Starting to Feel Like a Parisian

Officially have been in Paris for 2 weeks now! Paris is so huge and there is so much going on, I am extremely glad I have four months here. I still feel a little like I am just on vacation, but it really is starting to feel like home. Living in La Defense, which is a little bit outside of the city, is really nice to come home to at night. It is quieter and there are more apartment buildings, so it feels a bit more "homey" and less of a tourist area then the rest of Paris. I absolutely love it!

Classes (yes, I actually went) have gone well so far, and I have two more classes this week: my French class and my French civilization class. Hopefully I will really begin to pick up French! It is still a bit tough, my American accent is so strong that a lot of times even if I say one word in French (like crepe) they talk back to me in English. But I am determined to actually be able to hold a proper conversation with a French person by the time I leave!

Friday evening, I finally accomplished a main goal of mine: have an evening picnic in front of the Eiffel Tower! A few of us went over at night for a picnic (it was SO cold, definitely not summer anymore) where we had baguettes and some wine.

Picnic in the park in front of the Eiffel Tower

Freezing in front of the Eiffel Tower (yes, that is my cardigan I am using as a scarf- need to invest in one!)

On Saturday, I learned a new French word: "flâneurie". I was flipping through my Lonely Planet guidebook and stumbled on the word. According to my guidebook, "Writer Charles Baudelaire came up with the whimsical word flâneur to describe a 'gentleman stroller of city streets' or a 'detached pedestrian observer of a metropolis'".  Evelyn and I have decided that we are indeed flâneuse (feminine version of flaneur) because are "lady strollers of city streets". Saturday, we went to the Champs-Elysees just to do some light shopping. We ended up strolling all around the Champs-Elysees, through the Jardin des Tuileries (a really large "garden" with almost no flowers, just trees and statues) and eventually ended up at the Louvre museum, with no intention whatsoever of ending up there. We sat there for a bit, and then went over to the Seine to sit there for a little bit. We felt very Parisian!

Some sort of statue in Jardin des Tuileries 

In front of the Louvre! 

Sitting on the Seine

The middle road is "Avenue des Champs-Elysees" and was our walking path!

Later in the evening, Claudia and I came back to the Champs-Elysees where we wandered around for about an hour looking for a cheap place to have dinner (not possible, everything near the Champs-Elysees is expensive) but finally we found a place where we could split a pizza. It was quite delicious! 

Yesterday, I met up with a few other girls from Drexel who go to a different university in Paris than I do. We went to Marche aux Puces, which is Europe's largest flea market. It was cool to walk around and see all of the antique stores, and we enjoyed saying what ridiculous things we would buy to decorate our rooms (like a frog statue and a huge metal shark). It was a bit crowded, but a very Parisian experience, and we enjoyed our first French ice cream there as well. 

Antique Chanel bags!

I am soaking up everything I possibly can about Paris right now and absolutely falling in love with the city. I could go on forever about all of the different things I've seen so far, but I will just keep it (somewhat) short for everyone to read back in the US and I will be updating Feldy Takes France again shortly!

J'espère que vous avez un grand jour! (I hope you have a great day!) 

Feldy