Premier Jour D'école

On Monday I woke up and walked to the train station to travel north to the Paris suburb of Cergy for my first day of school. The program I am enrolled in is a three week MBA study abroad class called "The Global Manager in Europe" at ESSEC Business School.  The commute was about an hour door to door on the RER A line.  The train was very crowded for the first few stops but after the stop at La Defense in the financial district most people got off and I was able to sit and watch the French countryside going past out my window. 

When I arrived in Cergy, it was much different that Paris.  There was a mix of 1970's era architecture along with a few more modern buildings.  Using the directions from the school, I walked across the plaza to the ESSEC buildings, and made my way inside to my first class.

We began the first class with an introduction of the 40 students who would be in the program together for the next three weeks. The group is by far the most diverse group I have ever been a part of.  Along with my fellow Chicagoans from Booth and Kellogg, there are students from business schools in Canada, Australia, Finland, Japan, South Korea, Columbia, Mexico, Italy, and France!

 We finished the day with a lego tower building competition. Nerdy but a fun way to get to know people :)

After class a few of us went back to Paris for wine and dinner at a cafe.  It seems like a really fun group so far and I am looking forward to the rest of our three weeks together!

Au Revoir Maman!

This morning I woke up and looked outside my window to see a group of people lining up to run a 10K. I found this quite amusing given that I had not seen a person intentionally exercising in Paris the entire week I've been here. Where did these people come from?? And are they really running 6 miles on cobblestone roads? Ouch.

This was my mom's last morning in Paris ;( We went to the nearby Le Zimmer restaurant for a farewell breakfast.  The standard breakfast included coffee, fresh squeezed juice, pastries, and of course a side of bread (I'm pretty sure the French food pyramid just recommends 10 - 15 daily servings of bread). Of course it was delicious.  I took a risk and ordered pamplemousse juice, which turned out to be grapefruit! yum.

Goodbye Mom! Thank you for making the trip out here with me :)

After dropping my mom off at the train station, I met up with a girl from my class to buy our train passes out to the suburbs for class. Then we met up with a few of our classmates for dinner. When the check arrived for dinner, it started to set in that I really have to start living on a budget now that I have no income, and Paris is no place to be on a budget! The (delicious) cocktails we ordered were 12€ and the meals were 20€.  But I will make it work.  I can live on just the bread here if need be :) First day of school tomorrow!

La Seine et Un Dîner Parisien

Before dinner last night we went took a Seine River cruise from Pont Neuf.  It was nice to see all of the Paris sights from the river, as well as each of the unique bridges that connect the left and right banks.

Afterwords, we decided to eat at one of the restaurants near my apartment.  Throughout the week we had been able to sit down at the cafes whenever we chose, so we had not anticipated needing to make a reservation, but on Saturday night even the small restaurants nearby were booked. Luckily we found one restaurant, La Robe et le Palais, that was able to seat us at a high top table in the bar area.  I looked through their unusual wine list (a wooden box of index cards with wine notes written on each) and chose a bottle of Cote Du Rhone for us to share. 

Until this dinner I had become a bit skeptical of French food. Most of the classic French dishes listed at the bistros, such as escargot and beef pate, are not appealing to me, and aside from bread and cheese I could not find much on the menus that I liked.  That all changed when we first tasted the salmon and cod dishes we had ordered. BEST fish of my life.  We ate and chatted for over an hour uninterrupted because in Paris the server never comes back to your table unless you explicitly call them over. I am so excited for more meals like this one :)  Thank you Mom! 

Cimetière du Père Lachaise

Today, after a delicious breakfast of cafe au lait, eggs, and croissants, we took the Metro to the Pere Lachaise Cemetery, where many famous French authors and artists are buried.  It was unlike any cemetery we'd ever seen, packed with above ground masoleums and monuments.

We made our way to Oscar Wilde's grave. Someone had scribbled one of his quotes along the side in lipstick: 

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”

It was quite inspiring, and I hope to do as much living as I can while here in Paris.

Musée d'Orsay, Dégustation de Vin, et Le Quartier Latin

Today we made our way to the Orsay Museum, home of the works of many great artists including Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, and Van Gogh.

The museum is housed in a building that was previously a railway station from 1900 to 1939. The building itself is very beautiful and unique and makes for a great setting for such an impressive collection of art.

One thing I loved about the museum was that it has a restaurant inside the clock tower.

From a window in the museum there was also a nice view of Montmarte, where we were yesterday :)

After the museum we made our way to the O Chateau wine bar where we had scheduled a wine tasting. We were lead down into the charming wine cellar, where, along with a group of 14 other tourists, we had the opportunity to taste and learn about six varieties of French wine. Our instructor, Clinton, a wine maker in the Champagne region, was very helpful in explaining the various wine regions in France and the ways in which French wines are categorized.

