Paris the Third (Chartres the First)

by Camille Posted on July 7, 2011

This is an update of the amazing trip I took to Europe last summer. Slowly but surely I’m posting about every day I spent on that excellent continent. To read earlier updates, click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. And here. And here and here and here and here and here and here.

•••••••

While in France I got into the habit of jotting down thoughts and recaps in my notebook at the end (or the middle if I happened to be somewhere write-worthy) of each day. [Sadly I got out of this habit once in Spain and England after school mode was turned off, but I think I can pretty well remember what I did in those places—not to worry.]

This is what I wrote about Chartres:

June 7, 2011—Tuesday

It’s 10:30 p.m. and I don’t feel very tired but I should be.

We had a busy day today, starting with a trip to Chartres (about an hour by train from Paris) to see the cathedral. The Chartres cathedral was one of the first works I studied in my very first art history class way back in Senior year of high school, and even though I’ve been to France before, I’ve never been to Chartres. I was excited.

(Not that you could tell by looking at my mug.)

The cathedral itself was neat, but more than anything I liked hopping on the city bus and seeing all the sweet little neighborhoods. That was definitely the highlight of my day. I kept thinking, “I would love to have a house here to visit part of the year.” It was quaint and quiet, like Mayberry but much older and much sweeter.I stopped for a hot chocolate (chocolat chaud) and couldn’t get over how cute the cup and saucer were with words written on them. Pretty sure the waitress thought I was nuts. But I bet if she came to Canada she would take photos of something weird like dirt, so to each her own.

I also gave in and bought a dadgum umbrella for €8, which was annoying (annoying that I didn’t just bring my own from home) but I came to love that cheap kiddie umbrella:

(Unfortunately the umbrella didn’t make it back to Canada with me, but I will never regret the time we spent together. R.I.P., umbie.)

(Also: ordered a bowl of French french onion soup and solved the mystery—they just call it onion soup there.)

After exploring Chartres until my feet couldn’t take it any longer, I got back on the train to Paris and had a nice hour-long rest thereon.


I found myself snapping photos for my sister that I thought she would appreciate since she couldn’t be there with me and I missed her terribly. I knew she would’ve loved this huge clock (and pretty much everything about this setup) I discovered at a random home decor store in a train station of all places. Look at how awesome that clock is!

Back in Paris I wandered around for several more hours, enjoying the feeling of not ever being lost because I had a map and a transit pass. I rode the bus to scope out good areas and hopped off when I saw a Lush™ (where I bought a conditioner bar that smelled my hotel room up something glorious). There was a Metro station right outside the Lush™ and I was proud of how confident I felt navigating back to the hotel.

I hope I never pass up trying new things. I never want to miss out on an excellent experience on account of fear. I may meet many hurdles in my life but I don’t ever want fear to be one of them.

—cpsf

Posted in French, my edjumacation and me, on the road again, Travel | 5 Comments

Paris the Second

by Camille Posted on July 5, 2011

This is an update of the amazing trip I took to Europe last summer. Slowly but surely I’m posting about every day I spent on that excellent continent. To read earlier updates, click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. And here. And here and here and here and here and here and here.

•••••••

I think I forgot how to blog. Maybe it was all the Evian™ I drank in Europe. Or maybe all the chocolate croissants and second-hand smoke. Whatever it was, it wasn’t healthy, and it had near-terminal side effects. Thankfully I’ve been back in Canada for two weeks now and the fresh mountain air seems to be clearing away the cobwebs in my brain. I’m back and ready to go. So, Paris: I already wrote about my first harrowing day getting to and navigating the glorious city of love, and you can read up on it here if you so desire. If not, here’s a succinct update in exactly two photos and fifteen words:

I left for Paris looking like this:

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And I arrived in Paris looking like this:

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Pretty self-explanatory, no? The reason I look so awful is because even though I am a very good traveler, I am not a very graceful traveler. I try to be. I always see beautiful, perfectly coiffed women at airports with matching luggage and manicured nails, and I am inspired to try again the next time I fly. But invariably I get to the airport and become immediately frumpy. I am a frumpy traveler.

Anyway, I looked awful most of the time I was in Europe despite trying really hard to look French and beautiful (redundant, that).

It was okay though because there was beauty all around me:

How many contrasts can you see in this photo? Light and dark, old and new, fun and work…

There’s my greasy mug outside the entry to Notre Dame.

The amazing flying buttresses on the south (I think?) façade of Notre Dame.

Gothic barreled vaulting inside either Notre Dame or the Cluny museum.

The first French food I paid euros for on the trip. This sandwich had goat cheese, golden raisins, delicious greens, honey, and sundried tomatoes. It just so happened to be the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten in my life.

20110705-050810.jpgThere’s my mug by the Seine.

20110705-050825.jpgI love the French national motto (is it their motto?). Liberty, equality, and fraternity (a little sexist but I forgive it on account of it being French).

