Week 8 – Vacation

As I write that title “Vacation” I can’t help but feel a little bummed that I didn’t get my stuff together enough to actually go somewhere. Don’t get me wrong – this week has been great. But I’ve got another week left of vacation and I’m feeling a bit restless now. Not to mention that going places costs money, which I do not have an awful lot of. Anyway, enough moping. Let me fill you in on what I got up to this week.

Monday was a nothing day. I just stayed in, listened to music, drank tea, watched a movie. Nothing exciting but it was nice to have a day where I didn’t have to look after kids or go to school. I just got to be a lazy bum.

Tuesday I woke up before the sun had risen. I’ve joined this photo project with a group of talented people living in various cool places around the world. Every other week has a theme and we kicked off the project this week with the theme of morning. Now I realize that morning is broad not only thematically, but also in terms of time. It’s not like the theme was sunrise. I could have woken up at 10:30 and taken pictures then. However, I felt I’d be remiss if I didn’t get up early to try and snap some pictures of Paris waking up. So I got up in the dark and took the metro to the Notre Dame area. I wandered around taking pictures as the sun rose, eventually grabbing breakfast at a café/bakery in the Marais neighbourhood. I picked a place that was well occupied and got the cheapest thing on the menu, which was an espresso and a pain au chocolat. As much as I enjoy the bread, pastry and chocolate type of breakfast that they have here, I’m looking forward to a bacon and eggs kind of breakfast when I get home.

After breakfast I headed to Shakespeare and Company, which I’ve mentioned once before on the blog and is a magical English bookstore across from Notre Dame. They have a small selection of used books outside the shop, which you can buy for under 10€ but inside they have new books, and they’re quite expensive! The cheapest I could find was 12€ for a slim paperback, but I’d say you’re average book cost between 18 and 25€. The second floor has the children’s section but other than that is dedicated to a collection of old books. There is one room with seating where you are welcome to sit with one of these old books as long as you put it back where you found it when you’re finished. The other room has a piano and a mattress. I’ve read that Shakespeare and Company will often provide a free place to sleep and work for writers (and I believe also musicians and artists as well). I pulled a large anthology of English language poetry off the shelf and read while someone played the piano in the next room. The sun streamed through the window, a light breeze gently nudging and tugging at the open shutters. People wandered around the cramped area in hushed reverence. It was beautiful. And despite the multiple signs forbidding photographs (citing not wanting to bother other patrons as the reasoning), once I was alone in the room I couldn’t help but snap a couple photos.

I look forward to visiting Shakespeare and Co many more times while I’m in Paris. In fact, there is going to be a lecture on Dracula tomorrow evening so I definitely want to check that out.

Wednesday I went shopping with a couple friends. It was a successful day and I now have my winter gear. Although, it was around 20° all week so I haven’t been able to test out my purchases. According to the forecast it will be dipping down to around 12° this upcoming week, so maybe I’ll get a chance to wear my coat.

Thursday I visited Versailles with a friend. We got there I think around 11 or 11:30 in the morning and the lineup for the château was insane. We decided that we would explore the gardens first and then check back to see if the line was more reasonable. The first half of the day was chilly and grey so it wasn’t the most pleasant but once the sun came out, everything was much prettier and the day became instantly more enjoyable. I’m glad we got some sun because all my photos from before that were pretty rubbish.

After a thorough wandering of the gardens, the estate of Marie Antoinette, and the grand Trianon, we were pretty tired but knew we had to check out the château. Luckily the line up had now completely disappeared. I think it was about 3:30 or 4 by this time. So take note anyone thinking about visiting Versailles. Something that was cool for me is that, while the gardens are free for everyone, I also got to visit everything else for free thanks to my student visa. Score! I don’t really know what to say about the château. Maybe it’s because I was tired or maybe I don’t know the history well enough but I was thoroughly underwhelmed. I can understand the significance and can appreciate the scope and grandeur of it, especially when placing it in context of the time period. But everything was so lavish and gilded that it just felt garish and vulgar to me. Not to mention it was quite stuffy and very full of tourists, particularly large guided tours. Quite a few times I pretty much tried to get out of the room as soon as I got in because I felt so claustrophobic between the heavy decor and all the people. So anyway, I’m glad I went and saw it but I much preferred the quaint buildings of Marie Antoinette’s estate to the grandiose palace.

Friday I picked the oldest up at the train station and then in the evening family friends from Nantes came to visit for the weekend. The parents were really nice and the kids seemed equally nice and polite as well. I spent some time with them on the Friday night as well as Saturday night. I’ll be going with my family to visit them in Nantes on the long weekend, which is in two weeks. It’s always a bit tiring trying to keep up and participate in the conversation but it’s good practice.

