed.

After the Petit Palais, the weather totally cleared up!  It was fantastic!  I had planned to metro it back, but since I had amazing blue skies, I walked instead and got to see some of these beautiful sights.

I'm almost positive this is a sculpture on the Pont Neuf, but wasn't paying close enough attention to the names of the bridges.  I was, instead, in awe at the spectacular sculptures.  And I started getting my bridges confused after I passed about a dozen.

Hooray for Nutella crepes!!  My all time favorite French dessert  (although there are many very close seconds!!  =)  My first Nutella crepe since being back in France.  Heartily enjoyed on one of the many bridges I confuse.  This truly completed my Paris outing.  I was ecstatic.

The next day, Friday, June 8th, I spent the day closer to home base.  I'm now at an aunt and uncle's house in the country-side of a very very extended Parisian suburb.  You absolutely feel submerged in rural country, even though you're only a 45 minute train ride away from the center of Paris.  It's a pretty sweet deal!!

On my way to pick up bread from the boulangerie on Friday morning, I found a sign that described a castle.  It appeared quite close on the map, and when I asked my aunt she confirmed the fact - within 2 km.  SCORE!  A French castle less than 2 miles away.  Too good to be true!  I was thrilled.  Knew where I was going that day!  So I took a rambling walk to the castle and beyond. 

I ended up strolling for about 2 hours and was overjoyed by the simplicity of where I was.  There are few things in the world that make me happier than walking on a narrow country road with fields of wheat on either side.  The air smelled clean, the wind was fresh (as opposed to my Parisian outing the day before.  I do love Paris, but I do simultaneously severely dislike how crowded and polluted it is.  Walking along the Quais, I was just getting mouthfuls of car emissions and it was not the favorite part of my day.  As much as I love Paris, I will take a walk in the country or the mountains any day over the city).

Long tangent.  Anyways, the moral of the story is that I had an awesome walk in the country. 

Here is the castle that I found.  =)  It's privately owned, closed to the public, and being restored.  Oof, can you IMAGINE the cost of restoring a castle?  See the work ladders on the right side of the castle?  The rest of the façade is new and lovely, but they've been restoring this castle for at least 21 years and they have a loooooooooooong way to go.  As much as I love finding castles, drooling over them, and strolling around them if I can, I could never imagine owning one.  Or wanting to own one.  I will remain satisfied by drooling. 

When I left the house there were some really threatening clouds overhead so I brought this really awesome poncho that my aunt let me borrow.  It was PERFECT!!  I ended up in a downpour again, but was hoping this one would last a while because it was GREAT!!  Another favorite past-time: walking in the rain, when I know I can dry off when I'm ready to.  That caveat is important!  Unfortunately the downpour ceased after about 10 minutes and then there was only a light rain.  This at least allowed me to take this picture (running like a fool to make it in time) with Chantal's grandiose gorilla gift! 

Saturday, June 9th, I went to a low key little French fashion show with my aunt, her best friend, and my cousin.  It ended up being very good fun!  (I had a doubt or two at the start as I am not at all fashionable) but the whole thing was among friends. A lady who owns a clothes store in Paris organized it and had some of her friends play runway models.  After these 'models' do their thing to show the clothes, everyone can try things on and buy the clothes at a better price than is available in the stores.   Kind of a fun idea.  I wasn't planning on buying anything, BUT........

I thought this dress was too fun to pass up!!  My aunt told me after the show, that she thought of me right away when she saw this dress, as I am obsessed with colors.  I showed them my pictures of Iceland, and I've taken a bunch more pictures of cute French houses with crazy colorful shutters and doors and I LOVE it!  I cannot describe how much I love bright colors!  So I bought this fantastically 80's dress AND the red leggings to go with it.  Watch out 80's night.  I am so ready.

Outing in Paris by MOTORCYCLE!!!

WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

I had my first ride on a motorcycle today and it was incredible!!  I was really quite petrified at first, but it was awesome and I'm alive and had no run-ins with anyone or anything.  Props to Jeanot.  =)

Imagine: me sitting on a motorcycle with a white helmet.  =)  Hopefully I'll be able to get pictures to load soon.

 HOOOORRRRAAAAYY!!  I feel like a tech pro!  I figured out my camera!  =)  Here's the picture, as promised:

 

Plus a bonus picture of one of the pieces of art in the Modern Art Museum (this was one that made me laugh because I think it's pretty ridiculous to frame this and call it art, but it was still pretty cool).  The title is Dishrags and Napkins:

 

 

Today, Tuesday, June 5th started off with a decadent bit of sleeping in.  Once up, I started the day with a run (whopping 4 x 8 minutes) and have been really excited about the way my ankle has been feeling the last couple of days.  Then I found a different park for TRX (I feel a little dubious about the woods now) but this park was perfect in an island between small neighborhood streets.  After getting ready and eating breakfast at 12 pm (the downside to sleeping in) we headed into Paris.

Jeanot proposed taking the motorcycle as driving in Paris is 'la galère!!' (roughly translates to 'pain in the ass').  He was specifically referring to trying to park a car in Paris.  I totally agreed and was intrigued about the idea of riding on a motorcycle, while simultaneously feeling a wee bit terrified.  Should I voice my fears??  I decided that he knows what he's doing when it comes to driving motorcycles in Paris as he's done it for years, and he's been super protective about me since the day I arrived, so I figured he'd be conservative.

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwww!!   I'm sure he was super conservative, but considering that even going 50 km/hour (which we reached in the neighborhood)  felt exhilarating for me, the rest of the ride was indescribable. Tons of fun and overall relatively worry-free as I had no control anyways.  

