A Minnesotan in Paris: Part 1

As it is already well known, a couple of weeks ago I left lovely Italia and headed up north to neighboring France, Paris to be exact. Evan decided to compete in an international music competition there, and I couldn't miss the opportunity to take only an hour long plane ride to meet him.

We both arrived at Charles de Gaulle, but on (obviously) separate planes and him without a cell phone. We had a plan in place that I would try to meet him at his gate, but in lieu of that, we would meet at the train station that is attached to the airport. For those who haven't been to CDG airport, it isn't set up at all how I am used to, with three different terminals and terminal 2 consisting of areas 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, etc. All of these different areas had arrival and departure boards only for the flights in their specific section and information desks also only equipped with information on the flights in that section of the airport and with no centralized entrance or information center (at least that I found). It turned out that there were, as well, TWO different train stations, therefore ruining even our backup plan. After walking around trying to find Evan's gate, I headed over to the train station and decided to sit down and stay in one place. Fortunately, only fifteen minutes or so after I sat down, Evan found me there.

Living room in Nanterre

From this station we took a train into Paris and then transferred to another that took us just outside the city to the suburb of Nanterre. There I had arranged for us to stay with a couple in their house through a website (so kindly brought to my attention by Mary Beth!). Once there, we called our host, Randall, who came to meet us at the station to get us back to the apartment where he and his wife, Monique, live. Randall helped us figure out which transportation pass was the best value for our needs, helped us buy it, and then gave us a quick tour of Nanterre. Randall is a native of Montreal in Quebec, while Monique is originally from Normandy, so it was really perfect to be able to talk to both of them, making sure we understood everything through Randall and then clumsily practicing our French with Monique. Soon after we arrived there, we ended up having to leave again so that Evan could get to a practice session with an accompanist in another Paris suburb.  We ended up navigating there successfully, although a little late, and had the pleasure of meeting David, a very nice man and a really excellent musician. After returning to Nanterre, we cooked ourselves a simple dinner at home with food that we had bought at the grocery store accompanied by, of course, French wine.

The next morning, Evan practiced a bit in the morning, so I took breakfast upon myself and headed into Nanterre center to find a patisserie. There I bought us a croissant aux amande (with almonds) and a pain au chocolat and brought them back to the house to have with some good ol' Starbucks Via (donated by the lovely Margaret Mills) that I had brought along. Happy with our breakfast, caffeinated, with a list of things to see as well as our trusty map, we headed into Paris. Getting off at Charles de Gaulle-Étoile stop, we headed up the stairs to start our day at one end of Avenue des Champs-Élysées at the Arc de Triomphe. It was really a wonderful introduction to Paris to see such an iconic monument and a great place to start our exploration. Not stopping there, we decided to head over towards the Eiffel Tower. It sure doesn't disappoint, that's for sure. That being said, the crowds of tourists and almost as many people selling various sizes of Eiffel Tower souvenirs, made it difficult to stick around longer than the time it took to take a couple pictures. We headed down towards the Seine, we and crossed it to walk under the tour but decided save some money and time in long lines, and we skipped the elevator trip to the top.

From the Parc du Champs de Mars in front of the tower, we continued our course, only slightly planned and crossed over the river again on the beautiful Pont Alexandre III towards the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais that both have free art exhibitions. Unfortunately the Grand Palais ended up being closed, but we aren't particular palace snobs so we were more than happy to head across the street and saw the exhibition at the Petit Palais.  From there we reconnected to the Champs-Élysées continued down to end where we found the gold tipped Obélisque, framed by two black and gold fountains.

Point Alexandre III

Le petit palais

At this point in the day, we decided to head back to the Arc, where nearby there is the main concert hall for the Orchestre de Paris. Early that morning, we had researched online whether or not there was a concert and found that there would be one that evening and that there is a special youth price of only 10euro for those under 26 years. We couldn't pass this up, so we got our tickets an hour before the concert and had just enough time to grab a sandwich at a nearby café before the concert started at 8pm. The orchestra was really incredible, playing an Beethoven overture, a violin concerto by Alban Berg, and finally Beethoven's 4th symphony. Satisfied but tired--as you should be on vacation--we took the train back to Nanterre and almost immediately headed to bed.

At the Obélisque

The next morning, we kept our routine: tuba practice, breakfast from patisserie, train into Paris. This time we got off at the Paris Opera, where we tried to take a tour that included a view of the hall, however, a rehearsal kept us from seeing it. From the opera we got a little lost a couple time, found ourselves a couple times, making our way slowly up to the Montmatre district. There we found the Moulin Rouge, which I have to admit was quite disappointing. We continued up to the big hill of this artist district, home to the studios of artists such as Dalì and Monet reaching the Place de Tetre, filled with colorful umbrellas and works of modern Parisian artists. Past the square, we found Sacre Coeur, the lovely cathedral looking over all of Paris like a guardian. We stopped for a few minutes for an espresso back in Place de Tetre, costly at that, but not too much considering the environment that you are really paying to enjoy.

Sacre Coeur

In front of the Paris Opera

We made our way down the hill back towards the Seine. Here we stopped by the Musée d'Orsay and then crossing over the bridge to the Louvre. We were planning on taking part in the special Friday evening hours and free youth admission from 6-9pm, so we walked around and explored the huge palace courtyard before we went into see the famous collections. We found only one flaw in our plan of the day: we were so tired from all of our walking, that by evening it was hard to focus of the great works that we were seeing. We did, however, with strength and great courage see a good deal of the collections offered. Afterwards, we had a quick (and incidentally our only) dinner out where I tried the restaurants croque madame, while Evan had the classic steak frites with a Belgium beer. Very happy and very full, we made our way back to a train station and back to Nanterre.

