Ooh La La~Moulin Rouge

Tuesday, May 14th 2013

One of the coolest things about being in Paris, is that every day I get the opportunity to do something new and I try and take that opportunity as often as possible. Today we had class for a while in the morning and then ate together. Once a week the class helps make a traditional/regional dish from France with our directors and we all eat together in the BYU apartment that the directors stay in. Today we had mussels and crêpes salés. Something not all Americans may know is that there are two different types of crêpes: salé and sucre, sugary and salty, essentially dessert or meal. An example of a meal crêpe is the very popular jambon et fromage (ham and cheese), which is the one we had for lunch. I had never had mussels before so it was cool to get to try them - and I think I liked them. They're not slimy like oysters (not that I've had those either) or at least they weren't the way my professor had cooked them. They were firm and you bite into them...basically the firmness and consistency of a lima bean - but obviously saltier and sea food-ier (yes, that's a new word I just made up). Unfortunately, my throat was still feeling sore so I decided to finally get myself some real medicine instead of continuing to pop a couple of ibuprofen every six hours on the hour - as fun as a game that is...So I went down to a local pharmacy down the street from the apartment to find medicine (another new thing!) If you think finding the right type of medicine is hard in America, wait and try finding some in France. Not only are all the labels in French but none of the medicine or products look the same - not even the one's you're familiar with. So to save myself the pain, I simply approached a pharmacienne and told her my throat hurt and I was looking for some medicine. She spoke quickly to me and indicated towards a shelf and when I looked at her a little confused she walked over and grabbed two different boxes. She took them to the counter and explained how many times to take them. When I asked how much they were (I wanted to make sure I could afford them), she took that to mean I wanted them and rang them up. Luckily they were pretty inexpensive, like the cost of a large bottle of nyquil (which for future reference I swear by. I mean it cures you and it helps you sleep while doing it! It's like the perfect drug! But I digress...) I asked her to repeat the instructions to me because I was afraid I would get them wrong since she spoke a little quick and it was in French. I mean I might be good at French but I'm not THAT good - to assume that I understand how to work pills that we might not even have in America. Once I left the store I examined what I had been sold. One box was essentially pills - I was to take 6 a day. 2 in the morning, 2 at lunch and 2 at night. I would have thought I had heard wrong but - she had wrote the numbers on the box so I knew I wasn't going to overdose myself. Then the other was an antiseptic/anesthetic that was a spray for my throat that I could also take 6 types a day. With this much medicine I figured it would fix me right up in no time! You better believe I took that medicine as fast as I could. That anesthetic spray was weird and I'm pretty sure we don't have anything like that in America. It had about a 3 inch nozzle that you stuck in your mouth and attempted to aim at the injured area. It didn't seem super effective but the pills sure worked! They definitely helped the pain. I'd like to say that this was the beginning of the end for my sickness but unfortunately that happened a whole day later, the story continues...
After school and lunch with the class, we were free to go wherever we'd like as is the case everyday. Today my roommate and some other girls wanted to go to Montmartre and some other sites near by - and they were on my list to see and I went with them. So knowing not everyone is as big a Francophile as me, I'll give a few facts on our site and then those with more interest have the use of google :) Montmartre contains the tallest point in Paris and is the area surrounding the hill upon which Sacre-Coeur rests. It's known for being a really artsy/lively district. Sacre-Coeur is another famous cathedral/church. Why is it famous? I honestly have no idea - besides from just being beautiful and a notable landmark since its at the top of Paris...I don't know. But I really liked it. Possibly more than Notre Dame. First of all, it was quiet and not jam packed with tourists. The inside was more approachable and still functionary. I guess it just felt more real in comparaison to the slightly more "commercialized" Notre Dame. Plus I think the outside is almost more beautiful. It's all white and not as imposing as Notre Dame (I mean honestly, Notre Dame is a little scary looking, with all its gargoyles and spikes and threatening gothic façade). 

Plus, being at the very top of the city means that there is one of the BEST views. It was really super cool to look down on Paris. The thing about Paris (well there are a lot of things, hence the long blog...) is that it is different from other cities. It really is as picturesque as the postcards. For example all the pictures I take are with a point and shoot, pick-up-from-walmart your typical camera. It has practically no manual settings - though that's best for me because I don't know how to work any of that. And my pictures have practically no editing - you better believe I have no idea how to work adobe photoshop. So any picture of mine that looks beautiful, it is 100% the scenery. What's more, it isn't like American cities with big skyscrapers and metal buildings - so much of France is still straight from the 18th or 19th century. When the French update their buildings they simply renovate and upkeep what they have - they don't demolish and build up some new apartment complexes, they keep the ones from the 18th century with the cute little balconies and white walls. You know that part in Inception where Ellen Page is in Cobb's dream and she fold the city of Paris in on itself, and those cute little buildings are suddenly stacked roof to roof? (As you can tell I hardly ever watch this movie...) Yeah well those buildings are real and they are everywhere. It's things like that, the cute things you see in the movie are really what Paris looks like. Which basically is my long way of saying: the view was pretty. Paris is pretty. And yes, you could see the big landmarks like Notre Dame and le Tour Eiffel. 

Obviously the highest part of Paris = a lot of stairs. And by a lot. I mean. A lot. First of all, you walk up these sloping streets for a few block to get to the stairs. And then you have The Stairs. They definitely put the ones south of campus to shame. There is nothing like a good set of stairs to destroy the mental image you have of yourself in good shape. But luckily, the path going down wasn't as steep and it was so pretty. I think no matter how much time I spend in Paris - even after I live here for a couple of years - is how pretty it is. I mean as a city, yeah it's dirty and smelly, but it's not as dirty as NYC and the French love beauty - for beauty's sake, so they make a special effort to make paths pretty and add plants everywhere. Here's an example: 

We found this AMAZING chocolate shop on our way through Montmartre. I think it might be called Le Maison du Chocolat (the house of chocolate) because I know that one is really big and popular/has multiple locations in France, but I'm not sure. But I imagine that it doubled as an off site location to part of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Seriously, it was heavenly just being in there (bc I didn't buy anything - too many choices, so much money, not enough time to peruse). They even had some decorations in chocolate, namely a dia-rama of the Notre Dame all made out of Chocolat!!!

So after Sacre-Coeur we saw another famous Montmartre site. The one. The only. The Moulin Rouge. One of the girls I was with was dying to see it but since I've never seen the movie, it didn't have any strong appeal besides the fact that it was famous (apparently it was like the birthplace of the can-can). Now the side of Montmartre that the Moulin Rouge is on, is known for something a little different than being artsy. And if you know what the Moulin Rouge was - and still is (yeah, one hundred percent, still is) then you'll know what I mean. So yeah it was quite the street walk - definitely different than the usual sites that I see. But it's cool to see the building if you just ignore all the uh-hums, and look from the street. 

Acting a little chelou (sketchy) in front of the Moulin Rouge

After our day of adventures in Paris we caught the train home and ate dinner with our host family. All in all a pretty good day. And as always I have so many pictures so here are some more! Oh and btw if you click on the picture, they expand and you can scroll through just the pictures without having the text separating them or anything! Just a helpful tip in case you're bringing your face inches from the screen to capture all the details :)