La Vie de Deux Mademoiselles a France

Well it has been about 2 weeks since we arrived back in Grenoble from Barcelona. We have done many cool and new things in our city….given that it has been nothing but blue skies here everyday!

We’ve gone out to some parties with exchange students, been to many different local cafes and have discovered some of our favourites, tried new french dishes, been to dinner parties with our french roomates, tried to speak french etc, etc. We are getting used to the pattern of nightlife here: have dinner at 8:30 or 9, have drinks, then go out to a bar at 11:30, then hit the clubs around 1am, and return home around 3 or 4 am!! Yikes, haha. Of course it’s necessary to counter such craziness by doing yoga, so I have been sorta doing mini classes with our roomates in our living space…I hope to get more people over and have a larger class! It’s really fun.

2 weekends ago, we went to Les Deux Alpes, one of the many great ski mountains here. Unfortunately, it was pretty icy, as it hasn’t snowed on the Alps in over 2 weeks, but happy hour at Panu bar was exceptional! It was gorgeous blue skies, and there was a dj with an outdoor multi-level bar/dancefloor, with the most breathtaking view you could imagine. As per usual, Megan and I got super cheap drinks simply by saying we were Canadian girls! I had vin chaud for 2 euros!

The next day we checked out the major museums in Grenoble for free: first the Musee de L’Ancien Eveche and after le Museu de Grenoble. The Grenoble museum was fantastic, massive….so many massive works of art in Greco-roman style, all the way right up to contemporary works. After we went to a lovely cafe in Notre Dame and sunbathed on the patio while eating our lunch and drinking our cafe cremes.

Finally, I got myself a cell phone plan. As everyone has been saying this is crucial for social events while I am here in Grenoble. Although, it kinda sucks not to be able to text all the people back in Canada!

Some nights we had some friends over to our place, and other we went out. Just a few days ago we met up with our Greek friends from Thessaloniki at a local bar called Bukana, it was a nice time.

Last night we went to MC2 for a night of dancing to french DJs, of course we are quite tired today, but didn’t miss any classes even though we didn’t get home until 3 am! Now we will go for a walk in the city center.

Probably the biggest news is that Megan and I booked a trip over spring break to Dublin, Ireland, and then to Malta. We leave on the 26th of Feb for Dublin, stay in a hostel the first night, then a hotel the next 3 nights (both located in central central Dublin, ie close to the bangin Irish nightlife!). We are super stoked for Ireland, as we are taking a class on the society and transformation of the country and got our professor to give us some really good recommendations of historical sites to check out! Much to come on this. For all of you out there who have read the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, you will know all about the stone circles. On March 2nd, we fly out of Dublin to Malta, a small island country south of Sicily. Here we will meet up with James, and stay in a 4 star hotel for 5 nights…suntanning by day, and dancing by night! We fly out of Malta to London on March 7th, and stay for one night in London before flying back to Grenoble on Tuesday the 8th (due to a bad flight connection at a different airport). Can’t wait! 2 weeks and counting!

Here is a link for info about Malta (the part we are staying in is the bumping neighborhood near Valletta called St. Julians/Sliema. Our hotel is right on St. Georges Bay.

Here is some info on Dublin. We are staying right in the center center, by Temple Bar and O’Connel Street, both when we are in the hostel and in the hotel. Here are some places we will check out that our prof recommended:

“So the main places I would recommend in Dublin would be:
Trinity College (especially the old Library with the Book of Kells,  plus it’s a nice place to walk around)
Dublin Castle and at the same time the Chester Beatty library which  has amazing oriental art – not Irish at all but very beautiful!
The National Museum – now at two sites, but I think it’s the one on  Kildare street that is still the most interesting
The National Gallery if you like art.
The main area of Dublin for cafés and bars is Temple Bar, between the  Castle and Trinity. Just be careful, it can get pretty wild at night! 
In general, you need to be a little careful in Dublin late at night –  unfortunately the Irish do live up to their reputation as serious  drinkers!

You might also like to take the suburban train (the Dart) out south of  Dublin to Dalkey or Killiney along the coast (about 30 minutes). 
Dalkey is a pretty village and Killiney has a nice easy walk up a hill  with spectacular views of Dublin bay.

