Exploring bars in rue Mouffetard, 5ème

On Friday night we explored some bars in the 5th arrondissement, where a few of my international friends are living. There's a really vibrant street called rue Mouffetard which is lined with bars, and creperies, and restaurants, and ice cream parlours, and brasseries and on a Friday night it's buzzing with people.

The first place we went to was called Le Requin Chagrin, which I had heard about online. It had a kind of english pub feel to it inside, with french-style brasserie tables outside. On Thursday it's happy hour all night for ladies and cocktails are only 5€ so mental note made to spend a Thursday evening there (especially since I have no lectures on a friday). I didn't take this picture myself because I often don't think/forget to take photos when i'm out. They're showing all the Rugby World Cup games here and though i'm not exactly a huge rugby fan and I don't know how many of the games i'll watch, I reckon it would be a good atmosphere if you did want to watch a game and support your nation.

The second place we went to was a tapas restaurant/bar called Le Bar de Fer. This was a really small space, they struggled to squeeze us in, but it had a great atmosphere and the food looked amazing. They had a guy playing live music, just his voice and his guitar, and he was seriously good. He had a perfect repetoire mix from more chilled acoustic songs to more upbeat tracks like Stand by Me and Cheerleader which had quite a few people up and dancing and others singing along. It was also really cool decor in there because they had literally just got people to write all over the wall, quotes, drawings, messages, where they were from etc. and it just had this kind of lived-in vibe which I liked a lot. I wish I had taken a picture of it! The drinks weren't that cheap, 5.50€ for a glass of wine, but it was nice wine, and the atmosphere, music, vibe etc. was great.

 



Word of advice: don't order a tea. A friend ordered a tea, 15 minutes later (having been bought the wine/beer we'd ordered) we ask where the tea is and the waitress looks at us like we're completely stupid because obviously the tea is being made and will arrive. Another 15 minutes later, and eventually they bring out a cup of hot water and a tea bag on the side - how that took half an hour to make I don't know, and for 4€ my advice would be to just order alcohol instead!

Week 1 update

So I have now officially started term and I wanted to up date you a little on how things have been so far and what my first thoughts on some of my modules, societies and uni in general.

Management de l'entreprise:

On Monday I had my first lesson at 8am, which for me seemed stupidly early but is something I will have to get used to. This was one of my elective modules and is a class of about 20 students, I would say maybe 60% exchange students, some studying at Sciences Po full time but originally from other places and a few actual french students. The two professors that run this module seemed great, both of them work (always have and still do) in consulting, one for Capgemini and the other now owns his own company, so it's pretty cool that they run this module alongside their jobs.

One of the main aspects of the module is creating our own business in small groups, similar to a module I did in first year of uni so I think that will be really interesting and its also a great way to get to know other people. Another big aspects of the module is discussion and class participation so I think that will be really good for my french too and it will force me to speak in class in order to get a good grade.

Overall this module is looking like its going to be interesting, it's just a bit early for a Monday morning!

Espace Mondiale: 

This is my big lecture course, under the heading of international relations and takes place in the big "Emille Boutemy" lecture hall. I had this on Monday and I'm not going to lie I sat in the huge hall filled with hundreds of students feeling completely lost. The professor was very french (see right) and he spoke very quickly about all these different theories that I struggled to keep up. Before I had finished typing the first part of a sentance I had forgotten the rest of it and he had moved on to something new. It's much harder than I realised to type things in french at high speed as I don't seem to remember them as easily as I do in English when trying to type and listen at the same time. I hope that I will get better at this over the next few weeks!


I also have for this a 'conférence' which is in smaller groups of around 20. In my class there are only 3 exchange students for this (including me) and the rest are 2nd year Sciences Po students, so this is going to be really good for my french. We have to do a 15 minute individual exposé and my topic for this is "qu'est-ce que c'est la gouvernance mondiale?"(what is global governance?). The thought of having to stand in front of the group and discuss this on my own for 15 minutes is pretty scary but mine is at the end of term so hopefully by then I will be improved and a lot more confident!

As well as this there is presentations of the readings each week, done in pairs. Mine is in a couple of weeks with two other french guys and luckily the text to present is in english so that will ease my in a bit as scholarly articles scare me in english let alone french! The worst part though is probably the 4 and a half hour exam at the end of the term. There is no way I can write for that long, my hand would fall off!!

There is also a big emphasis on maps and cartography in this module which to be honest I don't really understand the relevance but we shall see. So hugely mixed feelings and not real excitement about this module but hopefully it will get better.

Societies:

I have found that there is a "pom" society at Sciences Po. My excitement went through the roof! I didn't think there were any sports I could be even remotely ok about and I really wanted to do a sport to meet people but then I found cheer! I have tryouts next friday and fingers crossed if i'm not too awful then soon I'll be a part of the cheer soc! Woo hoo!

I have also discovered, just today, that there is a fashion society too! Hoping I will have a chance to use my video editing "skills" and maybe do some graphic design work for them, and the girl I spoke to said they have a lot of contacts who I can talk to about an internship too so that could also be pretty useful.

Sciences Po VS Warwick: 

So now that I have done a few days of lessons I have noticed some more differences/similarities between Sciences Po and Warwick.

As a fairly small collection of buildings right in the middle of the city Sciences Po does not have that much space to chill out. The library is not that huge and the main hall area/courtyard of the main building are always packed. For anyone at Warwick who knows what it's like trying to leave Ramphal building at the end of a lecture with all the internationals kissing and greeting each other in the doorway then imagine that on a much larger scale and you have an idea of what it's like here.

Also, whilst at Warwick we may have an abundance of (sometimes racist) geese and ducks, at Sciences Po there is a cat, Marcel. He lives in the 13 rue de l'université building and he just casually strolled past me whilst I am writing this. He even has his own facebook page and can be seen often chilling in classes on desks (see above). I suppose famous animals is a similarity between unis?

In other news, I still have no wifi at my apartment so yesterday I tried a cool internet café in Le Maris where you pay 4 euros an hour for unlimited coffee and snacks, called l'Anticafé. A really cool and original concept and a great quiet space to catch up on work or emails or just browse the web. See photos below:

   

I will update you on the other modules at the end of the week so stay tuned. 

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).  

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.