Home, Sweet, Paris?

Hello again!

Sorry for the long delay in the newest blog post. The past two weekends have been quite eventful and hectic over here in France. Two weekends ago, I traveled to Bordeaux, the wine capital of the world, and I stayed for two full days and one night. If you ever plan on visiting a small city outside of Paris, you really only need a short amount of time.

My TGV (the fastest train rail in Europe) left at 6:40am on Friday morning. Because I inherited my dad's genes of arriving just in time, I made it to the voie (the train location) with two minutes to spare! I hopped on with my friend and it started to move--man, I was lucky...The TGV was incredible. The last time I had been on a train was when I was 6 years old in Austria so it was a whole different experience for me. We arrived in Bordeaux at 10am, so I didn't get a chance to check out the "accompagne" (countryside) of France. Here we are, two American blondes in Bordeaux--so we had to figure out the public transportation system and where our hotel was, etc. After about an hour and a half we reached our hotel that was not in the pretty part of Bordeaux, but that's what we get for a 40 euro hotel stay!!

My first impressions of the town--a mini-Paris. Everything pretty much looked like Paris except two things: 1. tons and tons of younger people around my age. They have about 5 0r 6 colleges in Bordeaux so it is filled with students. 2. SUN SUN SUN and blue skies! So all my pictures from the trip look amazing with a blue sky background!

Also, Bordeaux is not that cheap. There were a few places to eat that didn't eat my wallet, but I think the big difference is that it's smaller than Paris so less variety in cheap places! The whole main road had restaurants dedicated to their Bordeaux wine. There were a million little wine stores/wine tastings/wine bars galore. Caroline and I ate a cheap meal in a brasserie and we were happy with the prices. After, we trekked to the Office of Tourism and picked out a few things to do. First, we checked out the "Maison du Vin"-"House of Wine"-they had a wine tasting class in English every Saturday from 10-12 but they had it canceled for the Saturday we were there! If any of you plan to go to Bordeaux, make sure you get in that class!

Because it was Friday afternoon, students were all over the place getting out of class. We walked down the Bordeaux version of the "Champs-Elysees" and there were tons and tons of stores suited for students. We reached the Pey-Berland Bell Tower. It is a huge tower that you are able to climb up 50 meters high and see the best view of the town from the top. The narrow stairs, dim lighting, and stone walls made me feel like I was in a medieval era. We reached the top and the door to walk through was 2 inches shorter than me (I'm 5'4") and about the width of my body! Some people had to turn to the side to squeeze through. I wonder how someone like Kobe would fit through--he would probably be rejected.

Next to the Pey-Berland Tower rests the Bordeaux Cathedral. It looks like a mini Chartres but much, much dirtier and not as restored. The stained glass windows from the outside really made me appreciate the Chartres stained glass windows and I could understand how incredible Chartres actually is. However, on the inside of the church, the stained glass windows looked beautiful with all the light shining through!! I couldn't believe how something so dirty on the outside could look so beautiful on the inside!

Finally, we headed back to the main road and we walked to the Bordeaux river. Because the sun was out and it wasn't too cold, there were hundreds of people there. It looked like Venice Beach with all the rollerbladers, bikers, walkers, runners, except there weren't any random drum circles or musicians that might pick-pocket you.

We then had a nice Italian dinner and headed back to our hotel. The next morning we woke up and headed to Bordeaux with our belongings. Our train wasn't until 7pm so we had no idea what we would do with our bags. The Office of Tourism set us up with a wine tasting at one of the Chateaus in St. Emilion --about 40 minutes outside of Bordeaux--we took the train there and hopped off at our exit. It was like a ghost town. Nobody was there but Caroline and me. But it was beautiful, even though it was raining. There were hundreds of chateaus with vinyards everywhere. The rolling green hills and cobble roads made me feel like I was finally in a French countryside town. We found Chateau Fontainplague and the house looked like a huge, nice house you would find in Highland Park, Dallas, TX. There was an American flag waving on the outside! Very excited, we asked our tour guide and she said the owners are from Connecticut and they also own a vineyard in Napa Valley, CA.

