Paris is a big city, but it never feels overwhelmingly so. Perhaps this is because, unlike NYC for instance, there are no gigantic skyscrapers within the city center (except for the hideous Tour Montparnasse). Mostly, the buildings are the same height, the boulevards are the same width, and they all seem to extend on until they reach an open space: either a "place" or a monument or something like that. The reason this is the case, some might know, is because in the 19th century, the Baron Haussmann sort of reinvented the city. He designed what we now know as the typically Parisian-style building, and this idea of the boulevards. Think Champs Elysées—that's basically the stereotypical example of exactly what he wanted: a boulevard of identical buildings that opens up on the Arc de Triomphe. Not just that, but 13 boulevards just like that meet at the Arc de Triomphe, giving it the name "Place de l'étoile" (because it makes a star-shaped intersection) and also making it one of the most dangerous intersections I could imagine.
But Haussmann didn't make all of Paris look like that, as anyone who has actually been to Paris and seen places other than the Champs Elysées knows. He actually couldn't, because in demolishing older buildings to make way for the newer ones, he found things he wasn't expecting: Roman arenas, medieval houses, ruins of all sorts, etc. In some cases, the people in each little neighborhood (the neighborhoods of Paris are now called "arrondissements" by the way) actually signed petitions to stop him from demolishing their cultural heritage. Now, there are national monuments, historically significant parts of Paris that are protected by the government. One of the reasons Paris now has a very eclectic, layered look. What I mean by that is, you can take a tour of a section of Paris (take the Marais for example), in which you pass by Medieval houses (you can recognize them because they're tall and thin, look a little angular, and aren't made of the same material as other buildings), Renaissance buildings (that generally have two entryways, and gardens on the inside), Haussmann-style buildings, modern buildings, and even in some cases, remnants from Paris' first Roman incarnation, known today as Lutèce. I learned all this from my own tours of Paris through my study abroad program and a class I took at a Parisian University. The development of Paris is really quite a fascinating topic. One of the other students in my cohort at Princeton, Macs, studies the representations of these sorts of phenomenons in literature.
Anyway, I don't know why I bothered mentioning that, because it's not relevant. Justine's part of Paris, where I'm staying, is nothing like that. It's an eclectic group of new buildings, arranged kind of like the rest of the city, but not really the same at all. Just walking around it today, you can tell that this is a part of Paris where real Parisians actually live, without having to deal with camera-bearing tourists of every nationality at every minute. There are no crowds, no monuments, just food shops, local businesses, the lovely park, and that's about it. About a ten minute walk is the Place d'Italie, a famous shopping center with a movie theater I believe. But, this is a residential neighborhood, making it actually really nice for me. I can do my grocery shopping (since I now have a kitchen that is about 1000 times bigger than what I had in Avignon that summer), read books, and then go to the library when I need to. But, it's actually fascinating to see a part of Paris that is like a real city, and not a glorified outdoor museum. When I was studying abroad, I didn't have to worry about my own food (my host family provided dinner 5 nights a week and breakfast every morning), didn't have to go to banks or anything, and so even though I was living in Paris, I wasn't really living in Paris.
So, I never really got to have days like today. I woke up, had my cereal, went outside and saw a "marché en plein air" right across the street. These open-air markets are in every French textbook, and I've been to some, but I've never bought anything since I didn't need to. Today, I was just staring at all the fresh fruits (which look slightly different), cheeses, meats, etc. when one of the sellers asked if I wanted anything. I said that I wasn't sure, so he offered me samples. Lots of them! I tried cherries, strawberries, and then bought packs of both. They were delicious! I went over to the cheese seller, who was extremely nice. I told him that I had never bought anything at one of these markets before, that I had just arrived in France, and he sold me crazy amounts of cheese for just 5 euros! Leaving with my hands very full, he called out "see you next week!" (in French of course)
My fresh strawberries, cherries, and cheese!
My lunch today was fruit and cheese. I would have had something more substantial (I was planning on having something more substantial), but it was just so good I wanted to eat it fresh. Then, I headed over to the park and read. There are so many families in this neighborhood, and so many children! The park was packed, kids running back and forth, parents chasing them, grandparents falling asleep on benches. I love hearing little children speak French—it's amazing to see that they do exactly what I did when I was little, but in a different language. They were playing freeze tag, for instance, and the game has a totally different vocabulary in French, which I just learned today. It was sunny, but not too hot, and there was a woman with a music machine singing for the children. It was very serene.
I don't want to write for much longer, but I'll just say a few more things that I found:
1) An Italian market—I bought some homemade pasta and cookies!
2) Three supermarkets within walking distance.
3) A bus that goes straight to Berthillon and back (I'll pretend I didn't find it though—something tells me that will ruin my ice cream diet as it will eliminate most of the walking)
4) A library
5) Smaller, cuter gardens
6) A non-famous church!! (as far as I know)
7) A center dedicated to Louisiana and francophones in America
8) A specialty tea store, where they had packets of mint/rose tea. Very sweet, but very good!!
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