To go to Newgrange (the prehistoric site) or Glendalough (Wicklow, round tower etc)”

I also really want to check out Malahide Castle (see the link for info here). Which is a short daytrip from Dublin.

Keep checking facebook for more photos! Some of our friends will be sending us some form their cameras so I will post them as soon as I get them.

Hope you all have like the postcards!

Until next time…

On Thursday night (Jan 27th) Megan and I went to the university to catch the bus to Barcelona…but of course, it was 2 and a half hours delayed, from 8:30-10:30. So we decided to eat at a café until then. We went to Café Different in Notre Dame and had the best meal ever! We got Magret du Canard (duck breast), with apples flambé in some local liqueur, some sautéed vegetables, and a cheesy potato thing, then we also got oeufs en coquette with mesclun, and “different dessert” (crème brulee, chocolat cake, espresso, and some jelly cream) and of course some Vino! Then we proceeded to lug our stuff back to campus to catch the 10:30 bus….the bus ride was long: 9 hours. We tried to sleep for most of it, but terrible French movies were blasting out the speakers (too loud for even earplugs or ipods to block out). We have learned that on French busses, movies are not optional sound wise…there are no jacks for headphones. We will not be taking another trip by bus again…but rather sticking to planes and trains. We had already learned lesson #1 at this point in the voyage.

We arrived in Barcelona at 7:30 am on Friday morning. Checked into the hostel (we were in a room of 14….this should have been our cue to get a private room), ate breakfast, then we went to a nearby café for cappuccino and to plan out our day on the map. Café is much cheaper in Spain than France…with many more options, but other things are more expensive such as the pastries and jam. We decided to go Las Ramblas first and check out a few museums, markets, etc.

La Boqueria

Las Ramblas is a pedestrian only strip about 1 km long…at the end by the Mediterranean there is the Mirador de Colom before heading into Barcoloneta (waterfront).First we checked out the Gran Teatre del Liceu, which has burned down twice, and been rebuilt and restored (the latest burn in 1994). We got a tour and saw the original Hall of Mirrors (built in 1847) and the five level, 2292 seat theatre for watching operas, ballets. It was quite magnificent. Then we went to La Boqueria, a traditional Catalan market and the largest outdoor market in Spain. There were so many different types of vendors, and tons of fresh fruit juices….I would have loved to spend more time roaming the rows of vendors, but we wanted to see a lot in 2 days….so we moved on. We tried to go to the Museu de l’Erotica, but it was under construction, as was the Centre d’Art de Santa Monica (which I really wanted to see!). It seems in the off season for tourism, everything in Barcelona is under construction. Although it was so packed with people, it really didn’t feel like the down season.

Hall of Mirrors in the Liceu

Gran Teatre del Liceu

Then we walked back through Barri Gotic (the quarter that our hostel is located) and passed the Esglesia Catedral de la Santa Creu before heading to le Museu Picasso. I have discovered, that whenever I go to an art museum or exhibit, I am looking more at the buildings architecture than the art itself…so on our next trip I don’t plan to spend as much time in art museums etc and rather go check out impressive facades, palaces etc (which we did on Day 2 in Barcelona). One thing I did notice in the art exhibits was that everything was in 3 languages (english, spanish, and catalan – which I originally thought to be Italian). A woman on the bus told us everyone who goes to school in Spain knows both Catalan and Spanish, although most young people only speak Spanish daily. After Picasso we went to the Museu de la Xocolata for which the ticket was a dark chocolate bar! Yum! We also walked through the Parc de la Ciutadella and Jardins Fontsere i Mestre.

Megan and I at Museu Picasso

Museu de la Xocolata

Parc de la Ciutadella

Next we headed down to Barceloneta to check out the Mediterranean. The waves were massive, and there were people surfing. It was really great to see the ocean and feel the fresh wind on our faces. Towards the Olympic village we stopped and had lunch at this retro café, then took the bus back to Las Ramblas and walked back to the hostel. I was exhausted, as it was really hard to sleep on the bus…so I basically hadn’t slept the night before and needed to have a nap. We didn’t plan on going out the first night as we wanted to get in a another full day of sightseeing on Saturday…however this didn’t really work because we were in a room of 14.