After the wine tasting, we decided to check out the Latin Quarter. We crossed the Seine River and found ourselves immersed in a huge crowd of partying students, bands playing music on the street, and packed cafes and restaurants.  Before heading in for the evening, we stopped at a cafe to try a Nutella crepe and observe all of the energy and partying around us.  I'm sure I'll be back here again :)

Le Métro, Montmarte, et la Tour Eiffel

On our third day my mom and I decided to venture out of the neighborhood and figure out the Metro. We walked down the street to Chatelet, the closest Metro station, purchased tickets, and boarded the number 4 train.

We took the Metro to Montmarte, the famous hill and chruch in the 18th arrodissament.  It involved a bit of a hike and a number of stairs, but the city view at the top was breathtaking.

Before heading back down the hill we stopped at a little cafe for a glass of wine. The best thing bout the cafe: moustache shaped pretzels!

When returned from our Montmarte adventure, it began to rain. We decided to cross our fingers that the rain would stop and pack up our planned picnic dinner to take to the Eiffel Tower.  It continued to sprinkle when we arrived, but we decided to make the best of it and set up the picnic under a tree. The Eiffel Tower was much bigger than either of us imagined!

When it began to sparkle (after our bottle of wine :) we took this video:

Musée du Louvre

Today my mom and I woke up and walked across the street to the local coffee shop to get our caffeine fix.  What people say is true, the French really know what they are doing when it comes to pastries and coffee! Mmm delicious.

After breakfast we walked the few blocks to the Louvre. We were immediately stunned with the size of the monumental museum. We paused a moment to admire the courtyard and then walked down into the pyramid entrance. 

We purchased tickets (which we were happy to find were were a reasonably priced €11 each), along with accompanying Nintendo 3DS GPS audio guides! It would have been helpful to have a 10 year old around to help us out with operating the hand held Nintendo system, but we figured it out after goofing around for a few minutes. I usually don't get very excited about museums, but the audio guides explained a lot of fascinating information about many of the exhibits and I was enthralled the entire time we were there.

The first exhibit we visited was The History of the Louvre. My favorite moment was when I found myself in the Louvre looking at a painting of people at the Louvre looking at paintings of the Louvre. How meta is that?? My mind = blown.

We decided that of course our Louvre trip couldn't be complete without a stop at the Mona Lisa exhibit. Apparently we weren't the only ones with that idea.

We also stopped to admire Veronese's "The Wedding Feast at Cana",  the largest painting at the Louvre.

There were many pavillions at the Louvre, but of course this is the best one. I'm sure Stephen would be proud.

After we had our fill of the Lourve, we hurried back to the apartment just in time to escape a downpour. When the rain subsided, we headed back out to dinner.  I began to get flustered with the lack of any vegetarian items on the menus, but we ended up very happy with another round of wine, bread, cheese and salad.  After dinner we walked across the nearby bridge to the Île de la Cité, a small island that is home to the Notre Dame Cathedral. The cathedral was yet another stunning sight ~ we will have to go back for a tour inside.

So far I absolutely adore this city.  Looking forward to making our way to Monmarte and the Eiffel Tower tomorrow :)

Nous Sommes Arrivés!

My mom and I arrived in Paris today.  Our plane landed at Charles De Gaulle airport at 11:00 am, and we took the RER Blue line to Les Halles and walked a short distance to my apartment.  There we met up with Fredric, the friendly French apartment manager, who gave us the keys and let us into the apartment.  We were both thrilled with the fantastic 1st arrondissement location, right near the Louvre and the Seine.

looking down avenue Victoria from the living room

looking down rue des Lavandières Sainte Opportune 

Pushing past our jetlag, my mom and I immediately made our way outside to the nearest cafe for our first taste of wine and cheese. Despite a slight struggle communicating with the waitress and reading the menus, we were quickly able to score some "vin, fromage, et pain" and we were delighted :)

We then set out on a walk to look for a pharmacy where we could buy some basic toiletries for the apartment, which proved more challenging to find than we expected. But along the way we came across a pet store filled with bébés cochon d'inde which (as those of you who are all too aware of my cuteness obsession know) thrilled me to say the least.

On the way home we walked past Église St-Germain l’Auxerrois, a beautiful church built in the 1400s. We stopped in to admire the architecture and the stunning stained glass. 

Had a fantastic first taste of Paris and we are both looking forward to more adventures in the week ahead!