Of castles, crypts and coffee

Studying in Paris is a rather odd situation to be in because every day I have to make a choice between being a good student and taking advantage of the fact that I'm in one of the most interesting cities in the world. The result is that I go around with the vague sense of guilt - either because I know I'm slightly to significantly behind on schoolwork or because I know I'm passing up a fabulous cultural opportunity.

But just to set the record straight - I do go to class here! I'm basically taking three classes - a French grammar class, a class on French immigration, and a class on francophone African literature. These are more fuzzy classes than I am comfortable with, and in French, which makes it even more difficult to get through all of the readings and papers. :-)

And on to the things that are making me behind in class!

France really likes its strikes. I think I've mentioned this before. Some of them are really annoying - like the strikes on the metro and the trains and Air France. Others are ridiculously funny. One of the funny ones took place this Wednesday. The medical interns in Paris and the surrounding areas went on strike. I'm not sure what exactly they were striking for - something about no choice in where they work and the privatization of health care. What they did, though, was to put on their white lab coats with signs saying "interns on strike" and march through one of the main streets in Paris. They filled the streets! Every 100 meters or so they had a truck playing music, or a Stanford-style marching band (complete with painted tubas). It looked more like a party than a strike, to be honest. My favorite part (which I did not photograph, sadly) was one of them wearing a sign that said "future doctor" with a cigarette in one hand and a 2 liter of Coca-Cola in the other.

On Thursday morning, I tagged along with another Stanford class up to la Basilisque de Saint Denis, one of the patron saints of Paris. I've seen a good number of churches in and around Paris all of a sudden, and this one is my favorite. The walls are almost all stained glass windows, with really vibrant colors and images. It also is historically the burial ground of French kings and their family, so in the crypt and around the front of the church there are lots of varied memorials to centuries of French kings, queens and progeny. Including Marie Antoinette, although hers is not particularly elaborate...

Friday afternoon I went to a very chic salon de thé called Angela across from the Tuileries where (apparently) all of the Parisian socialites used to take their afternoon tea, though it's now a bit of a tourist attraction. I ordered my first Parisian café au lait and my friend Jennifer who I went with ordered their signature tea. We felt very sophisticated sitting there in this beautiful room.

Saturday afternoon, I went to Vaux-le-Vicomte with Jennifer. Vaux-le-Vicomte is a very beautiful château south-east of Paris built by Louis XIV's financial minster. Louis XIV was so impressed by its elegance that he arrested his finance minister to take possession of the château himself, and then proceeded to hire the same architects to design a new château specifically for himself (Versailles).

The grounds at Vaux-le-Vicomte are stunning. There's this pool probably about a half mile out from the château that was built to be a mirror for the building. Very cool.

The inside is also gorgeous - all the wood is painted with flowers and most of the walls have these exquisite tapestries hanging all over them. I have discovered since coming to Paris that I really rather like tapestries... I don't have a very good picture of the tapestries off my camera, but if I ever get around to taking pictures from other people's cameras I will post one!