April: A Month in Review
This is my favorite metro station in Paris (and possibly all of the world, not that I am all that familiar with the world's tube stations).
We have a lot of catching up to do, so I've divided this post into handy sections so you can skip:
We started off the month with a picnic at the university for the Californian students and French students who were interested in going to a UC for a term. I'm not sure it was quite the success the organizers hoped it would be. As almost all of the French students were interested in UCLA or UC Berkeley, the rest of us were superfluous.
However, during said picnic I was able to catch up with Josh, another one of the UC students (Irvine) that I hadn't talked to since the beginning of our program. He told me he was going to Paris for the first time the next week and so I invited myself along because I had wanted to take advantage of the fact that I was in a position where I could go to Paris just for a day-trip.
On the 12th (a Saturday), the California Center took us on an excursion to see the ruins of an old abbey followed by a picnic at a medieval castle. At the castle, there were three entertainers who first gave us a brief lesson on medieval court life, and then regaled us with magic tricks in-between courses of our 3-hour lunch. The day was enjoyable, but the chilly temperature and rain made it rather uncomfortable. I only took a few pictures which you can see in [this album].
The day after our picnic, Josh and I left for a very short trip to Paris. He was staying from Sunday until Tuesday, but I was leaving a day early. Because time was so limited, we bought tickets for the 6:59 am train (also the cheapest).
I left the house at 6:01 am to catch the 6:09 am number 9 bus that goes directly to Gare Saint Jean, the train station. This trip usually takes about 20 minutes. I got to the bus stop at 6:05 and looked at the automated sign that shows when the next bus would arrive. Imagine my dismay when the sign said that my bus had already left and I would have to wait 29 or 55 minutes for the next one.
Now, to fully appreciate the gravity if this situation, I have to direct you to [ this post] from back in January where I provided handy maps of where I live. Please direct your attention to the last map with the tram lines.
Where I live is marked with the asterisk (*) symbol. Gare Saint Jean is marked with the letter B, and is at the end of the green line. With my direct access to the train station thwarted, I decided next best solution was to walk to the centre-ville and head down to the station from there.
To walk from the house to the A mark (Grand Theatre, downtown Bordeaux) takes about 25-30 minutes. That morning, I did it in 15. As I got the tram stop at Grand Theatre, a tram happened to be arriving so I hopped on that to Quinconces (a little bit north of Grand Theatre) where the B and C lines meet. I get to Quinconces and the sign there said the tram wouldn't arrive for another 10 minutes, but it was already 6:32 am.
I wait and fret for the next 11 minutes when the tram finally arrived at 6:43 am. The next 12 minutes were filled with much fretting and worrying. My biggest worry was the fact that Josh doesn't have a cell phone and there was no way to let him know that I was quite possibly going to miss the train. It's hard to meet up with people when they have no cell phone, you know.
The tram finally arrives at Gare Saint Jean at 6:55 am and I sprint into the station, down the escalators, stopping only to "composter le billet" (scanning your ticket in) and then running to the very last platform. I arrived with two minutes to spare. When the train departed, I checked my watch and it actually left two minute late at 7:01 am.
We arrived in Paris at 10:30 in the morning and headed straight to the hostel which was located near the edge of the city. It was the first time I arrived somewhere and didn't get lost looking for the hostel. After leaving our luggage there, our first stop was Sacre Coeur (which, incidentally was the first stop the last time I went to Paris) which is probably even more magnificent in the [daytime] than at [night]. I think the Parisian sky with the stark blue and dramatic clouds has something to do with it.
The rest of the day was hitting the tourist spots. After walking around Montmartre for a little bit, we headed towards Notre Dame, with a stop at Paris' [city hall] along the way. From Notre Dame, we walked to the [Champs Élysées] where this time the trees were in bloom. After a pit stop at "MacDo" and the Arc de Triomphe, we headed over to the Eiffel Tower.
Last time, I had only gone up to the second level because the top was closed. Third time's the charm, apparently. And we were lucky - it had been raining on and off for most of the afternoon but when we got up there, it stopped until we got back down!
To get our 12 € worth, we decided to stay at the top of the tower until nighttime so we could see the City of Lights all lit up. What we forgot to take into account was the fact that after the time change, days on this continent are freakishly long. We got to the top of the tower a little after 8 pm and were there for over an hour. We did see a proposal, but it was kind of disappointing how not-romantic that was. But, as these things go, it was [worth the wait].