Barceloneta - Mediterranean Sea

All of the other people in the room partied in it until 2 am. Megan and I decided it was in our best interest (and to maintain our sanity) to upgrade to a private room….I only wish we did it sooner, as we didn’t switch until 1:30 am! But we did meet a really nice Italian guy who worked for the club crawl and gave us many good recommendations for places to go to in Spain and in Italy. He also told us he owns 39 pairs of shoes (typical!).We woke up on Saturday at 11am!! Shocking I know….as I never really sleep in, we thought the clock must be wrong, then stuck our heads out the window, saw clear blue skies and jetted out of that room pronto into a café for breaky and to plan our day on the map once again.

First we took the metro out to Montjuic (Hill of the Jews). Dozens of rulers have modified the Castell de Monjuic, a fortress built atop an ancient Jewish cemetery. Franco made it one of his interrogation headquarters, and today the area is home to Poble Espanyol, a recreation of famous buildings and sights from all regions of Spain. We hiked up many hills and stairs to get to Fundacio Miro (our last art gallery…finally!). The loveliest parts of Montjuic were the gardens and the National art museum. You will see many of the photos in the face book album with the subtitle Jardin de Joan Maragall and Palaquet Albeniz…these were beautiful. It also helped for it to be about 15 degrees and sunny! Then we walked to Placa Espanyol to get back on the metro to Las Ramblas to go see the statue of Colombus.

Fundacio Juan Miro

Jardins de Joan Maragall

Museu Nacional d'art de Catalunya

Mirador de Colom

By chance, we found El Bosc de les Fades, which is a café/bar next to the wax museum and is really funky. We went in and had a café before walking back to the hostel for dinner. We grabbed our postcards and food and went into the mess hall to eat and write them. Then we walked to Le Correos (the post office) in attempt to mail them. Apparently no one in Spain knows where a post box is for mailing letters etc….so we spent quite some time looking for one. Then we strolled along Las Ramblas and some other streets back to the hostel to get ready to go out.

Now of course no one really heads to the clubs until 2 am in Europe, so we really worked hard to stay stoked! Megan and I ended up heading out to the club called Razzmatazz. It was massive!!! Must have been over 1500 people there, multiple bars, and levels. The music was questionable, but the night was still awesome. We didn’t get back to our room until 6 am. We slept for a lovely 2 hours before waking up to pack, eat breakfast, and get on the bus back to Grenoble. We had both been dreading this bus ride, but were optimistic that everyone would be sleeping on the bus and there would be no movies….we were wrong. Megan got no sleep on the bus and me only about 3 hours. By the time we got back to Grenoble (7:30 pm) we were once again exhausted. Got into our apartment and promptly took a shower, put on laundry and zonked out.

We will definitely be back to Spain! I loved the vibe, and people were very friendly. Probably not back to Barcelona, but one of the smaller towns that our Italian friend Daniele recommended. And we definitely won’t be taking a bus! Can’t wait!

Now I am excited to have some time in Grenoble…I really need to start practicing my French, although it might be a bit more difficult after pronouncing everything differently in Spain!

Adios!

Ahhh Bonsoir!

Well well well, we are finally in our new place! On Sunday morning Megan and I had one last sauna and hottub before packing up all our clothes, shoes, etc etc for the last time (thank jesus!) and taxi’d it over to our new digs. Well my oh my we had to lug our stuff up 3 flights of tightly spiraling wooden stairs…quite the workout I must say. Right away, we went to get some laundry detergent in order to have clean underwear! haha! Then we unpacked everything, and had to be in our first class for 5 pm.