We had an hour tour of the Chateau and learned all about the process of making wine. We had a wine tasting of 4 wines. It was interesting because we got to taste the same flavor but from different years and notice the difference. If you are interested in the process of wine making--just privately message me because I don't want to bore you on the blog!! Haha

Moving on, we had another hour, so we explored the little village of St. Emilion. Again, a ghost town but there were a few stores open and they were all wine stores. It is a medieval town and the cobble stone is crazy to walk on. There was another tower to go up and see the town. I would have no idea what you would do in this town other than just wonder why you are there! Unless you own a vineyard, I don't see the point of living there.

Finally, we got back to Bordeaux and took our train back to Paris on Saturday night. By the way, wondering about our bags? You can leave your bags in lockers at the train station! How convenient! So we left them there before we went to St. Emilion.

Coming back to Paris was nice. I felt like I was coming back home...

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My entire school group went on a trip sponsored by Accent this past weekend to the South of France (Aix-en-provence, Provence, Arles, Avignon)

It was an incredible experience. I got closer with my school group while not having to worry about expenses since it was already paid for. Our tour guide, Mirek, was wonderful and Sylvie, our teacher, made us feel very comfortable. We arrived in Aix-en-provence around 12pm on Friday and we went to our awesome hotel that was located in the heart of the city. Then we all had free time for lunch, so we found a pizza place to grab some cheap food. Then we met with our group and had a walking tour of the city. The city was again filled with sunlight and blue sky and I think the term "Southern Hospitality" can apply in any part of the world because it definitely applied in the south of France! Everyone had a smile on their face and had a different attitude. It wasn't too crowded or busy but it was my favorite city of the trip. We got to have dinner as a group at a nice restaurant that served us pate, lamb, and chocolate cake! It was soooo good. After, we went to a bar that had flags from all over the world. There was a California flag AND an Indiana University flag! How crazy!!

The next morning we woke up around 7:30am (groan) and ate breakfast in the hotel. If the French could not eat bread anymore, they would all starve. Baguettes, croissants, bread pastry, cereal, toast everywhere. I don't understand why they are all so skinny!! We took our bus to the first destination--Chateaux Baux. It is a medieval castle that was probably the coolest thing I have seen in France. I felt like I was on a playground. There were beautiful, beautiful views all over the place. Catapults, gallows, and dungeons were accessible. You could climb through the entire castle without any uptight museum security guard getting mad at you. My pictures speak for themselves...

Arles was our next stop. A very run-down town, it was home to a Roman arena where they still have bull fights today. Also, Van Gogh painted a famous painting at one of the spots in the city (another claim to their fame). We ate lunch at a good, cheap place and headed back on the bus towards Pont-de-Gard. The famous Roman Aqueduct in the south of France. It was so amazingly inspiring!! I learned how they built it, walked through the top of the bridge where the water used to flow, and got to see one of the coolest sights!! The Pont-de-gard is on the 5 euro, fyi.

After, we headed to Avignon where we had free time for dinner and the rest of the night. We ate dinner at another Italian place (Italian places seem to be the cheapest!) and then went to sleep since we were all exhausted. The next morning we got to see the Palais de Popes. It was the place where the popes fled to in the Roman empire sometime-I'm bad with history on this one. I was exhausted from the weekend, but it was still an amazing experience.

That concludes my two packed weekends! Thank you for reading!

It's getting warmer!!

Bonjour mes amis! I am so sorry for the lack of update in the past couple of weeks, but if you've been looking at my facebook pictures, you can tell how much I have done!

The number 1 thing that I am most excited about is the weather here. This past week was glorious with the high in the upper 40s/low 50s and yesterday was 60 degrees! I seriously wore a short sleeve shirt with no jacket yesterday (something I would never have imagined doing in California or TX). My tolerance for the cold has definitely increased! I hear that April and May is gorgeous in Paris and I can't wait to experience that.

