Paris, je t'aime

Paris is a place that never loses its magic.  As many times as I have been there, I still feel as though I am stepping into an enchanted world when I arrive.  I am always prepared for it to lose some of its original charm, but it never does.  Mark and I went back a few weeks ago for the first time since we arrived in France this year, and the same wonderful feeling flooded over us both as we stepped off the train.  We were there to participate in a Rotary orientation for all scholars living in France, and we had a great time. (Mark's input):It is also worthy to note here that while we have ventured to Paris quite a few times now, we've only seen what might constitute 5% of the city. Paris is old in many places but new to the view of each visitor. Like the patterns of the wallpaper in your house with its many details and specialties, Paris has become a familiar stranger. Like the moment when you realize that you thought you had memorized the arrangement of an old photo, you look just close enough to notice a new detail that isn't new at all. Paris will always have that new detail that can be overlooked because something else in its fabric has stolen your eye, and Paris is a thief. It sneaks up on you and surprises you with its every stitching.

Here are a few highlights from our visit:

A quick lunch with Adam Henson, to start our journey off right-- we had a delicious light repas at Café Rostand.  Adam was a student in my French class, and he is studying in Paris this year.

 Mark hanging out at the hostel while we wait on all the scholars to arrive.  We liked the hostel when we first arrived (the interior is beautiful), but after zero sleep on Friday night due to some boisterous Russian guests (and I mean like 30 of them, minimum), we were not as impressed.  And by boisterous, I mean slamming doors, laughing hysterically, yelling upstairs at their friends, and shouting down the hall in a thick Russian accent, " I am Russian; bring me the vodka!"  They came in at about 3 a.m., and never went to sleep.  Gotta love hostels!!
(Mark's take) It is not in particular that the noise is directly proportional to the presence of Russians but more of you being present in a hostel. Quiet or peaceful comes to mind with the thought of the beach on a calm winter day or the cloister of an old Roman Catholic Church. Hostels are not on the nomination list to be added to the above serene places. Anywho, I think that the Russians should have stayed to hear the petite lesson on what politeness means to the French, which they didn't. The morning after, or should I say later on that day, all of the Rotary scholars were given the opportunity to hear a professional politeness expert give tips on how to speak to the French and get your questions answered adequately. This is something that they take quite seriously...probably as seriously as the Russians feel about their choice of drink.

 I am super excited about our boat tour down the Seine by night.  It was spectacular!

 View from our night boat tour-- remember the boat times??

 These are some fun folks!  These were some of the scholars we met in Paris:  Tommaso, Anne, and Allysan. 

 No caption needed, really.  I still get chills when it sparkles!

 I just liked this picture of Notre Dame from our boat, for some reason.  It looks so different at night than by day!

 We visited Montmartre, but couldn't stay long because it was raining.  Love this photo, though.

 All the scholars in France this year! 

 The group of scholars from Japan, getting ready to sing a traditional song at our Rotarian dinner Saturday night.

 The Americans sharing their talents... well, one of them anyway.  Shar-Né  has an amazing voice, so she saved the group when they asked the Americans to sing!

Here is a short clip of the American scholars singing-- I started laughing so hard at Mark I had to cut the camera off.  But Shar-Né's voice is superb! (Mark's Part): Yes, I know; I am obviously an idiot. It is worthy to note that I was told of this 'routine' seconds before it happened. The story is, is that after Ikumi with her awesome talent, each group of scholars from Japan and the U.S. would sing a traditional song for the crowd. I was not informed of this and being an important detail, I thought it might have been necessary to tell all of the American scholars instead of keeping one of them out of the loop. Like a good sport, I went with it anyways. Like the seed of and unknown source, my reaction to the critical part of the song is sown in blissful ignorance which only yields the fruit of embarrassment and humor...it's a special feeling that one gets when you're laughing and then after a few seconds you realize that instead of with others are laughing at you. It was fun nonetheless, if it's laughter you are after, look no further than to the things that I try to do.

