La France vs. Les Etats-Unis

I apologize for being a slightly flakey blogger, I'll do my best to post more frequent, less winded tales in the near future! So lets get down to business, it's been an extremely busy week! And that seems to be the problem with Paris, with so much to do, see, taste, smell, the pressure is really on to get it all in and get it in NOW. It's actually quite overwhelming; take the Louvre, for example. I've heard that if you look at each piece of art for a mere 10 seconds, it would take over a month to see them all! It hasn't really sunk in that I have four whole months to soak up the essence of Paris; that being said, I suppose there is something to be said for getting the touristy activities out of the way first.

Speaking of the Louvre, I finally made it over there one evening and it was even better than I remember. Now that I have a much more extensive background in art history, I was really able to appreciate (and even recognize) a lot more works. I also experience my first dinner out and had Boeuf Bourguignon that would make Julia Child proud! Over the weekend, my roommate and I travelled just outside the city to Saint Denis, whose cathedral houses the final resting place of France's kings and queens. It was a pretty incredible sight, looking at the tombs of Merovingian kings (the first ruling family) who have been dead for over 1500 years. Of course as an archaeologist, I found it fascinating. I also was able to say bonjour to my supposed relative, Pippin the Short (at least now I know where I get it from!)

Now, as much as I adore Paris and the French so far, I have been missing certain things from my homeland. The first one being the SUN. Almost everyday here is cloudy, if not rainy. I would complain about the cold, but it's still warmer than Boston, so I really can't. I'm also missing showers that you can stand up in...our "shower" here is really a bathtub with a shower hose attached to the tap. Oh and did I mention that there's no shower curtain? So essentially we have to sit in the very narrow tub and do our very best to get clean while not spraying water all over the bathroom. However, there are also many benefits to being in France. Mainly, 1-3 euro bottles of wine, 1 euro baguettes, and 2 euro giant tubs of goat cheese. I also just listed about 95% of my diet.

For those of you who are not Facebook friendly, I'm doing my best to post photos on here. I can't get them all, but don't worry, I'll be sure to post the best ones! A bientot mes cheris!

Beaucoup de bisous
Cailee