London!

It's about 9:30 a.m. in Paris, and I'm still not completely packed for our long weekend in London. You see, Jon had the idea of going on Friday and not coming back until early Monday morning so we could have three full nights with our friend Zac.

I've actually been to London before, but I think this time will be a little more fun. I'm staying with one of my best friends, and I'll be in a much more comfortable situation than I was last time in my sketchy hostel. I'm looking for warm lagers, some tall guy named Ben and some fish and chips. Full updates next week.

Fontainebleau/Hide N' Seek

How did we choose our best day in France? Like this:

Jon's message:

YO

Let's pick a place to go tomorrow. Here are three options:

Fontainebleu. This place has a chateau and nice woods.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontainebleau

Chantilly. Home of whipped cream... also has a chateau.http://wikitravel.org/en/Chantilly

Provins. A "cute" medieval town. http://www.provins.net/

I believe that the first two places are accessible by RER, and Provins is a 10 euro train ride each way.

Someone please pick a place and time and we'll do it.

Rachel's response:

i vote chantilly

...

Obviously, we didn't listen to Rachel, and we decided to go to Fontainebleau, home of one of the most famous chateaus in France. A week after going to Tours and Chenonceau, we weren't sure what could top our last chateau visit, but this one turned out to be a great place just outside Paris.

The most enticing part about going to Fontainebleau is pretty simple: it's easy. If you have a Navigo (an unlimited metro pass), you can pay an extra 8 euros roundtrip to visit a city 40 minutes outside Paris. The chateau itself is right off a bus stop, and it's free for students. Our lone expenses for the day were lunch, a beer, and the one euro for an audio guide. Totally worth it.

Another interesting part of Fontainebleau — something we only discovered when we got there — is that unlike Chenonceau, there is a town built around the chateau, and its center lies right across from the castle's grounds.

Fontainebleau isn't as architecturally impressive as Chenonceau, but there's something about it that makes it more attractive. It is much bigger, is very well preserved, and best of all, there was almost nobody else there.

The chateau courtyard

Inside, the building was very well preserved, with furniture in its original positioning, and the same tapestries and paintings that Napoleon bought himself. French monarchs had been using this castle since the late 12th century, when Louis VII had a chapel consecrated on the site.

I hadn't been impressed by anything this much since my first week in Paris. The hallways in this building compared to those of the Louvre, and it was amazing to think that people actually lived in this sort of wealth. It made me feel grateful that our politicians generally don't centralize our country's wealth within a few dozen people.

My two favorite parts of the chateau were actually the hallways. I mean, when it's adorned with Renaissance paintings on each side, and the ceiling is lined with gold, it's pretty difficult not to be impressed. Louis XV had this hallway built so he could have a walkway to his private chamber and have a room to show off the guests.

Just on the other side of the room lies the library. Rebuilt by Napoleon, it looked like the best room in the house, but we weren't able to get a great view of it because it was closed to visitors. Regardless, it was a really beautifully symmetrical room with an arched ceiling and bookcases on either side.

I have well over 100 pictures of the Chateau, so I'll spare you (and me) the hours it could take to post and read about every room in the castle. But just know that it's really really big. And outside is even bigger.

Kinda artsy? Meh. I was just trying to show that aside from there being an enormous courtyard/lake/fountain/park/horse trail, there's also a forest in the background. We walked around this area, played like little children, and took way too many set-up and self-timer pictures (my new favorite hobby). Here's our best one from the day:

As for my favorite picture of the day, I had to go with this one. Meant to be on a postcard.

OK. 1:45 a.m. Big French test tomorrow. Didn't study that much. London in five days. Blogging off..

It's been a while...

Since my last post, the following has happened:

• Dodgers start spring training
• We met our French neighbor, Sam
  
• 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile
• Bradley Smith posts Holocaust denial ad on BH website
• Four consecutive sunny days in Paris (sorry dad)
  
• Two French exams
• Alex Vojdany created a blog that already has more followers than mine
  

Yeah, like my title says, "It's been a while." The past 10 days or so have been awesome, hectic, and down right tiring. It's hard to say if I've been doing more during this period than any other during my stay here, but it sure has felt like a lot.