I’ve just hung out at home for the weekend, which is probably why I’m feeling restless now. Hopefully I can do some cool things this week. I hear there’s a Lichtenstein exhibit at the Centre Pompidou, which I haven’t checked out yet so maybe I’ll go see that.

In other news, I have my plane ticket to come home for Christmas booked now! December 21st I’ll be back in Canada and I’ll be there for two whole weeks! I’m very excited.

À bientôt!

Week 7

It’s Monday morning and whereas I’d normally be on the metro headed to class at this time, today is the first day of vacation for me! I guess here in France the kids get 2 weeks of vacation about every 6 or 7 weeks. I’m looking at the school calendar right now and they have two weeks of vacation now, over Christmas, half of February and half of April. Then school finishes July 4th. Pretty sweet deal, eh?

Of course, for au pairs this vacation can mean a few different things. I’m very lucky because the girls are visiting their grandparents this week. I have to pick the oldest up at the train station on Friday, but other than that I’m free for the week. The week after the girls will be with their dad, so depending on whether he gets called to work I may or may not have to work. I know other au pairs who are going on vacation with their families for the two weeks. I also know au pairs who are having to work overtime and take care of the kids all day long. That’s really rough.

My school has a lot of au pairs so they are accommodating of this situation. We’re able to take off the time for les vacances scolaires and not lose the money we paid for it. I paid for 12 weeks of class so now instead of ending on December 6th, I’ll be finishing on the 20th (just in time to head home for Christmas!) The course does still continue on without us since the class isn’t made up exclusively of au pairs so I’ll have to follow along with the textbook from home, but that’s not too bad.

So what will I be doing with my time off? Truthfully, I’m not entirely sure yet. When I found out I’d get a few days off I immediately started looking at cheap flights and hostels but it felt very overwhelming. I never did that whole backpacking around Europe thing after school so I have no experience with this stuff and I’m nervous about doing it on my own! I’m going to start sketching out ideas of places I want to go and the best things to do there/places to stay/ways to get there so that the next time I get a bit of time off I’ll be more prepared. I don’t want to waste this time though so I’m going to try to do something fun in or around Paris every day. After I write this post I’m heading on over to Trip Advisor to get some ideas.

DOGS

I’ve been meaning to write down a few observations about dogs here for all my grooming friends back home. First of all, the French are not great about cleaning up after their dogs. It’s a good idea to keep your eyes on the ground when you’re out and about cause there’s crap everywhere.

Another thing that it doesn’t seem many French do for their dogs is spaying/neutering. The vast majority of dogs I see have…well you know. I want to keep this blog PG! Seriously though guys, I’m already forgetting all the hilarious names we’ve come up with for their bits. Help me out!

In terms of breeds I’d say the most popular that I’ve noticed have been French bulldogs, English cockers and yorkies. Pretty funny since at home we have more English bulldogs and American cockers. Not too many shih tzus and surprisingly not too many poodles. I think when it comes to large breeds I’ve seen more mutts than purebreds but most of the purebreds I’ve seen have been bully breeds. I don’t think I’ve seen any labs or shepherds!

Oh and one final observation is that I see dogs without leashes all the time. Not just in parks, but on the streets too. Most of the leash-less dogs have kept close to their owners and minded their own business but I did see one dog without a leash that was being aggressive to another dog (who was on a leash) and then owner had to walk back and grab him by his collar to pull him away. Crazy idea, but maybe if your dog can get aggressive then you should keep him on a leash! Just saying.

VISIT TO THE IMMIGRATION OFFICE

Thursday morning I had an appointment with the immigration office to get my carte de sejour for staying in France. I guess just the visa on its own isn’t enough for whatever reason. I don’t really understand but I just did what I had to do. The appointment took about an hour and a half and consisted of a medical check up and then an administrative meeting as well. I managed to get through the entire visit understanding and speaking French, so that made me feel good. Although I was nervous that perhaps I misunderstood when a doctor put me in a room and told me to take my shirt and bra off to get a chest x-ray. I didn’t want to walk into the room topless and have the doctor say, “What are you doing? Why are you half naked?” Luckily I understood correctly (and side note, my lungs are in great shape).

ENGLISH LESSONS

English lessons for both girls went well this week. I feel like I’ve made progress with both of them and also have further insight into their strengths and weaknesses. I will admit, I’m glad I get a break from lessons for the next two weeks. It’s just a lot of work. I should use some of my time off to compile resources and come up with some lesson plans and worksheets.

