Bon jour, mes amis!

  Well, it’s been a hectic, but fantastic week here at IES Paris.  The flight over was fine, but Delta needs to take note: they have the most uncomfortable seats of any airline; and I’ve flown in a     C-130 with 200 other Marines.  Yikes!  Anywho, finding my way around has been very easy and the staff here at IES are great at making sure we have what we need.  The first few days were rough because, Hello jetlag!  They took us to a wonderful Moroccan restaurant for lunch on Tuesday, then Thursday and Friday were spent in Normandy.  We stayed in a hostel, and at first I wasn’t too overjoyed about that, but it was very clean, we had the whole place to ourselves, the little town around us was adorable and we were a 2-minute walk from the beach.  Kudos to our bus driver because he got us through some of the narrowest streets I’ve ever seen in a double-decker bus! 

Thursday evening, we went to a beautiful restaurant in the country, food was awesome and all of us (students) are getting along very well and everyone is very nice. Friday, we went to the American cemetery and Omaha Beach.  Very sobering and absolutely beautiful place to visit today.  It’s difficult sometimes to image how different a place it was in 1944. 

This weekend was virtually free although I did sign up for a tour of I’le St. Louis, one of the islands in the Seine River.  It’s right next to the island where Notre Dame is.  Great tour even though it was raining.  Actually, it’s rained every day since we got here…:(  No problem though, my room at my homestay has a floor-to-ceiling window that opens…nothing better than sleeping in to the sound of rain.  Yay!  Once our tour was done, I wandered around the streets of I’le St. Louis and window-shopped (some of the best little shops in Paris are on rue St. Louis).  Several of us also dropped by Berthillon ice cream shop for a tiny scoop of ice cream.  OMG, how fantastic!  No preservatives, colors, etc…just all natural ingredients…it was heaven! 

Today, Sunday, you guessed it, I slept in again and meandered down the rue de Rivoli, which turns into one of the most fashionable streets in Paris, rue de Faubourg-St. Honore.  Then I walked through the Tuileries garden and some streets on the left bank of the Seine; had lunch sitting at one of the many outdoor cafes, window-shopped some more and slowly made my way home.  Tonight is one of the 3 nights per week I have dinner with my hostess, so I’m doing my laundry in her washing machine while I wait for that.  My hostess is a very sweet older lady with a cat, who is adorable, and she’s always checking to make sure I have everything I need.  Very sweet.  Tomorrow starts our language-intensive week and meetings with our advisors for our school schedules.  Actual class doesn’t start until 23 September, so I’m going to enjoy this last somewhat relaxed week before academia kicks into high gear.

Until next week, my friends,

Mary Fisk

p.s.  I promise to send pics next week when I get them all sorted out…:)

Location: 59 rue Chaptal, Levallois-Perret, Paris, France