La vie à Paris - first blog from France!

COUNTRY: France
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Teaching
WRITTEN BY: Siobhan Calafiore

It’s hard to believe that it has already been a week since we arrived in Paris. The time has gone too quickly. Yet although it feels as if we have hardly been here, the city has become very familiar to us. If someone was to hear about all the things we have done and if they saw us five girls together they would think we had been in Paris for months not days. Our week began with the five of us girls at a restaurant not too far from our hostel in awe of the city around us and full of chatter as we got to know each other. It was a nice moment because we instantly clicked despite all having very different personalities and we knew that we would all get along.

Despite being exhausted from the flight we were all keen to explore the city straight away. Although we only had a week in Paris and our French course took up a lot of time we still managed to visit many famous sites such as Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, L’Arc de Triomphe, The Eiffel Tour (which we climbed at midnight!!), les Champs-Elysee (where we managed to do a lot of shopping) as well as some less known sites such as France’s own statue of liberty, churches and gardens. For me it was my third time seeing some of these monuments yet they still managed to take my breath away.

Although our French course wasn’t as exciting as our adventures around Paris, I really enjoyed it. One week was a great introduction for some and revision for others of the French language but I would have loved to stay for longer. With only three levels it was hard to cater for everyone however the middle level was perfect for me. All the teachers spoke in French throughout the class so we became quickly accustomed to listening and responding in French. For the most part they were very nice and accommodating. The other foreign students also were incredibly friendly and helped make the class more enjoyable and less confronting.

None of us will forget our week in Paris and I think we took advantage of all it had to offer. It was a lot of fun and we take away with us a lot of memories to be treasured and a lot of photos to smile and laugh at. We have lived and acted like tourists in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, now it is time to live like locals in a place very different to Paris but one I am sure that will be just as enjoyable.