Toutes des choses

     Where to even begin?

     A lot has happened since my last post, so I'll just recount things as I happen to remember them. Hopefully this is the last time for a while that I make such a long post. As I said in the video, I want to try to make shorter, more frequent updates.

      Since food seems to be the most prevalent theme, I guess I'll start there. This week, we went to a world-famous "tearoom" called Angelina. They are most famous for their chocolat chaud ancien de l'Africain, so we ordered it. It was pricey at seven euro per serving but it is well deserving of all of its fame. Honestly, it was one of the most simply amazing things I have ever swallowed. To top it off and satisfy our chocoholism, we ordered chocolate cake and it came furnished with edible gold. I couldn't even take it.

Here's a Youtube video showing how thick it is (yes, I felt this was necessary):

Angelina, Paris - Hot Chocolate

     Another place we visited recently was Refuge des Fondus. It's a fondu restaurant, as you might have guessed by the name, and between the 10 of us who went we shared both cheese and meat pots. The beef you cook in oil and it is amazing and I probably lost eight years of my life because of how unhealthy it must be, but it was worth it. I swear the cheese fondu, which was also good, had wine in it. It tasted like the white wine I was having, which was served in a glass baby bottle. It freaked me out a little, but I just took the cap off; the reason they don't serve it in glasses, so I have been told, is because the restaurant thus avoids having to pay a tax for serving alcohol in a glass. I don't know. And I don't anything about how cheese and wine are made, so maybe they just ferment similarly and that's why the cheese tasted like wine. I just don't know. 

     February 2 was crêpe day and of course the one day I did not eat a crêpe. It was too cold to stop and wait for one as they make it in front of you. I asked my host family about it, and they said it was more of a tradition than a widely celebrated holiday and that it reflects on the Christian feast of the presentation of Christ. Because crêpes are round, they said, they were/are used to celebrate the eternality of the Lord. Not a bad way to make yourself feel better about eating one.

     

     Speaking of religious-y, church-y things, last Saturday, before we met the large group for dinner, Devan and I went to see Moulin Rouge and then walk towards the restaurant and get a drink nearby. We didn't end up finding any bars or cafés in our price range and we happened to find ourselves in front of a church. We had an hour and a half to spare and mass started in 15 minutes so we figured we'd kill two birds with one stone by going to mass for the week and saving money so we walked in. Like the other churches I've seen here, it was cathedral-esque (haven't had enough architecture classes to expand my vocabulary yet) with high ceilings and stone walls, but it was smaller and there was only a small group in attendance. The priest was friendly and the mass seemed more casual, especially compared to Notre Dame. 

     Something completely unordinary and awkward always has to happen when Devan and I are around. Mass was going just fine - as fine as it can when you don't completely know the language - until it came time to say the Lord's Prayer and the priest said something. We didn't even hear what he said much less understand it, so when the entire group of churchgoers left their seats and headed for the alter, we didn't know what else to do other than copy them. So we walked up and everyone stood on the alter and stayed there through the Our Father and sign of peace (for which everyone walked around), while the priest stared at Devan and I when we weren't mouthing the words to the prayer. Sorry, but I have a difficult enough time asking for permission to go to the bathroom in French class, much less asking for forgiveness in another language. 

     Finally, after receiving communion, we returned to our seats. After the mass, we were on our way out and we stopped and chatted with the priest who asked where we were from and wished us well during our stay. 

     I may have mentioned once, or maybe it was only to my mother, that the French don't give money to the church donations like they do at home. They throw some coins in, a few euro at the very most. My mother asked how this could possibly be, because the church needs to be funded and maintained. I know that the French pride themselves most in their ability to take care of their people (the French poverty rate is half of what it is in the United States, and everyone receives health care), and so charitable donations are not as popular because that is what the government is for. But this week I learned the definite answer. In << le loi du 9 décembre 1905 concernant la séparation des églises et de l'état >>, France established laïcité, an extremely interesting principle on the separation of church and state intended to prevent the Catholic Church from having a political role. Following the laïcité law, in 1907 another law was established, claiming all of the cathedrals and churches built before 1905 as property of the state. Thus, through the present day, the churches are publicly owned and maintained by France. The intertwined history of the Catholic Church and religion and French politics is incredibly interesting; I won't go into it here because it's a lot to talk about and most people would probably lose interest but I definitely suggested reading about it at some point.

     The one complaint I have about Paris is the water. I suppose it's a cultural thing, but people here don't drink a lot of water and it's a problem for me. I was so dehydrated the first few days here because I would only drink with meals and the glass they give you is so small. Refills are inconsistent and infrequent. The interesting thing, too, is that drinking water is inexpensive and there are water bottles but no one drinks much water. One of my first mornings here, I asked where the water was (it had been served from a glass bottle at dinner the night before) and my host family pointed to the sink. And laughed. So now I refill my 1.5 litre Evian bottle a few times a day and carry it around with me. I get some crazy looks. This week, I was on my way to school when a man asked me if he could have a sip, and when I said no he went into a drunk, tri-lingual yelling rant in my face. I was surprisingly not that freaked out. Probably because I had not a clue what he was saying. There were a few English words, a few French, and a lot of words in another language I couldn't identify. He luckily got off at the next stop. The man next to me was trying not to laugh. C'était bizarre. Very, very strange.

     I also made my first trip to the Louvre. So grand, so vast, and so easy to get lost. We covered only a small fragment of it. We did see a bunch of Napoleon III's furniture and rooms and such, and I have to say, my mother has a lot of stepping up to do if she wants me to come home. I also went to the Centre Pompidou, the modern art museum, and that was very interesting as well. Some things I didn't understand whatsoever, but other pieces of art I really liked.

Pompidou:

Our new mission is to find a mirror in every museum we visit and take a picture.

Model of Centre Pompidou.

Every chain link fence should look like this.

Not so subtle American insult.

     Today, Devan and I went to see Mamma Mia. It helped that I knew the story well before, so it wasn't difficult at all to follow along. Even the songs, minus a few lines, were in French. The performance was awesome. Also, the nerd in me found it funny that the one and only song they kept entirely in English was "Waterloo," which references and draws its name from the battle Napoleon was defeated in, and to this day the French take a lot of pride in their old leader. Nuances.

     I'm not sure what my plans are for tomorrow yet, but there's always something.

     

     C'est la belle ville, c'est la belle vie.