Living Room (only half of it)

At 5 pm we had our first class (french language). I loved it! I am going to be learning much french in the very near future! Megan, on the other hand, did not enjoy it so much and had a major anxiety attack! After class we took the tram to the grocery store “grande casino” on campus to get food for our place. Then we trammed to Chavant to transfer to the other line to get home. While waiting at Chavant 3 black men started talking to us in french…

We had a bunch of heavy bags, high heels, and it was dark…so after he started miming vulgar sexual motions at us we got up and walked to a crowded area of the tram station. They crossed the tram lines after that and were waiting for the tram to go the other direction. But….when our tram came they crossed back over and got on. They stared at us the entire ride, and we were talking to some people we knew from school but keeping our eye on them. When we got to our stop and began to get ready to get off, the got off as well, so we stayed on for one more stop to be safe. We got off at the next stop and started walking towards our place. We then saw them at the end of the alley, then they split up and started running to the other alley in order to corner us we think. We made a mad dash into the only Mcdonalds here, and they called the police for us. The 3 guys kept circling outside the Mcdonalds until the cops came. Then a security guard took us home after we described the men.

Well we were quite shaken up after all that and just happy to finally be home. We had to be at school for 9 am the next morning for our first english class (a seminar called “the Role of the State in Europe”), and then without a break for our next english lecture class called “Voices and Visions of America”. When class was over at 1 today we had lunch and bought our tickets for the trip to Barcelona on Jan 27th!!! More info about that to come soon.

one of 3 balconies overlooking the street

After we picked up our student cards we went to Grand Place to get some home essentials etc. Then  we came home, cleaned, ate, etc. Then went out to buy bread and wine. In traditional European style a young man stopped us to compliment me and my swagger!! hahah. He was quite nice and very polite (don’t worry Dad I didn’t give out any personal information etc etc). It was flattering, but kinda funny. We can’t wait to have our frineds over to our new place as it’s fab. The pictures I am posting don’t do it justice, and I will take more in the daytime.

So much space!!!

Our bedroom = master bedroom

That’s all for now! Bisous

Hello Everyone!

Well this week has been full of nice things and not so nice things. The Place we are staying at with the three girls is nice, but one of the girls seems quite cold to us, so we have been made to feel very uncomfortable at times :s . But the other 2 girls are super nice.

On Monday we went to the school and the prefecture and discovered we need a heck of a lot of documents for our long stay visa (or permanent residency). We also had to pay 200 euros for insurance from the school and fill out our course selection, student card applications, and get the paperwork for our housing subsidies.

The previous night we went over to our new appartment to meet our other roomate and to go over details. Much to our delight we are now sharing the master bedroom…complete with a balcony, 2 closets, and fireplace (not to be used of course) at no extra costs. Our flat is so prime, it is ridic! And the living area, mon dieu! it’s so massive! Our new roomates are lovely and their friends are very nice too. We have already been invited to a Gala at one of the other universities at the end of January. We had some wine with them as well.

Practically everyday this week we have been out shopping dans le centre ville as it is “les Soldes” in Grenoble right now. Les soldes are the sales in France that happen twice a year….when all the stores have great sales all at the same time. It’s pretty awesome! We heard about them from the women who gave us manicures (we figured we’d treat ourselves after a long week and a half of house hunting without success). Over the past week Megan and I have gotten some awesome deals!!! The stuff here is so nice and such high quality!

les soldes!

Finally my wire transfer went through and I got an exchange rate of about 1.3, which I am very happy with. Megan is still waiting. We also picked up our bank cards and chequebooks today, but cannot use them yet as we still have not received our PINs in the mail….so who knows when that will be. On one of our shopping days, Megan kept trying to take money out of atms with her Northshore credit union debit card. Eventually one of them swallowed it up….so after a couple hours of anxiety for megan, we got it back. Ayiyiyiah! Turns out her debit card won’t work here because it does not have chip.

Yesterday we had welcome day at the IEPG and met some other students from UBC. Many of them only just arrived and are still jetlagged and flat searching. We are so glad to have came early! Also the entire thing was in French…but it was good practice.

Today we had a great day filled with shopping, our usual trips to the school and bank, and a fantastic lunch at a local cafe. Also, I finally found a great store on cours Berriat with lactose free cow’s milk and yogurt! Enfin! So stoked for when we get our new place to go stock up!

les soldes

We are still not sure whether we are staying at our current couchsurfing location tonight or not (possibility of heading to another couch in Notre Dame, or to a hotel avec Jacuzzi and sauna). It really depends on one of the girl’s mood swings…she’s also on a diet which might be contributing to her crabbiness. We are not opposed to the idea of a hotel though as we are sooo sore, and saunas and hottubs do not exist in grenoble except for at a few rare hotels.

