Day 2: The Metro et Le Vesinet

Last night I went out with Grace, Ryan, Giles, Brittany, and Judy. We went and saw the outside of the Musée Pompidou, la Cathédrale de Notre Dame, et l’Hôtel de Ville. We had a problem finding a metro (the one we were going to was closed) but then we found one that was working—only we ended up going the wrong direction on it. We got off at a stop, got lost in at the Chatelet, managed to reorient ourselves after Grace and Ryan talked to some nice French people, and we did make it back to our hotel.

This morning we went to see the BYU apartment where M. Erickson is staying in Paris. We had a lunch break for an hour and since the BYU apartment is right across the street from la Tour d’Eiffel, I went with some of the others in our group to look at it.

(Jessie, Joy & Beth)

We found out that the value of the euro had dropped and several of the people in our group were filmed by some journalists/news guys to be excited Americans talking about how they are excited they can buy more in France now.

(Camera Man, Betsy, Giles, Jessie, Paige, Brittany, Ryan)

After our lunch break we went to the Institute building in Paris—where we will be having class, church, and where the Outreach program for the Church is located in Paris. It was a beautiful building that was built in the 1600s (1624 or 42 I believe).

(Institute building)

The tour of the Institute building ended in us being set free by M. Erickson to be back at the hotel by 4 o’clock. Several of us went to find la glace (ice-cream) place that Grace had discovered yesterday and loved. Unfortunately it was closed, but we did get some gelato at an Italian place on the same street. Five of us had to figure out how to work the metro to get back to our hotel—not as much of an adventure as last night (because everything looks different in the dark), but still an adventure.

After sitting in a bus for 1 ½ hours, Grace and I finally arrived at our host family’s home. It’s actually just one woman; her name is Madame (Mme) Pucheu. She is a sweet elderly lady. She is quite active and is excited that both Grace and I know French—even though she knows that I am timide with speaking French. It’s alright—Grace makes up for my lack of conversation right now. And I am learning lots of vocabulary and cultural customs. We had carrot stew, ratatouille on rice, a green salad with a vinaigrette dressing, baguette pieces and camembert for dinner. C’était délicieux! We ate outside. Her backyard is charming!

Overall, it’s been a good day, even though I didn’t get as much sleep as I would have desired last night.