Post #10

School work is starting to increase. I can’t really make a comparison with the work I did at UNC because the structure of academics is so different here. In one of my classes, (“Reporting on France”) we have had two speakers. The one from last week was the former New York Times Paris bureau chief. She talked to us for the entire class (two hours) about her work, her view of newspapers today, advice for us, etc. It was very cool. The speaker on Friday was a woman who teaches French etiquette classes to diplomats and businessmen, but she has also started a project with a group that helps young people in the banlieues (French for “suburbs,” but particularly in Paris, it has the connotation of the poorest, roughest neighborhoods where a lot of the civil unrest on TV is from.) We have had to write stories on both of these presentations. This is very different than my other reporting classes, which are the press release/police report/ news article types of stories.
Yesterday I went to the Marche d’Alligre. This is a market that is known for retaining a traditional street market feel. It sells mainly produce, but there are also antiques, clothes, flowers, seafood…It was very different, people yelling at you to try their oranges or sell you yellow flowers. I was a little intimidated at first, (not really like Harris Teeter. At all.) but I did buy some apples and a cucumber.
I also decided to visit Ile St-Louis yesterday. This is the (very tiny) island in the Seine next to the Ile de la Cite (where Notre Dame is.) I hadn’t been to it yet. There aren’t any metro stops on the island and I walked from one end to the other in about 15 minutes. I only counted two stop lights. You can see Notre Dame quite clearly from the island. The island is a very in-demand real estate location, simply because it is so small and exclusive (I also don’t think I saw any beggars on the island, a nice change.) There were a lot of tourists, not because of the sites, as there are none, but simply because the island is very “old Paris”-- narrow, cobblestone streets, with old buildings (unlike many Parisian buildings which were torn down and rebuilt in the mid-19th century.) I even saw policemen on horses stopped at one of the stoplights! Everyone was eating ice cream because the most famous ice cream parlor in Paris, Bertillon, has its only location on the island, although many other cafes on the island sell Bertillon ice cream. I only peaked in the window, but I will have to go back and try some when it warms up.