Believe it or not, today marks the two month (eight weeks) point in my study abroad. When I got here on January 8, I knew about nine words in French, didn't know a single conjugation, and I was unable to order a croissant in a bakery. Over the past two months, I've even impressed myself with the amount I've been able to absorb, and with almost three full months of French classes to go, I'm sure I'll come home being able to speak butchered French with anybody I choose.

OK, now to the play-by-play:

On Tuesday, Feb. 23 (yeah, THAT long ago), my parents arrived in Paris. It was great to finally see them after six weeks on my own in France. Then again, I feel like they used my study abroad trip as an excuse for them to come to Paris again. Don't feel bad — if I were in their situation, I would probably do the same.

I didn't do a lot of new things with them, other than go out to eat a lot. Since it's a pretty expensive thing to do if you're a student, my parents spoiled me for eight days, and I must say it's pretty damn amazing. We had some lovely meals, but none could match up to our lunch at Jules Verne, a 5-star restaurant at the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Now I say it's 5-star, but it really only has one Michelin star. Regardless, if you know what that means, it's a pretty big deal. The meal was truly exquisite. I started off with a raw marinated sea bass with caviar. For my main dish, I had another sea bass that was amazing; its sauce had a hint of coffee, and it was on a bed of leeks and shallots.

Seabass

Turbot

Dessert was my favorite. Not only was everything great, but there was so much I couldn't finish. I got some strawberry tart with a mango citrus sauce, my dad got a souffle, and my mom gave me and my dad her incredibly rich, chocolate tart/cake thing. But that's not all. They gave us marshmallows, chocolate truffles, cookies, macarons (not as good as La Durée), and more chocolate cakes in a minty syrup. Yum.

Yum

Our view from Jules Verne

I don't want to give you the impression that eating is all we did. Really, it was a great opportunity for my parents to see Paris during the day and see me in the afternoon and evening. Since I'm now a "full time" student, I sometimes have class all day. But as a result of taking a great art history class, I was able to show my parents some cool parts of the Louvre that most people would ignore otherwise.

During my parents' stay, Abroadco had a trip planned to Tours and the nearby Château de Chenonceau. My parents went to Champagne. Fair trade-off, I think.

Tours was just OK, aside from the great food prices compared to Paris. The chateau, on the other hand, was unlike anything I've ever seen. The pre-11th century castle was used by dozens of monarchs, and still has a feel from every era in between. I don't really know how to describe it without selling it short, but I took plenty of pictures. My favorite part was the kitchen, where our audio guide told us to "imagine it bustling with dozens of people." I didn't really have to imagine it, considering there were dozens of people actually down there. Here are some highlights:

Le Château de Chenonceau

The BIG Hall

La cuisine

Aside from that, not too much has been going on. Many of you probably know that the Badger Herald is keeping up an advertisement from a well-known Holocaust denier. It has given the paper a lot of (good, bad?) publicity, and I actually wrote a letter to the editor on the subject. I won't talk about it too much, simply because I haven't written about anything else for the past week, but here's the link to the story. Let me know what you think, I'd love to get your input.

That's pretty much it. French class is pretty fun and pretty easy for me. That's not to say there haven't been challenges, but I'm definitely doing better than most of the people in my class. That, and the fact that you only need a 50% on an exam to pass is making this pretty easy. I got a 17/20 on the last one, which at 85%, is an A? I think?

Jon and I go to London to visit Zac Miller on March 12, and then we have to figure out some other stuff to do during our free weekends before spring break. Tomorrow, we'll be going to either another chateau or something else cool. While Paris is a wonderful city, two months in one place is a pretty long time. I'm ready for a change, even if it's only for a day.

Tonight should be fun...

Finally, after being in Paris for six weeks, we finally have a friend coming to stay with us for a few days.

Noah "Biddy K" Kraft will be joining us from Montpellier with a friend, and he couldn't have come at a better time. The weather is finally starting to get a little bit better, and tonight brings yet another dinner party at the home of the "LA Boys." We're expecting anywhere between 22-24 people. How we will fit them all in without getting a noise complaint, and getting them out of here with full stomachs will be a task in itself.

But then again, if anyone can do it, it's us. I wouldn't trust anybody else. And, making things (hopefully) easier for us will be the presence of Grace during the setup process. If anything, it will make it more fun. I'll post (appropriate) pictures tomorrow.

