FINALEMENT À PARIS

I'M IN PARIS I'M IN PARIS I'M IN PARIS I'M IN PARIS

More on that later.  First off, this is what I ate for lunch today.

It was ridiculously nommable.  It is a gyro-style sandwich and fries. There is mayonnaise and mustard on the side.  This so far has been the most calorie-ridden meal I've had.  

After lunch in Compiègne, we loaded our luggage onto the bus and headed to the Château de Compiègne, the Compiègne Castle.  The castle was built by one of the King Louis's but I don't remember which.  Marie Antoinette and her hubs used it as a vacation home, as well as Napoléan through Napoléan III.  It was definitely legit.  I took a few pictures, but none of them were very good. 

We finally headed toward Paris by bus.  I was anxious to meet my family, and everyone got super excited when we took the scenic route as we entered the city; the driver made sure to pass by the Eiffel Tower and through the busiest quartiers.  We unloaded at Reid Hall, the campus where we will be attending class, and walked into a big room with chips and drinks set up on a table.  Some anxious looking people of various ages were standing around, and slowly people started making connections and finding their host families.  A man who looked to be in his seventies, with grey hair and a grey beard, dark bushy eyebrows, came up to me and said my name cautiously: "Ranohn?"  I didn't really understand that he was trying to say my name, but luckily my new friend Chelsea (more on her later, she is the BEST) realized what was happening and corrected him.  "Her name is Rhiannon."  And so that was my introduction to my host dad (or grandpa in this case), Jean-Charles.  He was dressed in a black t-shirt tucked into some old khakis, and he was wearing flip flops.  My kinda guy.  He loaded my luggage into his OLD car (SERIOUSLY REALLY OLD CAR I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT KIND IT IS) and we inched into busy Parisian traffic.

We had a nice chat, if a bit awkward, on the way to their apartment.  We talked about our families, my school, just basic info.  The best quote from the ride was this: "Nous habitons à Belleville; nous avons tous les couleurs, tous les réligions, mais nous sommes toujours confortables.  Nous n'avons jamais peur."  He said, "We live here in Belleville, with all the colors and religions of people of the world, but it is never dangerous or scary."  It was cool to hear that everyone lives in harmony and that all the ethnicities in the community co-existed vibrantly and prosperously.  

He helped me take my luggage up to the fourth floor (NO ELEVATOR UP IN HERE) and we entered the little apartment.  His wife greeted me warmly, and I noticed that she was wearing swim shoes.  I have no idea why.  I think she uses them as house shoes.  This particular observation is really indicative of their general quirkiness.  They have cassette tapes filling the shelves of their bathroom.  They listen to opera on the radio and own no TV.  Their apartment is not air conditioned.  They just got back from spending three weeks in their country home outside Paris, and spent time in the Czech Republic and Slovakia during vacation time as well.  Their son (26 years old, lives on his own) is working on his doctorate and is writing his thesis on techno music.  He is a pianist and composer.  My host grandpa is a retired economics and sociology professor, and my host grandma is a retired state employee.  

I got settled in my room and Anne had me come in the kitchen to teach me how to make a crepe.  She said it'd be useful for me to know so I wouldn't have to buy the expensive ones from street vendors.  She showed me how to mix everything together then told me I'd learn how to cook them later.  We sat down to dinner and ate tomatoes from their garden for our first course, then shared a huge gratin with cheeses and zucchini for the entree.  They brought out eleventy billion types of cheeses that we nibbled on with bread as we talked about the upcoming semester, and then Anne told me she'd teach me how to make the crepes.  She showed me how to light their gas stove, and made the most perfect crepe I have ever seen come into existence.  And then.  Oh. My. Gosh.  She melted chocolate candy bars in a pot, and added a bunch of cream so it wouldn't get hard when it cooled.  She poured that on the crepe. THEN.  She got out vanilla ice cream!  I almost fainted.  I sat down to my crèpe parfait and savored every last bite.  It was SO GOOD.

The lighting wasn't good enough when I got here to take good pictures of the apartment, so I'm hoping to get some good snapshots of my crib tomorrow morning, as well as a few shots of the neighborhood and of Jean-Charles and Anne.  After a quick French class tomorrow morning, we're headed to the Louvre museum! I'm so pumped!

Thanks everyone for reading.  I'll probably post again tomorrow.  A tout à l'heure!

Peace, love, and Paris,

Rhiannon