It's snowing in Paris!

Honestly,  I hate the cold. It's miserable and dark. I generally get sick. I don't tolerate it well at all: I layer up to the point where I resemble a (peanut) M&M, which is generally uncomfortable and difficult to maintain. Therefore, it is safe to conclude that I generally don't enjoy the winter months, despite the awesome holidays.

However, one thing I do adore about the winter is the snow. I love the snow. Not only because it gets slightly warmer when it snows, but because, given the right conditions, it can be absolutely breathtaking. Well, I just walked through the perfect snowfall. Large heavy white snowflakes descended on the streets of Paris, just-lit for the evening, and covered the fading autumn leaves in shimmering white.

I walked in sheer bliss, twirling around in the small streets with hardly any cars (though when they did appear, I needed to scramble out of the way). I finished my walk in the Sciences Po Courtyard, and attempted to take a picture of this peaceful splendor, which does not work so well on phone camera, but nonetheless:

Voilà!

Currently, I am enjoying a small hazelnut coffee with cream, watching the snow melt away from the foliage. Nothing can ruin my day. (Even the hand sanitizer that just exploded in my bag, and the fact that I have class till 9:15pm on a Friday night).

Update!

So, I went to Normandy last weekend which was awesome... However, in the process of transferring my photos, they got deleted again. -sigh- I plan to go back there, as well as other places in the country, so I will definitely have photos of the French country side soon :)

In any case, since I have done so much since I last posted, I honestly don't feel like making a specific post about each trip, so I will simply post some of my favorite photos and moments from the last month and a half or so. Now that I can update regularly, the posts will be more specific :)

These photos are in a very random order, and I'm sorry there are none with me, but I promise I will take some of me doing touristy things in front of touristy sites.

The crow on top the dead man in the sculpture was very intriguing, and very befitting to the mood of the work. Unfortunately, the crow did not understand its strategic importance in my photo and flew away by the time I cam close to take a nicer picture. (This picture, along the next several ones, were taken on the way from Le Jardin des Tuileries to the Louvre. These are some of my favorite pictures, a the lighting was absolutely breathtaking that day.)

From one of our strolls along the Seine. 

Our failed jump attempts in front of the pyramid.

My first taste of Ethiopian food!

Some of the weird exhibits during La Nuit Blanche:

(300 hundred or so alarm clocks. Imagine waking up to that..)

This exhibit had a table where each bowl had a different word on it (one to describe race, gender, stereotype, etc). And a film recording with random black and white images and a woman's voice hauntingly dictating different letters of the alphabet.

A nice appetizer I had at an Asian Fusion restaurant (yes, very French, I know :P)

L’Académie française (I like how the road signs matched the colors of the French flags)

Palais du Luxembourg

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Le Jardin du Luxembourg

Le Penseur/ The Thinker (from the Rodin Museum)

Pretty fountains all over Paris

Eastern Orthodox Church in Paris.

Photos from Versailles.

Some random sculptures and famous pieces of art that I saw - my selection here is fairly random.

Signature Eiffel Tower visit pictures:

 

Lebanese food!

More from La Nuit Blanche (They had -really- weird things):

Also from the Asian Fusion resautarant! Yes, that is penne, cooked with chinese style vegetables and beef, topped with a raw egg.

 

La Notre Dame de Paris 

L’arc de Triomphe 

 

I create a blog.. and then do not post :P

For those of you who are actually following this, I am very sorry I am bad at keeping up with blogging. I suddenly had a surge of work, so I will be concentrating on that this week. However, by next weekend I will have several posts - including photos from trips to the Louvre, le jardin des Tuileries, Versailles, the Champs-Élysées, and le jardin du Luxembourg, adventures during La Nuit Blanche (White Night) celebration, strolls along the Seine, and morbidly obese pigeons. And by the week after I will have more photos from all of the other places I've been.

For now, here is a pictures of the fence outside the absolutely beautiful church, Notre Dame de Fidélité, across from my home. Fitting no?

First post - yay!

As the events that happened prior to the tragic erasure of all of my photos do not have visual documentation, I decided that I would begin with the events that do. 

Last weekend, I went on a trip with my two friends Tarik (who is the only other exchange student from Hopkins) and Max (a very cool guy from Finland) to Montmarte. 

The goal of our trip was to visit 2 places: La Basilique du Sacré-Cœur (The Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus) and Le Musée de l'érostisme de Paris (The museum of eroticism of Paris), because it is generally best to combine a visit to a church with exhibits of pornography.

We met at the metro station Pigalle, in order to pass by the museum, which is right near the metro station, see the Moulin Rouge and Le café des Deux Moulins (the café from the movie Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelié Poulain, after which this blog titled), go to Sacré-Cœur, make a loop and go to the museum afterwards.

Well, the first part of the trip went well. We met at Pigalle (an area known for it's sex shows and prostitutes, so the museum of eroticism is appropriately located there), politely declined cocaine, walked past a multitude of sex shows without succumbing to temptation, and arrived and Moulin Rouge.

Because it costs 100+ euros to get in, we were satisfied with our photos of its exterior. 

We turned up the street to go to Le café des Deux Moulins. We had planned to eat there, but because it was packed, we also were forced to be satisfied with enjoying its exterior too. Though, I did go back later all by myself when it was much less packed, so there are pictures of this super-cool café from the inside.

 We finally made it to Sacré-Cœur. Boy, it was beautiful. We spent the afternoon walking around and enjoying its grandeur, and the nice weather. And, the performers there that day were also pretty awesome - I've included a modern dancing mime in a mask, and guy who did really cool tricks with a ball.

After a fun afternoon, we decided to go see the pornography after all. We took our time, promenading through the beautiful, scenic Montmarte, when all of a sudden Max lets out a cry of anger, and something green hits my bag. The first thing I think when I see several globs of green on my bag is "Who threw guacamole at us!? And WHY?!"

However, when Max started cursing about the fact that a bird shit on his head, I realized what had happened. I did make him feel much better when I told him that I had thought it was guacamole, and also, when I sacrificed the water I had bought for 2 euros for him to wash it out of his hair.

After the pooping incident, we felt a bit embarrassed, and you can't go the the museum of eroticism feeling embarrassed, because it maxes you out. We did go in for a little, where I did take some pictures, but I feel the content is too inappopriate.

Anyhow, that is all for my first post. I know it's not very exciting, but if I start off with the most exciting stories, the rest will be disappointing! :P

Bisous,

Maggie