Nostalgia hits, then gets conquered by Cordon Bleu

This past week has really been a blast. After starting French last Thursday, we really started getting in the swing of things, learning conjugations, vocabulary, possessives, etc. It's been pretty difficult, but I'm doing very well relative to the other foreigners in my class. Then again, we have a test on Monday, so we'll see how that goes.

In other news, this past Wednesday we went on our second class trip to the Louvre. The first was spent looking at some Caravaggio paintings and a bit of some early Spanish Baroque paintings, but I think this trip was better.

We spent most of our time looking at paintings by Peter Paul Rubens, who my professor says was the most successful painter of the 17th century. Many of his works were commissioned by Marie de Medici, including an entire set of 24 paintings that describe her life from start to finish. They are no doubt a lie, but nonetheless beautiful works of art.

The class trip made me feel even better about my choice to take Baroque and Rococo art this semester. I was originally signed up to take a Renaissance art course, but this professor is fantastic, and every museum visit is essentially a guided tour by an art expert. Unlike some of my classes at Wisconsin, I actually look forward to going to this one, and even though we do have to sit through hour-long lectures, I actually enjoy learning about something completely new for a change.

But the best news came near the end of our Louvre visit, when Jon — who had tagged along for the tour — reminded me that we had our demonstration and tasting at the Cordon Bleu (ever hear of Julia Childs?). Whoopee.

Aside from being a very entertaining two-hour presentation, we got to eat a lot of the desserts the chef made himself. He made coconut crème brûlée, pistachio crème brûlée, passion fruit sorbet, chocolate sorbet and tea lace tuile cookies, all of which were obviously delicious. Don't worry, I got the recipes and wrote down detailed instructions on how to make the dishes, so hopefully we'll be making them soon. The only unfortunate part about my Wednesday was that I forgot my camera. I didn't get any pictures at the Cordon Bleu, but our friend Emanuelle got a shot of me, Jon and the chef, so I'll post that when it's available.

As for the nostalgia, I talked to Benjy on Facebook for about 10 minutes, and he told me to look at his blog (benjysfoodanddrink.blogspot.com), where I saw his most recent post on Wisconsin food and drink. The Old Fashioned, Brocach, The Blue Marlin. While French food is really great, sometimes all you want is some good ol' Wisconsin comfort food. It's pretty tough to get mac n' cheese in Paris.

No worries though. Mom and Dad come on Tuesday, and they should provide ample amounts of restaurant dinners and bottles of wine (fingers crossed). I promise to show them my few secrets of Paris in return.

Start French classes, learn how to say "Invalides"

Last Thursday I began my intensive French courses. After being in France for over a month, I can finally say, "Je suis americain."

Since I've only learned one foreign language in my life, it's been pretty difficult to gauge if this is how things are done at the collegiate level. I'm even majoring in Hebrew at Wisconsin, but before I went to college I had already taken the language for about 12 years. Starting French at age 20 is a bit different.

I'm taking my class at La Sorbonne, which, for those of you who aren't familiar with the French education hierarchy, is the top school in France. I, however, am taking my class with all foreign students, making it quite a diverse group. In my class alone, there are students from Saudi Arabia, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, China, Korea, Japan, Russia, and I'm sure many more places that I have forgotten. So, obviously, not everyone speaks English, and our professor is forced to speak strictly in French.

Now, for someone like me, who has been around the language for more than a month, it isn't terribly difficult. I'm also proficient in a very difficult language that differentiates between gender, which many other languages do not. For the Swedes in my class, they have been having some difficulties getting used to it, but I'm sure they'll pick it up soon. Already, we've learned how to conjugate some verbs, and while I don't get everything my professor is saying during class, I get enough to be able to do the homework with relative ease. For a two hour class, however, it's pretty amazing how much Madame Lizska can get through. Today, for example, we went through conjugating verbs ending in "er," negation sentences (i.e. I do not like ballet = je n'aime pas le ballet), and we started learning prepositions. Yes, all of that on the third day of class. I think I'll pick this up pretty quickly. I hope.

Here's the rundown:

• Je m'appelle Jonah Braun
• Je suis étudiant et journaliste
• Je suis americain
• J'habite à Los Angeles, aux Etats-Unis
• Je suis célibataire
• J'ai vingt ans

In other news, Jon and I went to Chabad on Friday. It is really different from any other Chabad I've been to, simply because of the type of people that were there. Like my French class, seemingly everybody was from a different part of the world. Even the rabbi is from Rio de Janeiro. The food was excellent, and it was nice to finally meet some other Jews and get a little Shabbat in this otherwise secular city.

