Une étudiante et son plan de Paris!

First, you'll note that I have added some French music to this blog.  I will be mentioning it in other posts, but for now, if you enjoy listening to it while you read, continue reading!  If you need to read in silence, go down to the bottom of this page and pause it.  I tried to pick music that matched the "retro pictures" that many of you have commented on and I also found a few more pics for you that will be in this post.  Enjoy!  Now, here's the latest post from me to you!

I received my schedule from Giles when I first arrived in Paris and neatly tucked it away.  I knew that I was enrolled in the Cours de Civilisation Française de la Sorbonne and would be studying French culture of the 19th century -- music, art, philosophy, and literature -- but did not know how to get to the university!  Now that my first class was going to be the very next morning, I dug out my schedule so that I could find the address and plan my commute.  I  noticed that the Sorbonne is located in the "Quartier latin" in the 5th arrondisement.  I was going to be on "la Rive Gauche"!  I would be studying in one of the oldest sections of Paris and I would be walking on the same streets that famous artists, philosophers, musicians, and writers once walked!  I would be studying at a university that was founded in the twelth century!  I then saw that I also was scheduled to take a grammar class and that this class was not in the same building.  It was on "rue de Fouarre" and so I quickly searched for that location, too, and made my plans for the following day.

How did I find my way around, you ask?  There were no cell phones, no iphones, no GPS applications, no laptops, so what did I do?  I used my "Plan de Paris" booklet given to me by Giles.  (I will show it to you in class.)   This was PRICELESS!  It had the metro map, the bus routes, listings of every street in Paris, as well as maps of each arrondisement and a large map of the entire city.  For a person who's weakest subject was geography (well, geometry wasn't my best one, either!), reading this book was quite the challenge, but I soon became very adept at using it and LOVED having it with me!

I will share more about my classes at the Sorbonne, as well as my grammar class.  For now, though, I have a few questions for you.  Can you tell me why Paris has a section called the "Quartier Latin" and also what it means to say that it's in "la Rive Gauche"?  And, do you know what an arrondisement is?  Lastly, would you like trying to learn how to get around a big city without modern technology?

Le transport

I headed to Paris everyday.  I would awake to the lovely sounds of Madame Lamy practicing the piano -- she had a particular fondness for pieces by Claude Debussy -- and would then get ready, grab my bags, quickly top a piece of a baguette with Nutella, and then head to "la gare" (the train station).  The name of my train station in Sceaux was "Bourg-la-reine" and riding this train to and from Paris became such a part of my daily routine that I actually took a picture of it!


I loved riding the train.  I loved the independence, I loved the scenery, I loved the people, I loved the
smells, I loved feeling like an adult, and I loved that I was always heading into Paris.  Now I had never been a person who had ridden a train, or a town bus, or a subway and yet I was going to be doing all of those things on a daily basis...in a big city...in a different country...speaking French.  Luckily, their subway (known as "le Métro" in Paris) is color-coded and well marked.  Do you see how many stations there are, however?  And what are those other lines (or as they say, "lignes"?).

The "extra" lines were important to me because that was how I would get back and forth to Sceaux each day.  I not only had to pay attention to the Métro map, but I also had to pay attention to the RER map below it!   I did eventually learn my way (and definitely was lost more than once by making some errors!), but I SO would have enjoyed seeing this video clip prior to going.  Here's your intro for how to ride "le Métro": 

Que pensez-vous?  What do you think about le Métro, commuting, and big city transportation?  Have you ever been on a subway?  Can you tell me what the name of my train station in Sceaux means?  AND...big question here, can any of you figure out how I got from my train station in Sceaux to the Métro station in Saint-Germain-des-Prés?

Chez Moi

When I arrived at the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, a very nice man by the name of Giles was standing there with a sign waiting for me. He was the head of my study abroad program which means he set up my housing, had my school schedule, organized field trips for me and my other new schoolmates, and would be our "go to person" if we ever had any questions about our stay in Paris. I soon found out that I would be living with Madame Lamy on Rue Massenet in a place called Sceaux, a suburb of Paris. Giles told me how to get there via the metro and the train (more on that in another post!) and off I went to meet my new "family".

