Sunset on the Seine

On Saturday evening, as the final activity of the welcome programme we did a Bateau Mouche along the Seine at sunset. It was a boat full of Sciences Po exchange students and lots of other tourists and it is about as touristy an attraction as it gets in Paris but you can't deny how unbelievably beautiful Paris is in that golden hour and for a sunset-lover like me it was great.



It's been so hot in Paris over the weekend and though I would rather be on a yacht on the ocean when it's this hot the Bateau Mouche was the next best thing. It was a bit annoying when you were trying to take a photo of the Eiffel Tower though and someones selfie stick pops up in the middle of your photo but that's tourist attractions for you. I know that I have been saying I want to live like a true Parisian and not a tourist but sometimes you just have to indulge yourself and join the masses because its not like I can afford to hire my own boat to sail down the Seine at sunset drinking rosé.



How stunning is the scenery though? Pretty sure if you go down the Thames on a boat it's not this beautiful but that's probably because it's always raining in London. You can imagine the delight when at 21:00 the Eiffel Tower begins glittering and Paris looks even more romantic and magical before.

I just want to instagram these and #sunset the whole time. As you may have noticed, I have magically managed to link my instagram so that now when I post on there it also posts to here so you can always be in the loop. I warn you, though, it will be mainly sunsets, scenery and food (and the odd selfie).  

Cravings #foodporn #dessert #paris

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On fleek ✨ #paris #sunset #toureiffel

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Breakfast 😍 #carbs #bacon #foodporn #france

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#Paris #France #selfie

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Exploring Paris

Firstly, I found somewhere to live! After the longest week of desperately searching and seeing some of the weirdest/worst options in Paris we have finally found the perfect apartment. I am going to be living on my own, which was never the plan, and so i'm going to have to force myself to make a real effort to be social in order to speak as much french as possible, but the apartment is great. It's in the 14éme arondissment, just a bit down from Montparnasse, and on a direct metro line to university. It's in a traditionally parisian old building and it has a separate bedroom and living room which means there's lots of room for family and friends to come and visit. Once I have moved in tomorrow I will take some photos to show you all, but mainly I am just relived that i'm not going to be homeless tomorrow!

Whilst we have been on this crazy rollercoaster of finding a place to live, we have actually got to see quite a few different places in Paris so I thought I would share some of these with you. I have only been as far north as Notre Dame so far but I have plenty of time to explore the rest of Paris. 

This is Montparnasse, slightly north of where I'm living now. It's not an area that I know well, or think I had ever been to before, but there was a nice food market when we were there and there's some cool little shops, lots of places to eat so definitely going to be an area I explore some more. 

We also found ourselves in Les Jardins des Luxembourg where we stopped for a bit of lunch on one of the days. All the days this week have kind of blurred into one because of the stress and being so busy. The gardens are beautiful though and I think I'm actually going back there tomorrow with my welcome programme group. 

   

We squeezed in a quick tourist visit to Notre Dame, said a quick hi to Quasi Modo, marvelled at the cathedral. I have never been inside so that is on my list of things to do this year but when it is less touristy and busy. 

I also bought my first macaroons in Paris. Not from Ladurée but still delicious. We tried chocolate, salted caramel, passion fruit, lemon, pistachio and raspberry. These will be the reason I come home 3 dress sizes larger.


Mum and I have been doing a lot of biking in Paris, partly because it is often the most direct way to get somewhere, and also because it's fun. We even biked home from our amazing dinner the other day, and nearly got lost. It's so easy to hire a Velib' from anywhere in the city and then just put it back somewhere else and its so much nicer than the hot and dirty metro.

 

So there is just a few of our little excursions and adventures that we have squeezed into what has been a really busy week. Its a shame we have been so stressed about accomodation but I'm so grateful for having had Mum here to help with everything and there will be lots of time coming up when we can do proper Paris things for an entire weekend.

This evening we're going to sign the contract on the apartment and then I'm going to celebrate at a boat party. Life living on my own in Paris begins tomorrow...

Never try to find an apartment in Paris, but do eat steak.

I am in Paris with only 2 days until mum leaves and at this rate I am going to be homeless.

I want to love Paris because just look at this stunning sunset from a few days ago....



... but finding an apartment in Paris is near impossible and is ridiculously stressful. Do I want to rent someone's living room for 700+ euros a month? NO. Do I want to share their bedroom for 500+ euros a month? NO. Do I want to live upstairs of a creepy old man who likes to have dinner and conversation with his female students? NO. I just want somewhere to live, either alone, or with people of my own age. I don't want a random room in some random middle aged persons house so that I have to feel like a guest all year. I don't want to live opposite a prison (yes, there is one of these in the 13ème). Why is this so difficult to find?

