Pigeons in Paris are Fat

1 February 2010

Today was my first day of class. I only had one! Granted, it was three hours long. French. It was good. We learned pronunciations and basic introductory phrases.

Yesterday we went to Paris!

When we exited the subway, we found ourselves in the burlesque part of town. There were lots of signs advertising “peep show” and stores, including the “SEXODROME” in neon red. The Moulin Rouge was on this street, but we didn’t go inside.

We saw Sacre Cour in Mont Martre (I’m so out of shape!!! You have to walk up a really big hill to get there. The view Paris from the top is stupendous. Sacre Cour is a famous basilica. It had a beautiful mosaic on the main domed ceiling above the altar.

We also went to the Paris Opera house. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. Oh my god. Oh my god. The grand staircase was made of so many different types of marble with bronze statues and chandeliers and carved stone ceilings. The hallway next to the stairwell had a mosaic on the ceiling. We took the self-guided tour, but I overheard a guide explaining that the mosaic was significant because it depicted naked men being held by clothed women, which was the opposite of most art of its day (Chris, it’s like in your English article!) And then, there was a very long room, painted in gold and it was incredible and I can’t describe it justly in words. Sadly, my camera died, but I can link you to pictures that my friends took when they post them on facebook.

After the opera house, we walked around the outside of the Louvre. It’s so freakin’ huge. Unbelievably huge. I can’t believe it used to be the Royal Palace, it probably took its residents at least 30 minutes to walk from one end to the other. We walked through the park to the Egyptian obelisk. Then we took the subway to see the Arch du Triomphe. We didn’t pay to go up to the top of it but we walked around it. Again, beautiful stone carving.

For dinner we at at Pomme de Pain, where I had a ham baguette, pomme de terre (apple of the earth aka potato aka potato wedges), and organgina, a good orange drink that is like something between juice and pop.

So far I’m getting by with the language barrier. A couple of times people have started talking to me in French after I say “Bon jour!” and then I have a blank look on my face and then they speak English to me <_<>

More things that are different in France:

· Women over 30, and yes, even over 40, where skirts that only go to the mid-thigh
· People eat outdoors when its under 30 degrees (Farenheit)
· Pop cans are slightly heavier, so it feels like you still have a little bit of drink left when you don’t
· Pop bottles are upside down in vending machines

Okay, so I’m going to go off again about sustainability. So, it’s less than 30 degrees outside, and most cafes had their doors, or even the entire outer wall, open. So much heat energy is wasted. And, like NYC, there are only public trash bins on the streets, no recycling bins like in Toronto.

I’m sad because my plug adapter can’t handle my laptop L I had it plugged in and the adc on my computer started to buzz and after a while I smelled the smell of a hot glue gun – hot metal and plastic – and found that it was coming from the adapter. I think it still works, just not with my laptop L

Oh and funny thing, there was so much static electricity in my fleece blanket and sheet that it actually sparked.