Next time I post we will likely be in our new place…Sunday night! Can’t wait. First day of school is Monday. We have been counting down the days until we get to move in somewhere permanently! So that we can unpack our bags and buy a proper grocery list!

Bonne journee!!

Fantastic news: We got the place we wanted right in le centre ville on cours Jean Jacques!!! We were really beginning to doubt we got it because the girls took a while to reply to our emails and calls…but patience paid off. We also offered them double the utilities (charges supplementaires) and I really think this made a difference. We will each be paying around 230 euros each so about $3oo Canadian. We can definitely move in on January 17th, but as this is our first day of classes we are trying to see if we can move in earlier, and the girls are letting us know tomorrow about that. Also because we are on someones couch (albeit very comfy, and the girls very nice) we do not want to intrude any longer than we must.

The three girls here are all very nice. One is German, one Swiss-German, and one French. They all speak french though. The first night they made us a lovely dinner of ratatouille and couscous, we provided a wide array of desserts! It was great.

Grenoble River (20 degrees outside)

The next morning (Jan 8th) it was gorgeous and the froehn winds made it 20 degrees outside. Megan and I walked around downtown and hiked up the bastille (tons of photos on facebook). Later that night we went to un soiree des galettes. This was sorta funny because thee were about 25 galettes (all the same) made with different quantities of butter, sugar, eggs, and almonds. There was lots of alcohol (chartreuse, ricard, vin etc)…the bottle we bought (red) was from Boordeaux (2008) and was opened first as the hosts deemed ours the best quality. It was only 6 euros ($8 Canadian)!! It is really interesting, everyone drinks everyone’s alcohol. It’s a great atmosphere. We met a lot of people, and I practiced a lot of french. We also got to practice la bise (Megan hates it!!! thinks it’s not hygenic)- I don’t mind it, but prefer it if it’s a cute boy!!

Wine at the Market

Today it is Sunday and most everything is closed but some bakeries, and a few cafes in le centre ville. Not even the supermarket is open (only some are open until noon on sundays). We went to the outdoor market under the TGV (high speed train) lines and Megan bought some brie cheese, and I some fresh produce. I am going back tomorrow to get some amaing salami from this vendor (deux hommes) who gave generous samples of different meats (extra maigre), salamis, and fromage. Then he asked for a kiss at the end, after he had told us we had beautiful eyes like his girlfriend! haha. Of course, we obliged. i will be back tomorrow to buy some great local charcuterie!

Fromagerie at the market

Olives at the market beneath the TGV

Now we are back at the appartment and may trek it out to the grocery store by our hostel (the only one we know of that is open) to get some coffee beans.

A bientot!!

Bonjour!

Well all megan and I do these days is search for housing it seems. We live on the tram lines basically. We also go to school every day to get our advisor to make appointments to look at housing for us.

These are the smallest montagnes surrounding Grenoble! Everything est tres grande ici!!

We have found a great place dans le centre ville and are waiting to here back either today or tomorrow.

Le Chocolatier et Patissier

2 nights ago we met some french boys in the hostel kitchen. They are both very nice. Last night we chatted for a long time with them and other french girls came in and we practiced our french!! One of the girls gave me some really good tips for shopping in french grocery stores (very useful!). They often laugh at us (the boys), but they all (girls too!) think I have a very nice/pretty french accent (shocking!). I think the guys like it when I speak french, so that’s even more incentive to learn quickly (vite!).

We also got 2 more free beers last night. This morning we ate our usual breakfast and hoarded our usual food then went for a housing appointment then to the school as per usual. We got very lucky today, as Nicole found us a place to crash for free while we search for housing. We went to go meet the girls (3 french girls, one german who speaks great english). They are soo nice! Their place is also very well kept. I hope to practice much french there. We are just at the hostel now doing laundry, eating, and packing up then heading over there with all of our suitcases.

