Goodbye Paris, Hello La Rochelle!

Time flies when you are exploring new places! So I stayed in Paris for a week (Wednesday the 16th to Wednesday the 23rd). The weekend was called Journée de la Patrimoine, which is when many of the museums and monuments are open to the public for free. So on Saturday I walked around the Arc de Triomphe, went inside the Grand Palais, which had some information about it's construction and it's history, and the Petit Palais, which I found a little more interesting because it has the Musée des Beaux Arts inside (a fine arts museum), and then I went to the Maison de Balzac, which is the house of a famous French author from the 19th century.

L'Arc de Triomphe

Le Grand Palais

Le Petit Palais

Maison de Balzac in the front and the Eiffel Tower in the background

Monday, September 21

All I really did was go to a big beautiful park out in the 19 arrondissement and sat and read all afternoon. 

Parc Buttes Chaumont

le parc

I tried to go up to this little gazebo but the path was blocked off so I couldn't.

Tuesday was my day of disappointments because I tried going to Amelia's favorite restaurant in Paris (Tartes Chez Moi), and it was closed, and then I tried going to a Musée Eugène Delacroix because I love his paintings, but it was also closed. Luckily the chocolate shop that I planned on going to was open so the day wasn't a complete waste because I did get some amazing chocolates, which made up for all the other disappointments! :)

Wednesday, September 23

I took the train to La Rochelle—my new home for the next school year. I stayed in a hotel right in the center of town for the first five nights just until I found more permanent housing. I got to La Rochelle later in the afternoon and my coordinator/contact person (Sylvie) picked me up from the train station along with another assistant (Thea) who came in on the same train. Sylvie drove us to the places we were staying. After checking into my hotel, I walked around town a little mostly just to find something to eat for dinner. I walked around the Vieux Port (Old Port), which is lined with restaurants; it was hard to decide which one to eat at since I didn't know which was are considered good. 

Le Vieux Port

Le Vieux Port area: an old clock tower

Thursday, September 24

I looked into housing and visited a house in the center of town where another English assistant is living with her French boyfriend who is a grad student at the local university. It is a big beautiful house that is reasonably priced for being in town, but I was hesitant to live with a couple. I also saw a comically small studette (smaller than a studio) that is attached to the back of a French woman's house and it was about 15 minutes walk to the center of town. I also walked around La Rochelle and saw Cathédrale Saint-Louis, which is in Place de Verdun, which is right by my hotel. I also went into Musée des Beaux Arts which was very small but it had some interesting information on WWII and the German occupation in La Rochelle. Later in the evening I met up with other English Assistants for a drink just so that we could get to know each other a little bit. 

Cathédrale Saint-Louis

The carrousel in Place de Verdun

A painting of La Rochelle's port in Musée des Beaux Arts

Some other things I found while walking around:

A statue of the mayor in 1628

Hotel de Ville

Maison Henri II

Friday, September 25

In the morning, I had a bank appointment to set up my bank account so that I can be paid. Thea (another assistant) had her appointment with me so we spent the rest of the day together since neither of us really know anyone else in La Rochelle. We went up in all three of the towers around the port entrance, which we got to do for free just for being young and a legal resident of France. There are beautiful views of the city and the port at the top of each tower. Walking around the towers took up the whole afternoon just because there was so much to see and there were so many spiral staircases to get to the top!

La Tour de Saint-Nicolas

Thea and I at the top of one of the towers

View of the port

Tour de la Lanterne

Tour de la Chaîne and Tour Saint-Nicolas behind it and the ferris wheel

Beautiful La Rochelle

Saturday, September 26

I decided to rent a room in the house with the young couple, and so I went to the house in the morning to sign the lease and get my key. Then I walked around La Rochelle with Thea and we went up on the ferris wheel and saw more beautiful sights of the city. While we were walking around we saw a bunch of people going in the same direction so we followed them and found a cute park with mini golf and a little beach called Plage de la Concurrence. Then we went to her apartment and made dinner, which was really nice because I had been eating out for every meal since I was staying in a hotel.

Going around the ferris wheel

Here I am on the ferris wheel (it was windy)

View from the ferris wheel

Every day has been a beautiful day in La Rochelle so far! I am amazed by the sights and feel so blessed that I get to live here for the year!