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Published: December 5th 2005
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Bonjour mes amis !
Well it is almost Christmas and I can’t believe how quickly this semester has flown by. I am so glad to be staying in France for a full year, and would be very very sad right now if I had to think about leaving Paris. In June I will probably go through some sort of emotional crisis as I try to prepare to leave.
But until then, I am thoroughly enjoying Paris and feel like I have so much more to explore and so much more French to learn. This weekend I went to Nîmes with many of the students in my program. Nîmes is about 3 hours to the south of Paris on the TGV (which is the Train Grand Vitesse - or super fast train in France). Part of the tourist attraction to this city includes many Roman ruins, so among other things we saw a coliseum like amphitheater, an old temple, the ruins of an old library, and the Pont de Gare, which is a Roman aqueduct (are there any others ?). The Pont de Gare was probably my favorite part of this whole trip. The bus dropped us off at
the aqueduct and we had about 3 hours to eat our sacked-lunch and enjoy the river and expansive forest area nearby. First I lunched with my friends near the aqueduct, which is to say we each ate our baguettes diligilently. No joke, I ate about 3 baguettes of bread this weekend. The French believe in the bread-and-coffee idea of breakfast, so after my baguette and coffee breakfast, I moved right along to my baguette with butter and a slice of cheese lunch. For dinner I decided to really switch it up and eat pasta ... and have been dreaming of vegetables and fruit ever since ! After lunch, I decided to wonder off to do some of my French reading. I am reading Germinal by Emile Zola. I bought it in English as well, so I am crawling through it by trying to read the English in 100 page chunks and then re-reading the same 100 pages in French. This seems to be the best way to understand and helps me reduce the time I spend with my trusty dictionary. After reading I took I walk and realized that I WAS ALL ALONE WITH NOT A PERSON IN SIGHT! Ah
the beauty of the being in nature! Now I have had my nature fix for the month and I can handle the bustle of Paris again.
But the bustle can also be fun, and of course this is why I love Paris. Right now Christmas decorations are going up, and I have never seen such elaborate decorations. All the bakeries, fromageries, and department stores have displays of various sizes and styles ranging from red sparkling fake Christmas trees in front of the restaurants, mechanical puppet displays dancing in the windows of Galleries Lafayette, and little « Pères de Noël » climbing up the Carrousels. But most importantly snow has added to the Christmas excitement!!! I woke up the Saturday before last to snow falling outside my window which practically made my heart stop with joy- so I put my self back into the warm bed for the next 3 hours to try to calm it down. The snow in Paris apparently doesn’t stick to the ground, too much pollution and activity that heats up the city, so it is really just best to watch it fall from your window since you can’t go out and make snowmen.
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few weekends ago I went to London. I « adore » London (this is one of my favorite French words! especially when I hear a guy say it - you almost never hear any American male say that he « adores » something!) and loved visiting even though it was just for a short weekend trip. I did the usual London tour; but what stands out as particularly exciting and unexpected is that I saw Madonna! While waiting in line for a dance club my friends and I realized that Madonna was singing in the club next-door and that our line was waiting right by her car. So after about an hour-plus of waiting in the freezing cold weather Madonna FINALLY came out of the other club. My view was obstructed by fans trying to get a glimpse of probably the most famous star of our time, and I was afraid that she would dash into her car before I could see her. Fortunately, she has lots of class and waved and smiled before making a dash for it. AH! That was a thriller!
My friends the Kerns came to visit me last week and their visit was basically
dedicated to exploring Versailles together and cooking chez moi. My favorite part of Versailles was the gardens. We just sort of headed off into the gardens and stumbled upon several other mini Chateau like buildings there. Surprise! You thought the first palace was enough, oh no my friend! One palace will just not do! My favorite part of the adventure was Marie Antoinette's Hamlet. It felt like going into Hobbit land!
Hope all is going well back in the U S of A! Wishing you all lots of Peace in this time of crazed holiday shopping, eating, and general good natured chaos.
Grands bisous à tous !!
A bientôt !
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