Wesh, mon frère

Creepy, huh?

Well apparently, the catacombes underneath Paris hold the bones of millions of people. That's a lot of skeletons. And nightmares. Like I said: creepy. I thought it was a very interesting part of French history, but I definitely would not advise those with weak constitutions to venture down into the skull-lined tunnels. If you enjoy morbid quotes, however, I strongly recommend a visit. There are plaques all around the tunnels with sayings from several authors. Here's one of my favorites:

"Pensez le matin que vous n'irez peut être pas jusques au soir et au soir que vous n'irez peut être pas jusques au matin."

or:

"Think in the morning that you might not make it to the night, and at night that you might not make it to morning."


I made the trip to the "empire of the dead" this past Thursday with a friend of mine from class. We had already eaten lunch, but I still had a couple hours to kill before my academic meeting with the IES director. So knowing the catacombs were only about 5 or 10 minutes from the IES center, I suggested a trip.

This is pretty much how the past week has gone for me. With my days of free time slowly slipping away before the start of classes, I tried to get out more and see the city. I've probably been down to Place St. Michel and the surrounding district four or five times now, but it's just such an interesting area. My host father told me he wasn't surprised. He said it's kind of like Picadilly Circus in London, only better (because it's in Paris?). Place St. Michel has a great big fountain and lots of pubs and restaurants that tourists adore. It also happens to be located in the famous Latin Quarter. So you can't go wrong with a visit here.

On Friday, all the IES students and staff met for an official welcome lunch at the Eiffel Tower. It's really hard to describe in words or capture in a picture just how huge the tower is. It's incredibly impressive. I had seen it off in the distance many times since I arrived in Paris, but I waited to actually visit there until the welcome lunch. And I'm definitely glad I chose to do so.

After snapping some obligatory "on top of the world" photos, I headed down to the street with a group of IESers to take a tour of the city on one of those big, red, double-decker buses. It was nice to be able to see so many sights without lifting a foot. Just sit back, relax, and take in the city. Also, the head phones they gave us let us listen to the tour in not only English or French, but also Spanish, Japanese, and Russian. Which always makes things more interesting, right?

Sunday was the "Journée de la Patrimoine" (or something like "Heritage Day"), so just about all the national monuments and museums in Paris were open for touring. I hit up the Place des Vosges, only a 20-30 minute walk from my apartment. There, I visited the home of Victor Hugo, world famous French author. If you've seen the Hunchback of Notre-Dame, you know his work. It was pretty interesting. I mean, it's a house. So I don't know how interesting it can be. Granted, it was in an awesome area of Paris, and Victor Hugo was an amazing author. But I can only handle so many historically-acurate sitting rooms and parlors.

Which must be why I proceeded straight to the Musée Carnavalet, located in an old palace in the Marais district. In case you're wondering, this museum is pretty much the same as the Victor Hugo home, just with fewer pictures of Mr. Hugo, and more portraits of the aristocracy. So needless to say, I didn't stay long. I did, however, manage to take quite a few pictures at both places. And to prove to you that I actually went there, I made it a challenge for me to take as many self-portraits as I could in the many mirrors lining the walls of the museums:

Left: In the Maison de Victor Hugo.

Right: In the Musée Carnavalet

Before my adventures in old-living-room-land, my host brother taught me my new favorite phrase in French: Wesh, mon frère. It's the equivalent of "Yo, my brother" in English. But, as Nathou put it (in French), "If you happened to be in the suburbs in the 80s or 90s, you might have heard people saying this." Apparently, it sounds ridiculous to the French today. Which is why I made a vow to use this expression as often as possible. I greeted the family with a jolly wesh this evening before dinner, and my host mother told me I sounded very French. Score.

I officially started my classes today. Woot woot. My schedule says I should have had my Internship Seminar this morning, but since the internships haven't actually started yet, that was not the case. So after arriving at the IES center nice and early, I found myself with about 2 hours to kill before my only other class. So I sat in the lounge, eating pain au chocolat, drinking apple juice, and reading a Lucky Luke comic book. And let me tell you: Lucky Luke may have been written in the 50s, but it's damn funny. Or at least as funny as a French comic book about a cowboy in the Wild West can be. I finished the tale of Lucky Luke and the bandit Phil Defer, then headed to class. The subject: Questions of Aesthetics, or the Philosophy of Art. It should be pretty darn interesting.

The rest of today, I've just been catching up on some writing -- in my journal, on here, and on some post cards. I'm going to try to hit the hay early tonight, as my Translation course starts at 9 am tomorrow. Oh, and my only other class tomorrow -- Political Life in the European Union -- doesn't start until about 4:00, so let's hope I find something worthwhile to fill my time with.

I'll be putting up some pictures of the past week sometime soon. And yes, there will be more skeletons. And more self-portraits in 18th century mirrors. Stay tuned.

Happy Travels,
-- Cody