Living, Eating, and Sightseeing

So I realized that I haven't really shown you (whoever it is that's actually reading this ha ha) where I'm living. I staying in a homestay with a retired woman in an apartment in a suburb (banlieue) just outside of Paris called Montrouge. The apartment building is really tall and fairly modern looking.

Here's my room.

The kitchen

The bathroom

The shower (in France they generally have the shower and the toilet in two separate rooms)

Sorry this turned out to be a pretty bad picture, but I don't want to walk back through the apartment with my camera again...it was awkward enough the first time.

I eat breakfast at home everyday before I leave which usually consists of toast or cereal, tea, and fruit (in my case usually a clementine). For lunch on days when I don't have very much time I walk down the street from my school and grab a crepe, a sandwich, or some sushi to go. When I have more time I go with some friends to Cité Universitaire to eat in the university cafeteria. It's basically a university campus without an actual school. There are dorms separated by nationality (a American building, Mexican building, Japanese building, etc.), a cafeteria, a post office, tennis courts, etc. It's super cheap and pretty decent food. For students you can get a main dish (usually I get pasta because the other options contain meat), a starter (a salad, fruit, etc.), a dessert (yogurt or mousse usually), and bread for 3 euros. It's a really good deal considering that most sandwiches cost 3.50-4 euros alone.

I eat dinner with my host mom three times a week. When we eat together we usually start with whatever the hot portion of our meal is, which has included: soup, cauliflower with cheese, potatoes and leeks, brussel sprouts, ratatouille, or spaghetti. Then we eat salad which is just lettuce with some oil, vinegar, and salt. After salad comes the cheese. Generally there are two different varities of cheese and you eat it alone or with bread. After the cheese is dessert which can be fruit, pie, pudding, etc. And of course with everything you drink wine (but I sneak in a few glasses of water along the way too). When I'm not eating with my host mom I usually cook something easy for myself at home or go out with friends. So far the food is good, but I'm definitely getting a little bit sick of French food all the time. I've been craving mexican food because I eat it a lot at home, but haven't really found much here yet...still on my to-do list. I did find "guacamole" at the grocery store a couple days ago, but it didn't taste like any guacamole I had ever tasted.

On Monday I decided that I needed to do more sightseeing, so I've made a list of places I need to go and I plan to do at least two things each week (if not more). On Monday afternoon my friend and I tried to go to Musee Jeu de Paume to see a photography exhibit. Unfortunately it was closed, so we just walked along the Champs-Élysées (a really famous street by the Arc de Triomphe).

Yesterday I had the afternon free so I decided to go to Sacre Coeur (a basilica on the top of a hill in Montmartre). It was one of my favorite places last time I was here, so I was super excited. I got off the metro stop at Pigalle (which turned out to be one stop away from where I actually wanted to be) and was met with an area that I wasn't really expecting. To put it lightly I have never seen that many "adult shops" in my life...interesting area. To make it even worse I had to use the bathroom. One of the bad things about Paris is that bathrooms are kind of hard to find. There aren't bathrooms in metro stations and there aren't places like a gas station or a grocery store that you can just go in and use the bathroom like in the US. There are, however, these futuristic restroom things on the street sometimes that you can use free of charge. I had no choice but to use one yesterday, so I just bit the bullet. It's definitely not something I'd recommend doing, but it could have been worse.

(My experience was during the day- read: not as creepy as it could have been-
 I took this picture at a different time)

Anyway, after my bathroom/adult district experience, I finally saw Sacre Coeur in the distance.

I think Sacre Coeur may be my favorite place in the whole city.

The outside is incredibly beautiful, but the inside is just unbelievable. Unfortuately they don't allow pictures inside the basilica, but you should definitely look up some pictures online because it's amazing! I'll definitely be going back to visit many times.

After I had finished at Sacre Coeur I still had some time so I decided to head over to Notre Dame. I went to Notre Dame last time I was in Paris and had already seen the outside this time, but I figured I needed to go inside as well. In my opinion it's definitely not as pretty as Sacre Coeur, but obviously it's still an amazing building.

 Joan of Arc

 Love the fleur-de-lis!

Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with my sightseeing goals! I think this weekend is going to be climbing the Arc de Triomphe and going to the Louvre. Wish me luck!


I rediscovered my love for quotes today...so I'm going to be including one in each post! Enjoy!


“When I was young, I thought confidence could be earned with perfection. Now I know that you don’t earn it; you claim it. And you do that by loving the wacky, endlessly optimistic, enthusiastically uninhibited free spirit that is the essence of style, the quintessence of heart, and uniquely YOU.” ~ Cecelie Berry, writer