I have become adjusted to living here. I have had two full weeks of classes: French 464 Avant-garde, French 474 Political/Societal Policies, Islam in France, and Art History. I must say that my art history class is the most interesting class as every Wednesday we go to a museum in Paris and see what we had just learned about in lecture. The past two weeks we went to the Louvre, making that my 3rd and 4th time at the Louvre!

This past Tuesday, I ventured to the Musee d'Orsay. It was incroyable (as the French would say). The Musee d'Orsay holds mostly impressionist artists such as Renoir, Degas, Monet, Manet and of course Van Gogh. It was unbelievable for me to see up close these famous, famous paintings and they were right before my eyes! I would turn a corner and there would be the famous Van Gogh self-portrait painting just hanging on a wall in the middle of a million other paintings. It was not like the Louvre where Mona Lisa has her own entire wall. I liked the style of the Musee d'Orsay because it was definitely not as overwhelming as the Louvre and I have always considered impressionist paintings my favorite.

The best part about my experience here is that we have these student cards for just about everything, allowing us to enter any museum/historical building/etc for free! So I can go back and back and back without paying any fees at all. Amazing!

Last weekend, our program sponsored a day-trip for us to the most famous gothic cathedral in Europe--Chartres. It is located about an hour by bus outside of Paris and when you are approaching the city of Chartres, you can see the huge cathedral about 20 miles away. In 6th grade, I had to choose a famous architectural building and re-construct a model--I chose Chartres! I would have to say that although my cereal boxes and paint ended up being pretty impressive, nothing compares to Chartres. The only bummer was that they are restoring the front stained-glass windows and they were taken out during my visit. However, we had a 2 hour tour of the cathedral and learned how to read a few of the 170 stained glass windows. In both World Wars, all stained glass windows of Chartres were taken out and stored for safe-keeping. The most impressive fact about the cathedral is that out of every single Gothic style cathedral in Europe, Chartres is the most preserved--amazingly--as since 1265 there have been hundreds and hundreds of battles and wars that have taken place very close to Chartres. Below is a picture taken in the village of Chartres-its a cute French town!



We ate lunch at a quaint French restaurant near the cathedral and I was served rabbit for the first time in my life. It was actually really good! It tasted very much like chicken and needless to say--I ate the entire thing.

Last Sunday, I watched the Superbowl at the Canadian Moose Bar & Grill, one of the few pubs here that shows NFL. My host family didn't quite understand why I wanted to watch the game-especially since it started at 12:30am and lasted until 4 am! But, how could I miss the Superbowl, especially when it is in Dallas?! I tried to explain to them that the Superbowl is like the World Cup and then they got it! We had to get to the bar by 9:30pm to ensure a good viewing and it was PACKED! I'm pretty sure every American in Paris was there and it was definitely weird to hear English the entire night. Even our waitress had a USC 901 Bar and Grill shirt on!! She went to USC and came out to live in Paris to serve as a bartender...possible job opportunity in the future?? Just kidding!

Finally, at 3 am, my friends and I couldn't take it anymore and began to fall asleep--so we tried the Night Bus in Paris. Such an experience. We didn't want to pay for cabs so the night bus was free with our metro passes. (The metro closes at 12:30am on week nights). But, after about 1.5 hours, we got home! I went to sleep at 5am and woke up 2.5 hours later for school...

I took a break from pain au chocolat this past week (chocolate croissants) and it was probably the hardest thing I have done since being here. They are so addicting, cheap, and so good! Last week was a holiday for crepes and I had no idea but I ate a crepe during the day and then later that night my host mom made crepes for desert! So, I also took a hiatus from crepes this past week.

The sales in Paris are ending this weekend so I had to go out and do a little shopping! The prices are so deceiving here because it will say 9.95 euros --but really that's like 14 dollars. However, I do enjoy that the tax is included in the price, making it easier to figure out the cost of your purchase AND you don't have to tip since it is already included. Wish I had known that my first night here because our waitress definitely got a huge bonus from our group!

Next weekend I am hoping to start my travels. I am going to try and book a train ticket to Bordeaux and the following weekend we have a school sponsored trip to the south of France in Provence. This weekend, Brad is traveling 2/5 across the world to visit me and he gets in tonight and is staying until Wednesday. I hope he enjoys his time here!!

