Fields and fires

And new adventures.  As you can see I have not written in awhile (so sorry.)  I will start with last Saturday.  Weather prediction: beautiful! Mid 50s and sunny.  Perfect for a long day outside.  And that is exactly what Candice and I had planned.  I got up early to go to my little gym, which is always nice.  Then Candice and I met up at Place St. Michel to get Turkish takeout and sit by the Seine.  All I wore was a fleece and I was fine, no coat!  (That is the only day up to this point that I have been able to do that.)  So we got our plates and sat literally next to the Seine.  There were plenty of people enjoying the day as well.  A lot of PDA as usual and a lot of bottles of wine and baguette eating going on around us.  It was wonderful.  After our little picnic we decided to head to the Marché aux Puces (flea market).  It is at the end of line 4, not even in Paris technically in St. Ouen- Clignancourt. It is a hand onto your bag kind of area.  But it was cool to see a different side of Paris.  Very interesting.  We didn't buy anything (well Candice bought a cool pair of earrings that were handmade in Africa, but I forget exactly where...)  The guy was wicked cool and probably one of the only people who didn't push a whole boatload of crap on you to buy.  Basically there was a lot of in your face market people selling anything from "leather" bags (yea right) to "Gucci" belts to cell phones to hash pipes to cool scarves to touristy Paris souvenirs (there were a LOT of Americans around there and they were probably the ones getting ripped off.  Candice and I were just there to browse.)  Stall after stall.  We tried not to speak English too often because then the sellers really tried to get you to come over for their "amazing product."  Quite amusing.  But then we found the other Marchés. The ones that we fell in love with, where the crowd was probably wearing real fur coats and had money to spend like it was their job.  These were the antique markets.  Absolutely beautiful and fascinating stuff.  No one tried to bother us and get us to buy things.  They knew some rich Americans or Germans would probably come over and drop a few thousand Euros on their 17th century chandeliers or mahogany tables.  It was amazing.  We found really cute shops that sold antique dolls, old posters and maps of Paris from the 18th and 19th centuries.  Clearly all out of our price range but it was so fun to look.  These markets are world renowned for their wares and it was clear there were quite a few serious shoppers around.  By the way, all of these markets are only open Saturday, Sunday, Monday.  That's their deal, and I really want to go back and wander the antiques and furniture markets.  It's just fascinating how we would wind up at an old poster seller and start flipping threw the maps and drawings of Paris, one from the 1700s, early 1900s.  Oh look here is one that is from 18 something or another.  Pretty cool.  After our adventure there, we clutched our bags and headed back to the metro to go to Montmartre.  I love that area and I had yet to actually climb it.  The artsy/bohmenian aura is so great, it's too bad how touristy it is these days, but that does not stop me from loving it. We "climbed" the hill, and lounged by the Sacre Coeur to watch the performers and take really touristy pictures of the city.  I can be a tourist, it's fun sometimes.  It was a long day, lot's of walking but so worth it.  No going out for me Saturday night.  I had a lot of work to do so I spent a lot of time working on a paper for my Femmes dans la littérature francaise class, which is the only course I can't stand because the teacher is awful.  I won't get into that now.  

Patience and I were excited for Sunday.  We had bought tickets to go see the Wizard of Oz musical.  It is totally geared towards little kids, but we didn't care.  It's the French version, nothing like the American one and we were curious.  It was really cute, especially watching all the three to five year olds (that was the majority of the crowd) sing along and cry out when the wicked witch was behind Dothy (French name for Dorothy) and such.  Adorable, but I would not have paid any more than the 14 Euro that we paid.  After the spectacle we grabbed some pretty good Japanese teryaki (I try to eat "ethnic" food whenever I go out and spend money at a restaurant, because well....French food does not really do it for me, and a lot of my friends.  That I have learned.  Once again, I won't get into that.  Then another school week.  Not much to report about it except I actually kept busy...mostly for that Women in Literature class, which is why I have not written in awhile. Oh and I bought a ticket to Rome to visit Chloe the first weekend of April.  I am so excited!  My first voyage and who better to visit than Clo. Oh and I am really sorry if I make spelling/grammatical errors in my writing.  Because I am mainly writing in French, it is hard to switch back to English.  I guess that is kind of a good thing!  

