La musique

So I have tried to immerse myself in as much French culture as I could this past month knowing that it is only going to get harder as August beckons, when the French flee from Paris as if it has been hit once more by the plague. However, for those who can't escape the city in the summer the Mairie de Paris gets a load of sand and dumps it by the Seine to make Paris Plages. It is here where I spend many a weekend pretending to be on an actual beach, but this is all besides the point because this post is suppose to be about music.

The Paris Plages opened with the Festival FnacLive. Four nights on a stage outside the Hotel de Ville (which has now been taken over by beach volleyball courts). It was here that I got some of my first taste of live French music.

Lisa Leblanc: you all know how much I love folk and country music, well this girl knows how to do that with a twist of Paolo Nutini and all in French! Cerveau Ramolli

Olivia Ruiz: A bit of a sensation in France at the moment, although I've heard it both ways. But I love marmite and here is my favourite song of hers. La Femme Chocolat (also it's about chocolate!)

In a completely different world of music my colleague at work has been introducing me to French rap. He gave me a long list of rappers to listen to and I have chosen my favourite for you.

Hayce Lemsi: I liked the refrain of this song and I have been practising at saying this line "Technique de typique petit loco mélomane éliminant malement les mégalomanes." (It's really hard!) Hola Hello

1995: This rap group took my fancy thanks to their funky backings this song is called La Source

So there you have it a touch of my attempt at becoming more French!

Versailles

This was one of those things that I really wanted to do, but was kind of dreading at the same time. I had been told by so many people that it is a day of mass crowds pushing you through very hot rooms especially as this is now the heart of High Season, but I wanted to do it before it got any hotter. Therefore, as a proper Englishman I grinned and bore it.

The day didn’t go off to a great start, because the RER C double decker train (oh my God so cool) service was not running from the station I went to due to les travaux. You’ll find this a lot in summer in Paris, or maybe it’s all year round I don’t know, but they seem to be closing everything for travaux. Whilst I'm on things closing actually, the Paris Opéra doesn’t have anything on between mid July to September. What is this?!?! I was really looking forward to that!

When I got to Versailles I realized that I did not have any water with me, I know, reeeally prepared.  I kept my eyes open for a supermarket on the way to the Palace, but didn't see anything. I later found out that there is a Monoprix just further down the road from the Versaille Chateau Rive Gauche station. So my advice would be to buy any sort of food or drink for the day from here where the prices are far more reasonable that actually inside the Palace. So just walk straight past the boulevard from which you can see the Palace and it will be on your Right.

I followed the advice from the website and did the gardens first and left the Palace for last. This is in fact the best way of doing things, because even though I didn't have to pay to get in I had to queue and the queue is much shorter in the afternoon. 

The gardens are amazing and just as vast as the pictures suggest, maybe even bigger. The fountains are fantastic and were accompanied by 17th Century music so as you walked around you could imagine yourself as an French Aristocrat in the times of Louis XIV. (Just saying I quite fancied myself that job)

It is quite incredible that you can be amongst so many people but the grounds are so enormous that I found a place where I felt completely secluded to have my lunch. It was the first time I had been out of the city and it was lovely. turns out I quite miss the fairly rural Exeter! This is perhaps the reason why I loved Marie Antoinette's Hamlet. She too felt like a bit pressured, by the workings of the court not the city, so she order a Hamlet to be built in the style of the English Countryside. It is beautiful. It is like a magical, enchanted, hidden dwelling and no trip to Versailles is complete without seeing it!

The palace itself is amazingly grand just as you would expect and everyone was right it is packed and really hot, but definitely worth it. My favourite bit was in fact not the Galerie des Glaces, but the Galerie des Batailles. This was created by Louis-Philippe who was the first elected king of France. It displays all the great battles that have lead to modern day France and is twice the size of the Galrie des glaces.

Overall, a very successful day and i thoroughly recommend it. A must see!

La Piscine

You guys know that I am totally addicted to swimming and I have missed it like hell this last year. En fait I miss it even more when it is as hot as it is here. So this is a little gem I have found in Paris for any of you who ever find yourself staying here for an extended period of time. La Piscine Georges Vallerey is une piscine découverte and is beautiful. 50m long and open late so I can go after work. Everything you need on a hot summers day after a day of doing nothing. 3.40 euros for once or 24 euros for 10 times.

148 Avenue Gambetta, 20e Paris

Oh and don't forget that only tight trunks are allowed and it's obligatory to wear a swimming hat, un bonnet.

