Vintage French Magicians Were Creepy
Monday, January 15th - Thursday, January 18th, 2018
Paris, France
I FOUND MY NEW FAVORITE PLACE IN PARIS! Heehee, remember my rant about slow WiFi? Well, problem-solving happened. Thanks to the recommendation of my associate, Maisy, Alanna and I have discovered Nuages Café AKA my new favorite place in Paris. It's an internet cafe, less than a block from our hotel, where you pay 5 euros an hour, or 18 euros for a full day, and get access to 90mbps* WiFi, snacks, and coffee. I think I'll move in here, thanks. (Criticize my WiFi dependancy all you want, but I'm writing a blog so also what did you expect???)
Nuage Café
(*for reference, most 4G runs between 5 and 12mbps and OUR HOTEL WIFI HAS BEEN RUNNING AT 0.25mbps. Zero. Point. Twenty. Five. *swoons in horror*)
Lots of learning ensued these past few days. I'll share 13 points highlighting my super worldly knowledge.
1. Eleanor Beardsley from NPR once worked at Disneyland Paris (And she's super cool and inspiring and took the time to come talk to our class about her road to becoming a journalist, speaking French, and radio! Starstruck!)
Our class with Eleanor Beardsley
2. The BHV Marais is the place to go if you want to buy Urban Outfitter's products, home improvement items, and scented fountain pen ink all in the same place, but you'll pay a pretty price, and if you're like me, you may get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of STUFF. (Still, worth a look)
BHV Maris
3. The French still appreciate a good fountain pen, and I appreciate that about the French
4. Vin chaud is good on a cold rainy day but also really gross once it cools down
Alanna and I on a very rainy day
5. Musée d'Orsay has super great vibes for just sitting and people watching (or like, art watching if you're into that kind of thing)
Cassandre by Max Klinger (someone please make a bust of me with red eyes)
6. Sometimes if you smile and just say you're a student studying in France, in perfect French, ticket sellers at various attractions and museums will let you in for free. But most of the time, they ask how long you're studying there, and if it's less than 6 months, you still have to pay full price... Also having an international student ID card is literally worthless and will get you no discount.
7. Cafe Delmas is being robbed with only 3 stars on TripAdvisor because it has AMAZING honeyed canard, Happy Hour, and cute waiters. And there's a gelato shop across the street. Need I say more?
Katie, Drew, Alanna and I at Delmas
8. There is a Magic Museum in Paris, and it's maybe not worth 14 euros but let me tell you, it had quite the collection of creepy vintage automatons so maybe it actually WAS worth it. (Side anecdote: There was a tall machine that looked like a sleeping monster, and you could put your arms into its mouth, and then it would "breathe" air onto your hands, open its eye (it was a cyclops) and LICK you! It was disgusting and terrifying and I did not sign up for that experience.)
Automatons at the Magic Museum
9. You're not allowed to take pictures or video inside the Magic Museum but some rules are meant to be broken
Some monkey automatons at the museum. This is top of my Christmas list
10. Never facetime Grady unless you want her to take 8536490 screenshots of your face and post them on social media (Grady you're the WORST)
11. French laundromats (or at least the one we went to) are EXPENSIVE but at least we have clean clothes
Alanna and I with our bags of clothes
12. There are 13,000 cafés in Paris (thanks, Guide Michelin)
13. To quote my professor, "It doesn't matter if he was Napoleon I or II, just remember that he was Napoleon Bonapart". (If someone just knows off the top of their head which Napoleon was THE Napoleon, I'd appreciate a comment with that info)
Now for the vocabulary section of this blog, where I will list for you all the new and super practical french words I have learned:
1. Une quincaillerie - hardware shop
2. Un coquetier - egg cup (but also maybe we say coquetier in English too?)
3. Une meule de foin - haystack
4. Une colonie de vacances - summer camp (but I wish we called it a "vacation colony")
5. Prendre [qqn] au dépourvu - take [someone] by surprise
6. Un chardonneret - goldfinch
7. Un coquelicot - poppy
8. Une auberge de jeunesse - youth hostel
9. Une papeterie - paper shop
10. Un stylo à plume - fountain pen
On a more serious note, we also visited le Mémorial de la Shoah, where there is a crypt and a museum honoring the French victims of the holocaust. It was different from other holocaust sites or museums I'd seen, in a few ways. First, the memorial wasn't built until 2005, and it talked about how part of its mission is to acknowledge the erasure (or attempted erasure) of the Vichy French government's involvement in the deportation and extermination of their Jewish population. It's fascinating to me how that wasn't acknowledged (at least in the public form of a memorial) until 2005. Additionally, it really highlighted the history of anti-semitism. The Nazis and supporters didn't come out of nowhere, and I think they did a really good job of showing that history. While acknowledging this institutional violence, they still shared stories, letters, and possessions of survivors and victims. And they told some stories too, of human kindness and neighbors helping neighbors. It was really interesting and good to see, but also incredibly emotionally draining.
Now I really have to go, and leave Nuage before they charge me for another hour! LOL. I'm probably 15 euros in...
Salut,
Cristiana
