AixPatriots: Our Semester in Aix en Provence: Paris holds the key to your heart

Last week (Wednesday November 23) we had a thanksgiving fête at the center. It was a potluck and Sara, Emily, and I made stuffing à la Martha Stewart. Needless to say (thanks to Martha – and probably the Christmas music we were listening to while we made it) the stuffing was a grand success. Everyone loved it. Vanderbilt provided the turkey and it was ok – by no means equal to an American thanksgiving turkey (it was not fried). My other favorite part was the desserts – someone made banana cream pie, which was surprisingly good and there was a delicious apple pie. Sadly all the food ran out before I could get a second round – on the upside though I didn’t feel like I was about to pop after Thanksgiving. Then again maybe my lack of Violet Beauregard type feelings was a bad thing, because it meant it wasn’t a real Thanksgiving. Oh well. I didn’t have too much time to think about that though because the next morning we were off off off to Paris like a flash.

The whole group went to Paris, which was at times annoying (like herding cats). Other than the fact that reassembling a group of 20 people is very hard, Paris was a stupendous (comme d’hab). Thursday afternoon we just wandered around the city and took a boat ride down the Seine (un bateau mouche). It was very foggy so when we reached the Eiffel Tower, we could only see the bottom half of it. This was the first time I had been to Paris in the winter/fall so it was really interesting to see a different side/season of the city. It was cold and gray most of the time, but most of the trees still had magnificently colored leaves. I saw many golden trees. But back to Thursday. After the boat ride we just wandered about. Eventually the group (minus one late person) wandered over to our dinner place. Vanderbilt paid for our first dinner. It was unremarkable and vaguely unappetizing – but I was free so I tried to eat as much as I could. Our hostel was right next to Hotel de Ville (mayor’s office) and about a five-minute walk from Notre Dame. It was very wonderful to be in the center of the city – we could walk to all of the major landmarks – also as it was the oldest part of the city, there were tons of super cool medieval houses still.

Friday we had a tour of Sainte Chapelle in the morning. Sainte Chapelle was built by King Louis IX (Saint Louis) from 1239-1248 to hold the relics of the Passion. It is smack dab in the middle of the current Palais de Justice and in the middle of the old court. The most frappant (striking) part of the church is the stained glass in the main sanctuary. Essentially all of the walls are covered in stained glass and I LOVE stained glass. One of the windowpanes even depicts Louis IX and Marguerite Queen of Provence carrying the relics to Paris. I loved it. For lunch I found a super hipster restaurant/juice bar with Ellen and another friend. The place served bouchées – little round pieces of casseroles, soufflés, risottos, and hot dogs (!). I got a pineapple, orange, and mint juice (divine) and we split hot dog (very good) chèvre et epinards (spinach and goat cheese soufflé), parmesan et asperge (parmesan and asparagus quiche) and risotto aux cèpes (mushroom risotto). I loved all of it! In the afternoon we had a guided tour of the Louvre. Our teacher from our Art and Literature class gave us the tour. We saw many of the paintings we studied in class and a few others. Sadly, as with all trips to the Louvre, (the GIANT major art museum that is situated in the old Palace) I ended up getting extremely exhausted and minorly cranky. The tour was interesting – I love the stories and contexts of paintings as much as the next guy (probably more) but I can only take it for so long – and three hours was too long. Right before dinner we dashed (more like shuffled) over to Angelina’s for chocolat chaud (hot chocolate). French hot chocolate is a dream. It is very thick and served with a healthy dollop of whipped cream - a wonderful pick-me-up after trooping around museums and cold Paris for hours. Friday night I ate with a group of people at La Fourmi Ailée, an adorable/cozy restaurant in the Latin Quarter – one of my personal faves. Sara, Ellen, and I ate there on our last trip to Paris.

Saturday we got up late and some of us headed over to the marché aux puces (flea markets). We didn’t have a ton of time there, so I didn’t buy anything, but it was still fun to flâne around and see all the cool things for sale. After an unremarkable lunch (I actually can’t remember it) we went to the Musée D’Orsay for another guided tour with our prof. The Musée D’Orsay is Paris’s impressionist museum housed in an old train station – a very cool setting I think. I enjoyed this trip much more that the Louvre trip. We saw many of my faves: Monet’s Poppies, a painting of Turkeys by Monet, Le dejeuner en plein air by Manet (lunch in the open air), Vincent Van Gogh’s self portrait, some dancers by Degas… I really enjoyed it. After the museum trip Sara and I walked around for a while (we got lost…) and found a really cute teashop. We went in and bought some more chocolat chaud. Just the ticket. Later we met her friend MK for dinner at a café. It was ok – not my fave. After the café we jetted over to the Latin Quarter to go to a jazz club – Le Caveau des Oubliettes (the cave of the forgotten) that was a former prison. It was tiny and all in stone – so it really did look like a cave prison inside. Downstairs – where we saw the jazz – there was even a date and an inscription (Je serois pendu, I will be hanged) carved in the wall. Very cool atmosphere. The concert was pretty cool – it was packed so for the first half we had to sit on the stairs. Later we were able to move over to the main room – but we could only find seats 3 feet away from the singer. It was cool being so close, and not too loud, but somewhat distressing. At one point the singer grabbed Sara up to dance with him and I almost died. One of my greatest fears is audience participation – so I was terrified. Luckily I was spared. We stayed until about 1 then shuffled home and fell asleep.

Sunday, due to a breakdown in communication, I ended up wandering around the city by myself. I went to the Orangerie to see Monet’s water lilies. It was breathtaking and gorgeous. As I mentioned a while ago the canvases take up the entire wall (and all the walls are very long). I walked back from the Tuileries Gardens to our hostel – thus by the Seine, past the Louvre, and through the Place Vendome (where all the extremely fancy stores like Cartier are located). I found a sterling silver squirrel in one of the windows that I will buy when I make my first million (sadly, I don’t know how this will happen…). Then I met up with the group and headed back to Aix.

All in all a very delightful trip to Paris during which I did many new things: jazz concert, walked around the city by myself, tried and fell in love with chocolat chaud.