Today marks the four-week countdown until I sadly have to return back to the US. Each day I spend here in Paris is different, more stimulating, more exciting than the day before. I came here thinking that four months was a long time to be away from my comfort zone, which rendered me terribly anxious before departing and also terribly excited. But four months is flying by. It feels like just yesterday I was SHOCKED that the month of September, my first month in Paris, was over. It is now November 23, 2010, two days before all my family and friends back home in the states will be celebrating Thanksgiving. And it is just four weeks until I’ll be finding my way to the Charles de Gaulle airport to head back to Pittsburgh.
This experience has definitely, thus far, been the best four months of my life. I have made some of the closest girl friends on this trip that I have found in the past five years of my life. I have seen the most extraordinary, remarkable, breathtaking buildings, monuments, neighborhoods, paintings, cathedrales, vineyards, châteaux, streets, alleys, shops, clothing, people…I have tasted the most decadent cake at LaDurée (yesterday, in fact, with my mom and my sister for their last day in Paris; I ordered the Saint-Honoré Rose-Framboise cake, which is puff pastry with rose whipped cream, rose frosting, and raspberry filling. Truly the most extravagant and mouth-watering dessert I’ve ever bitten into. I felt as if I had bitten into a delicate, just-blossomed pink rose!), the most delicious white wine (Sancerre), the BEST dark beer in Berlin and Prague, the best cheese (Comté) and the best, crustiest, freshly-baked baguettes smothered in delicious French mayonnaise (yes, it IS better than American mayonnaise) and generously piled with cheese and jambon.
I have spoken French every day for the past three months, and I surprised myself when my parents spent the week in Paris with how comfortable I felt showing them around the city, ordering food for them, translating for them, and asking questions for them. I had blogged one day when I felt particularly unnerved with the brutality of city living. But now, having played tour guide for the past nine days or so, I can honestly say that I enjoy city living. I love the feeling that I never know what I will see or who I will see. I love knowing that just around the corner there is something new for me to discover. I love never feeling bored, something I am unfortunately very familiar with oftentimes at school in Newark or home in Pittsburgh. I love walking everywhere and relying on my sense of direction to get me somewhere, although admittedly sometimes that has taken me on some very unnecessarily long walks or round-about routes. Nevertheless, I have discovered neighborhoods all over the city. Montparnasse, Montmartre, the Marais, St. Germain des-Prés, Vaugirard, the Latin Quarter, the Eiffel Tower quarter. But I know I haven’t seen everything, and I can’t believe it! I still haven’t been to the top of the Eiffel Tower, still haven’t seen the unrivaled Versailles Palace, still haven’t been to countless museums and exhibits, still haven’t seen even 1/60 of the Louvre…
My unfinished list, as pressed as I feel to fit in as much as I can in my last month in Paris, is a good thing, the way I see it. I have reason to come back to the city of lights. I have a reason to come back and try a new dessert at LaDurée, a new route to the Marais, a new café to visit in the Latin Quarter, a beautiful painting or sculpture at the Louvre. No, this will not be my last time here in Paris.
One of the things I am just astounded by, day to day, is the absolute richness of the culture here. Paris is engulfed and dripping with haute couture, with five-star cuisine, with the detail and luxury of the apartments lining the busy pedestrian and vehicle-filled streets. Just tonight, my first night back at Béatrix’s apartment in more than a week (I had been staying at the apartment in St. Michel my mother found for her, my dad, and my sister, since last Sunday night), I was welcomed back to the apartment with my favorite meal, a tartiflette, salade with avocadoes, and a bottle of red wine. A tartiflette is a gratin of potatoes, reblochon cheese, ham, and onions, typical of western France. But I haven’t even mentioned the dessert.
While I was staying at the apartment in St. Michel, Béatrix welcomed a Turkish woman (her name escapes me at the moment) who had stayed with her two years ago back into her apartment for the next month or so. She is following an intensive five-week word-famous Cordon Bleu culinary program, more specifically in pastries. Comme nous avons de la chance! She will be bringing home everything she makes in class to the apartment! Tonight we had Opéra cake (rich, dense chocolate cake with multiple layers), and chocolates filled with praline and muscadine (praline flavored with Grand Marnier, no big deal.) Um, hello bigger pant size! I can’t believe that for the next month I’ll be eating dessert like this whenever I want!
Goal for the next month: continue living each moment in Paris as if it were my last. Continue seeking out the most out-of-my-routine-experience, continue relishing each part of my day, from waking up in my apartment in the 15th arrondissement, to drinking coffee with my host mom or by myself in silence in the morning, to my metro ride to school, to my classes in French, to spending my afternoon in the city, to dinner with my host family, to spending a relaxing evening at home or going out with friends. Life is too short, but I intend to make my last month in Paris as memorable as possible. And, for this last month, I will force myself to blog as much as possible.
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