With two full weeks in Paris under my belt, I feel like I am finally getting my footing. Yesterday I had a free morning so I pulled out one of my guidebooks and chose a “quartier” (neighborhood) to wander around. I decided on St. Germain des Près since it is full of interesting sights and also was near to my afternoon class. I wandered to St-Sulpice - an enormous church that was begun in 1646. I’m not normally a huge history buff, but here it’s hard not to be. Everything around you has some wonderful story. After a walk around inside the church I headed to the Luxembourg gardens. It was pretty cold out, so not too many people were there, but I stumbled upon the Marionette Theater where Mom, Kaylyn and I saw the three little pigs performed the last time we were in Paris. (I also saw the bench where Dad slept during the show due to extreme jet lag and consequently woke up to a little French girl tying the laces of his shoes together while he slept.)
In the same general area is the Sorbonne building, where I took my first real French class on Wednesday. The class was L’histoire des Sciences, though I have no idea what it had to do with science. From what I gather, the professor was talking about some exploits in Egypt, though I got rather confused when the topic of the lecture switched suddenly to crocodiles. I am hoping in the next few weeks my comprehension improves and that I will be able to follow the class more. Despite this rather intimidating first foray into the French university system, it was amazing to be able to take a class at the Sorbonne.
This is the building at night:
This past weekend at the Loire Valley was a wonderful introduction to the program. We saw several beautiful chateaux and were given tours by the Tufts art history professor – a native Parisian and incredibly knowledgeable! Here is one of the chateaux (over 300 chimney’s!)
Despite several language mishaps that I will not divulge here (all I can say is beware of false cognates!), I think my French is rapidly improving. I now know the difference between bien and bon (well and good) and, theoretically, am using them correctly. There are still a few things I have yet to get the hang of, though.
One of my least favorite things I have encountered here is greeting people. I never know whether to shake hands, kiss them, or just stand there awkwardly. Usually I opt for the last option until they make some move. When my family first picked me up at the bus stop in Paris we greeted each other by kissing on each cheek once (any more is simply provincial). When I met my host father’s secretary we shook hands and he said, “Enchanté.” This is where I really get lost. What do I respond to that? I can’t just say “echanté” back. I think I just sort of nodded and said “oui.” So far googling combinations of “what do you respond to echanté” and “when you greet someone in France what do you say” has been to no avail. Hopefully I will figure it out soon!
This weekend I hope to do some serious exploration in Paris. Then it’ll be time to plan some traveling (I am open to suggestions!).
If you can figure out how to get "queer" out of "quillere", then you would be more than welcome with the girls I traveled with in France in '03. Oh, and I tried to get someone in our group to translate "Madame, that sausage on your head looks fetching" because I figured I might need it in a desperate social situation. Annnd, there's the whole story about pesch (peach, presumably) melba since I can't imagine that fish melba is appetizing.
ReplyDeleteWow sounds like you guys had fun!
ReplyDeleteI need to hear the rest of these stories some time!