Life moves pretty fast.

I am currently writing to you all from the ecstatic state of post-finals-syndrome! I can’t believe that my classes are over and that my internship begins in a little over a week. This may sound strange, (and I may have said this before), but it simultaneously feels as though I just got here and that I’ve been here for an incredibly long-although not uncomfortably so-period of time. I’m guessing this is evidence of the fact that I have settled into the Parisian life just a little bit–although not so much that I’m no longer amazed every single day by what’s around me. Even going to my metro stop in the morning to go to class, I just can’t help but think, “Wow. I’m crossing the street right now and I see the Eiffel Tower at the end.” It’s just surreal. Even just seeing the way light plays off of the buildings with the most fabulous architecture in my quarter, or walking down the street with a warm baguette in hand. It’s just like this scene from Julie and Julia (a fantastic movie about Julia Child and a blogger who worked her way through Julia Child’s cookbook; if you haven’t seen it, you MUST. it’s one of my favorites and I feel as though Julia and I share similar views of France..) where Julia Child is telling her husband when they first get to their apartment in Paris, “I can’t believe we get to live HERE!”

Meryl Streep as Julia Child - she's so adorable!

Oh, and yes I have my favorite stretch of street in my quarter, in case you were wondering. Well, I know that you weren’t, but I wanted to show it off anyways. I pass it on my way to my metro stop, Mirabeau, (yes it’s right by Pont Mirabeau, if you’re a Guillaume Apollinaire fan!) and when I go to the grocery store. There’s not much that’s particularly unique about it, and I haven’t been into any of the stores or anything, but everything about it just incarnates a french building, with the columns, the ornate terraces on every window, the decorative supports everywhere.. Just perfect.

A typical charming street in Paris that happens to be my favorite

Speaking of Julia Child, this brings me to one of my recent cooking experience, of which I can’t get pictures to work 😦 However, I must briefly describe it. My friend Emily and I embarked upon a Julia Child adventure one night, complete with dresses to honor the Julia Child tradition of wearing pearls while cooking, playing French period music like Edith Piaf, and lots and LOTS of butter. I can’t even imagine the butter consumption of this country. It truly is what makes everything good, though. Also, if you’ve ever tried to think of “that one French song they play in movies that reference Paris” I have recently discovered that it is an Edith Piaf song called La Vie en Rose. If you haven’t heard it, go youtube it because it’s a wonderful song, and you’ll know exactly what I mean when you hear it! So my friend Emily and I tackled a roast chicken with potatoes and onions underneath it, gougères (these cheese puff pastries with gruyere cheese), salade de chevre chaud (salad with melted goat cheese on little pieces of baguette), sauteed green beans, and profiteroles. Foodies, eat your heart out. It was one of the best and biggest meals I have ever eaten, and we watched Julie and Julia afterwards while doing our best to fit as many profiteroles in the remaining space in our stomachs. Profiteroles may be the most heavenly dessert ever. I highly recommend it. (Oh, and if anyone wants recipes, do let me know! Although I’m a little lax on measurements, I can give you the general idea of course.) It involved a lot of butter and a lot of herbes de provence (revelation: this mysterious mix of spices is amazing) and we had a great time!

I’m realizing that I have a tendency to get all chatty in the beginning of my posts and then realize I haven’t posted any pictures and start inserting pictures like crazy–a tendency which I will not be breaking with this post! My friend Emily and I visited Pere LaChaise cemetery, where a bunch of famous people are buried. Sounds like a downer, right? But oh no. This cemetery is a photographer’s playground. The sheer number of graves is astounding, and they all differ in shape, size, and style and yet when you look at them like this they tend to look the same!