We also got really lucky as we got the last 2 nights of our hostel stay for free!!! We are going to buy Julien (a front desk guy at the hostel) a gift because he was so helpful and funny and also something for Guillarme (our generous bartender). We are going to a galette soiree on staurday night that Julien has planned. There will be lots of international people there! So english and french!

We are also going to get the girls who are letting us stay with them a gift of thanks as well.

That is all for now. Please cross your fingers that we get the place we want right in le centre ville!!!

A bientot! (ici, ne pas a person)

We woke up the morning after we arrived, so Jan 3rd, and had our free breakfast at the hostel. It was pretty good, not as good as the hotel, but certainly nothing to complain about. As evidence to this fact, our stash of foodstuffs in our room from the free breakfast consists of butter, jam, nutella, bread, fruit, cereal, tea, etc.

Our hostel room

Our Hostel Dorm

We then had showers, and took the bus then the tram to the university. The public transit system here is off the hook! We never have to wait, and the trams are awesome (basically like streetcars), also they play music on the buses. Grenoble definitely gets an A+ for transit infrastructure.

The campus is a lot like UBC, but with much larger and higher mountains. We found Nicole (our advisor) without problem and got a lot of our questions asked and some possible housing opportunities and resources. Basically once we left her office, we had much to do. First order of business: go to le banque de Lyonnais (LCL) and open an account and purchase liability insurance. But the banks aren’t open on Sundays or Mondays so we did that the next day (Tuesday).

After our visit to the university we went to the mall to look at cellphone plans and get Megan’s sim card removed. We had some tasty sandwiches. On our way back to the hostel we stopped at the nearby l’epicerie (grocery) to get some food to put in the fridge at the hostel. We got organic milk in a carton for 1 euro! We also got some produce, eggs, and yogurt. There are about a million different types of yogurt here!

When we got back to the hostel. Julien (the front desk guy who likes us) was working again…we think he does the night shift 4pm onwards. We still haven’t had to pay for any night other than the first! After we dropped our stuff of in our room we went down to the bar to get some dinner. The bar waiter gave us 2 free beers!!! Totally awesome. We talked a bit to some french guys then went upstairs to sleep as we were exhausted.

The next morning, we woke up and had our breakfast but also made some eggs ourselves to go along with the other food. Then we went to LCL (Le Banque Lyonnais) to open an account. Well this was quite interesting! I spoke a lot of french with my bank advisor (no one in the bank spoke any english, but a woman in line helped us a bit at first): “Nous aimeraions ouvrir un compte de l’etudiante ici!”. Well we were successful in opening an account, but must wait until we have a permanent address to get the liability insurance which we need to apply for our permanent residency carte.

Then we went to the university, but Nicole was out to lunch so Megan bought her usual sandwich at the great campus eatery and then we went back into le centre ville to look at a residence. This was a total failure, as there was  no space and the woman wouldn’t let us look at un chambre regardless. Then we trammed back to the campus (all this travel today has only been possible by Grenoble’s awesomely efficient tram system) to talk to Nicole. We got her to make some calls to possible housing locations to set up appointments. We then met with James Anderson (the man in charge of international students course selection). I will be taking a french language course, a french culture course (both in in french obvs). Three cours de specialises, and either 1 or 2 seminar courses (these courses are in english). The first day of classes is on january 17th. We are automatically registered in the french courses and need to pick whether we are taking one or two seminar courses to be registered in. But the other courses (cours de specialises) we can attend, but do not need to register in until later as attendance is not mandatory :)!!!

la Boulangerie a Grenoble

Then we went back to our hostel briefly, looked for some more housing online, ate dinner, and then caught the bus back to the centre ville to look at an accomodation appt Nicole had set up. This place is prime!!! Right in the downtown, on the third floor, such an old building. 2 other french girls. They may let Megan and I share the room (the best possible situation for saving money, unless we (or one of us) finds something we like better). They will let us know early next week once one of their roomates gets back, but we think they really like us as we stressed that we were there to learn french. And as everyone here seems to be, they were also impressed that we attend the IEP (Sciences Po).