At first I worried about leaning into the turn (as I've heard you're supposed to do), but it did come completely naturally.  I was a little apprehensive every time we went through crossroads that some driver would run us over, but this was where I just had to let it go and trust the driver.  A good trust exercise indeed.

We found a parking spot ridiculously easily by the Trocadero and took more classic pictures of the Tour Eiffel (I do believe I have pictures of the Tour Eiffel from every trip I've taken to France.  Does this incredible monument change every few years??  Nope.  Yet I still feel the need to capture it on my camera whenever I'm here). After the photo shoot, we strolled to the Musé d'Art Moderne and spent a good bit of time admiring, commenting, and ridiculing the art.  How some things become art is beyond me.

On the way home, we took the Champs Elysées (definitely a unique experience by motorcycle).  This of course spit us into the Place de L'Etoile and all the insanity that runs rampant in the traffic circle around the Arche de Triomphe.  Holy Shlamola.  I've been in a car there before, several times actually, as my dad thinks it's incredibly good fun to drive in circles around the Arche, but this was my first time feeling so exposed.  Oh my goodness, I thought we would die or get run into about 15 times in the 2 minutes or less that we spent there.  But there were no problems.  He is indeed, an experienced Parisian driver.  On the way back, we passed through the Bois de Boulogne which rightfully has the reputation for being able to easily find hookers, and in simply driving through for about 10 minutes, I counted 4.  Kind of a bizarre experience. 

The last exciting moment of the day to share: I got my debit card for my French bank account.  We barely (unknowingly) made it as today was their first day closing at 6 pm instead of 6:45 pm.  So glad they post these things on their website.  I had no idea until I saw the sign on their door.  I got there at 6:02 pm but the lady was super nice and got me my card so I am good to go!  Onward to further adventures!

First Full Day in France

I got to France on Saturday, June 2nd at 6 am, was able to find the shuttle bus really easily and met up with my first host (an old family friend) at 8:30  am.  We went to a boulangerie to pick up a couple of baguettes and croissants and I had my first classically French breakfast again since 2008.  It was wonderful.  The rest of the day was really low key with the highlight of the day before lunch: I got to pick cherries from their cherry tree.  So fun and so delicious!!  

 

That evening we went to run a couple of errands and I got some hygiene essentials that I hadn't packed (including sunscreen, which I realized I was missing in Iceland and ended up getting a little sunburned.  Sounds bizarre, but true story).  Delicious French dinner on the grill followed up by delicious French cheese - oh how I've missed the cheese!!  I cannot describe the contentment I felt, sitting in the backyard, eating stinky French brie on a baguette with red wine.  Exquisite!!  I actually made it until 11:30 that night and was thoroughly entertained by a French TV show (my 2 hour nap that afternoon helped immensely).  

Sunday June 3 started off at 9:30 am, but only because I got a wake up call.  I'm curious how late I could have slept on my own =).  Today so far, the highlight has been going for a walk with Jeanot in these little woods and visiting a market, my first market since 2008.  Oh it's so wonderful being back at a French market!!! I took a few pictures I wanted to post, but something is going wonky with the computer (is it the fact that I'm international??  I don't know.  If you have suggestions, please let me know!  It doesn't recognize my camera or my USB key.  Could be interesting and quite problematic).
And again, my edited version here, as I ever so skillfully figured out how to put pictures onto my blog.  If you could see me right now, you'd see a very proud Elodie.  =)  Here are the promised market pictures:

I do believe all technology problems have been solved!

If I'm able to problem solve, you can expect to see pictures here of a super colorful stand chock full of fruits and veggies, a stand with a gorgeous variety of whole fish, and of course, a cheese stand.  =)

Also!!  Something else I could use help with from my technology saavy friends: My blog won't let me access the .com address.  It automatically takes me to .fr.  When I tried to type it in manually, it said that my site no longer existed.  Any ideas??  Just roll with it?  The new challenge of this site is that it won't let me see the top part of the page.  It's completely inaccessible.  I can see the very bottom of the box for Title, and the buttons for Save, Publish, Close, and Preview but I can't see what they say.  At least I know the Publish is the orange button.  =)  The others I'm almost positive about.  Anyone have any ideas about THAT little conundrum??

Arrival!!!

I made it to France!!!!!  It's finally starting to set in (as I struggle with the AZERTY keyboard - eesh I miss knowing where the keys are!!)  Anyhoo, Iceland was AMAZING!!!!  I had 15 hours to explore and I hit up the Blue Lagoon and gave myself a walking tour of Reykjavik.  Phenomenal weather, had sunny blue skies the whole time; no problems with any of the flights or trains or buses.  Overall the trip went really well, minus the fact that I couldn't sleep at all on the way from Reykjavik to Paris (from 1-6 am .... with a 2 hour time difference ....  you would think that it would be the ideal time to sleep, but my mind would not stop).

Going to keep it brief right now as the keyboard is already driving me mad; but just a quick update that all is well and I'm finally starting my actual European Adventures!!!

And an updated version with pictures!  =)

At the Harrisburg Amtrak station, just before my departure for the international leg of my trip!

Sunrise above Iceland around 2 am.

Icelandic Coastline!!!  GORGEOUS!

Blue Lagoon!!

View of the Reykjavik.  I absolutely LOVED all the colors of the roofs and the houses.  They were so brilliantly vibrant, I was in heaven!  And the fabulously blue sky you see is the weather I was lucky enough to have for all 19 hours of my trip.  Magnificent!  I can't wait to do a more in depth trip in Iceland.