Louvre

To come: the competition and another day in Paris before heading off the the mountains!

Carnevale a Venezia

The Sunday before departing for Paris, I went with a couple friends to Venezia to see the famous Carnivale celebration. Similar to Mardi Gras, Carnivale is a ten day festival that ends on Fat Tuesday, the day before the beginning of the Lenten season. Many Italian cities celebrate, however the most famous Carnivale is that of Venezia. Originally I wanted to find accommodations for a night or two so that I could really get the full experience, but in the end it didn't work out. Fortunately there are numerous trains to and from Venezia from Milano, so I decided to just take the first and last train of the day to try and see as much as I could.
The first train ended up being at 7:25am, so I got up early to go to meet the friends at the main station. We ended up barely finding places to sit on the crowded train as Italy's regional trains don't have assigned places nor an assigned number of tickets that they will sell for a specific train. This usually works out well and allows for more flexibility if you change your mind or miss your planned train, however for this particular trip it ended up being a huge problem. At about two stops into the ride, the train was completely full of people going to Venezia, with another ten or so stops to go. Even though there was absolutely no available space, the train stopped at every stop and for a long period of time. By the end, our journey time increased from the normal 3 hours to 4 hours.

Marco and Katie

The streets filled to capacity

We did, however finally arrive and the initial sight was immediately rewarding. As you step out of the Santa Lucia station, you are facing the Grand Canal and the beautiful Venetian streets and buildings. This time, we were facing the same beauty, but with streets and bridges completely full of people in costumes, with faces painted or masked. The energy was really quite incredible.

Katie and I decided to stop at one of the numerous stands to get our faces painted by the young artists of Venezia as we made our way walking through the crowded streets toward the eventual destination of Piazza San Marco. One of the things I love the most about Venezia is that even as one of the most visited towns in Italia, how easy it is to find yourself alone with the canals and old churches by just taking a quick turn off the main routes. This held true even during this especially busy day. Whenever we wanted a break from the claustrophobic conditions, we just ducked around a random corner or over a small bridge and found ourselves almost alone. It is infamously easy to get lost in that city, but most of the time, you don't mind.

After a few hours of getting lost and then finding the chaotic crowds again, we made it to the even more chaotic Piazza San Marco, the true belly of the beast. The Carnivale Veneziana is historically based in the masked festivals from hundreds of years ago. The masks gave the opportunity to disguise social classes and allow everyone to be equals for at least a couple days. Now it is an occasion for which those who live in and around Venezia work almost year round on intricate traditional costumes and masks (as well as the more non-traditional, including a family of Smurfs and Shrek with Fiona). We had enough time for a circle around the Piazza before taking a different route back to the station with enough time to get a seat for the long ride home. We were very lucky again to have found seats as the train was very full again.  It took another long 4-4.5 hours to get back to Milano, finishing with a total of 8-8.5 hours of travel for about 4 hours in Venezia. Next Carnivale I might just work a bit harder to find accommodations and avoid taking trains twice in one day, but I'm very glad to have experienced this huge Italian festival all the same.

Toscana con degli amici

Through this class, I have been lucky to find a couple intelligent, nice, like-minded people to hang out with! As you know, I went to Torino with Katie, an American girl from Minnesota (of all places) who is here with her Italian boyfriend, Marco. One of the other people from my class that I'm getting to know better is Ieva, a girl from Latvia who is living here with her Italian husband. He teaches in Pisa every Saturday, so one day Ieva invited Katie and I to come along and drive down there to spend the day. I agreed with no hesitation, as did Katie.
So off we went, Saturday morning at the lovely hour of 5:30am for the two and a half hour drive from Lombardia to Liguria and finally to Toscana. After a quick breakfast at a cafè, we left Ieva's husband, Lorenzo, at the school and set out to take some pictures of the famous torre pendente--leaning tower--and the beautiful Piazza dei Miracoli--miracles--and then took a walk around town. It really is quite a beautiful, quaint town but after a couple of hours we were out of things to do without spending money on museums. Since we had a car with us, we had the option of going to see another town, so we decided to drive to the nearby town of Lucca. I had heard from a couple people that is was a beautiful town, so I was completely content with our plan.


Lucca is a city similar to Ferrara in that it is still completely walled. On top of the walls there is a beautiful, wide pathway with plenty of people biking, walking, and running. The town itself was simply stunning. It is now one of my favorite Italian towns that I have been able to visit. The streets are narrow and bustling with people going to stores, cafès, or restaurants. We walked up to the top of one of the towers in the town that was unique because of the trees they had growing on the top. From there we got to see a wide, clear panoramic of the city and surrounding hills.

Katie, Marco, Ieva

A statue of Giacomo Puccini near his house

We stopped for lunch and I must say that the food was some of the best I've had as well, or at least the most suited to my taste, with choices such as lentil and spinach soup and pasta with rabbit ragù. I ended up with the soup and was not disappointed. After a little more meandering, we drove back to Pisa to regroup before deciding to make one more stop before the return to Milano. We made a quick, 30 minute drive to see the small ocean town of Viareggio. The town wasn't anything special, but it was an opportunity to see the ocean, even if it was right after the sun went down. All in all a great day with an opportunity to see three different places in Toscana as well as getting to know people from different places in the world!

Here in Milano, just had my second exam at school that (hopefully) went well! Giovanna's has been nice enough to cook some tasty Thai food twice in the past week for Livio, her, and me with the skills she's acquired from some cooking classes her in Milano! I got to go with her to shop for the ingredients at the market and then watch a bit of the process--as much as I like Italian food, a change in flavors was very welcome!
The girls are finally feeling back to 100% and the family is getting ready to head to the mountains for a week. I won't be joining them as I will be taking my own trip next Wednesday to Paris to find a certain Minnesotan!