Okay, and I started doing something on this trip that I really loved. Maybe you won’t, but this is my blog and I can do what I want. You can choose whether to participate or not.

Here’s the thing: I took little video clips of anything I thought was interesting. To me, video clips capture the essence of places so much better than photos. I have so enjoyed going back through them since I’ve been home. I can remember exactly where I was, what I heard and saw and smelled when I was taking the video, and I am so glad I have them all.

I will share some of my favourites here but I fully understand that sometimes travelogues can be tedious and you weren’t there so you might not care as much as I do. Feel free to ignore this bit of the recap if you want.

For those die-hards who want to see it all, here they are:

A courtyard with two different musics wafting through the air and down the street (which is where I was when I heard the eerie sound and had to go investigate). I never did find the source but it was cool anyway:

And a French elementary school field trip getting a lecture on tapestries (in French of course) at the Cluny museum: it’s dark and not the best quality but I guarantee it will make you wish you’d been born French:

So that’s the end of my first two days in Paris.

You sick of this yet?

Posted in French, my edjumacation and me, on the road again, Overall Good Things, Travel | 11 Comments

Divert

by Camille Posted on June 21, 2011

I have been to Paris, Seville, London, and now I’m back in Paris for one night and one night only before I head home tomorrow. I’ve been gone for what seems like forever. I have lots to report but not the time right now (what else is new). Luckily my friend Chloe wrote a post that should give you some of the details of what I was up to last week: Click here for her version of the recap.

That’s all I have for now but within the next few days you will be inundated with posts and updates. Clear your google readers, kay?

Posted in It's All Good | 6 Comments

Alone again naturally.

by Camille Posted on June 15, 2011

This is an update of the amazing trip I took to Europe last summer. Slowly but surely I’m posting about every day I spent on that excellent continent. To read earlier updates, click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. And here. And here and here and here and here and here and here.

•••••••

My group is officially gone, and I am alone at a McDonald’s at a french metro station.

Adventurous though I usually am, I must admit it’s kind of lonely now. I am so grateful to go to two different countries with people who I (sort of) know. (Thanks in advance, Chloe and Ros! And Maaike: next time!) It will be nice to feel not so alone.

And to get two more stamps in the ol’ passport!

I’ll see you on the other side,

cpsf

Posted in Travel | 10 Comments

PPDAs

by Camille Posted on June 13, 2011

This is an update of the amazing trip I took to Europe last summer. Slowly but surely I’m posting about every day I spent on that excellent continent. To read earlier updates, click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. And here. And here and here and here and here and here and here.

•••••••

Paris is oft called the city of love, but perhaps a more appropriate tag would be the city of extreme public displays of affection.

Now, I know I’m more prude than the average mid-twenties North American coed [this fact due to 1) my upbringing in a conservative Mormon community wherein even my borderline liberal parentage could not save me from thinking sex was a dirty word until well after my eighteenth birthday, and 2) the general nature of myself, which is prude with a capital PRU], but even the most love-promoting hippie would probably agree that the outbreak of PDAs among this city’s youngish population is a bit much.

Within the space of a one-hour jaunt through the Luxembourg Gardens I stealth-snapped a few photos of some of the more extreme cases, but they were everywhere! And not just at the one garden, either, but EVERYWHERE: on the Metro, at the Louvre—I even saw a teenage boy and girl go into one of the public potties outside the Eiffel Tower the other day.

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Okay, so some of those were pretty innocent, but others—the only thing preventing them from consummating it right there in the middle of the parc were a couple of layers of jeans and underwear!

But really, it’s no wonder these people are so sexually charged. I mean, look at what they are indoctrinated with from the time they are infants (and truly, I have seen more grade-school field trips at museums while I’ve been here than I could possibly number, which is on the one hand awesome but on the other hand, well, see for yourself):

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And that was just Rodin! He’s a dadgum saint compared to some of the stuff I’ve seen here.

Luckily I also snapped a few photos of myself along the way, so I’ll post a couple here to cleanse your visual palate. My face is like the coffee beans of the digital world:

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I myself have become much more liberal with this sort of thing since taking so many art history classes over the past seven years. Not much shocks me anymore (at least when it comes to art). Back in my senior year of high school when Mrs. Johnston projected the first slide of the nude Venus di Milo, you better believe I was blushing—but now, not so much.

Yet for all my grown-up attitudes when it comes to art, I still have a bit of a rough go of it when I see kids petting in the park for all the world to see.

There’s art, and then there’s reality.

And it’s not often the two are the same.

What do you think? Are you more, less, or equally offended by the photos of the kids in the park versus the photos of Rodin’s statues? Or not offended by any of them at all?

I’d love to know!

