first blue sky :)

today was lovely.

our host family is on vacation in saint tropez so we came home from church and made crepes for lunch then visited the beautiful luxembourg gardens.

the one time i finally bring my tripod and all my lenses, i lose the piece that holds my camera in place on the tripod, so it is now basically useless until i find a photography store.
but even that couldn't get me down on such a perfect day! i'm in paris and i love life and whatever it decides to throw at me (just no more rain please!)
xo Heather

ps. in addition to crepes, i also made french toast today... go figure.

Walk 1: Paris in Layers

April 27, 2012

What I crossed off my to-do list today:

• Go inside Notre Dame
• Be mistaken for a French person
• Go to the flower market
• Don't get blisters

cute cafe we saw on a little detour.

Our Paris walks book is divided into 21 walking tours of various sites around the city. The first one, "Paris in Layers" is meant to show us the layers of history upon which Paris was built. It gives us step by step directions to get to each stop along the tour and tells us a little bit about the history of what we are seeing. Now despite the directions being pretty easy to follow, we managed to take more than a few accidental detours (and a couple intentional ones too.) But, of course, I think that is all part of the experience. The first official stop was the Hotel de Ville. We see it every day on our way to class, but little did I know that it was destroyed by riots in during the French Revolution and then rebuilt soon after. The Hotel de Ville is where the mayor has his office.
The next stop was the Memorial des Martyrs de la Deportation, which is a tribute to those who were deported to Nazi camps during WWII. At first we thought it was just a patch of grass with a little tombstone but then we realized that there were stairs leading down to the monument. I don't have any pictures but if you are ever in Paris, it is free to visit and only takes a couple minutes.
Right across the street from that is the back of Notre Dame. However at this point I was getting a little dizzy so we set off to find a snack. We crossed the river, and there was another bridge with the locks on it. (see earlier post). I found some pretty cool locks.

After our little break we went back to Notre Dame and I met my #1 goal, some American couple wanted their picture taken and they definitely thought I was French. (Probably had less to do with my 'impeccable style' and more to do with the fact that Chloe and I were having a conversation in French.)  I should have messed with them but I didn't. Nate, if you are reading this I am sorry to disappoint you.
So then we came across a bunch of people waiting to go inside the Cathedral so we hopped in line. After about 45 minutes or so of waiting and barely moving, we realized that we were in the line to climb the stairs to the top and that there was hardly any line to get in. Oops. Travel tip, for anyone interested, it costs 8.50 euros to climb the stairs and you have to have exact change. It is free to walk through the cathedral however.

on the left is a detail from the outside of the cathedral, on the right is the inside ceiling.

inside the cathedral you will find paintings, statues, stained glass windows, and lots of candles

Over the last 1500 years, what used to be a Roman temple has transformed into what we now know as Notre Dame. It has been destroyed and rebuilt so many times that what we see today does not correspond to one specific time period, it is made up of bits and pieces from every century.
On the far side of the square in front of the cathedral, you will find a staircase leading you down to a little museum called the Crypte du Parvis. There you will see the remains of an ancient civilization on top of which Paris was built.

Next we took a little detour to check out the flower markets. I really wish my mom could have been there!

i want this darling little pinocchio. i have no idea what i would do with it.

Next we saw the Conciergerie. In the middle ages it was home to the king, but during the French revolution it was used as a prison. This is where Marie Antoinette spent her last hours. You can visit her cell, but beware it is really creepy. Like really. This is the entrance hall-

4 second exposure while I was walking towards the other end-going for a somewhat corinne vionnet-esque look and yes I am a capable photographer and have a plain old boring picture to prove it (below-left).

left: conciergerie, right: sainte chapelle stained glass windows.

After the Conciergerie was the Sainte Chapelle church built in the 13th century to house relics from the crusades. In the picture above, on the right you will see a detail shot of the amazing stained glass windows. Below is a broader view of the church. It was spectacular.

Sainte Chapelle

After this we were told to walk quite a distance just to see the outside of Musee du Cluny, which we are going to see on another tour. We thought that was kind of silly especially since we couldn't find the metro stop and ended up walking in circles around the Sorbonne. Then we just decided to go back to the metro at Saint-Michel where there was a big group making lots of noise.

