As I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts, one of the main things that attracted me to the GRS programme was that we had to do either an exchange or an internship in order to gain local/hands-on knowledge in relation to our degree. For my exchange, I went to SciencesPo in Paris for the first semester, and to Wageningen in the Netherlands for the second. It was two very, very different experiences! For anyone who is thinking about going on exchange, I would urge you to do it. And for anyone interested in going to either France or the Netherlands, I will share some thoughts.
Paris is a very expensive city, and was a difficult place to be a student, due to this, but I had my heart set on living there for a short time. It was an easy city to walk, and I loved having access to all of the museums and art galleries with my student card. To sum Paris up, I would say that it lives up to every one of it’s stereotypes. Because it is a university of political science, my classes there were SciencesPo almost all electives,. Professor Carol Lock was amazing, and I would definitely recommend taking anything that she teaches – I took The Business of Wine in France and A Table! Why Mealtimes Still Matter in France, and really enjoyed both.
Whenever someone asks me about Paris, I tell them that I wouldn’t have said I liked the city while I was there, but then when a friend who was travelling through asked me what he should see on his way through, I sat down to write back to him from my new place in Wageningen, and suddenly all the amazing memories poured in. I looked back through my messages to find what I’d written, and decided just to include it here, since it’s what I would have told anyone after having just left!
Paris…. hmmm. Depends what you want to do and see. I would recommend a month in a city, minimum. haha But on a tight time budget… maybe three days? The Louvre is worth seeing, but Musee d’Orsay was my favourite. It’s good to have a day up in Montmartre (older part of town, up on the hill). A great view of the Eiffel tower is from Trocadero. The Jardin du Luxembourg is a very classic French park, nice to walk through, and the Tuileries are similar (and my favourite statue in Paris is in the Tuileries).
Definitely need to have a baguette, and hit up a market (that’s where all the French people do their shopping – cheese there shouldn’t be too much more expensive than in the supermarket). My favourite patisserie place is called Sadaharu Aoki – its Japanese fusion and makes incredible macarons. Another really good one is Un Dimanche a Paris. If you’re interested in food culture or shopping culture at all, the Bon Marche is a huge department store, somewhat similar to Harrods in London – some pretty amazing stuff, but very pricey.
French people love to picnic down along the seine, and taking a bottle of wine is pretty much required (if its warm enough). I would recommend buying wine around the 7/8 euro mark – it should be a good quality/price ratio. Although, the 2 euro bottles are sometimes worth it… you just never know. haha
I never did the Eiffel tower, but its worth walking around for sure, and standing underneath. Oh! There’s also a very Parisian falafel neighbourhood, and if you like falafel I can give you the name of the best one. Musee Rodin is quite good, and has The Gates of Hell (very famous sculpture by him). You can also go into the opera house which is beautiful, but you do have to pay – depends if its worth seeing a halls of chandeliers and mirrors for you or not.
Let me know what neighbourhood you’re planning to stay in – might be able to make some local recommendations. Also, I have a friend who is still there this semester, and if you’d like a tour guide for a day she’s really lovely and I could put you guys in touch.
It’s choppy, as I wrote with images and experiences flashing back through my mind, but in writing it out, I realised that there were definitely things about Paris that I loved.