Winter

This page has not died! It went into an unforeseen winter hibernation as I valiently battled sub-zero temperatures and hoards of Christmas (and then Valentines) tourists, braving French shopping admits Soldes (the twice-yearly, legally regulated, city-wide sales), and snow flurries alike. This has been a rather unusual winter for born and bred Parisians- it's snowed a handful of times, and even managed to stick to the ground once or twice.


Winter also meant the end of my first semester of classes (4 A's and 1 B, Mom and Dad), winter vacations, and the start of a new semester! After classes and, I went to London, where I met up with my mom for a nearly week-long romp about town. We were just in time to see the city all sparkle-y and shiny for Christmas.


Our first day we went on a free-tour throughout the city, starting at Wellington Gate (above) and winding our way down Constitution Ave. to Buckingham Palace, down past Big Ben and Westminster Cathedral, ending just in front of the Parliament building, where our guide recounted the story of Guy Fawkes and his not-so-successful revolution.

We spent a day scrounging around the Camden Lock area, going through the windy, market passages and dodging hurried fellow shoppers. We took a day trip to bath, hoping to make it out to some druid ruins for winter solstice, but incumbent weather stopped us from renting a car, and I think we had the day wrong anyway. Instead we visited the ancient Roman bath house, and a few other local attractions.

We spent a lot of time in various museums, and made it to the Tower of London the day before we both left, Mom back to Tucson and me back to Paris for Christmas.

After a calm Christmas and New Years, I had two more weeks of class, and then I was free! I celebrated with a solo-trip to Belgium, two days in Bruges and 2 in Brussels. Bruges was as charming as everyone says, especially in the winter with frozen over canals, snow covered, medieval-type buildings, and the friendlies citizens, braving the cold with the most practical eco-friendly, and cobblestone passage-way-friendly, mode of transportation:


Just wandering around for two days was a joy, and the windmills on the outskirts of this tiny town were the cherry on top.

For every bit of charm that Bruges had, Brussels had a mountain of strange. French and Flemish are both the official languages of this surrealist city, and as if that weren't enough cultural schizophrenia, the buildings throughout the city alternate between fabulous, art nouveau architecture (Belgian, Victor Horta's claim to fame) and modern, ugly, 70s/80s style apartment buildings and chain stores.
Above is a historic center of Brussels, Markt Platz. I have quite a few more pictures of Bruges, but hardly any of Brussels, though both were as delightful to explore as the other. Bruges, though, had a quaint, capturable and natural charm, while the sights of Brussels required a bit more context to appreciate. The art nouveau styled man-hole cover is that much more bizarre after wandering up and down zig-zagging cobblestone streets than alone, and the Mannequin Pis (google it) is only really shocking when you come to the intersection where you expect to find it and have to turn around in a few circles before spotting it.

I do have one splendid picture of the Musical Instrument Museum:


With an art nouveau exterior, and a multi-story interior, this museum houses instruments from all over the world and throughout history, most of which I'd never even heard of before. Museum entrance comes with an audio guide that, once you step up to an exhibit, pumps radio waves sampling the particular instruments sound and musical style right in your very own headset. It was a wonderful place to wander around, though hard not to get stuck in front of some displays just to continue listening to the exceptional sounds of the displays various horns, drums, and more.

The following weekend I went to Porto, Portugal with some of the girls from my program. This was the view off our balcony at the hostel:


It was so nice to escape chilly Paris for a few days and enjoy some green and color. We walked around town, went to the beach, took a boat cruise along the river, did a few Porto tastings, and ATE. Portuguese pastries and sangria were perhaps the highlight of the trip.


After Portugal, classes started up again. I'm also doing an internship at Lobster Films, which is a film restoration/production/archive company in the Marais. I spend most of my time translating descriptions of Charlie Chaplin and other silent movies for the website. So far so good with that-- it's been a lot of fun and I get to meet some interesting people.

This weekend I took a day-trip to Rouen with my study abroad program. Below is the side view of Notre-Dame cathedral in the city center.


Next week I'm going to Rome to meet up with Mom and Dad, and the following week I'm going to Barcelona, hopefully to catch some nicer weather, though I am optimistic that spring is on its way in Paris, too! I'll leave you with this not-Parisian, but, Rouen-ian dog, Tux, who was definitely wearing the most stylish coat in rainy Rouen.