Now we are back at the hostel, preparing to go out to le deuxieme semestre student integration at a bar downtown. that is all for now. Really loving Grenoble!

Centre Ville Grenoble

Bonsoir.

Bonjour,

So on Sunday morning (Janvier deuxieme) megan and I hoarded all the food we could at the breakfast buffet again at Touring hotel in Paris. We then made sure we had everything and called a cab to take us from the hotel to the train station.

The woman at the front desk called it for us. But little did we know that cabs in paris start charging from the second they receive the call! Luckily we didn’t take too long hauling all of our luggage down and into the tiny cab…the rate was already 10.5 euros before we even started driving. Luckily it was a quick ride to the station and the fee was only 16.8 euros total. We got lucky and he didn’t charge us for baggage.

Le Gare Lyon

Train station was super cold, our train was 20 minutes late and we were excessively early as per usual. Anyways, when the train got there we scrambled, I to the front (1st class, got lucky) and megan , well, megan was in the last car. Put it this way, we both had completely different experiences of the train. I loved the pictureque french countryside 🙂

the French Countryside en route from Paris to Grenoble

We are so happy to be in Grenoble. Fresh air, mountains, tap water we can actually drink! And the people here are a lot nicer than in paris, even though we speak english. We took a cab from the station to the hostel which cost about the same as the first cab. The cab driver was very nice and complimented us on our french (shocking)!

We got to the hostel around 3:30 pm on Sunday. I asked if we could upgrade to a private (2 bed) dorm. And the woman at the desk replied only for couples, so what did I promptly say? Megan is my girlfriend haha. Who knows if they actually believe us, but they didn’t argue. So now we have a private room for no extra charge. It costs about 20 euros per night here with a free breakfast. We have a private bathroom, sink, and shower. 🙂

Of course we are starving by this time and so go to l’epicerie (grocery) a pres du hostel. It’s closed. So we go back to the hostel and get info on how to take the bus to le centre ville in search of nourishment. We did take the bus downtown, and walked around the freezing cold looking for places that looked tasty and open. Ended up back at the hotel around 7:30 pm

We had a good sleep and a good breakfast. Just showered and are now in the lobby of the hostel on their free wireless. We are about to depart to the university to get housing info among other things. Also we may get a cell phone plan today. Hopefully we have some success in one department or the other.

Au Revoir!

Starting noshing on some local charcuterie, brie, baguette, et vin rose. Began to get ready to go out to le WAGG. Metro was free last night (in the sense of l’argent, but at the expense of our sanity).

We had to transfer metro lines and eventually got off at l’Odeon and had major problems finding the club, even though we had already checked it out earlier that day. Parisians don’t even seem to know their way around the city. We received misdirections from 3 different groups of Parisians. Extremely frustrating.

Corvisart station

We eventually got to the club. Music was old, people were old, club was rad, drinks were rad. Tried to make the best of it. Practiced a lot of French with some locals in the bathroomJ. So that was a positive. At this point Megan and I were extremely inebriated – remember the French drinks seem to be stronger. We decided to leave in search of a younger crowd, which we sort of found at another bar nearby. I am leaving much out of this night as it might not be too appropriate for all audiences 😉

At this point it is around 2 am and we have decided to take the metro home…only to discover the gates are locked. So after wandering around, waiting at a bus stop, some locals help us to find a different metro station which is open. We get on the metro no problem but quickly realize that it is not stopping at every stop. Yikes. Luckily our transfer stop is a main hub, so we get off at the right one (Denfert-Rochereau). We then hop on the next line, and quickly discover our stop by the hotel (Corvisart) is not going to be one of the stops, so we get off at the next closest one (Place d’Italie). Here is where the night got very messed up.

For some reason the exits were blocked (chained, barred, locked). We began to get very freaked out. Even the locals were freaking out. Then the police came with dogs and we just ran in the direction everyone else was running…somehow finding our way out the only exit.

Now we are at Place d’Italie which is some sort of circle with about 10 roads diverging in all directions from it…one of which we need to find and locate (which is extremely difficult due to the location of the street signs). On our way back we met a group of guys, one of which lived in Vancouver for a while (very creepy guy), who were most definitely only interested in one thing. It is a good thing James was with us and that we knew how to be firm but not rude. Eventually we found our hotel, and made it back to our hotel (the most welcome sight in the world at this point) at 4 am.