The fun began again on Friday (yesterday). My program, IES, has day-trip excursions that we sign up for to places kind of close to Paris.  We all get to sign up for two throughout the semester.  Yesterday was my first, to Provins.  Provins is a cute little medieval town about an hour and a half outside of Paris.  It still has all of its original elements, clearly restored for upkeep but how often do you get to visit a 11th/12th/13th century village in the states? Zilch.  So I got up around 6 to be at the bus by 8.  Yuck, but oh well! One of my friends (from Depaul) Katie Dimartino, and another friend Zach were also signed up so it was cool to have people to romp around with.  The program coordinator, Bertrand, is awesome too.  He refuses to ever take the metro and such.  He rides his skateboard around the city.  That is his transportation system and kind of sums up his crazy and hilarious personality. Off we went on our coach type bus to Provins.  Middle Ages here we come! It was wicked cold  in the morning, so our walking tour was kind of painful but fascinating.  I probably would have enjoyed it more if my toes had not fallen asleep an hour and a half into it.  (Due to the cold.) We walked around the fortified walls, in the donjon (not a dungeon, it's a specific kind of medieval tower that is for military, food, and prison use.  Then we went to the church, which is in the style of primitive gothic architecture- I have been learning a lot about the Middle ages since I have two courses on the subject (Art and Architecture and Medieval history). Anyway, the church was never complete to its standards because they ran out of money.  It is still pretty neat even though it is quite "plain." Not ornate in the least.  Then our group went to a little French restaurant to all eat together.  IES arranged it, got to love a free meal (well actually I am sure my family paid for it somewhere down the line, but it's better not to think about that.)  We started with a really rich paté deal (I tried it.  It's just not my thing)  They gave us a huge slab with salad and toast so I mainly had the salad and toast.  Then we had duck.  YUM! It was pretty good, but so much better than the food I have gotten used to.  After that came the big finale.  Since Zach and I are both lactards we got a different dessert than everyone else. While they chowed down on a chocolate mousse cake we had the most delicious rum/apple tart.  Needless to say, it disappeared.  I am sure it had a lot of butter in it, and I did feel a little sick later, but it was well worth it.  Of course the meal finished with an espresso which was also much needed because I was about to hit a wall due to fatigue.  Then came our next tour.  The underground caves/quarries.  They were pretty crazy and there were parts where the Free Masons used to hold their meetings in the 18th/19th centuries so the walls were covered in their symbols and signatures.  I guess there are still a lot of Free Masons in  Provins (the population is about 13,000 so you see the old structures from the Middle Ages and then toot toot, a car is honking at you to get out of the road and stop gawking at theold gate.), but the Free Mason ritual area has clearly moved. So we wandered through the tunnels and our guide was great, she had so much information to share and Bertrand had fun hiding in different locations and popping out and so on.  Quite amusing.  And then, bus time! On the way home we got to see quite another spectacle.  About 5 minutes into our trip, the bus stopped and our bus driver got out.  We looked to see what was going on and there was a car that was on fire on the side of the road!  The entire front was in flames.  In France, there are people who kind of volunteer in good Samaritan-esque ways for stuff like that so our bus driver was helping direct traffic and keep things calm with another guy until the firefighters arrived (outside of Paris, in the countryside, firemen are volunteers or so they said...) Every once in awhile there would be a huge boom as something or another blew up, the tries, something in the hood, etc.  I took pictures and a video...what an American I am but how often do you get to see such a fire in the middle of the French countryside.  Once the firefighters arrived we were able to leave, and head home to Paris.  Since I was exhausted Katie and I decided to head to our separate houses to have a quick dinner and then meet up at a café for coffee and homework.  This weekend and the next are going to be really busy because I have a LOT to do.  On that note...I need to get started.  

Au revoir