After we got back down to ground-level, we headed across the river because everyone absolutely has to see the tower from the Esplanade de Trocadero. It has the [best] [view] of the tower and is, in my opinion, probably the most romantic spot in the world. We got waffles from a stand nearby and I marveled over the fact that I was in Paris eating waffles and looking at the Eiffel Tower, all because I felt like it.
Here's my one and only tip that I can share from my travels to people that have never been in Paris: when going to the Eiffel Tower, the stop that's labeled "Eiffel Tower" on the metro 6 line is "Bir-Hakeim." Granted it is the closest stop to the tower, but don't take it! Instead, wait two more stops and get off at "Trocadero" because that stops at the Esplanade de Trocadero, which I just sang the praises of in the paragraph above. Seriously, if you're going to see the tower for the first time, that's the way to do it.
Our hostel (St. Christopher's Inn: Paris - quite nice as it had only opened in January so was pretty new) has breakfast included in the price and that was nice.
The weather was incredibly tempestuous that day as it would be brilliantly sunny when you head into a metro station, and be hailing when you got out of it 5 minutes later. This is what happened to us on our way to see the Hotel des Invalides. Then it was beautiful again when we stopped by the [opera house].
Then it was off to the [Louvre] where I left Josh to meet Lisa and I headed off to wait for my train back to Bordeaux. As much as I would have loved to go back inside, it really didn't seem worth the 9 € for just a 3 hour visit.
Since I didn't get a chance back in the January trip to walk through the Jardin des Tuileries, I [strolled] [through] this time since the weather was turning nice again.
Then, with 3 hours ahead of me, I decided to catch one sight that I didn't see last time. So I hopped on metro line 1 at Tuilieries (above photo) and headed back towards Île de la Cité, the little island that Notre Dame is situated on, to visit Sainte Chapelle. And it was [glorious]. Kind of expensive (though I did get a student discount), but worth it.
Next time, I have to go back to the island because I have yet to see the ancient Roman ruins underneath the Notre Dame cathedral.
After Sainte Chapelle (which took over 2 hours with the wait in line), the weather turned beautiful once again and I walked around the Latin Quarter and along [the river]. I was living a cliché, and still loving the experience of walking around Paris on a beautiful day (is there anything better in life, though?). At one point, a woman came up to me and asked me for directions in French; I answered and gave her the (correct!) directions in French!
That was my very long-winded account of my very short weekend trip to Paris. There is [an album] from this trip and I'm proud to say that, with a few exceptions, I was able to take different pictures from the last trip.
After Paris, the rest of the month was pretty much getting ready for the end of school. There's really not much to report there as I was never fully able to comprehend what was going on with school and the end of it was not really that big of a deal.
Some events to note:
I made friends with a girl in my Italian class named Juliette. She invited me over to her house for dinner with her family and her family friends last Thursday. She lives in a city called Carbon-Blanc which is on the right bank of the Garonne river right by Bordeaux. The dinner was delicious and I had a lot of fun hanging out with her. Yay, I managed to make a French friend!
Two days later on Saturday, Katie and I went to Arcachon, a beach town an hour away by train. The big attraction there are the sand dunes called the Dunes of Pyla which are absolutely gorgeous. It's too bad we didn't actually go to them as it was too hot and we were too lazy. Still, it was a nice, relaxing day sitting on the beach and then having some delicious food at a beach-side restaurant. Archacon was a very nice place to visit. There are a few pictures in [this album].
That pretty much brings things up to date. I had my very last final on Tuesday (and thus finished my college career!) and am now enjoying the simple pleasure of living in Bordeaux.
On Friday, I will be going to Italy (Venice and Florence) until next Thursday. Afterwards, I'm considering another 2-3 day trip to Paris and also some time just to hang out in Bordeaux. On the 18th, I head over to Munich to meet up with Annie to go on our tour of eastern Europe. That ends about a week later and I will be back in Bordeaux on the 27th. Then it's a few more days of enjoying life here before I head back home on June 2. Home, can you believe it? But that's a topic for another time. Before then, I'll have tales from Italia to share.