Speedy news :-)

Hola Hola!

Although I feel like having written you yesterday I was shocked that actually almost a whole month passed since I last gave you news from Paris. The time really is my enemy!  On the other hand, if I think back on the loads of fascinating things I did, I would say far more time than a month must have passed. I think I might just pick some of the strongest moments to tell you about because what I do is otherwise well visible from the photos I regularly post. So here we go for the excursion!

Museums

As the posted photos indicate, I continue to visit lots of Parisian museums (and still not getting to the end, there is so many of them!). We couldn´t choose a better museum to visit for the Easter Sunday than the museum of the Medieval Age (Cluny)! But apart from the numerous representations of the passion of the Christ, it is a very nice museum with the precious “Madam and the Unicorn” cycle. It is located in a medieval noble house just next to Saint Michel and so we had a delicious crepe with chocolate and banana before from our favorite restaurant Cluny. Hmmm!  I also visited the museum of Delacroix (his house and atelier) behind the Saint Germain des Pres church situated on a wonderful square (de Fürstenberg) in the most Parisian of all the Parisian quartiers. There wasn´t much of his paintings though as they are situated mainly in Louvre. As it was the first Sunday of the month, we wanted to take maximal profit from the free entrance to national museums and so we went to the museum of Picasso in the Marais quartier straight away. Even me who is generally not a big fan of Picasso got to like some of his paintings/art pieces! Because it was not far we then visited the Cognacq-Jay museum of 18^th century Paris (by the way free every day as are all Parisian collections – good idea, Bertrand Delanoe!). I just love the blue cat! J I also finally visited the house of Victor Hugo on the beautiful Place de Vosges. Lastly, I had the chance to participate on a private visit of the exposition “The mystery Lapérouse” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lap%C3%A9rouse) in the Marine museum and I got to see the Exposition Paris en couleurs  (photos of Paris from the end of the 19^th century until today) on its last day in the Paris City hall.

Conferences

I took part in some very interesting conferences too which occupied me quite a lot as they were held the whole day sometimes. I started with one on the role of francophony in the actual globalized world (went so well with my exposé on globalization I had for the next week!) on the occasion of the Day of the Francophonie. Another one, on the French public television and its reforms (no publicity, digitalization etc) was also very interesting and useful for my thesis. Lastly, I got an invitation from a friend for the Forum de Paris which dealt this year with the project of the Mediterranean union and was held in UNESCO so I was happy to enter this sanctuary for the first time (and I hope it was not the last one!). A little debate on the topic of human rights was also held at Sciences Po with Bernard Kouchner and Pierre Hassner where nothing revolutionary was said but I got quite a positive picture of Kouchner. As only great personalities were present in all these (and previous) conferences (from the president of the OIF and all presidents of French TV channels to high French politicians), I feel that the only person I did not meet (and I could if he didn´t cancel in extremis his inauguration speech of the Forum de Paris!) is Nicolas Sarkozy. Come on, Carla, just borrow him to me at least for a little while! J

Other social activities

And there is a lot of other things I did! One very French one was the Salon du vin. I took a wine tasting class (so I know the basics but wouldn´t recognize neither the type nor the year of course…) and was tasting and tasting and tasting and drinking different types of wine products during about 3 hours. But I wasn´t drunk! Just the people in the metro were laughing at me on my way back because I had two obviously used wine glasses in my hand. J I wanted to have a souvenir and they are really useful at my home as we did not have wine glasses before!  Another very French activity that I was absolutely excited about was to go and see Moliere´s Misanthrope in the Comédie Francaise = something I was dreaming of! There is 65 places sold for 5EUR only one hour before the start so my friend decided to do the queuing and got us the tickets while I was suffering at my gym tonique (by the way really good) class. Although it was sometimes difficult to understand everything the talented actors said, I went home with an extraordinary experience and it is for me one of the most exciting things I did in Paris from the beginning of the year. You know I am a terrible Francophile! J  I can´t leave you without mentioning the Venitian Carnaval on Ile Saint Louis! It´s a pitty it was raining a little bit but we enjoyed ourselves anyway. I loved all those costumes and I definitely decided I have to go to Venice next year! There is a very nice shop with all the masques on Ile Saint Louis and so I went there because one of them would serve me for a party that night but I am just a poor student and I just can´t afford this fun starting on 159EUR. So I became a black cat again for the great party in the CAB (very chic club on the Place du Palais Royal) which had a success as well. As to parties, I am partying far less than on the beginning of the semester but still of course enjoying myself at night time from time. A not bad one was another “on the guest list only” party with models that took place in a club (by the way situated in the Trocadero Aquarium) where there was a huge aquarium instead of one whole wall and a very zen atmosphere. I was just a little worried for the fishes that might not feel well in such a place…but they probably don´t remember it. J I appreciate the flat parties the most anyway!

A lot of sightseeing

I feel totally impregnated by Paris after the last days! I did so much sightseeing as my friends paid me the visit, mainly of places that I already knew of course, but I discovered some new ones too. I eventually visited la Défense, the biggest administrative district in Europe, after almost 8 months in Paris, and I had a very nice walk in the famous Bois de Boulogne that is quite pleasant but there is in my opinion nicer parks and woods in Paris than that one. I will maybe change my mind after my second visit, who knows. I visited the Butte aux Cailles quartier all alone one Friday that is a walking distance away from where I live. This was a real oasis of calm and I felt like visiting a little village far away from Paris. I will certainly go back to this charming place – at least for a swim in the swimming pool with healthy source water.

You might ask yourself:”and when was she studying?” Indeed, despite of all my other activities, I WAS studying and even had an exposé but as I knew several of my friends would visit me for almost 10 days, I made sure on the beginning of the semester when the work was distributed that I don´t have too much work to do during this time so that I can spend the most of my time with my friends. I had to attend the classes though and got to do an unforeseen analysis of the main sentence of the presidential campaign of Sarkozy “Work more to get more” (yeah, you could hear it from me several times J) from all points of view which was horrible and I lost quite a lot of energy on it. And as I did not sleep enough and was visiting Paris a lot while the weather is still changing all the time (it was even snowing!!!, the typical giboulé de mars continues L), I got a cold. But I am okay and full of energy again now!

I think I will post short stories whenever something gets to my mind from now so that I can be more detailed and emotional (haha!) and not just describe generally what I did. I am not sure I will have enough time for it though. The lack and rapid run of time is really something that frustrates me because there is so many things I would like to do with so many people and it just isn´t possible. L I know, c´est la vie! J

I would like to thank a lot to Dáša, Adam, Ondra and Emma for the great time I had with them. I was really very very happy to see you and it was a pleasure to accommodate you and spend all the time with you! I hope you enjoyed your stay my friends!

Enjoy spring everyone and don´t forget to inform me about how you are!

Bisous de Paris