I was lucky enough to have the trunks down as many of you know I own a pair of infamous red speedos, but unfortunate in finding out about the swimming hat until after I had got changed so ended up walking down the street in my red speedos and towel and scaring a lady by knocking on the window of her closing shop in order to buy one. 

Le 14 Juillet / La Fête Nationale

The second installment of last weekend, the biggest celebration that France has all year. To put that into context they have 35 minutes worth of fireworks on this day whereas on New Years they have none. This is the big one for them. To us it is known as Bastille Day in remembrance of the day when the Bastille Prison was stormed and although there were only seven prisoners to release it was a symbol of the empowerment of the people which lead to the Third Republic that we know today.

 

The day starts with a défilé down the Champs d’Elysée where all the various sectors of the military, navy and air force are involved. It is renowned especially for the airshow and the Champs d’Elysée is packed out with people who have travelled to see it … So I accidentally slept through all of that having been out until 6am the day before with a girl who designs for Marc Jacobs!!

 

You see the night of the 13^th and the 14^th the Bal des Sapeurs-Pompiers are the places to be. Every fire station is opened up for the public for big parties. Some are more popular than others with queues, of mainly young girls eager for the chance at pulling a young Fireman, all the way down the street.

 

When I did wake up I went to the Champs de Mars where I sat all afternoon watching the crowds grow gradually bigger and drunker as the day went on. I made friends with a couple more fashion girls who happened to be sitting next to me. Crazy coincidence I must have been attracting them or something …

 

At 9:30 it all kicked off with the Concert de Paris with Classical music by the Paris Symphony Orchestra  and various soloists ending in a rousing chorus of the French National Anthem, which it turns out no one knows the second verse of, just like the English. After this very patriotic gestation to the French Nation there are the longest fireworks I think anyone has ever seen. They are set off behind the Eiffel Tower which is lit up and turned off in sequence. It was quite impressive and the last hoorah was amazing.

 

After that there was nothing to do, but walk all the way home as the Métro was packed. All I can say is that I felt quite patriotic for France that day.

 

Le Musée d’Orsay and l'Orangerie

Last weekend was a busy one and it was extremely tourist-y. It was so busy that it actually deserves to be split into two posts.

Okay so after failing once again to try and open a French Bank Account (this is possibly the hardest thing ever!) I decided to go to the Musée d'Orsay, the one major art gallery I didn't visit in April. It is also the one I wanted to see the most having studied French Visual History earlier this year in which I wrote an essay on the artist Edouard Manet who famous works are held in this gallery.

The building itself is very impressive.

I saw many fantastic pieces of art in which some of my favourites were the very vivid and dynamic Grand Formats of Corbet and the 

So when I finally got to the the Galerie des impressionists on the top level of the Museum you can imagine my disappointment when I saw the sign that said that Olympia, the painting on which I did a great deal of my essay on was temporarily in Venice! Luckily I like other impressionists and I got to see Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe. I thoroughly recommend walking through the gallery whilst listening to some jazz it adds a certain something to ambience.

Talking about music and art, when in the great open white rooms surrounded by the panoramic Nymphéas, by Monet in Musée l'Orangerie, you have to listen to the start of the 3rd  movement of  Mahler's 4th Symphony or any utterly peaceful piece of music.

 In this room I had an epiphany. One of those moments of complete resolve and inspiration. I felt like I was in a state of complete bliss and that feeling reminded me of how much I have to see and experience in Paris. I vowed to myself in that room to make the very most of my time here.

That is why I ended up going to bed at 6am when the sun rose, but that story is for another time.

Linguistic Potato

So I've been here a week now and I thought I would fill you in a bit on how much fun it is constantly trying to speak another language.

If you have ever been lucky enough to have had foreign friends then you'll know that they make mistakes and some of them can be pretty funny. Whether it's pronunciation or simple just the wrong words they can get you sniggering. Well basically for the last week I have been that foreign person and here are some of the faux pas I have made and hopefully learned from.

Beaucoup

I have a great issue with pronouncing the 'ou' sound in French. I always say it as 'u' instead. I've always had this problem, even in English! My A Level Music Teacher always used to criticise me when I sung the word 'you', because, and to quote him, it made me sound like I was 'from somewhere in Scotland.' Anyway, turns out pronouncing the 'ou' sound correctly in 'beaucoup' is quite important, because if you get it wrong it sound like 'beau cul' which actually means 'nice arse' instead of the intended 'a lot.'

I have now been given a little bit of an exercise by my colleague at work to practice the 'ou' sound:

Tous les ours trouvent beaucoup de sous pour faire des courses

All the bears find lots of money to do the shopping.