I had always wanted to share an apartment with french people to improve and practise my french but apparently even french people are hard to find in France. At this stage, I think we have realised that we left this too late and that we should have tried to sort something further in advance. We also didn't appreciate that a) Paris shuts down in August and barely anywhere is open, and b) the whole of France shuts down on weekends meaning two days this week were lost to the french way of life (a.k.a. laziness).

I haven't even had the chance to encounter the problems about not being french or having a french bank account yet because very few people even bother to ring you back about their apartment. This is probably because within minutes of being posted online a listing will have been viewed and contacted many times by other desperate and near-homeless people. It's kind of a nightmare. I am even contemplating renting a different Airbnb studio every month for the year and trying out all the different arrondissements in Paris, but at £1000+ a month i'm not sure how viable this is as an option.

In other news, yesterday we went to an amazing restaurant called Le Relais De l'Entrecôte. I had heard about it on Instagram and we looked in to it and saw it got great reviews so decided to try it. There are a few in Paris and we went to the one just off Boulevard Saint-Germain-des-Prés, but here's the best/weirdest part: there is only one thing on the menu, steak and chips. We had to queue to go in and then once sat down they ask you how you like your steak cooked (à point) and what you what to drink et voilà!

You get salad to start (no choice obviously):

Then they bring you the steak smothered in their amazing famous secret sauce: 

Followed by a second helping! You actually get bought steak twice here, and if that is not a reason to love it (aside from the fact it is absolutely delicious) then I don't know what is. I have ever been to another restaurant that only serves one thing so it was such an interesting concept that they have clearly perfected and the food was amazing. 

So I might not have anywhere to live but I know where I can get a really good steak.




 

Sciences Po - First impressions

So I have arrived in Paris and yesterday was the first day of the Welcome Programme for international students. It's so nice to be in Paris because I had forgotten how completely beautiful it is. This is the view from the apartment that mum and I have rented on Airbnb for a week:

... Just in case you weren't quite sure you were in Paris! 

The apartment is great, really spacious, with stunning views, and only a 15 minute walk from Sciences Po, so it's a perfect location while I do the welcome week and hunt for somewhere more permanent to live. However it is ridiculously hot in Paris at the moment and finding somewhere to live is proving rather difficult so that's not so perfect.

Anyway, yesterday was the first day of the welcome programme. I arrived in the morning and there was coffee and croissants and then we had talks by the director of Sciences Po, the dean, and various other student societies. The 'directeur', Frédéric Mion, was so suave and cool and charming in his speech, and he is apparently very popular with students which I can completely understand! He just seemed so much more 'with-it' than the Vice Chancellor of Warwick, our dear old Nige Thrifty, the contrast was ridiculous. So that first introduction to Sciences Po impressed me because if its run by someone who seems so cool it must be a cool place to study. 

The rest of the day we spent in our groups having a campus tour, because there are several different buildings in the similar area which make up Sciences Po. It's hard to explain quite how in the middle of the city it is, but as an example, there is literally a Paul Smith shop on the corner of the Sciences Po main 27 rue Saint-Guillaume building, and a Louboutin just round the corner in the next road. It's right off of the boulevard Saint-Germain and so it is completely in the heart of Paris which is amazing. It does make me wander if i'm going to ever switch out of travel mode and into study mode but we will see. The buildings are the same beautiful old architecture that just characterises Paris and is such a stark contrast to the ugly concrete 1960s buildings that make up most of Warwick. Sciences Po doesn't have its on sports facilities like Warwick, there's way less student societies (and no cheerleading squads) but it has working wifi which is about the only similarity to Warwick. I think it will be interesting to see how the academics differ/are the same once I start my lectures on Monday 31st August. 

Below shows the 'campus' map and also the entrance to their main building: 

  

Before the welcome programme started I didn't really know what to expect, I knew there would obviously be lots of international students and so I wasn't really surprised when everyone was speaking to each other in English. Everyone is so friendly though and it's amazing how far people have come compared to my 2 hour train journey from London. There are lots of australians/americans here on exchange and although we're all native english speakers we have all come to Paris with the same goal of learning french, we're all going to be studying in french, it's just difficult to enforce french amongst ourselves. Hopefully as we start lectures we will meet some actual french people but so far the only new word I have learnt is "arvo" which is Australian for afternoon!

I don't have anymore activities as part of the welcome programme this week so i'm going to continue searching for an apartment with mum and we did a bit of exploring the Montparnasse area this morning which I'll blog about in the next post. This evening I'm going to meet up with some of the girls I met yesterday and I think our plan is to sit somewhere along the Seine and drink wine. We're basically already Parisian. 

