"Everybody's workin' for the weekend..." -Loverboy

Oh! What a wonderful weekend I had! I am having the most fun. Friday night, immediately after class, my friends and I all met up on this street called Rue de la Huchette, which is a twisty little side street full of fun bars and restaurants. The best deal is always to get a formule or prix-fixe menu, where you get an entrée (which is actually an appetizer), a plat (the main course), and dessert for somewhere around 10 Euros. Not bad! We ended up going to a Greek place that was really yummy, then we all went to Happy Hours (yes, they’re plural here) at a couple of different bars. Happy Hours usually end around 9 here, and we’re never done eating by then, but if you’re a girl they sometimes give you Happy Hours prices no matter what the time, so it’s quite nice. (However, it’s still impossible to get a cocktail here for under 6 Euro, which I guess is something like $8. Not cheap.) So anyway, we ended up going to this Irish pub called Shiwawa. Long story short, I met Sean, this adorable English boy from Cornwall in line for the toilets (co-ed toilets are the norm, here), and he introduced me to his two friends, both named Stuart. (I called them Stuart 1 and Stuart 2.) They were just finishing up a road trip around Europe before heading back to university, and so I introduced them to my friends and we hung out for the rest of the night. It’s so fun to meet people here and learn about how they live and compare life stories, etc. (Not to mention, I am such a sucker for an accent!) Sadly, they went back to Cornwall today, but we’re going to be pen pals, apparently. In any case, now I have friends in Cornwall!
Saturday was a bit of an adventure. I was asked out for coffee by this French guy, Pierre (not even joking about the name), that I met last Tuesday night. He is half French and half Moroccan and not at all my type. I didn’t want to be rude, so I said yes and we met up. It was fun, though! We walked around Paris and he showed me Le Marais, which is this beautiful old part of the city. Traditionally, it is a very Jewish quarter, although now it’s becoming more of a gay area – the Dupont Circle of Paris, if you will. In any case, it’s filled with lots of quaint side streets and there is this beautiful park called Place des Voges that is kind of tucked away – amazing! I’ve said this before, but walking around Paris yesterday I was struck yet again by how full of surprises it is. Yesterday in Place des Voges there was this whole brass band that just set up right there and started playing patriotic music. Along the Seine (right where we ate dinner on that boat, Mom), there was a huge food market that featured delicacies from the different regions of France. (Lots of smelly cheese, wine, and foie gras, obviously.) People were picnicking on Pont des Arts, one of the huge bridges that spans the Seine. You just don’t get that kind of stuff in the U.S.!
One of the coolest (if most bizarre) things I saw though was something called Love Parade, which Pierre told me about. It’s basically these huge parade floats that are tricked out with crazy decorations and have turntables on them with a DJ. They blast (I mean BLAST) techno and house music and drive all throughout Paris. Young people dress in crazy outfits and just follow the floats all throughout the streets of Paris dancing to the music. It was one of the neatest (albeit a little scary) things to watch. Granted, most of them are in an altered state of consciousness due to various illegal substances, but it’s so funny to see how crazy the people get and how they just let loose and parade throughout the streets in the complete middle of the afternoon. People were climbing up street signs! Oh, it was crazy.
Last night (Saturday), we went out to another pub called the Long Hop. This one had more of a club feel, with dancing and two floors. So fun! It was a great mix of French people and Americans. (Oh, and what I said about French men all being shy – that’s not the case! Some of them are actually quite friendly.) The most fun, though, is going dancing with all my American girlfriends. Europeans and Americans dance very differently. As anyone who has ever been to a club in DC can attest, American dancing, is, well, not PG-rated. French people dance very politely and unfortunately very goofily, making it extremely amusing when my friends and I all get out and go crazy on the dance floor. I’m pretty sure the French guys have no idea what is going on and are probably a little frightened. Great fun.
Last night we met some French ice hockey players. I didn’t know ice hockey existed over here, but apparently it does. I was really confused at first because this guy kept telling me he played “eye-zooky,” and I had no idea what he was talking about until he explained that when water freezes it makes ice and people play a game on said ice with sticks. Ah, the world makes sense again.
The funniest moment of the night was when I was standing outside the pub waiting for a cab with my friends. (Note: cab drivers are unbelievably rude here – before they let you get in the cab you have to tell them where you are going, and if they don’t like the way it sounds they just speed off. One cabbie told my friend last night that he wouldn’t take her home because it was too far and he wanted to go to bed. My cab driver yelled at me and my friend because we accidentally bumped the back of his seat when we were getting in the car. Nice.) Anyway, I was standing with my friends, and all of a sudden these French guys run over to me, pointing at me and saying, “Oh my God, it’s Emma Daumas! Emma Daumas! You are Emma Daumas?” I had to explain that no, I was not Emma Dumas. Apparently, she’s some famous singer over here and they thought I was her. It was pretty funny! (I did some research, and I don’t think I look anything like her.)
Today I went to Mass at this church I found for English-speaking Catholics in Paris, and it was so nice to know how to respond to the priest! (I went to Mass in French last week and felt like a total jerk sitting there in silence because I didn’t know what to sing or say.) The priest was this old Irishman and was absolutely adorable! After Mass I went to one of the many open-air markets in Paris. I met up with my friends and we bought baguettes, brie, all kinds of fruit, pastries, and fresh apple juice and went and picnicked under the Eiffel Tower. Does life get better?
A word about the markets, or marchés (since this entry is of epic length, anyway): never go if you are uncomfortable with your food looking like it was breathing five minutes ago. Any animal part your heart desires can be found at these markets. Hmm, today I saw whole dead chickens complete with black bulging eyes, gigantic cows’ tongues that were probably removed this morning, various livers, kidneys, intestines, ears, feet, tails, you name it. On the flip side, there is no better place than an open-air market if you love good food. Walking down an aisle, for example, you pass the following: a boulangerie stand (50 different types of bread, assorted pastries, muffins, cakes), a poissonerie (any type of fish you can think of, in addition to mussels, clams, shrimp, lobster, etc.), a stand completely dedicated to olives (20 different varieties and various tapenades), a charcuterie stand (any type of sliced meat as well as patés, foie gras, etc.), a fruit stand (the freshest fruit you will ever taste, including my beloved Reine Claudes ), a fromagerie (smelly cheese) and so on. All the vendors call out to you and want you to taste and smell. I love the smells – all except the stinky cheese, of course.
This weekend was also what is called les journées du patrimoine. This happens once a year, and for two days only, hundreds and hundreds of state-owned buildings in France that are usually closed to the public are opened and people can tour them for free. People line up for hours and hours to walk through the Senate, l’Assemblée Nationale, and the Palais de l’Elysées (the President’s residence), among other buildings. My friends and I tried to go see l’Elysées and maybe get a glimpse of old Jacques Chirac, but the wait was literally three hours long to get in and it would have been closed by the time we finally reached it. An opportunity missed, but it sure made me appreciate Capitol and White House tours a lot more!
Tomorrow it’s back to the daily grind with classes and such, but next weekend I am going to Nice to visit some of my sorority sisters who are studying there. My friend Blair and I are taking the TGV (the high speed train), so we’ll see how that goes…