JudySmileWide

Monday was a cool day. Tash had her first class (I don’t have class on a Monday… Or Friday, for that matter) but I went with her because we South Africans stick together! SciencesPO is kinda like Wits: there are different buildings with many labelled rooms (sometimes arbitrary labels… As anyone who’s ever had a class in John Moffat will agree). There’s one difference though: SciencesPo’s campus is a suburb, not a separated area. You walk to class down the street. It’s pretty awesome, considering St-Germain is one of the most beautiful areas in the city. It’s a crazy expensive shopping area (Ralph Lauren and Armani are just around the corner - not that Tash and I know anything about fashion) but it still reeks of old-world Paris.

Tash introduced me to Marco after class, her hot (I mean charming) Mexican friend. The exchange students are both friendly and easy to spot: confused, disorientated, complaining about the weather. Hopefully we’ll soon begin to fit right in.

After meeting Marco we decided to walk around a really beautiful suburb called the Marais. It’s got a really high Jewish population, which means that many of the shops are Kosher and there are very serious memorials to Jewish Holocaust victims dotted around. The streets are winding and cramped with bistro tables and pedestrians, but it’s truly beautiful.

We accidentally stepped into a gallery (it was mainly to get out of the drizzle), but as with anything in the Marais, it became a mistake we would not regret. The gallery itself hosts 20 artists from around the world, and asks them to work in specific formats so people can easily buy the completely unique works. The girl who works in the store was so nice to us, and although she spoke English, she decided to explain the concept of the gallery to us in very slow French to help us build our vocab. We’re definitely going back there to practice our French :)

After that Tash and I missioned to one of the most famous falafel places in the city, aptly named “La Falafel”. A sign on the door says that Lenny Kravitz recommends it, and if that’s not a great draw, I don’t know what is :) after asking for a table for 2 (one of the only things we can ask for in French) we were led through the crowded joint to a tiny table in a room that had more Jewish nick-knacks and paraphernalia than we could count. Sharing delicious falafel and icy lemonade in that place was definitely a cool experience. Totally recommend a visit if you’re ever in the area. After going shopping in a cute novelty store nearby, we headed home.

This is a really long post already, but just one more thing. Tuesday was great too. We did two exciting things: 1) went for hot chocolate at Café le Deux Magots, one of the most famous spots in the city. Around the corner from our varsity, it’s super-fame comes from the fact that lots of famous people hung out there in the 1920s (Picasso, Satre, Hemingway). It’s very Midnight-In-Paris, with red velvet curtains and crystal chandeliers. The hot chocolate itself was probably sourced from Willy Wonka’s river (only that would explain its glorious flavour), and we had a great time even though the waiter “Englished” us (spike English to us when we spoke French to him). The number 2) exciting thing we did was go to our first philosophy class, but I should probably end here. I kinda have to run to a History lecture :)

Yesterday was eventful. Tash and I met up with Mikael - our philosophy friend from Wits who’s currently on a Contiki tour around Europe. They had one day in Paris - how fun to spend it with us!

After meeting at Notre Dame, the locals (being us) took the tourists (being them) to Champs-Élysées on the metro - we bought them tickets and it was legal and everything! The five of us (Mik and his two Canadian buddies from the tour) walked up the beautiful touristy boulevard, bought ice-cream at Haagen-Daas, took touristy photos of the Arc and sang beautiful songs under it on the ukelele (a video will soon go viral of this wondrous event).

I bought a beautiful coat at H&M. The sale is OFF THE CHAIN, YO. So amazing, it makes you speak in rapper-talk. We spent a lot of time in Nike and Adidas stores because boys are stupid and are into sports and stuff. After a respite at our apartment, Tash & I joined them for drinks and embarrassing dancing at O’Sullivans, the club/cesspool next door to the Moulin Rouge. We walked home, and thanks to Tash’s great sense of direction, made it back alive. No really. She kinda saved our lives.

Today was mainly spent recuperating and trying to remember what happened last night (we seriously just remembered something totally random and embarrassing). Good times with good friends. Here’s to sticking together and being safe while still living life to max capacity. Woooooooooooooop!

This afternoon Wendy (the most awesome lady ever ever) invited us to lunch at this awesome Lebanese place near UNESCO (that’s where she works… Refer to previous comment about her awesomeness). It was really wonderful :) we had falafel wraps - like Anat, but way better. We had tiny desserts and mint tea (on the house… Yes!).

On the way back home, we were suddenly struck with the urge to pass by Notre Dame. You know, just one of those things we Parisians do. We took very touristy photos outside, had to fight off Americans to take a photo at Point Zero (a marker from which all distances in Paris used to be measured), and sat for a while in the cathedral. It really is epic! Pillars draw your eyes upwards, as if to remind you to look up more often. Didn’t go up the towers today cuz it was windy and drizzly. But one day soon!

We also stopped by a beautiful little flea market place. Cheap crap, but cheap crap in Paris :)

Hopefully we’ll see Kyle and Mikael later :)

This morning Tash and I decided to explore our neighbourhood a bit. We discovered that, in addition to the two grocery stores right below our apartment, there is also a sizeable fresh fruit, veggie, meat, seafood and cheese market (the Marché St Martin) just around the corner. We spent half and hour and €20 chatting to Eric, the fresh fruit guy. He knows that we are South African students because that’s all we can say in French. He gave us a quick lesson on the French names for fruit, laughed when we finally explains we wanted an eggplant (AUBERGINE! Ohhhhhh!) and even gave us a free pineapple (ananas). I also taught him to say “naartjie” instead of clementine :)

What a great guy. What a great place! He made us promise we’d go back tomorrow. Maybe there’ll be more free stuff!!

Much love to everyone. Life is beautiful! There are some more photos of us around Paris.

Wolves Cafe (just past the Wanderer’s) is the cutest little coffee, cake, & croissants place around. Although it’s further from the quaint Post in Braam and the trendy Vovo Telo at 44 Stanley (at least for us South kids), Wolves has a chilled vibe of its own.

Warren, Adam and I spent 3 hours here today, playing very loud games of UNO and 30 Seconds. The wait staff are friendly (as well as easy on the eyes), the place is cool and cramped in a comfortable way, and everything on the small menu is delicious and totally open to your personal re-arrangement (I’m pretty sure they’d put anything on a croissant if you asked nicely). They’re really chilled about catering or parties or lunches, too.

I give ample credit to Josh for bringing me here last year - it’s on my faves list for sure. Give Wolves a go! Just don’t leave without a red velvet cupcake - you’ll sorely regret it.

Wolves Cafe
4 Corlett Drive
(011) 4472360