WEEKEND

This weekend wasn’t as packed as last weekend but I still managed to get out and about. Saturday night I had dinner and drinks with friends at the tiniest apartment I’ve ever seen. It was probably about the size of my dorm room in first year, if not a bit smaller, and had a bed, dining area, toilet, sink, stove, shower and closet. It was very cute and an amazing use of space! Plus you had a view of the Eiffel Tower from the window, so what’s not to love.

On Sunday the plan was to go to a Mexican restaurant and then visit the catacombs. We did eat lunch at the Mexican restaurant but we took our sweet time getting to the catacombs (including the purchase and enjoyment of a raspberry tart) and by the time we got there it was too late to join the lineup. So we ended up visiting the Jardin du Luxembourg and then wandering over to Notre Dame before heading home. It was a beautiful day, hovering around 20°-22°. My daily routine doesn’t take me through many green spaces so yesterday was the first day I really felt like it was fall and got to see the changing leaves. It’s still nothing compared to Canada! So enjoy the magnificent fall weather at home because we’re really spoiled there.

Biggest vending machine I’ve ever seen. You could buy milk, boxes of cookies, and pre-made dinners here.

Anyway, it’s close to noon now and I have to figure out what I’m doing with my day. À bientôt!

Week 6 – Zombie Walk and Provins

Happy Thanksgiving! If I was in Canada I’d be enjoying the holiday Monday and a weekend full of food and family. Alas, I’m on my own here in Paris and I’ll be heating up leftovers for dinner tonight. Merde. I’ve been feeling twinges of homesickness this past week, which I figure is partially due to missing out on a Canadian holiday for the first time ever. Holiday aside, even when I was living 2 hours away from my family I don’t think I went too much longer than 6 or maybe 8 weeks without seeing them. So yeah, right now I’d like to be at home. But all is not lost because I had a really awesome weekend. Read on if you’re interested in the undead and Medieval villages.

QUICK RECAP OF THE WEEK

My week was pretty standard. The girls are now back on the regular schedule of first half of the week with their dad and second half with their mom. I didn’t have to work on the days they were with their dad, so it was a nice break for me.

My dad made a JibJab video of our family as various supernatural creatures singing “I Will Survive”. I showed it to the youngest and she LOVED it. She watched it over and over again until I told her we could make one with her family members, which she was thrilled about. She made one with herself, her sister, her mom and me. Of course then the little narcissist in her took over and she decided to make one using five different pictures of herself. I can’t even tell you how many times she’s watched that video. I finally sent it to her mom so she would stop constantly asking me to get my computer so we could watch it.

One problem with the youngest is that she never knocks. I’ve had the conversation with her several times, but she never seems to remember. This weekend I had just gotten out of the shower and was in my room when she barged in (to ask if she could watch the video). Luckily I was still wearing my towel but it’s pretty clear that I’m going to have to stack furniture against my door if I want any privacy. I don’t think she understands the concept of privacy since she’s not concerned with when it comes to herself. Thursday night I was in my room (door open) on the computer listening to Disclosure when she wanders in with her pants around her ankles holding a half unravelled roll of toilet paper and starts dancing.

I missed my English lesson with the oldest since the family had plans on the Friday night that meant leaving as soon as she got home from school. The English lesson with my other student on Saturday morning went well though. She’s over whatever problem she had with the situation before so she doesn’t give me any attitude or anything. In fact, she doesn’t seem reticent or embarrassed trying to speak English at all. She defaults to French often if she’s trying to explain something, but when I ask her to read in English she’s not shy. So that’s kind of nice. I’m a little perplexed by her English level though. In some areas she’s fine but she’s missing a lot of key, basic grammar and vocabulary. It’s going to be tricky figuring out what we need to work on.

But on to the good stuff…

ZOMBIE WALK PARIS

Did I scare you?

As some of you may know, I have participated in the London (Ontario) Zombie Walk for four years. Unfortunately I missed out on last year’s, but this year I made up for that in a big way by attending the Paris Zombie Walk.

I mentioned the event in an au pair Facebook group that I’m part of and had a few people respond that they’d like to go, but when I tried to make plans everybody flaked out. Figures. But I wasn’t about to miss out so I went by myself. The most awkward part is taking the metro there and back. There was some staring and pointing.