I walked from the train station to Madame Lamy's, all the while getting more and more butterflies in my stomach! I finally arrived at Rue Massenet and soon found myself knocking on the door ("frappe, frappe, frappe!") of my new home -- Madame Lamy greeted me. She was a 75 year old widow who sported red lipstick and was impeccably dressed in a gray wool skirt, a freshly pressed white blouse, high heels, and a silk scarf. I would soon learn that she was a classical pianist and that she taught lessons in Paris.

Madame Lamy showed me to my room and I unpacked. She then called me down to dinner serving my new favorite meal -- cheese soufflé! No words can describe how delicious this was! After dinner, Madame invited me to watch TV with her in the salon. This became a nightly routine. She would watch TV, discuss politics, read a bit of Le Figaro and smoke a long thin cigar on one of those holders -- you know, like the one Cruella de Ville used in 101 Dalmations! She was quite interesting and to me, so very, very French. Of course, in the beginning, I could hardly understand anything she said because she spoke so quickly in French, but that went away with time and I grew to really appreciate my conversations with her.

These photos show my house and my room in Sceaux. Que pensez-vous de ma maison, de Sceaux, et de Madame Lamy? (What do you think about my home, about Sceaux, and about Madame Lamy?)

And so, I'm off to Sceaux...

I can remember standing at the top of a long ramp at JFK airport and looking down to the people at the gate. This was back in the day when friends and family were actually permitted to go through the gate and wait with you before you headed to your destination. And so, that's what my parents did. I lived in Pennsylvania, but we drove to New York City for my flight to Europe. I was going to be gone for one year. I had one suitcase, no carry-on bags, and lots of nervous energy. My dad felt that it was very important to be at the airport "on-time" and so we arrived FOUR hours early and had nothing to do except sit, wait, and wonder. We checked in, we ate lunch, we chatted, we sat and waited. Finally, my flight began boarding.

It was like a scene out of a movie. I walked with my back to the crowd up the ramp towards the plane as my parents stood at the bottom. When I finally got to the top, I turned, looked at them, and said with tears that suddenly sprang from my eyes, "Don't make me go!" Where did this come from? I had ALWAYS wanted to study overseas and now all of a sudden, just as it was about to happen, I said, "Don't make me do it!" What??? My parents just waved to me, arm in arm, then turned and walked away. I knew I had no choice but to get on that plane even though I didn't know a soul.

The flight was a good 6 to 7 hours and I cried for a solid 3...can you believe that? Perhaps that's why I no longer cry that much...I'm all cried out! And then I met Sean and all was right with the world. He was going to be studying in Europe, too, and we became great friends. I had made my first of many new friends and I knew things were going to be fine. In fact, they were going to be amazing.  I was ready to start my adventure.  I was off to Sceaux to meet my new "family".

A dream realized

I always wanted to study in France. I remember being your age and thinking, "One day, Andee, you'll live in Paris." I do not know why that thought was always with me; it just was. I mean, my parents never traveled overseas, nor did my grandparents. In fact, no one in my family spoke French! The only person I knew who spoke French was my high school French teacher, Mr. Derro. He always used to say, "Est-ce que vous voulez un zéro de Derro?" (He was a very funny man and a wonderful teacher!) Even my brother and sister studied Spanish in high school while I continued with my love for French and my desire to live in Paris. (And you now know that I also speak Spanish and lived in Spain, too, but that's a whole other story!)

So, imagine my surprise when I was finally in college and given the opportunity to study in Paris at the Sorbonne. FORMIDABLE! INCROYABLE! FANTASTIQUE! Not only was it an amazing experience that helped shape who I am to this day, but it is a place in which I believe I will live again. I hope that you will get a feel for why Paris is so special through this blog. Perhaps you'll want to visit and live there someday, too! Que pensez-vous? (What do you think about that?!) Allons-y, mes amis!