Well, everyone, thank you for reading and I promise I will be more frequent with my updates here on out.

Au Revoir!

Tiny spaces, lots of bread, and history everywhere!

Bonjour!!

Today marks the end of my first week in Paris. It's hard to believe that it's only been a week, I feel like I've been here for quite longer than that! It's even harder to believe that I will be here for another 4 months. As I see each historical building, church, or museum, I just think--I'm glad I'm not a tourist and that I can come back again and again and again!

I moved in with my wonderful host family last Sunday night. Their apartment is very nice with furniture from the Louis XV and Louis XVI periods! My room is very spacious for a Parisian apartment and I have a fireplace and balcony. My host parents have four children who are all around my age and go to school outside of Paris. They occasionally will come home during the semester. My first night, my host mom cooked an amazing dinner: salmon, rice, mushrooms, and meringue cake (all home made and delicious!). Each night has been a new entree and we always have tons of bread and cheese. They are teaching me all the different types of cheese and so far I have found goat cheese to be my favorite. Next week, I will learn about wine (as my host dad tells me).

I am very blessed to stay with such a wonderful host family for the next few months. They even played the Country music CD I gave them before dinner one night to remind me of home! They asked me if my dad wears a big Cowboy hat everyday. I said, "I wish!" (Just kidding, Dad).

Each day I have seen something truly amazing. Last Friday, I saw the Eiffel Tower at night and it was so beautiful. The nice thing about being in Paris during the winter is that there aren't as many tourists so it's pretty clean and peaceful. It's FREEZING at night so I need to figure out what I'm gonna do about that...Anyway, Saturday we took a guided bus tour as a group all throughout the city. It made me remember everything I have learned about French history and how there is so much more! Sunday, I ventured to the L'arc de triomphe and the Champs-Elysees- which is actually about 2 blocks down from where I now live.

I love the l'arc de triomphe. The statues are so passionate and exquisite. It blows my mind how many statues there are in this city. I turn a corner and there is this huge statue that was build hundreds and hundreds of years ago and it has an entire story to it. I realized that back in those days they didn't have itunes, internet, movies, or facebook--so instead, they would occupy their time with statues I suppose!

The Champs-Elysees is like a mini Grove in LA or Northpark in Dallas. There are just shops after shops after shops. There was a huge NikeParis with about 8 actual running shoes and the rest of the shoes were just for fashion! The Louis Vuiton Headquarters store is literally like Disneyland for fashion. I felt like I was in a museum looking at 95,000 euro necklaces and 40,000 euro engagement rings. Each piece of jewelry had its own huge case with lights shining down upon them.

I can't begin to tell you how much walking I have done. Everyone walks and takes the metro. The metro is probably the most efficient public transportation system in the world-at least for a city this size. We have taken walks every morning through the quarters and sections. Each street semi-looks the same but then you run into a huge monument or historic building like L'opera garnier and marvel at all the architecture and statues.

FOOD: I am going to turn into a baguette at this rate. Or cheese. I will definitely miss the French bread when I return to the states. Also, the coffee is so, so strong. They literally drink espresso shots and even when you ask for cafe au lait, it's like an espresso shot with a tiny spoonful of milk. They do have Starbucks though, its just a French starbucks. The crepes are also amazing. I would be worried about all the food I've been eating but I think it's balanced out with all my walking!

Today I saw the Louvre: but only one wing of it! I was only there for 2 hours and I felt like I was going to pass out because I was so tired. The Mona Lisa was quite impressive and I could tell she was looking at me from all angles. I saw several paintings that I had learned about over the years of French history and I was completely in awe that I was finally here. We have our own Louvre Member card so we can go anytime, any day that we want! Thank goodness because I think it's my second home.

After the Louvre, we traveled to Montmartre. The hilliest part of Paris. It somewhat reminded me of San Francisco with all the ups and downs of the streets. The famous Sacre Coeur Church was there and I got to quickly pray and observe inside. I think I'm going to try and go to mass at all these different churches--would be very beautiful.

