Opera Garnier and the Weekend

Sorry for the lack of updates recently, but I'll start with Tuesday.

I went to the theater to see Mamma Mia with my French parents. I'd already seen the movie in the U.S. but it was fun seeing it again dubbed in French except for the songs. My parents liked it and my French mom thought Pierce Brosnan was handsome, but she like everyone else I'm sure, didn't like his voice. Before we saw the movie, we ate dinner at the house and my mom cooked the most interesting meal--ham slices wrapped around cooked bananas in this banana-y sauce: two things I'm not a huge fan of. It didn't taste bad necessarily, but it was one of the weirdest combinations I've ever tasted and it wasn't a particularly good combination. She asked me if I liked it, and I didn't have the heart to tell her that I didn't really, so I said "yes" and "it's very different. I've never tasted this before." And then my French dad told me that she had created the dish herself. Glad I didn't tell the full truth. I also hope she won't make it again...

The next day we all visited the Opera Garnier in Paris. It was absolutely beautiful. The architecture was incredible, ornate, and very rich. The staircases were made of marble, and there were four different levels of the theatre. It was a prime social gathering for the noble families of Paris 300 years ago--it was expected that families come three times a week. A lot to live up to, but if I had an excuse to go to that opera that often, I'd take it too. We couldn't actually see the stages because the rooms were closed, but we can see it another time for free when it's open again.

On Thursday, Dr. Patton arrived and we all had lunch at his and Dr. Morgan's appartment to welcome him. Deem prepared a wine tasting for us and had us try three different wines. So we all hung out for about an hour eating cheese, bread, and different deli meats, crepes, and chocolate and drinking wine. It was a lot of fun and the wine helped me anticipate Mme Vaudel's conversation class more. I probably talked the most I've ever talked in that class that day and our conversation topics were fun because we all just relived our childhoods the entire time. I'm pretty sure Mme Vaudel had no idea what we were talking about most of the time, but it was fun for us.

On Friday, after Monsieur Sinniger's class, a lot of our group organized a trip to Burgundy on their own so some of them left to go there. I didn't want to spend the money required for that trip, nor did Roz, so we hung out together the majority of the weekend. I went over to her house to watch a movie. We watched a French movie called "Je vous trouve très beau" which ended up being a cute and funny little film. Then Roz, Enna, Erika, Lubaina and I went out to dinner in Paris and we ate at this great Italian place in Pigalle. We ended up seeing some of the Moulin Rouge and that entire street in Pigalle is devoted to sex shops and strip clubs--very colorful I guess you could say. Once we walked out of that area, we found a side street where this Italian place was and the food was delicious. After dinner, Erika and Lubaina went back to Versailles and Roz, Enna, and I stayed in Paris to find a club to go to. Enna had a book that listed a bunch of different cafés in Paris and she found a section in the book where music was played at certain cafés. She found one that played African music and that sounded cool because we thought we'd be able to dance to it, but when we actually found the café, it wasn't as great as we had made it out to be. The African music just came from a stereo, and the decor of the place was pretty cool, but no one was dancing--it was just a place for people to chill out and drink, which is fine, just not what we were looking for. So we looked up another café and saw that it had live music, so we found our way to that other café (which was pretty far from the last one we went to) and saw that there was live music, but no one was dancing to it--just sitting around and enjoying the band. We hung out there for a bit and listened to the band, but we were pretty disappointed that we didn't find a place to dance at. We spent most of the night traveling around Paris by the metro or just walking. So when I got home, I decided to look up dance clubs in Paris so we could actually accomplish our goal of dancing this weekend.

So the next day, Roz and I (Enna went to Burgundy that day with Lubaina) spent our day at the Marché aux Puces where there were a bunch of different stands selling everything from clothing, belts and accessories, shoes, scarves, hookahs, and lingerie. The lingerie sold here is really cheap, especially if you get it from the market, and Roz profited from that. After the market, we came back to Versailles ate some dinner, and got ready to go clubbing in Paris. We picked a place to go called SanZ Sans. We got there early, around 9:00 because we didn't want to stay out too late. The club is a bar and also a restaurant so most people were just eating at that time, so Roz and I hung out at the bar and ordered drinks. The drinks were also almost half price at that time--after 10:00, the are more expensive, so we took that opportunity to order all the drinks we wanted. Around 10:30 more people started pouring in, and they removed the bar stools so that everyone could dance in the area around the bar. At first there weren't a lot of people dancing, but towards 11:30 the place was pretty crowded. The music was really good and Roz and I had fun people watching. We talked a little bit with a French guy and then another guy approached us and told us that we were beautiful. His name was Marco and he was Italian--go figure. He was very flirty and touchy and wanted to dance with both of us, but he was pretty sketchy and not very cute so we said we'd dance with him later. Then he was all over another girl five minutes later. Oh well. The rest of the night was so fun though--a lot of great music was played and the place was packed and it was so nice to finally get out and dance because we hadn't done that in a while. As we were leaving this one black guy who was dancing near us looked at us and said "Bye!" when we left, which was really cute. Then we ran into a drunk girl on the street who heard us speaking English and decided to practice her English with us. She asked us where we were from and I said "United States" and she said, "I think that is the most beautiful town (yes, town) in the world. They really know how to party over there." Thankfully she had a sober friend with her who eventually clamped her hand over the other girl's mouth and just had her move along the street.

Unfortunately, we missed the last train to Versailles and we tried to find a night bus to take, but we learned that our only option was to take a taxi. And since we're like 30 minutes or more outside of Paris, we did not want to have to pay for that, so Roz had to call her French parents (they told her if she couldn't find a way to get home, to call them) and her dad came and picked us up. We felt awful that he had to do that because it was 2:45 in the morning when he got to Paris and found us. He was such a sweetheart though, probably the cutest French man I've ever met. Despite it being 3:00 in the morning, he was very lively and joked with us for the whole car ride. He acted like it was no big deal for him to pick us up, and I really enjoyed his company and was glad I got to meet him. He dropped me off at my house and everything, and was just really sweet. But Roz and I will definitely try to make the train next time.

Then today, I ate lunch with Roz, Madame Chauchat, and her husband at their house. Madame Chauchat is the best cook. This was actually my second time eating at her house because she made lunch for my class on Tuesday so we could hang out and talk since the only time we ever see her is for grammar class. Both times, she made excellent meals and desserts. She and her husband were so cute too, and we all spoke in French the entire time talking about a lot of different things. I just love her--she's my favorite teacher here and she's so fun to hang out with. She's so easy to talk to too, even in French. After eating lunch in her little sunroom, we went to this small living room and drank coffee and tea. It was so cute and French. Then she suggested we go see Marie Antoinette's farm at Versailles (when Marie Antoinette lived at Versailles, she had a little farm area with little cottages that she would spend a lot of her time at entertaining friends and taking care of a little farm, and all that is still at the castle). So Monsieur Chauchat drove Roz and I to the farms and Roz and I walked around the area. I had actually already been to that area with Michele, and we saw we had to pay to get into the actual farm area, which we didn't want to do. But it was a beautiful day, so Roz and I just walked around the extensive grounds and walked into the gardens of Versailles. It was so nice because we just walked and talked about a bunch of different things and there were a ton of French families out in the area. It was so cute, especially when we saw this little french girl feeding the sheep that were in the pasture area with her grandmother. We probably spent 2 or more hours out in Versailles just walking around enjoying the weather and the views. And now I have to catch up on my grammar homework. Until next time...