The Paris Zombie Walk was obviously much bigger than London’s. In London you have to obey traffic lights and stick to the sidewalk, which detracts a little bit from the illusion. Here in Paris we had police escorts and they shut down the streets of our route so the group flooded the sidewalks and roads. The one negative things I have to say about Paris Zombie Walk is I feel like people were in general not as committed to the performance aspect. There was a lot of great makeup (and some not so great makeup) but half the fun is having a hoard of people act like zombies. The spirit of this zombie walk seemed more like a street party for the alternative crowd. There was a van that followed the procession blasting electronic music and many zombies were smoking, drinking, chatting, dancing. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a fun idea as well, it’s just not what zombie walk is about to me.

I’ve had a few people ask me what my French family thought of me as a zombie. I had lunch with the mom, her sister, and the girls before I left so I had pretty much all my makeup except for the fake blood done at this point. The oldest originally thought I wasn’t feeling well and was aghast at the bite on my neck, asking me what had happened. The youngest wanted me to do her makeup the same way so when I got back from the walk I did a lighter version of what I’d done on myself. The mom and sister were impressed with my makeup skills. I did everything with my regular makeup.

Ok, I’ll stop now.

PROVINS

When you’re writing a post on WordPress, it suggests other blogs and articles that have mentioned the same subjects as you. Last time when I was writing a post about Nuit Blanche, one of the suggestions was an post about Nuit Blanche written by a Canadian living in Paris! So I checked out the blog, found out the girl was about my age, from about the same area of Canada as me and had also just recently arrived in Paris. Go figure! I contacted her to say that I’d be happy to meet up so we added each other on Facebook and chatted a bit. Fast forward to this weekend where we decided to go to Provins together on Sunday.

Provins is a small medieval town located an hour and a half (by train) to the south-east of Paris. It was a centre of trade and is also known for its roses. We left Paris at 8:45 and arrived in Provins around 10:15. We took a bus from the train station to the tourism office where we got our information and bought our tickets. I was struck by how beautiful the town was and also how fresh the air was! Paris is beautiful but it’s a city, and one with a problem with public urination at that.

Our day in Provins was so packed we barely had time to eat! To start out, we wandered at a leisurely pace through the streets, taking many photos. Our first activity was a guided tour of the subterranean galleries beneath the town where clay was harvested. The tour was entirely in French, so I missed some information, but I believe one space was used as a hospital ward, while another area was used as storage for the goods of merchants. It was incredibly labyrinthine down there and I had a little nagging thought at the back of my head as the guide led us deeper and deeper into the vaults that he would leave us there where we would then be pursued by cannibalistic subterranean dwellers. Fortunately, that was not the case and we emerged unscathed.

18th century graffiti

Our escape!

We then paid a visit to the rose garden, which was so lovely. We started out ambling but had to rush a little bit and didn’t get to see the whole area since we had a show to get to.

The best smelling rose I’ve ever encountered

We grabbed a sausage and fries to eat on our way to the falconry show. It was about 45 minutes and showcased a few types of birds of prey including hawks, owls, eagles and many more. Afterward we visited the aviary, which was a bit sad to be honest. All the birds (as well as a camel and a few dogs/wolves) were kept in fairly small enclosures. I hope they get out often.

Up next was a knight show. It was really great for a family show, but it was pretty much just lighthearted entertainment with no real historical value.

At this point we still had three museums/monuments to visit and only about an hour and a half to see them all. We got through half of the first museum, which had scenes set up depicting various aspects of the trading fair that took place there with a complimentary audio guide to explain. It was a little cheesy, but informative. After touring one of the two levels we decided to rush on to the next location. Unfortunately, by the time we got there it was 10 minutes before closing so we went on to the final monument, which closed a half hour later. This was the Caesar’s Tower, which served as a prison and watchtower. It was between 5:30 and 6 at this point so the sun was starting to lower and the views were spectacular.

We finished up by returning to the rose garden where we perused the gift shop and sat down to enjoy some macarons. It was then time for a real meal so we headed into the downtown area to find a restaurant. The streets were all but deserted and there were not too many places open so we decided on a pizzeria, which had a wood oven visible from the front window. I was thankful to be sitting down inside where it was warm and being able to relax and have a proper meal. We each had a pizza and a glass of wine. It was a nice end to a great day. After dinner we walked to the train station and caught the last train back into Paris.

I took a lot more photos of Provins that I’ll be posting on my Flickr so check that out if you’d like to see more.

À bientôt!

Week 5

Salut! Two observations to start:

1. Coloured pants are popular here.

2. Trotinettes aka scooters are very popular here with kids. Remember when scooters had a brief moment in Canada? I’ve even seen a few adults here riding scooters.