We had some snacks and tried to sleep. Megan woke me up at 9 am to go get our free hotel breakfast (on weekends only from 7-10 am). I think I only had about 2 hours of sleep, I have never seen myself look this way!! I think I have only gotten 6 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours. But I did get up and we went and had breakfast, I was still tipsy. We had croissants, café crème, baguette, confiture, les fruits, etc etc. We took so much food back to the hotel room with us (yogurt, croissants, bread, jam, le beurre, honey, jambon, fromage).

This morning we showered and packed a bit (we leave on the train to Grenoble tomorrow Jan 2^nd). I decided I needed to sleep, so Megan and James went out to Champs des Elysees, while I napped from 1:30-5pm. Now they are back and Megan is napping (it’s 4:30).

I am nervous to take the TGV tomorrow, as we have so much luggage and James tells us they don’t stop long and you must get all your luggage off at your destination. We are going to take a taxi from the hotel to le Gare Lyon in Paris, and then a cab from the station in Grenoble to the hostel.

On Monday we will go to the IEPG (our universitaire) to get help finding housing.

That’s all for now.

Missing the Vancouver mtns and excited to get to Grenoble and get settled, plus meet locals.

PS: my French is getting much better! Parisians keep telling me I have a good accent (surprising?). And I am learning more vocabulary words, my biggest weakness.

Love you all!

Well we had an amazing first french le petit dejeuner at 7 am if you can believe that early hour. Complete avec croissants, cafe cremes, et jus d’oranges. Coffee is expensive in France. Cafe creme (espresso avec lait chaud) is usually 4 euros, unless you get it at the bar where it is only 2 euros. A plain espresso is only about 2 euros no matter where you get it.

We are so lucky with the weather here so far. On this day it was gorgeous, blue skies, mais il fait tres froid! We then walked all over the town! Pictures are up on facebook for your viewing pleasure.

We visited the Pantheon, Saint Etienne du Mont, Notre Dame, Musee de l’Armee, L’hotel des Invalides, le Tour Eiffel among many more! There are about 3 boulangeries et patisseries on every block! It is amazing. There is dog poop everywhere though! Not much greenery. We get lost so easily (J’ai perdu is a common phrase). The roads are so confusing, and street signs are place on the sides of buldings where they are often obscured by awnings etc. Crossing the street is extremely risky…cars do not stop for anyone. You often only get to cross half of the street.

Eiffel TowerNikolai Perfume shopNotre Dame

We came back to our hotel exhausted and napped from 4-7. Then promptly decided to go out on the town to rue mouffetard. There we went to 3 different bars and met some locals who invited us to a dinner party the following night. We got home at 2:30 am that night. We have decided that french drinks are much stronger…maybe an effect of jet lag? regardless, we are in much need of sleep 🙁

Woke up at 10 am this morning and booked our tickets to le WAGG – club St. Germain in the Latin Quarter (5th arrondissment dans le centre ville) for the NYE party. 50 euros for coat check, entry, and trois boires. http://maps.google.fr/maps?hl=fr&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=wagg+st+germain,+paris&fb=1&gl=fr&hq=wagg+st+germain,&hnear=Paris&cid=0,0,10694002934058877775&ei=CB0eTf7IPMGy8gPrk5ynBQ&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=2&ved=0CCAQnwIwAQ

 We then went to rue l’odeon in the latin quarter for Crepes. So tasty. Of course avec espresso and cafe cremes. Then we walked all around, shopping on our way to the Eiffel Tower. I bought some perfume, at an amazing little shop (Nikolai), also picked up some postcards. The weather today was cloudy and cold, but no rain or snow!! 🙂 Got to the Eiffel Tower and saw the Police (riding horseback) chase around a bunch of gypsies. Typical. Then we walked and took the metro back to Corvisart station (by our hotel). Picked up some rose, baguette, charcuterie, et brie. Just relaxing at the hotel until we go out to le WAGG.

Happy New Year!