Ikumi, the Japanese scholar also studying in Lyon this year, rendered us all speechless.  Luckily, the Americans sang before she performed-- who could follow this act??
(Side note from Mark):   So, Ikumi (above) is a professional opera singer and certainly has an amazing talent. This makes it somewhat difficult when her sponsor Rotarian tells me that in the spring there is a multinational talent festival held in one of the local amphitheaters here and that Rotary has a part in and she would like to show us off. So, after Ikumi sings she turns to me and says, "What talent do you have to show during the festival? Do you sing? Does your wife sing? Do you have any talent that could be of use for the Rotary part of the show?" I then try to explain that while I appreciate the opportunity to be involved with what sounds like a miss multinational contest, I am humbled to admit that I don't sing and my wife doesn't sing and that I have no dog or pony to show the crowd. My talents these days seem to center around mollifying Ikumi's sponsor in any way possible and appeasing my professors with what they consider is the correct way to write a research paper. I did tell her that I play a little guitar, and that I didn't bring it to France so I don't really have anything that can be called (in her opinion) tangible talent. Simply put, we have little to no skills but on the other hand if you need an internet discount on a six night hostel in Dublin...I'm your guy.

 Tommaso, Shar-Né, and Mark

 Mark and I had the pleasure of sitting with this gentleman during the meal.  He was such great fun, and had a wonderful sense of humor.  He even taught us how to say "nanny nanny boo boo" in French.

 Ahh, yes.  This photo is of the Hôtel de Ville, at about 2:30 a.m.  Why, you may ask?  Because we attempted to participate in the "Nuit Blanche" in Paris.  Shops, museums, the metro, etc., were supposedly going to remain open all night long.  I say "supposedly," because the advertisements were a bit misleading.  Only 2 metro lines stayed open, and most of the museums were closing about the time we arrived at their entrances.  So, we ended up seeing nothing, and having to walk back to our hostel at about 4 a.m.  Keep in mind that this night followed the sleepless, Russian-filled evening the night before.

Other than that trip, we have mostly been living a fairly routine life.  We began attending the Rotaract meetings-- they are a fun and diverse group; we look forward to participating in their volunteer activities this year.  We also benefited from a colloquium on translation a couple of weeks ago; the conference was called "Traduire sans papiers," and we were able to sit in and listen to various leading scholars on the topic of translation, both from a political perspective as well as from a literary perspective.  I felt invigorated to be able to attend sessions during the 3-day conference.  Mark is feeling a little overwhelmed with his school work these days, but we all know he'll pull through. Even though it has been awhile since he has had to submit papers, I am sure it will become familiar to him again after the first few pages are complete.  As for me, I am enjoying the freedom of being able to research and learn on my own, without the restrictions of a course load. 

Other recent happenings:

The facade of our apartment building is being repaired, so scaffolding has been built all around us and my days of sleeping in have been temporarily halted.   Also, every once in awhile, we'll become extremely startled by the sight of a random man walking past our window-- this sight may not seem very frightening, until I tell you that we live on the second floor.  We're slowly getting used to that sight.

We also attended a really fun Beaujolais festival here in Lyon one weekend:

 Most of the following photos were taken by our friend and Mark's classmate, Nilay.  She captured some great moments from the festival.

 Yeah!  Free wine and dancing French people!  What a great Saturday.

 Mark wanted to pose with this little fall ride for children, and the gentleman running the operation decided to have some fun by placing that little pumpkin hat on Mark's head.

 Good wine and great company

Tasting the wine!  Nilay is pictured on the far left, along with one of her friends.

 There were several bands playing throughout the square-- this one was one of the liveliest.

 Lovely ladies kicking up their heels a bit!

 Waving the flag to the music

 We took advantage of a photo opp with the mayor of Morgon, who happened to be there while we were tasting the wine at his tent.

 People were dancing to the live music everywhere; it was such a festive ambiance.

 There was a gourmet cook on site, serving delicious foods that paired well with the wine.  We had lots of tasty treats!

And a puppet show!  We enjoyed watching the performance for a few moments; La Maison de Guignol is located in Lyon, and the puppets are a traditional part of the ville.

Aside from the wine tasting, we have also kept up our regular visits to the park and zoo.  This park is one of the main reasons we don't blog too often-- we'd rather be strolling though here:

 It is kind of hard to tell, but that is Mark peeking out from the middle of the "O" in LYON.

 And again, this time in front of the "Y."

 We finally found the zebras!  First time we have seen them this year.

 ROAR!!  Except it was actually a yawn-- but the photo still looks pretty impressive!

 We had just finished a bike ride, so please excuse my crazy hair, etc.  But look at the pretty fall flowers behind us!  The park is truly breathtaking right now.

Beautiful flowers-- I have a ton of photos like this one.

And we got a really fun video of an elephant totally jamming out-- the animals are really frisky in the fall!  Mark had some fun creating this little gem for you-- enjoy!!

I began this entry before we left for Nice last week, but obviously didn't quite get it posted as soon as I thought.  So, we'll end here for now, but we promise to get our nice adventures from Nice posted soon.