SCHOOL

We had a big test on Thursday marking the end of A2. I got 2 of 3 parts back today and did well. We’ll see how the third part went though, because the first two parts were comprehension while the third one was written expression. I’m happy to be moving on to B1 now. Ideally I’d like to finish the 10 months at a B2 level, but I don’t know if that’s a feasible goal.

ENGLISH LESSONS

The English lesson with my new student wasn’t a disaster. Hurray! The whole situation was a little less than ideal though. Normally I have my lesson with the oldest of my family on Friday nights and I’m meant to teach my new student on Saturday mornings. However, the dad needed me to look after the girls on Saturday morning and had company over on the Friday night so he asked if I could do a joint lesson with the girls on Saturday morning. I agreed, but I didn’t think it was the best idea. For one thing, the girls are not at the same level. Another worry was that I wasn’t sure if my new student’s parents would be happy that I was dividing my time between her and another student, since that wasn’t our arrangement. Sure enough, when I apprised the mom of my family of the situation, she shared my concerns – which is to say she was a little peeved. The other unfortunate thing about all this is that I had already prepared two separate lessons for the girls. Now I had to go and create an entirely new lesson designed for two pupils. I decided that it made the most sense to formulate a lesson that was fun and not too difficult, because more than anything I wanted to make a good first impression with my new student.

Anyway, I’d say it was a success. The girls seemed to enjoy themselves and I think maybe the girl from my family got a bit of a self-esteem boost since she could help out my new student with vocabulary. Hopefully that will carry through to this week since I intend to have a lesson much more focused on oral communication, which is her weakest area. I asked the new student if the lesson had been too terrible and she said that it was fine and she had been more upset with her mother for making the decision without her consent. I think she feels comfortable enough with me now so we’ll see how it goes from here. I’m still not convinced I made the right decision taking on another student. I can use exercises and activities I’ve already created but I’ll still need to personalize them for her. And having to work on the weekends isn’t great either. But I wanted the extra money and I’ve committed to this, so I’ll just have to make the best of it.

THE GIRLS

The girls were with their dad for this entire week, so I think I only worked for 3 or 4 days, and only a few hours per day. Both of them were pretty moody on Wednesday, which I don’t really understand because they only have 3 hours of class so it’s not like they should be tired or anything. On the bright side, the youngest had her first pottery lesson, which lasts for a blessed hour and a half. I managed to find the place without any issue and got her there on time. She really seemed to enjoy it, so that’s great on all fronts.

Both of the girls are pretty into bande dessinées (or BDs) aka comics as well as dessin animés aka cartoons. This also includes anime, which I’ve got to say I really don’t like. I’m not sure exactly what it is, but the aesthetic just does not appeal to me at all. Watching anime is like listening to nails on a chalkboard for me. I’m sure that I’ve offended someone with this opinion because I know that a lot of people who like anime really like anime. Sorry. Anyway, one night the youngest was watching Les Contes de Terremer and it gave me some insight into her behaviour during imaginary games. The way the evil sorceress spoke is exactly how the youngest speaks when she is pretending to be an evil witch in her games. Also, the sorceress’s arm gets chopped off in the movie and you see it go flying through the air, so now I understand why the youngest’s games can get so dark.

NUIT BLANCHE

I went to my first ever Nuit Blanche this year. Better late than never! I ended up being part of a somewhat large group, so I didn’t get to see too many installations. You know how it is. The only one I’m really bummed about missing was the fireworks/pyrotechnic display at midnight, which I’ve now seen photos of and looked amazing. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the night though. The streets were teeming with people and the mood was convivial. I got to meet some French people too, which is harder to do than you’d think. Outside of my family and their friends, the people that I meet tend to be foreigners like myself. I felt nervous about speaking French with les vrais Parisians because I didn’t want to sound stupid and since most of them spoke English they were quick to make the switch once they detected my anglophone accent. So I suppose I really didn’t take advantage of the situation. Oh, and in a very stereotypical display, one French guy made a show of being appalled at the wine I was drinking, which in my defence cost about 4€ and had been purchased from the only place I could find open at 11pm.

My metro line was running all night but I didn’t stay out too late and ended up heading home around 1:30, I think. The metro was packed and full of rowdy people shouting and singing. I passed a guy sitting in a dazed stupor who had thrown up all over his lap and shoes – so, good times.

“Fog Square” at Place de la République

“Fosse d’Orchestre” where a device transformed the movement of water into sound

Next weekend I’m hoping to attend Paris Zombie Walk and make a Thanksgiving dinner for my family. We’ll see if I can pull it off!

À bientôt