Le Weekend

**New photos are present on the previous post!**

It’s Saturday afternoon in Paris! I love the weekends! I slept late this morning… got up and took as much time as I wanted to eat my delicious breakfast. I’ve been late to class twice now because of the grand French custom of actually eating breakfast. Now, I’m going to go for a run in the park. If you know me at all then you know that when I say “go for a run”, I mean go for a walk while wearing sweatpants. Afterwards, I’m probably going to do a little site-seeing with friends and then… who knows!

Last night I went out with Laurent, my host family’s nephew who I met last Sunday, his brother, and their friend. It was very fun… they all speak English fairly well. But, I spoke a little French too. I was glad to spend time with “real” Parisians. We went to a bar in one of the oldest neighborhoods in Paris, the 5^th Arrondissement (The city is separated into different neighborhoods that go in a spiral from the center of the city where the first parts of Paris were built... I live in the 12th). It’s near the Sorbonne, the famous Parisian university. Also, it was near the Pantheon. In French you don’t pronounce “th” like in English. It’s more of a medium-hard t sound…. if that makes any sense. Anyways, this lack of “thhh” has left me confused several times. When asked, “Have you ever seen the ‘pahn-tee-awhn’?”, I said that I didn’t even know what it was. Well, when we turned the corner and saw it I immediately said “Oh! The Pantheon!” I do know the Pantheon. It’s where a bunch of famous French people are buried... I think Victor Hugo and Marie Curie are buried there, but I could be wrong. I should look it up. It is one of the most important buildings in Paris. I went there on my last trip here, and I plan on going back again. I’ve had similar conversations surrounding the word marathon… Just one of the many joys of barely speaking French in France.

The bar itself was…. random. They had tapas (Spanish style appetizers), which is sort of trendy right now in Chicago. But, at the same time it didn’t have any sort of Spanish atmosphere, it was just really sort of normal, relaxed. There were big groups of young people coming in and out… some American music and some French music… sort of what I expected. So, I had a Belgian beer at a tapas bar in one of the oldest neighborhoods in Paris, right next to the Pantheon.

I also spent three hours in the Louvre yesterday…. It was intense, but very interesting. At this time, I would like to take a moment to thank Mrs. Harris for her Art Fundamentals course at Lutheran High School. The class I’m taking now is more intense, but I’ve got the basics down, and that’s very helpful. Our professor is a professional guide and she is full of interesting information. Did you know that Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa face on several of his other paintings as well… the same half smile, and eyes? Also, the Louvre was originally built as a fortress in the Middle Ages, in fact the word Louvre means fort in old-French. There are still parts of the original building on exhibit in the museum. They have never been moved, just built around. Also, the largest painting in the Louvre is the size of most French apartments… I saw it and I’d have to say that’s accurate!

A couple days ago I went to Sacre Coeur and Montmartre with a couple girls from class. It was fun… but very touristy. There were lots of very aggressive people trying to sell us souvenirs. It was fine, but I probably won’t ever go there alone. We walked all the way to the top, and then we were completely exhausted. We took the funicular down. Montmartre is the highest point in Paris, and Sacre Coeur is a beautiful church at the top. From the top of the hill you can see pretty much all of Paris. The day we went it was a little foggy, I definitely want to go back… and I’ll be sure to bring my camera.

More about my French family—I finally figured out exactly what is going on here. I ended up just asking. Flavien is the son, he lives here sometimes but has his own apartment closer to his job. Claude is the name of Flavien’s father, but he and Madame Serra are not married. And today, a German girl arrived who’s name is Mikalya. She’ll be here for two weeks. I’m sort of glad to have someone to take the focus off of me at dinner! I’ve pretty much used my small arsenal of French vocabulary for as many different conversation topics as possible… I’ll have to learn more before I can say anything new!

The only thing new I’ve eaten recently is duck. We had it as an appetizer at dinner. It was good, but nothing special. We had an omelet for dinner last night. It was delicious… but made me miss my college life in Chicago and eating at Nookies with my lovely friends!

That’s all for now. I’m off to the park. I may put up pictures of the Louvre later! Grosses bises!