P.S. IF YOU KNOW ANYONE WITH A SPARE ROOM TO RENT IN PARIS N'HESITEZ PAS A ME CONTACER. SVP. 

See you soon, Paris.

So today I move to Paris. The official start of my year abroad.

Can I just start by saying that moving abroad is really inconvenient. Especially if you're getting the train and have to carry your suitcase on the tube. I am a really indecisive person when it comes to clothes and what i'm going to wear and so having to be selective in what and how much I pack in order to just be able to lift my suitcase on to and off of the Eurostar has been really difficult. I know that as soon as I'm in Paris i'm going to want a whole new wardrobe of clothes but the thought of wanting to wear something I have left behind is scary.

Anyway, this post is my chance to write down all my thoughts/feelings about the upcoming year before things actually start happening and I get so wrapped up in the excitement of being in Paris that I forget how I was feeling before I got there. I'm writing this whilst listening to a 'Sightseeing in France' playlist on Spotify. I'm not sure that traditional french music is my favourite but maybe that will have changed by the end of the year.

P.S. I'm sorry in advance that this is such a long post.

Paris 

The first thing to talk about is being in Paris. I spent 5 weeks in Paris 2 years ago doing an internship. I lived in a little rented studio in Montmatre, I didn't really make any friends outside of the office where I worked and I spoke quite a bit of english in the office. I spent my weekends with friends from England who came to visit (except for one weekend where I went to a ballet on my own), and I visited all the typical tourists sites. I think, and I hope that this experience in Paris will be quite different from that. Paris is such a beautiful city and I think it is very easy to feel like a tourist, obsessed by the famous monuments and the beautiful architecture etc. I hope that in living there, and studying there, for a long period of time I can experience more of Paris than just the typical tourist sites. I'm kind of excited, in a weird way, to live in a probably awful apartment, to be freezing cold in winter, to hate the rain, to not want to go food shopping and to not want to write an essay that is due in the next day; in Paris.

Sciences Po

I am obviously excited, and also very nervous about university. Sciences Po, in terms of content and the type of university would not really have been my first choice. That said though, I am hugely grateful for the opportunity to study there as it has such a great history and reputation, and I have managed to get on several business modules which makes me less worried. I do know that it's going to be a challenge though. Apparently there are lots of essays to write and a big work load and it's not that I mind work, but I just want to be involved in anything and everything outside of studies too. I also think that I work well in more creative, group environments than when writing essays alone. I think many of the modules do a have a more interactive component to them though so maybe it won't be so bad.

The main thing scaring me is that everything will be in french. I have studied french for years now, and I know even from when I revise for french exams that just immersing myself in it I feel like I improve but having to be in french-mode 24/7 is scary. I struggle to write and do well on essays in english, let alone in another language! I hope that this part of it won't be as bad as I am fearing but I suspect at some point there will be tearful phone calls to my mum and late nights scouring google translate for the best way to describe a concept I barely understood from the lecture.

From what I have read, Sciences Po lecturers are a mix of academics, and working people who run a module alongside their day job. I think it will be really interesting to see different teaching styles, and to compare the experience to Warwick. I hope that I have some really inspiring and interesting lecturers because it can make such a difference to a module. I've heard that you can even ask professors for help in getting contacts for internships if you want to work in a field that they work/specialise in, so that could be handy.

I think in many ways university life in Paris will be very similar to Warwick but i've no doubt there will be many differences too and now I just have to experience it to find out.

Social 

Going back to the language thing... Sciences Po is a very international university, and so there will be lots of English speaking people there but I know that I need to make a very concerted effort to try to make french friends. I'm worried about not being able to communicate certain things, I don't want to have to be the quiet one who says nothing and I'm worried that I'm not going to make friends being like that but i'm also scared to open my mouth, say something wrong and look like an idiot. I guess this is just a part of moving and living abroad. I have a lot of respect for everyone who studies abroad for university, not just for one year but for their whole degree. I am always so impressed by how they manage lectures, essays, exams, etc. I think it will require me to seriously step out of my comfort zone in order to become a part of french university life, and not just international student university life in France.

I start International Welcome Week on Friday. I think will be good because it will introduce me to the university, how its works, and how they like you to work, but I also fear that these welcomes week encourage international students to stick together, and not to mix with the french natives who arrive a week later. Hopefully because my modules will all be in french I'll be able to meet french speakers and then we'll just drift from our lecture to a wine bar and become best friends. I realise that I sound like a complete loser panicking about making friends like I'm back in year 7 about to start secondary school but I want to be honest in this and this is how I am feeling right now.