On Saturday, we went to Invalides, which is a huge, gold-domed building that houses Napolean's tomb as well as the military museum. We got there a little late, so we were only able to see the tomb, and like everything else in Paris, it didn't disappoint.

For such a short guy, Napolean has by far the biggest casket I've ever seen. Here's a picture of it, although it was very difficult to get a picture that really shows how big the thing really is. I don't really know much about the building other than what I just told you, but it's one of the French national landmarks, and it is definitely worth seeing. Especially if you're a student — it's free.

On Sunday, we once again went to the Marais (it never gets old). This time, I brought my camera, and we went to Place de Vosges, a sort of hidden park right next to the Jewish quarter. Victory Hugo lived there, and so did Louis XIII. It's a beautiful, perfectly symmetrical square with a big statue of Louis in the middle. It is surrounded by art galleries and cafés (where we were refused service because we didn't want to get food, only coffee).
That's about it. It was a long and fun weekend, and we ended it with our new tradition of going to La Taverne de Cluny, a little jazz bar near the Luxembourg Gardens. There, a guitarist named Christophe Brunard and his band play for free all night, and it's one of the most relaxing and entertaining venues we've been to thus far.
OH, almost forgot: Pitchers and catchers report in six days. Woohoo

Ye-Brugge-Alayim

It's been a pretty ridiculous week to say the least. Since last Friday, I haven't had much free time, but that's not to say I haven't been enjoying myself. On Sunday morning, I and a few friends hopped on a train to Brugge, Belgium for a early-week trip before Sorbonne classes start. I'm going to be a bit brief because I actually have class tomorrow, so here we go.

Brugge is a city of about 20,000 and is very small in actual size. It's less than 140 square kilometers, making it a great little town to walk around and see on foot. It was great to be able to see the city without riding the metro everywhere, and it also gave us some exercise after eating a disgusting amount of disgustingly expensive food.
Apparently, it's known as "The Little Venice of the North," probably because of the small canals that run through the city. But after looking at some photos of Venice, the two cities have pretty much nothing else in common. Brugge is a very well preserved Medieval city, and while the canals are definitely an aspect of the town, you can easily get around without stepping into a boat. That said, we went on a canal tour just for kicks, and it was totally worth it. We got some a amazing views of the architecture and got a bit of the city's history from our Flemish tour guide.
That Sunday night happened to be the Super Bowl, and while we found multiple pubs broadcasting the game (we had to make a throwing motion to see if they understood what we were talking about), we weren't about to stay awake until 4:30 a.m. to catch the whole thing. So we did what only terrible Americans do, and we missed the Super Bowl. I think it's the first time I can remember missing the game. Even on a flight home from Hawaii we were able to listen to it on the radio. Shame on me.

But life goes on. The next day, it was snowing in Brugge, and we trooped out of our hostel at about 10:30 a.m. to start touring. We went to the big bell tower in the marketplace, the chocolate museum, had Belgian waffles, and while Rachel and Vanessa went to the diamond museum, Jon and I skipped ahead to the "De Halve Maan" Brewery. There, they brew the most popular beer in Brugge, Bruges Zot. Really delicious. We had plenty of them during our stay, and unlike Paris where a beer runs between four and seven euros, we were able to get brews at our hostel between one and $2.60. Not too shabby.
The brewery was very different from the Guiness storehouse in Dublin. They showed us all around the fermentation chambers, which smelled great. We also got to go on the roof and saw a great view of the city, much better than the bell tower view that we saw earlier in the day.
That's pretty much it. Doesn't sound like much, but it was an awesome trip. We had a fun time roaming around the city, but once again it was so nice to be back in our apartment in Paris. Considering I have class tomorrow, I'm glad I was able to get back and relax for a few days before a French lady yells at me for not understanding what she's saying. It won't be anything new.

I don't know when I'm traveling next, but this is what I do know: Emily Eckhous and friends are coming in late March, and Zac and Annie Miller are coming in April. Somehow, we'll work an Amsterdam trip in there, and during our spring break, we're going all over the place. For now, I have a cover letter to work on for the NPR internship, and I really need to learn how to form a sentence in this strange language. I'll try to post more pictures tomorrow, and I'll make sure to write about my first few French classes.