Notre Dame + La Tour Montparnasse

Hello and sweet feeling!

Last Friday I had my last exam and I'm so happy that they are over. I'm not sure I did so well but I'll do better this semester! Now that I actually know the vocabulary used in the courses it's going to be easier.

Also last Thursday I had my first friend over from Finland! She came to my place Thursday evening and she left last Sunday. She was here only for a short time, but we saw a lot together.

This picture on the left was taken from my window last Friday. Isn't it pretty? I miss snow but now it's getting a bit colder here too and I like it really much!




Friday morning I went to my last exam and after that we headed to Paris. On Friday we saw Notre Dame and La Tour Montparnasse. It wasn't my first time in Notre Dame but I didn't remember how old and peaceful it was. I've visited Notre Dame 4 years ago so it was nice. We wanted to go up to the two towers with my friend, but in the end we didn't find how to get there (?) It doesn't matter in the end because La Tour Montparnasse was so amazing. Going to Notre Dame is free for everybody.



After Notre Dame we headed for La Tour Montparnasse. It was my first time there and I was really happy that my Finnish student told me about it. With a metro we went to Montparnasse Bienvenüe and from there the way to the tower was really short. Next to the tower there was a shopping mall and I think I'm going to visit this place at some point.

For students going up to the tower costs 4 euros and with a Paris visit pass it was 4,60e. I think the normal price was 9 euros or something. Anyway after paying we took an elevator up to the last floor and after that we had to climb some stairs. The view was breath-taking. I think it's even better than from the Eiffel Tower for two reasons:
1. in the Eiffel Tower there are fences that prevent taking pictures.
2. we saw the Eiffel Tower from Montparnasse

The view from La Tour Montparnasse

Plus I think that Montparnasse is the ugliest building in Paris so it's a plus that it's missing from every picture that is taken from there. The place for taking pictures is on the roof of Montparnasse and there is just windows surrounding the roof and taking pictures is easy. I highly recommend this for everyone that comes to Paris. A big plus to Montparnasse is also that everyone wants to see the Eiffel Tower so the queues are huge but we just walked into the elevators in La Tour Montparnasse.

After Montparnasse we concentrated on eating and shopping. There are sales everywhere at the moment in Paris so it was nice shopping for clothes. We visited Jennyfer and Sephora that we don't have in Finland. Those two are my favorite shops that I've found from Paris. We walked along Rue de Rivoli which is one of the biggest shopping streets in Paris. The easiest way to get there is from the metro stop Louvre-Rivoli.

With my friend we also ate in Paris every day. There are so many little restaurants and such that it was hard for us to choose in which one to go.


On Friday evening when we came to my room there was a huge party going on in this building. We heard the bass guitar when we were walking home and it just got worse and worse when coming to my place. Soon after we came in they stopped the music and I though that we can go to sleep - fool's hope.

After the party was over people lingered in the corridor shouting and speaking with each other. I asked three times for them to go into some room so that people can sleep. The only outcome from this was that they started whistling in the corridors, shouting even more and knocking my door. Plus every time when I talked with them they mocked my French...

In the end I went to an other building and asked the guard to come and break off this party. In the end we had to wait for almost two hours with my friend before we could go to sleep.

 Saturday morning we went to Paris around eleven. With us we had my English friend Emma whose mission is to get me to speak "proper English" ;) Our plan was to spend the day in Louvre and then see Champs-Elysée and La Tour Eiffel.

It was Emma's and my friend's first time in Louvre but I've already been there two times. Next time some of my friends wants to see La Joconde (French for Mona Lisa) after seeing this painting I'll ask them if we can see some other exposition but Italian painters.. I think I've seen enough of them for a while.

Saturday evening we saw L'Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Elsysées. We also did more shopping (what can I say.. women?). In the very end we went to see La Tour Eiffel. My friend didn't want to get on top of the thing because we'd already seen Paris from La Tour Montparnasse. I was relieved because I've been on top of the tower three times already.


On Sunday morning my friend left back for Finland and I went to work :)

Enjoy the pictures! Next post is going to be about my school stuff and my room. Adieu!

French "winter" and exam week

 Before I came here I knew that French people don't know anything about winter. I was prepared to laugh at them when the temperature hits -5C and they are freezing to death.

This winter have denied me this pleasure.

It's between +5C and +10C every day. I'm still using my summer clothes. We haven't seen snow or ice here. People have been telling me that this has been a really warm winter.

 Well today I took pictures of trees that we have in our backyard. One of them is actually making flowers. And still people manage to complain how cold it is.. This weather is perfect! It's not too warm and not too cold :)

The only minus side of this weather is that they have the heating on in our rooms and it's awful. At this very moment I have a window open because it's just unbearable when it's closed. I have heard from my friends that they are sitting in their rooms almost naked. Especially during Christmas it has been really warm in the rooms and I'm happy that I was in Finland back then.

Well anyway. I got my papers for CAF. They responded to me that I need to fill them a paper telling that I have money to pay my rent.... Oooookay. Like I'd tell them if I didn't! It's nice to finally have some answers from them. It turned out that they are going to pay the allowance straight to my residence and not for me. They are paying all the allowances starting from October so I'm going to have a couple months of "free rent" :) I know this because my friends have already got their CAFs.

This week is our exam week. I'm lucky and I have 6.. Today I had my exam of Organic chemistry and I really hope that I passed it. Tomorrow I'm going to have Quantum chemistry, on Thursday I'll have Inorganic chemistry and German and finally on Friday I'll have Molecule-orbital theory (however we translate it) and then I'm free for two days! Also some day I should do a level test of English.

I decided to take an English course too this semester. I talked about it with my Uni first and then I talked with people here. I talked a bit with the professor keeping the courses and she welcomed me to her course. I'm not getting any credits that I can use in my bachelor for this because I've already done all my English courses in Finland, this is mostly just for fun.

Me and my friend Lisa went to see Gospel last weekend! It was amazing. I'm going to get the pictures from her later today and I hope to post something.

Well here I go again to revise for my exam tomorrow.. Have fun :)

Christmas and New Year

Ooooop it has been too long again! To my defense I have to say that I was in Finland seeing all my friends and family. I missed my pets so much! And now that I'm in Paris I miss them again..

I went to Finland the 17th of December and I came back the 30th of December. It was such a short time that I didn't have time to see all my friends that I wanted to see. I liked all the darkness and snow in Finland. One day we had a blizzard too :) I was really happy to see all the snow in Finland! I miss it so much.. And the next time I'm going to see snow is next winter :( Here in Paris we can see the grass and it's raining at best.

My exams of the first semester are next week and guess who hasn't read too much during the vacation? All my friends and me. I still have one week to read so it's ok. I'm a bit bitter that our classes start tomorrow and in Finland they start next week.

I spent the New Year in Paris with my french friends. It was a really good training for me, I should do more stuff outside of school with french people. We didn't go to downtown for New Year and I'm actually really happy for that. I wasn't at all prepared when everyone started jumping and kissing each other at midnight because we don't exactly do that in Finland. But I was really happy that I came back here for New Year!

While I was in Finland I received a letter about my CAF and it was waiting for me here when I came back. I have to send them some additional papers. I really don't like this French system! If they need these why couldn't they just tell that to me in the beginning?

Well anyway just wanted to tell you all that I'm alive and back to the saddle in Paris! :)