I currently have no where to live (another thing to be worried about). I know I'm not going to end up homeless but I really want to live with french speakers to that I can improve my language as much as possible. I'm going to be doing an internship from January (hopefully) and if its in a large multinational company like I hope then it's likely there'll be a fair bit of speaking english. I want to completely submerse myself in french during this term at Sciences Po and I think living with french people would massively help this. Mum is staying with me this week to help me find somewhere to live for the rest of the year. Maybe bringing your french-speaking mum with you is cheating but I have a pretty busy schedule this week (9am-9pm on Friday!) and so I need all the help I can get.

Internship

This is just a quick few thoughts on my internship as this is considerably further in the future than starting at Sciences Po. I hope, and plan, to do a 6 month internship in Paris from January to June. I wanted to work because I think its important to have experience in the working world as well as studying. I have always wanted to work in fashion and it is my ambition to get an internship in one of the large french fashion houses. Not only because it would be a dream come true for me but because it's going to help me get a leg up in the industry when I graduate from Warwick. I know that I have a lot of work to do in applying for internships and I would have started this sooner but the french seem to be more laid-back (unorganised?). For example, I interviewed for BETC, an influential ad agency, back in June, but was told it was far too early for them to be thinking about January and to call back in October! So you can see why I haven't rushed into this but I fully intend to put my full efforts in to securing the most interesting and exciting internship and best opportunity that I can.

Ok, this has been very long. I think I have written down the most important things I am thinking/feeling/worrying about before I leave. Apart from the worry that I am going to get genuinely fat on all the croissants and cheese I am going to be eating. (Side note, I don't really like cheese, or red wine, but I think I will try to/have to change that when I am living in Paris). I want to also take up running. Currently, I can't run for more than 2 minutes without feeling like my heart is going to burst. I want to start running because its a cheap way to work off the croissants, Paris is a beautiful place to go running, and I need a proper excuse to buy cool work out gear. So that's also on my list of hopes for this year, even if its not really relevant.

In summary: 
- I hope that I experience a different side to the tourist side of Paris
- I hope that I come back fluent in french
- I hope that I make french friends
- I hope that from January i'll be working chez Dior or Chanel
- I hope that I have packed the right/enough clothes
- I hope that I love cheese and wine and running on my return.
- I hope that I don't miss the people I love too much

See you soon, Paris.

Countdown to Paris - 5 days

In 5 days time I will once again be returning to my city of birth, Paris.

This time not for a weekend, not for 5 weeks, but for a whole year. A whole academic year.

This year abroad forms part of my International Business and French degree (3rd year) and will consist of 2 parts -  Studying at Sciences Po University (Aug-Dec), and an internship in a French fashion house (Jan-June, fingers crossed)





It's hard for me to decide how I am feeling about it right now. On the one hand, I am super excited. Excited to live in the city of love/lights, eat macaroons all day, make cool Parisian friends, learn to swear/speak like a local etc. On the other hand, I am nervous/anxious and kind of wish I was just going back to Warwick, because I know Warwick, I already have friends, and it would be so much easier... So I'm not really sure if I am completely scared or completely excited or both.

So what's the plan?
August 20th - Eurostar from London to Paris where I will meet Mum.
August 21st-28th - Welcome Week programme & find somewhere to live (with the help of Mum).
August 31st - Lectures start, i'm now all on my own.

For those who aren't familiar, Sciences Po is a prestigious, old french university, where nearly all french presidents and Christian Dior have studied. It has hundreds of years worth of history and the buildings look like Hogwarts, right in the heart of Paris, which is quite exciting.
However, all my lectures are going to be in French, which is quite scary. But the whole point is to come back fluent so I guess this is the best place to start.

Above: Karl Lagerfeld giving a masterclass in 2013 (!!)
Left: Sciences Po




I'm going to be studying a mix of lecture/seminar courses, mostly business related, one of which is at 8am on Monday mornings (and I thought 9am's should be illegal!). These include:
- International relations "world space"
- Introduction to entrepreneursip
- Startup and management of digital innovation
- Business management
- French Language

These modules and the grades I get won't actually count towards my Warwick degree and so there's slightly less pressure if I completely can't understand anything. I do however have to do a written piece that is graded by Warwick which discusses my year abroad. So before I leave i'll do a post on my expectations, hopes, dreams, fears (etc.) for the year so that when I come back in a years time and have to write about it I can compare these to what actually happened.

For now here are some things I know I will miss about England:
- Friends and Family
- My cat
- Toast
- Queueing
- The English language

À bientot, Paris.