Paris: Week Four

‘Time flies when you’re having fun’ has proven true even here in France.  The month-long class that my colleagues and I looked forward to for so long has now come and gone, and my time in France is nearing its close. 

I am and, I fear, always will be a small town, country girl.  There simply is no substitute anywhere for the sound of gravel being crushed under foot, the sight of the sun rising and setting through the trees or over the fields, the taste of wild blackberries and freshly picked sweet corn, the feeling of security in not having to lock ones car or house, and even the smell of newly spread manure in the fields (don’t deny it).  No city life compares.  Yet, despite these elements of the countryside that Paris lacks, it may be the first large city in which I thought to myself after one month, ‘I could live here for a few years at least’.  The beauty that surrounds a person at any given moment may just be enough to make up for the painfully high population, the tourists who fill every crosswalk, and the need to keep ones money as close to their armpit as possible.  At a minimum, the churches, bakeries, and fresh fruit and vegetable stands are enough to make this country girl want to stick around for a while longer.  Alas… there is, after all, a PhD to complete.

Paris even has me wearing dresses!

I’m not scheduled to be back in St Andrews until September 9 and will be bouncing around until then.  I am currently on a train from Paris to Luxembourg, the third richest country in the world, the place where my great-great grandparents came from, and the only country in this north-western region of Continental Europe that I’ve not yet travelled.  It’s only two hours from Paris, so now is the time. 

After Luxembourg, I’ll return to Paris for a few days, then make my way to the Normandy coast where I’ll catch a ferry over the channel and then a train up to Oxford.  There I’ll spend a few days with friends and the Oxford Library before heading east to London for a New Testament Conference.  The end of that conference on September 8th will signal the end of my summer journeys and the start of my second year as a PhD student.  Crazy.

Here are a few more pictures of the beauty that is Paris.

A corridor outside of the Louvre.

Another picture from inside the Opera Garnier (inspiration for the Phantom of the Opera).  I think this might be my favourite inside of a building in all of Paris.

Here’s a picture from inside the Pantheon, the government building in which renown figures such as Alexander Dumas, Voltaire, Rousseau, Marie Currie, and Victor Hugo are entombed.  

On one afternoon this week there was a pseudo 1900’s ball in the Jardin du Luxembourg, the park across the street.  It was a beautiful performance of slow and fast dances from that time period to sit and enjoy under the trees whilst doing my daily afternoon PhD and French homework (…in case you were wondering whether I actually do work here… I do!  Every afternoon… normally). 

This is a picture of the altar of Notre Dame, where I attended evening masses twice during my stay here. 

In fact, much of my afternoon time over the last two weeks was spent inside the cathedrals. For a handful of days the temperatures were between 90 and 100, which translates to ‘not very comfortable’ in a 6th floor flat without air conditioning, and not the easiest place to get AFTERNOON WORK! accomplished. The coolest place (literally and figuratively) to sit (for free) was inside one of the many stone churches in the city.  After all, what better place could there be in which to sit and read about the New Testament?