Posted in French, Travel | 9 Comments

Frenchishness

by Camille Posted on June 11, 2011

This is an update of the amazing trip I took to Europe last summer. Slowly but surely I’m posting about every day I spent on that excellent continent. To read earlier updates, click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. And here. And here and here and here and here and here and here.

•••••••

Let me apologise in advance for writing so sporadically. The internet situation is still volatile for me and I never know what I’ll have when. I would write posts as drafts and just publish them when I get a connection, but actually I’ve been exhausted every night with barely energy to shower let alone blog.

But don’t worry I’m taking pictures and will report all in due time.

In the meantime, here’re some highlights:

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Some excellent dinner I made my own self with ingredients I bought my own self.

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At the French flea market.

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People who looked just like I felt after a long day at the Louvre.

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Venus de Milo, she’s phat with a P H.

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Chillin’ with Rodin.

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And the dream car.

Don’t feel bad that I’ve neglected the blog for so long—I’ve neglected my own family’s emails for just as long. It’s not that I don’t love you, it’s just that I don’t love you enough to lose sleep for you.

If you’re still here, thanks for sticking around. It means the world to me.

Posted in awesome. | 8 Comments

Deflated but not defeated

by Camille Posted on June 6, 2011

This is an update of the amazing trip I took to Europe last summer three summers ago. Slowly but surely I’m posting about every day I spent on that excellent continent. To read earlier updates, click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. And here. And here and here and here and here and here and here.

•••••••

Sunday 5 June, 2011

I made it to Paris after being awake for 24 hours and traveling for half of them. It was a long day, complete with one flight that left early, one flight that left late, and one flight that had no in-flight entertainment for the entire time (7 hours). (Luckily I had a husband who loves me and bought me an iPad the night before my trip so I had plenty to keep me occupied. I felt real bad for the poor schmucks who’d been counting on their in-flight movies. BORING!)

Unfortunately, we (we classmates that is) are staying in a real dive of a place (wouldn’t be surprised if there were bedbugs here) which not only doesn’t have free wifi but also doesn’t have ANY wifi, even for ready money (not that I have any such thing but still). The only way to access the internet at this joint is to connect with a cable, which, if you’ve ever had (or held) an iPad before, you’ll know that this presents me with a very irritating problem indeed. You just don’t expect to need cables for internet in this day and age. Especially not in Paris, the city that boasts free wifi for all its citizens and visitors throughout.

Liberté and egalité my foot—I feel a revolution coming on.

As soon as I finally got into my hotel room (after hauling my luggage up and down the halls and elevators three times to communicate with the desk agent that my key card was, yes, STILL not working, by which point every other student had not only entered her room but also unpacked, showered, and arranged a lunchtime outing [was I surprised my key card was the only one not working? of course not]) I began to feel the bitterness creep into my thoughts:

“$3,000 for a class in Paris and we’re stuck in this dump? No AC, filthy bathrooms, smells like arse AND no wifi? What a croc.” Did I mention that my bed is actually a hide-a-bed pulled out of a couch? I was not impressed.

Now, lest you judge me for judging my room so snobbishly: I AM NOT A SNOB (very much). I do not turn my nose up at hide-a-beds—not when I’m visiting friends or family or couch surfing or hostel-hopping. When I’m trying to do a trip on a budget I appreciate whatever accommodations I can get, truly. But when I’ve worked hard all semester to earn the money for an extra fantastic summer course to Paris, and when I figure that 1/3 of the course fee went to plane fare and 1/4 of the fee to tuition, and when I also figure that NO meals are included with the cost of the trip and NO entrance fees to museums and also NO transportation within Paris, well then I’m wondering exactly where the other $1,500 went. Because this sure as heck ain’t a $1,500 joint I’m holed up in I can tell you that much.

I suspect embezzlement.

But the point of this post is not just to whine whine whine at you. Because I got over all that (can’t you tell). I got over the blisters on my feet and the fact that I stupidly removed my already-European-wired hair dryer (that I bought last time I was in Paris for just such an occasion) from my suitcase two minutes before I left for the airport (thinking that all hotels have blow dryers and I would just be annoyed at myself for adding unnecessary weight [but of course there’s not one in this hotel room and I’m going to look FUGLY for the duration]). Got right over it, all of it.

Because after I took a one-hour power nap (trying to beat the jet lag by staying up for 36 hours and then crashing), and after I sniffed out a grocery store and loaded up on provisions, and after I ate and showered and changed my underoos and my blister-building shoes, I rallied.

I am in Paris, for pete’s sake.

I packed a bag (lighter than the first) with all my essentials and descended the elevator once more, this time refreshed and ready to forgive this city its trespasses.

I walked for an hour, and then I sat and wrote in a park for about as long, and through it all, you know what I kept thinking?

Paris has a way of draining people.

But somehow it only drains that which is worth draining, and in the end it replaces all the bad with so very much good.

I am drained, yes.

But I am not at all empty.

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Posted in awesome., Travel | 8 Comments