Thursday, February 19, 2009

Paris in February - Je suis arrivee!

So it has been two weeks since I arrived in Paris and I am finally getting to sit down to write my first blog post! I already feel like I'm settled in here and that I've been living in Paris for months. My roommates Ali and Christine and I already have our regular boulangerie and can navigate the metro without looking at signs or maps.

Some highlights of my first two weeks in Paris are...

the apartment, the marais, place des vosges
Our apartment is beautiful! and huge! We are on the third floor of our building-- big kitchen, huge living room, and tall ceilings. A few interesting quirks about our apartment are the antique sedan chair (that we are not allowed to touch according to the rental agency) in the living room, the birdcage in the foyer full of rocks from different cities around the world, an open shower/tub with no bath curtain, and slanted floors (which cause my wheeled bed to roll two feet away from its place against the wall every night).

View of the kitchen-- yes that is a washing machine.

My side of the room.


View of the living room.

We live right next to Place des Vosges, a public square which is "considered among the most beautiful in the world by Parisians and visitors alike," according to my DK Paris book. There are at least five art galleries on every block right around us. I've stared through the windows but have yet to go in one. Place des Vosges is also one of the few places in Paris where it is acceptable to go running-- one of the others is along the Seine. I'm proud to say that I have run laps around the square a whopping one time! Really though, why would I exercise when I could be at home eating a baguette or pain au chocolat instead? Which leads me to my next highlight...

baguettes et pains au chocolat
Like I mentioned, we have our regular boulangerie (bakery) on the corner of our block where our boulangere already recognizes us. We have fallen into a somewhat regular routine of buying a fresh baguette on the way home in the evening and devouring the entire thing in olive oil and balsamic vinegar while cooking dinner instead of saving it to eat with dinner. We've already finished a large bottle of olive oil and balsamic. Besides our corner boulangerie, there is one in our regular metro station-- Bastille. The smell of espresso and fresh pain au chocolat (chocolate croissants) in the morning is usually too tempting to ignore. Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm a sucker for chocolate... I'd better start running more often.

The sun is starting to peek out after days of clouds, so I'm going to finish these highlights in a later post, but stay tuned folks! Now that I have internet there is much more to come, including:

1. Planning weekend trips
2. Orientation at Sciences Po and registration
3. Overall frustration with bureaucracy in France
4. My stolen wallet :(
5. A photo outing in the Jardin des Tuileries