Paris, I'm going to miss you

 Oh my I just realized that I've lived in Paris for 10 months and I don't have a picture with the Eiffel-tower! It's something to add to my never ending "to do"-list :)

Last time I told you how I miss Finland. Well, this post is dedicaded to all the things I'm going to miss from France!

First of all I'm going to miss the language. Especially in the beginning I got better and better every day and I really liked that. Now when I start a new conversation with somone they don't even start talking in English like in the beginning. I guess that my French is understandable :) of course I don't have as much vocabularly as I would like to have but I just have to sturdy, study some more and use the language. For some reason I loved to have the lessons in French but if I could chose I'd have the exams in Finnish...

I'm going to miss my job! I've been a babysitter in a French family and it has been such a joy to see the children grow and see how the younger one learns new things all the time. I'm happy that I'm going to see them a couple of times before I leave France and I hope that they'd visit my family in Finland some day like my family and friend have visited them. I'm really grateful for them for doing stuff with me outside of babysitting. The picture of me playing piano is from their place.

I'm going to miss French food. All this pasta, snails, sea food, pain du chocola (that I hated in the beginning and now I love it), French onion soup, baguette and all these delicious desserts. I'm really French now since every time I eat I HAVE to get a dessert :) and oh my God all the cheese and creps that I'm going to miss in Finland. And macarons! All and all the bakery here is so different from the Finnish one that I can't tell in detail all the things that I'm going to miss.

Here I love the fact that I live near Paris but not exactly in the center. Orsay is really safe and I can hop in a train whenever I want and be in Paris in 30min. In Finland I live in the north and the closest big city is like 6 hours away. I can't describe the joy that I feel when living here because I can find everything I need from Paris.

Of course I'm going to miss all the friends I've made here but I miss my Finnish friends too! And now all my Erasmus friends have left for their homes so they aren't exactly here in Paris. But I really with to see them at some point :) I've made plans to go to Germany and Mardrid, I just have to see when I have money and time to do that. I hope that as many of them as possible will visit me in Finland.

I'm going to miss the train and metro system. In Finland we have metros and trams only in Helsinki, not where I live. Of course they have had many strikes here and the trains are late a lot but still. In Oulun we have only busses which go once in 30min or an hour. I've became so impatient here! All my friends laught at me when I go "Shoot!! We have to wait 2 minutes??" because in my hometown we go "Oh nice only 15 minutes to wait". I love living in a bigger city.

I'm also going to miss all the stuff we can do here. In Paris you can just take a metro and go to a new location and there is something to see. In Oulu you call your friends and you are like "yeah... well.. I don't know.. How about a coffee?". With my friends we even drive out of the city to get a coffee somewhere far so that we can pass the time that way. I'm going to miss this city so much...

Oh yeah and then a bit off-topic: They payd my CAF (it was about time..) and I didn't have to pay my rent this month :P Les Halles here I come! I'm going to buy all the books that I want.

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!

My family in Paris

Mom brought me my favorite candies from Finland

The roundabout of L'Arc de Triomphe

Hello there little pumpkins!

My family visited me 24.-27.11.2011. In this case the wording "my family" includes my cousin, my mom and my aunt. I was really happy to speak Finnish with them and play guide because this was everyone's first visit to Paris. Of course I was also the only person who spoke French so I was doing most of the talking even though each of my guests was capable of speaking English.

On Friday I went to Gare Du Nord to pick up my guests when they came there from the airport. I had asked them to buy "5 day visit"-tickets to Paris and they payed 46€ for zones 1-5. The airport was in zone 5 and they wanted to visit Château de Versailles so I figured it would be the cheapest option for them. I still didn't have my ImagineR so on Friday I bought a 1-day visit ticket to Paris for zones 1-3 for 9,50€ and for Saturday and Sunday I bought tickets for young people for zones 1-5 for 7€/day.

Mom, me and my cousin

My mom wanted me to stay with them the whole time so she payed 3 nights in a hotel for me (thank you!!). They had chosen a hotel called Pavillon Villiers Etoile which is near to metro station called "Rome". The location of the place was excellent for we had to walk 5 minutes to the nearest metro and we had to change metro or train only once when we wanted to go somewhere.

We didn't waste any time so on Friday we visited L'Arc de Triomphe and Belleville. We also visited the top of the arch and my relatives were stunned by the view. For me and my cousin it was free and for the adults it costed 10€ to enter. Our timing to go on top was perfect for the sun was setting and we got to see Paris during the night too. The traffic in the roundabout was crazy and it was really funny for me to see the expressions on everyone's faces.