Pere La Chaise - eerie, yet beautiful

It was really a lot of the random graves that were the most breathtaking and interesting

It was a really fascinating place to go to, with lots of famous French artists, painters, writers, and randomly enough, Oscar Wilde, whose grave is covered in kiss marks. As cool as it may be to say that you have kissed the grave of Oscar Wilde, up close, it is much less appealing, I must say. Seriously. Sadly, it was during this trip to photography playground that my camera decided that it was just too cold to be taking pictures and it bailed on me. Yes, my camera is mean-spirited. Therefore I got a few pictures of this fascinating place, and I’ll just have to go back to get the rest someday! Plus, the place is huge and I think we barely traversed half of it! When the cemetery closes, they start ringing this bell basically like places play the “Closing Time” song: to tell everyone to get out so they can close up shop. As they started ringing the bells for closing time, we were in a random corner of the cemetery, there was a bunch of crows on the graves and in the trees, and it was an overcast sky. The atmosphere was just too perfect.

One of my favorite photos of the day

there's so many!

Sometimes one of the most interesting things to do in Paris is just to wander and see what you find. There’s so many little hidden things that you see just walking around the city and keeping your eyes open. I think that sometimes, probably more often that not, there’s a lot lf beauty that we miss around us because we’re too busy getting to where we need to go or figuring out the next whatever. Slowing down and taking time has been a development for me this semester, considering I’m the one who has every hour of her life planned out from day to day when I’m at school. Here, it’s all up to me, and that choice is just positively liberating! I’m heading to London tomorrow afternoon for vacation until Thursday, and I can literally do whatever it is that I want. It’s a very freeing concept, and I think it makes you slow down and notice things around you that you may not have seen before. I’m not saying I’ve perfected this, because it’s so easy to rush and miss everything, but I am recommending trying out the concept, because in the immortal words of Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around every once in awhile, you could miss it.” And it’s definitely something worth not missing.

Here are some of the fruits of my open-eyed wandering:

 

Random curvy street discovery

Street art

Oh hello, Shakespeare and Company!

This picture also represents one of the best things about wandering: you stumble upon things you didn’t even know were there! I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve been walking in some area of Paris looking for something else and I end up stumbling upon a national monument! While wandering, my friend and I found the famous bookstore, Shakespeare and Company! It’s a truly wonderful bookstore, something you can just tell the minute you walk in and smell the air of musty pages. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so many books in such a small place. The atmosphere just reeks of book lovers and writers and thinkers, if such a thing is possible.

 

Books! Books! And more books!

We even found this little nook where they had a typewriter for people to leave little notes of musings, thoughts, written words of any kind.. It was such an interesting, thoughtful concept so we had to make our own contribution to the wall of notes..

We left a note at the typewriter!

Anywhere that has built in wooden ladders to reach the top shelf of books is fine by me.

One of my other recent conquests in Paris was going to have lunch at the cafe from the movie Amelie, called Les Deux Moulins (The Two Mills). It’s right by the  Moulin Rouge in the Montmartre area of Paris, which is just a fascinating area to explore aside from shops of a certain nature.  The cafe just brings to life the scenes from the film and seriously oozes of Amelie’s personality. Everything is pink and retro and just fun.

Le Moulin Rouge!

Cafe de 2 Moulins

She's on the menu!

It's just so Amelie. Right out of the movie..

And since we were at the cafe from Amelie, we of course had to get creme brûlée. (My first one in Paris!) If you haven’t seen the film, Amelie is a really quirky, interesting individual and one of the things she loves is the cracking sound of hitting creme brulee with the tip of the spoon. It really is a lovely sound.. And it was absolutely delicious. Amelie really is the poster child for finding  joy in the little things, and it was so neat to just be in the cafe where the ambience was everything Amelie!

Creme brulee! The cracking noise really is the best.

Tomorrow I am off on a whirlwind adventure to England, starting in Cambridge then heading to London! I’ve never been and always wanted to, so I’m very excited. Plus, after finals week, I think a few days in London will be the perfect way to forget about school. I promise that soon after I’ll be posting pictures and stories of my adventures in London! Hope Paris isn’t stealing away all the sunshine from the States, and thanks so much for reading.