I know it sounds like Paris is the most beautiful and historically inspiring city in the world, but there are a few downsides. By downsides, I'm referring to things that America has that Paris doesn't have and things I took for granted in the US.

1. Showers: They don't like to take long showers because they are very green and want to save the water. Not only that, but the water heaters are so small and I have to take a 3 minute shower or I will end up freezing. Also, the showers are literally the size of my body.

2. Peanut butter: They have it here but they aren't too fond of it.

3. American coffee: I'm so used to my 2 cream/2 sugar coffee. Here, they love espressos and I have yet to find a normal coffee.

4. Bread..with butter!: yes, the bread is fantastic and I am in love with it--but they never put out butter for your bread! I sound pretty greedy, but when you are used to bread and butter before dinner, you start to miss the taste...

5. Crosswalks that warn you when NOT to cross: Whenever you walk across the street, there is a little green man that lets you know it is time. But it doesn't flash to warn you--it just suddenly changes to red!

6. The Sun: I have yet to see her...

7. Accurate weather forecasts: Due to the constant change in wind patterns, being so close to the water, and just the overall location of Paris, the weather forecast is never accurate when you check in the morning. My umbrella will never leave my purse I'm afraid...

8. Mexican food! They have Greek, Indian, Chinese, and American food but I have not seen any Mexican food.

Don't worry, I don't want you to think I'm complaining because I'm not. I just want you to realize the things you have in America that you can't get in other parts of the world!

Thanks for reading and I'll post again soon!

-Miranda

Jet lagged, but I made it!

After the 10 hour flight and the 2 hour wait for my bags and the shuttle, it was hard to concentrate on much of anything else for the rest of the day. I tried to get my first impressions of the city as clearly as possible...but on little sleep and extreme jet lag, who knows?

All I know so far is that it's so much more beautiful than anything I've ever seen. The buildings are historic and gorgeous. There are alleyways that from first glance look only like straight alleys, but then when you venture into them, they lead into grand courtyards with shops and beautiful architecture! I haven't moved in with the host family yet (I will on Sunday), so we are staying at a dorm for three nights provided by our program. After we settled in our rooms, we took a walk around the streets. I'm still not entirely sure which arrondissement I'm in...but we did walk to our school and had a meet/greet with the teachers.

Tonight, my two friends, Caroline and Melanie, and I met for dinner at a French Bistro. Our waitress couldn't speak English so luckily she let us practice our French! My first French meal consisted of a glass of red wine and french onion soup! Yes, there was bread as an appetizer and unfortunately, the French do not serve butter with the bread. I guess my Texas appetite for everything fatty will have to subside while I reside in Paris...

French Onion soup=first French meal!

Almost there...

"C'est la vie" means "Such is life." The phrase is common to say when you can't really give an explanation to why something is the way it is. I'm sure I will have many of those moments as I study abroad in Paris, but I look forward to them!

I used to stress about packing for college, but then I started packing for 5 months in Paris and I realized I never really knew what stress was. Born and raised in Plano, TX and living in Los Angeles for the past 3 years, heat-insulating clothes never made its way into my wardrobe. The past two weeks I have been shopping for warm pants, long shirts, sweaters, jackets, coats, boots--and I think I am finally prepared.

My flight is on Wednesday, January 19th at 5:35pm and I arrive in Charles-de-gaulle airport at 9:45am on Thursday, January 20th. The temperature will be about 35 degrees--brrrr! I'm meeting my group of about 25 USC students at noon for the shuttle to our school. The program's school is run at the Accent Center in the 11th arrondissement. We meet our host families on January 23rd while we have several days of intense french training and sightseeing of the city! We start school January 31st, so it gives us a good week to explore and get accustomed to the Parisian way of life.

Let me know if you have been to Paris and there is an off-the-beaten path destination I must see! I could use any tips, advice, suggestions you are willing to share! My email is grimland@usc.edu and you can look for me on skype at "Miranda Grimland."

Thanks for following me and my travels in Paris, France, and the rest of Europe!

Au Revoir!