La Tour Eiffel seen from L'Arc de Triomphe

Belleville is a nice place for shopping and we headed there after seeing the triumphal arch. All the shops were closing so we started going back to our hotel after eating. My relatives were wondering the parking in Paris - all the cars are so close and non of them can squeeze out from the tiny spots. Their expressions were priceless when I told them that the drivers push other cars to get out from such tiny places. They didn't believe me and when the saw someone parking they had to stop to observe the event. I found this really entertaining.

Also my relatives likes the prices because everything eatable is cheaper here than in Finland. We tasted some good wines and went to bed early to face Saturday full of energy.

 On Saturday we visited Le Château de Versailles. We left our hotel kind of early to be there as early as possible because a French family had asked us to join them for dinner. I don't remember the cost of seeing the place for my mom and my aunt, but for me any my cousin it was for free. It took us around 4 hours to see the place. Actually I thought that the castle would be bigger. I would have spent more time there because I really enjoyed reading all the historical facts in French, but all the rest of the group were too busy going from one room to the next one. I think the castle is really worth seeing!

The garden of the castle wasn't really nice at this time of year so we didn't buy tickets to see it. In the end it was actually free to go there so I don't know why they sold tickets with costing entrance to the garden..? Anyhow, I have already visited the garden so mostly walking there a bit was just for everyone else to see how big it is.

After seeing Versailles we went to Massy-Palaiseau to have dinner with the family whose children I babysit. My mom and aunt had brought some Finnish candy (the same I'm hugging in the picture: salmiakki), Moomin mugs, Finnish alcohol and a book about Rovaniemi  for the family. Salmiakki (aka salty liqourice) is a special Finnish candy and most people find it disgusting. The alcohol was made from the same stuff. We were having fun when the dad of the family tasted all the different kinds of salmiakki.

All and all the dinner was really good and I was happy because my mom got to see the kids I take care of. The family had prepared us a really good dinner with starters, main course, cheese and wine and dessert. This is normal for French people but for Finnish people this is not common at all.

At the end of the evening the dad drove us back to out hotel and he was kind enough to drive us a bit around Paris. My family wanted to see the tunnel Pont de l'Alma where Princess Diana died and we also saw Moulin Rouge. We also got a glimpse of the light show of the Eiffel Tower. We also got a little tour in the worse roundabout in Paris - the one around L'Arc de Triomphe. I actually feel like I'm a real Parisienne now for surviving this roundabout alive.






















On Sunday we started the day with a breakfast in some café. After that we visited the Basilique de Sacre-Coeur which my family liked really much. After that we headed for La Tour Eiffel. When I told them that the queuing can easily take more than 2 hours we had decided to buy tickets in advance to see the tower. We had tickets for 14.00 o'clock which meant that we cut the queue starting at two. We were in the second floor in the matter of minutes and we started queuing for the last floor. All and all the trip took a bit more than an hour. For everyone else this was the highlight of the trip: now they have really visited Paris! For me it was the third time on top but I still enjoyed it. And judging from the amount of friends I have coming here it wasn't the last time for me to get on top of the tower..

For everyone it was a bit less than 12 € to go on top with elevators.

Last but not least we saw Le Musée du Louvre. It was a really quick sprint because the museum was closing in 30min when we got there. This was free for me and my cousin but my mother and aunt had to pay 10€ each to get in.

My cousin was really excited to see La Joconde (aka Mona Lisa). He was running like a little child to go see the painting. I understand him: for all the tourists the most famous painting in the world is a must-see but I had already seen it. Now I have visited the museum of Louvre two times. I think I'll go back there some day without any rush just to look around some more.

On our last day in Paris we managed to see the whole light show of The Eiffel tower after we came out from Louvre. We were all really tired to we went to do a bit of shopping in Champs-Elysées and after that we went to the hotel and to sleep.

On Monday morning I had to be at the University at 10 o'clock for my lectures and all the others had to be at he same time at the airport, so we woke up really early. The jams in Paris in he morning are amazing and the metros and trains are really full. We had a quick goodbye at Gare du Nord with my family and I headed for my lectures. The train was so full that it was almost impossible to breath..

In the end I was really happy that my family was able to visit me here. My mom would like to come here too during the second semester. I'll see them all in 2 weeks when I go back to Finland for Christmas holidays. Time has gone past so quickly! After the holidays we start with exams straight away in here.. I just can't wait ..

Now I think I have to go to sleep, I have 4 hours of laboratory of inorganic chemistry tomorrow :) Enjoy the rest of the pictures!