Not sure exactly what they were doing...I have a video but its not loading at the moment so I may have to add it later, if I remember. For now, ciao!
xo Heather

les voitures de paris

the drivers here are really aggressive. i took a shuttle from the airport on the first day and a taxi to our house yesterday, and both rides involved lots of honking, swearing, changing lanes within inches of another car, and no joke, pedestrians leaping out of the way. i literally feared for my life-it felt like i was riding the knight bus! at dinner tonight we were talking to our host mom about renting bikes around the city and she told us it was too dangerous because of the crazy drivers!
i took this series of photos today and combined them into my very first timelapse/.gif. i am planning to make many more while i'm in Paris. sorry its a little shaky, i didn't have my tripod with me today but i will definitely bring it along tomorrow. 

xoxo Heather
ps. its time for bed, so i guess the rest of the photos from today's promenade will have to wait until tomorrow. good night!

i actually live here!

Yesterday Chloe and I moved in with our host family. My new home for the next month is a little apartment in the 15th arrondisement, not far from the Eiffel Tower. The apartment is the cutest thing ever, its full of books and paintings and cute little decorations. For meals we sit on little stools around the table in the kitchen, which is tiny, and our bathroom sink is probably half the size of a sink in an airplane bathroom. I have my own room and I absolutely love it. Next to my cute little desk is a big window that looks out into a garden (no view of the Eiffel Tower but I'll take it). I don't have any papers to put on my bulletin board yet so I used it to organize my necklaces. There's also no closet in my room so I have a rack with a bunch of hangers and a cute little hutch to keep my clothes. I love the white bedding, its so clean and simple. The pillows may take a little getting used to because they are big and square. There are also a couple antique chairs so that if I have friends over they can sit down I guess. This place definitely feels like home and I don't even want to think about how sad I will be to leave!

Our host mom is really nice, when we arrived she came down and helped us carry up our luggage and then sat us down for some juice in the kitchen and got to know us a little bit. Then after we finished unpacking she showed us the nearest metro stop and took us to the grocery store to get our shampoo and conditioner. We had a few little mishaps with the internet, Madame wrote down the wifi password for us but Chloe and I could not read her writing at all, then when we went to ask her what it said she had no idea either. Then later her laptop was not connecting to the right network for some reason, and she asked us to help her fix it. However we have never really learned any French computer vocabulary, (words like router,  DNS server, etc.) so Madame would try to explain the words we didn't know but since she doesn't use computers very often she didn't really know what they meant either. And her computer was running an older version of windows that neither of us was familiar with. It was like three blind monkeys trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle. We had assumed that the internet was working fine on our computers since it had been before, but then I just thought to double check and it turns out the problem was not her laptop, it was the router so we restarted it and everything worked fine after that.
We haven't met our host father yet because he works late and we go to bed early. I am not sure if I am still jet lagged or if I am just tired from all the walking around. I had so much fun on our first official walking tour today. I learned a lot of interesting things about the history of Paris and took lots of pictures :) So many in fact that y'all are going to have to wait for me to edit them before I can post about my day today. Hope all is well for everyone back in the US!
xoxo Heather

paris je t'aime!

I have been in Paris for about a day now! It has been raining, so it is completely gorgeous and everything is green but it is a lot colder than I was prepared for! My umbrella broke the minute I stepped outside! I absolutely love being here and cannot wait for future adventures! Here are some photos for your viewing enjoyment, I promise I will edit the pictures in future posts but my computer is about to die. Enjoy! xoxo Heather

This was way cool, there was a whole bridge covered in these locks that people had written their names on. Once they throw away the key their names will be there forever!

we took a walk along the Seine, you can see Notre Dame in the top right corner

I tried to change the voltage on my blowdryer this morning but  then somehow all the little pieces started falling apart..so I  will have to get a new one somewhere. My hair looked lovely today.

the view from our hotel room! (watch the video in the previous post)

cliches

I can't believe I leave in the morning!!! Can't wait to blog about my first day in Paris!
xo Heather