Positively Paris

I tend to be an optimist, so the following observation may be a mere reflection of that character trait, but I'll share it anyway: The mere act of reminding myself (or others that I am with) that I am/we are in PARIS causes a distinctly positive shift in the mood.  Example:  It has been very hot this week as the "Été Indian," or Indian summer, continues here in Paris.  This is usually not a problem, as it is still pretty pleasant in the shade, and at least we have sun.  However, the metro is NOT air conditioned.  This means that, coming home from class one night, I was standing, sweating, in a stuffy metro car with hundreds of my closest friends. Clearly, this is not the ideal situation, and it was easy for me to start to get a negative attitude... Until I remembered that I was on the metro car because I had just gotten out of class IN THE LOUVRE, and that, really, there are much worse problems to have than being a student coming home from class in a spectacular art museum in Paris. When I put it in that light, it really did not seem like a problem at all, but a privilege.  


Using this logic, sitting on the floor in my history class that was 200 over the room's capacity due to new construction on an 84 degree day with no AC became a cultural experience, sitting in traffic became a good way to gawk at the Notre Dame, and waiting for a group to make a decision turned into time relaxing in a park with friends.  I am not saying that every experience is pleasant, or that this train my thoughts are always on, but I do find myself thinking this way often.  Ultimately, though, I know that absolutely everything I do here is making a memory, and I have total control on my attitude, so I am trying to make positive memories that last a lifetime.  I figure that I will eventually laugh at the memory of even my worst day here, so I'm just skipping ahead, and choosing to be positive. :D 


Sidenote: I am lucky to have been brought up to think optimistically.  In fact, each time I even think of the phrase "be positive"  I hear my mother saying "Be positive: that is my attitude and my blood type." In fact, when I typed that, just now, I felt that I should skype her to verify that my memory of her saying that was correct.  When she answered, I asked: "Mom is B+ your blood type?" and she responded by saying: "Yep.  My blood type and my attitude."  Maybe optimism is genetic... 


Anyway, it should be clear that, while this trick of reminding myself that I am in PARIS has made some unpleasant situations bearable, I have only employed this logic on very rare occasions, since I LOVE IT HERE, and 99.99% of my time here is positively perfect anyway! This week was great because I had a mix of visiting monuments and downtime.  Plus, I got to spend lots of time with friends who were visiting Paris this weekend! 

On Monday, I checked out a Resto U with some friends before heading to Gibert Joseph in the Latin Quarter to buy my books for the semester. I will be reading Molière, Diderot, Crébillon, Chateaubriand, and Marivaux.  While this will probably mean a lot of time spent reading, as it takes me at least 1.5 times as long to read in French as in English, I am willing to bet that the quality of the literature will make it worthwhile.  

Tuesday was a pretty relaxing day, but I thought that everyone would be glad to know that my friend Adrian and I are pretty sure we found the bank upon which J.K. Rowling based Gringotts.  

Wednesday, a friend and I planned a day of sightseeing! We started with the Arènes de Lutèce, a small 1st century arena that is a remnant of the time when Paris was under the Roman Empire.  In the modern day, it was home not to gladiators, but small children playing soccer, young people pick-nicking and old men doing what appeared to be Tai Chi (they are barely visible in the upper right).  

Next, we ventured to the Musée de Cluny, the French National Museum of the Middle Ages. This picture shows the 6th in a series of six tapestries called "The Lady with the Unicorn." In each of the first five, she is shown doing an action that represents one of the five senses.   In the final one, she is in a tent that says "To my only desire." My art history professor actually told me that, next week, we will be discussing this tapestry! 

Fun Fact #8: Apparently, in Europe during the Middle Ages, unicorns were believed to be real.  The Musée de Cluny even has a narwhal tooth on display because in the Middle Ages, someone found it and assumed that (logically) it must be a unicorn horn. 

Leaving the museum, we went to a grocery store and got the appropriate items for a French pick-nick, which we then ate in a park on Île de la Cité. Perfect meal on a day when there was not a cloud in the sky! 

Next, we visited La Conciergerie, which used to be a Capetian Palace before Charles V turned it into the seat of the courts of law.  It is perhaps most famous as the place where Marie Antoinette spent her imprisonment, including her last night before she walked to La Place de La Concorde to be executed on 16 October 1793.   

Leaving the Conciergerie, we walked in the general direction of the Louvre and stumbled upon L'Église de Saint Germain L'Auxerrois, which was gorgeous, though not particularly famous.  

Later, after having completed the "classroom" portion of my art history class at Sweet Briar's office, my class reconvened for the recitation... A visit to the Objets D'Art Exhibit of the Richelieu wing of the Louvre.  This picture features some classmates studying a sculpture of the Virgin Mary with the child Christ.  It was really cool, because class lasted until 9:30 (when the museum closes) this week, so at the end of class instead of a bell, we had approximately 10 people in suits and wearing Louvre employee badges to tell us (in French, English, Spanish and German) that we needed to leave.  Plus, the museum was nearly empty the whole time we were there.  

Thursday was especially fun because I got to meet up with Andrea (center)! She was a senior captain of the Track team at Tufts when I was a freshman, and she spent the last year living in Italy! Now she is touring Europe with her sister and her boyfriend, and their travels this week brought them to Paris, which means that we were reunited! As evidenced by the photo, we were tired after a long afternoon exploring Paris! This was taken in the park behind Notre Dame Cathedral.  

Andrea and I remarked that, despite having seen each other every day during my freshman year, we had not seen each other (except on Skype) since then! Once we were together, though, it really was like no time had passed and we had such fun! We met up again on Friday, when we climbed the Eiffel Tower and then enjoyed a pick-nick underneath it before wandering towards the Luxembourg Gardens, Pantheon, and finally the Latin Quarter for dinner. A busy day, but a good one.  Seeing friends is always wonderful! 

My friend-filled weekend continued on Saturday! Some neighbors/fellow Lutherans/ family friends are in town for about a week, and they arrived on Saturday morning. Since they are apparently immune to jet-lag (if only, right?), they decided to rent a car and drive to Reims, Champagne for a tour of Taittinger Champagne Company's wine caves and they invited me to tag along.  The caves held over 3 million bottles, and represented the "small" traditional-stlye cave.  The other, more modern facility apparently houses more than 19 million bottles! 

After the visit to the Caves, we explored a bit in Reims, found the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims, and enjoyed pastries and caffeinated beverages before the drive home.  It was a great day and good to catch up! I am so blessed to have such great family and friends, and it makes me so happy to see them, especially when we can meet in such an awesome place as Paris! 

An exciting week was capped off by another gorgeous day today! The day was made even better because I was able to join a French track team for the first time today!  It was great to be with a team again, even if it is not my team, and to have a coach instructing us! Plus, who can say no to 3 hours outside on such a great day! 

Fun Fact #9: There are no tracks in the city of Paris where Javelin can be thrown.  All of the tracks in the city have soccer fields in the center to conserve space, and since the turf for all the fields in the city is astroturf, which can easily be damaged, the clubs don't allow Javelin or hammer to be thrown there.  

Bisous! 

~SKS