Its been a while since my last text post (actually aside from uploading photos and one link I haven't done anything with this blog at all), so I thought I'd grab a café and update everyone on things before I finish up my assignments for the week. My next post won't be for at least two more weeks so I thought I'd make this a longer one. (Also why it's in two parts since Blogger has a limit on text size). However, at the time when I decided to grab a café, it was already 19h30.
Time here is told in 24 hours rather than the a.m./p.m. scheme that the US and others use. Occasionally time is told in 12 hours when referencing the time of the day, such as "I can't believe I was in the optics lab until 7 in the evening" or "The last RER out of Paris leaves at 1:30 in the morning, so don't miss it!" I personally find the 24 hour scheme a lot easier to use, and it has broken me of my habit of checking if I set my alarm to 7am or 7pm three or four times before I fall asleep.
But I digress, most cafés that would serve a coffee "to go" close in the evening, unless they are what is called a brasserie. Put through a translator, it also means café, but the concept is more of an intimate restaurant that serves drinks, small meals, and beer. They are open through dinner hours and are probably the best way to go for a slightly upscale meal. Most brasseries have the same menu day to day, and at least from my experience every brasserie has almost the exact same menu as the next. While in the city they are a great place to grab a meal.
We usually will take advantage of their formules, a classy way to say combo menu that includes an entrée (appetizer), plat (main dish), and a dessert (well, that ones easy). Of course, a carafe of vin maison (house wine) is also a traditional part of a well-rounded meal, lunch or dinner. Ordering house wine was a tip given to us by our professor. Every brasserie has a selection of bottled wines, but they also select one to be their house wine and is served in a carafe. Though it is the cheapest, it is also usually the best value since no restaurant would want to risk their reputation on an inferior wine. Also helpful is that waiters and waitresses are paid full salaries, unlike in the US, and therefore do not rely on tips. Tipping in France is usually done by rounding up to the nearest Euro. Exceptional service can be rewarded with one or two Euros beyond that, but the point isn't to supplement the server's pay, only provide them with some extra coin for a drink after work. Interestingly enough this is where the the French word for tip, pourboire, comes from. It's literally translated as "for drink".
I have found that a lot of places around touristy Paris will not only speak fluent English, but also have menus printed in English and several other languages (a little frustrating for the French student looking to practice his speaking). However, a turn off a boulevard down a small rue or allée can bring you quickly off the beaten path even in the most popular places, if you know where to look. As we continue to explore Paris I become more amazed at the scale of the city. Paris is divided into twenty numbered arrondissements or municipal divisions working clockwise in a spiral outward from the Louvre.
Street signs on boulevards are labelled with the arrondissement that you are currently in, so it is fairly easy to find your way around. I am in constant amazement of the Parisian metro, which according to their website gave over 3 billion rides last year. I downloaded an app for my iTouch that will plot the shortest route between any two stations and even give you directions to the nearest station if you have WiFi.
With one 7.10€ ticket, you are connected to the whole RATP system: buses, RER, Metro, and Tramways for all of Saturday and sometimes Sunday (sometimes our day passes will work Sunday as well and sometimes they won't, but there has been no pattern that we have been able to discern). Each line has a stop every 90 seconds, so you are never far away from a train. With the entire system transport between areas of the city is fairly easy. This makes it equally impressive when you emerge from a metro station in a different section of Paris and the city looks completely different. Paris has distinct sections, each with its own neighborhood style. The grandeur of the Louvre and public parks along the Seine contrasts sharply with the narrow streets of Montmarte and the open spaces and lively cafés of the Latin Quarter, it makes exploring the city very interesting.
We made our first attempt at Parisian museums last weekend, with a short trip to the Louvre, as can be seen in the photos. We looked at the Roman and Greek sculpture section, including Venus de Milo, among other works. The Louvre is almost as much of an exhibit as the art it houses. It originally was a residence and private museum for the French royalty and was successively added to by each generation of kings. The section we visited was one of the first to be built. It was used up until the reign of Louis XIV who decided that a 100+ room stone palace on the river wasn't quite good enough for him and started putting millions of dollars into his palace at Versailles. For a while the palace was regarded as the most opulent in the world, inspiring the creation of many like it across other European countries. His successors worked on building up Versailles as a residence and the Louvre as an art center, but circa 1789 their construction plans were put on a bit of a hiatus. After the revolution, the Louvre opened up more and more as a public museum.
The Louvre is a museum that you could visit for days. Many tourists make a B-line between the top five or so exhibits and leave. If you were particularly motivated to see everything and had two full days an a lot of energy it would be possible. If you are in Paris for a semester, however, it makes the most sense to do the museums a small bit a time, keeping in mind that the Musée d'Orsay and Musée d'Art Moderne are just as famous and worthwhile. In addition to the exhibits, every ceiling is intricately carved with a mural. The floors are rare hardwoods or exquisite marble and even the stairways, handrails, hallways, and bathrooms (I kid you not) are works of art. It all eventually becomes a lot to handle and one risks becoming jaded after several hours (yeah its just another 2,000 year old statue...).
Luckily I have a while to take my time and explore more (of course I do have classes to take while I'm here as well). Cergy is also an interesting place in its own right. Even the city of Cergy is divided into sections (Les Linandes, Les Chênes, Le Centre Ville) that have their own character. Les Linandes (where I live) is interesting as everything is found in between the roads (as opposed to the US where businesses face the street and have nothing in their backyards). Paths criss-cross throughout the area, with bakeries, schools, apartment buildings, and grocery stores all being found in the very center of the strips between roads. Such a layout makes it very pleasant to walk (I don't walk on a single road to get to school). Around Les Linandes is mostly apartments and university residences, but like Paris, the character of the area can quickly change. I intend on uploading a photoset of around Cergy, but I want to take my time and get a lot of good shots to show off its diversity.
Luckily there is a grocery store right next to my residence, so I go shopping as often as I would like and even pick up a fresh-baked baguette on the way back. I have been cooking most of my meals, and saving quite a bit of money doing so, food tends to be slightly cheaper here, though prepared food is much more expensive. I have also been keeping the following list you might find interesting:
Things that do not exist in France, to my knowledge:
-Peanut Butter
-Dish Towels
-Lined Paper or Lined Notebooks
-Folders, the simple two-pocket ones
-Skim Milk
-Dryer Sheets
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