(I find it really hard)

J'ai chaud vs. Je suis chaud

So someone says "How are you?" It's really hot so you reply, "Je suis chaud." No! That is either you saying you're up for a fight, in which case you are starting on them, or you are saying you are horny, in which case you're hitting on them. Either way both of these are unacceptable things to say to your boss! Enough said.

Je l'aime vs. Je l'aime bien

The former meaning I love him / her / it and the second meaning I like him / her / it. Also very important when talking about your boss.

Argot

This is basically French slang, I thought it was widely used and accepted by all as normal. The guy I work with talks in argot all the time and he can also speak and understand Verlan, the reversed French language, fluently. As I've been spending every morning and lunch time with him I've started to pick up some of the things he says which are apparently 'mauvais français'. A few of these are ' 'y a' instead of 'il y a' and 'j'ai des fesses' which is 'I can't be arsed'. Apparently these things aren't that great ... 

So basically I've been going around telling people I'm horny, that I love my boss and talking 'beaucoup' de 'beau cul.' Over all successful week, although that being said I do feel like I'm improving a lot already.

P.S. The French say franchement a lot and are shocked when you use really formal words like vraisemblablement, which is my favourite French word so I use it a lot.

The Beginning

I'm in Paris, I'm finally here! After the hassle of trying to arrange my job, accommodation and transport over the last few months, I have made it and I have just finished my first day at work. I haven't decided how's the best way to do this yet, because there seems to be just way to much to talk about so I'll try and keep in brief, but get all the important bits in.

So the actual travelling to Paris, God was that a shambles! I booked a coach ages ago so as to be all economical and sufficiently student-y and independent only to eventual decide I wanted to go a couple of days earlier which lead to me spend a lot on other coaches and in the end spending as much as I would have spent on the Eurostar. Then the coach was delayed we waited at the Ferry for about an hour before we were let on and I arrived at my apartment over two hours later than I was supposed to have arrived. After such a horrendous journey I was tired and hot and sweaty and completely failed at speaking French to Diego , the guy whose apartment I have rented for the summer, and his landlords. Basically I will never get a coach to Paris again and neither should you. Rant over.

My apartment is lovely, on the other hand; much more spacious than I imagined and Diego, who has now returned to Colombia, and his landlords are very nice people. I properly hit the high on that culture shock thing that the lady made us do at the Year Abroad meeting. Yesterday was an amazing day I walked into Le Marais (because I live so close!) and got Falafel from the famous L'As de Falafel, which was amazing, but could really have done with some salsa. I tried to open a bank account, but needed a reference letter from my English Bank so that is going to take more time than expected. I also bought a sim card for my phone, but apparently Virgin blocks any other sims on my phone so I had to call up and get that unblocked, another thing which will take longer than expected. In the evening I met up with girls from home at the Eiffel Tower for a picnic dinner, which was so much fun and I was sad to see them go, but I'm sure they are having fun in Amsterdam.

Now for the bit you have all been waiting for ... work! Yes I was dreading it to and I was right to. I'm working near Le Parc de la Villette, where this lovely ball is! 

There isn't much there though as it is so far out. It is right next to the Périphérique and there is a lot of development going on around there. Basically what I am doing is I'm part of 'The I.T. Crowd' except not as funny or quirky or English. I am arranging stock and delivering computers to the people that need them around this massive complex of buildings holding over 2000 employees. There is an 18 year old who is also doing it with me, his name is Juan. He is from the Banlieu and is going to study something computer-y next year at university. Me and him chatted in French for a long time about the usual stuff; music, girlfriends, school before trailing off awkwardly. We had lunch together in the best canteen ever. You know how the French love their food? Well is definitely shows here. Everyone has a one hour lunch break where you get an array of dishes; roast, burger, various sausages, fish, vegetarian, pizza, pasta + desserts and drinks all heavily subsidised! I was in heaven, but unfortunately I couldn't eat very much as you often can't went you're in a new and not entirely comfortable environment.


After lunch they didn't really have anything for me to do so I sat there for the whole afternoon. They had a 40 minute reunion in which my brain literally was on the brink of just shutting down due to an overload of French. I was pretty sure they were talking about me for a long time deciding what to do with the 'stagiaire surprise.' Now I'm incredibly tired and really looking forward to the weekend, but I must remember that I'm getting paid and I probably am improving at French.

So there you have it there is the beginning. I'm sure everyday won't be as hectic as the past few so I'm sure I won't have something to write everyday, but I'll keep you posted when something does happen.