Un weekend des châteaux: #2 - Fontainebleau

As I mentioned in yesterday's post (two in a row! And there'll likely be more this week), one other thing on my bucket list which I have now managed to cross off is the Palace of Fontainebleau, about 55km outside of Paris.

Anne-Marie and I took the transilien from Gare de Lyon (one of the most confusing metro stations I have ever been to, thankyou very much), which took about forty minutes or thereabouts, and then walked from Fontainebleau-Avon to the Château itself, through quite a lot of lovely parkland.

This area is actually home to the Fôret de Fontainebleau, and people come here on droves at the weekends with their bikes to follow the trails. It's home to several endangered European species and used to be a royal hunting park, which I would assume is why the palace was built where it was, essentially as a rather over the top hunting 'lodge'. Although don't quote me on that. It's a bit of a lame description for a château which, along with its park is actually listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The palace is simpler than Versailles but still very grand. The chapel and the throne room (which used to be the King's bedroom but was converted by Napoleon) are two such examples.

The palace's library is also pretty impressive and held a certain amount of appeal to a bookworm like myself!

Despite it's royal heritage, I actually found myself more interested in the château under Napoleon (Bonaparte). His famous uniform is displayed there (and really, I know it's famous that ol' Boney was very short, but seriously, he was short!) as is the room where he abdicated before he was exiled to Elba in 1814 (from where he later escaped). 

It was an another absolutely boiling day though, and I found myself flagging pretty quickly. The park (and its nice shady trees) ended up being much more appealing to me than the château, interesting though it undoubtedly was. I think I would have appreciated it more if I hadn't been to Versailles just the day before, and I think that at times Anne-Marie and I were thinking more of how much our feet hurt than what was in front of us, but it was a very lovely day!

Vicky xx

Deux mois d'Erasmus - La réalité

I've now been in Paris for just over two months, which I honestly cannot believe. My time here is going so fast, it's unreal, and I'm pleased to say that I've managed to fit a fair amount in in that time.

Before you go on a year abroad, it's usual to talk to the people who've done it before, and they gush about how wonderful a year they had and how they wish they could do it again. Or, as in my case, they tell you that it's unbelievably hard work and that they didn't have a lot of time for fun, which was not very reassuring, I can tell you. 

So at the two month mark, what's the truth?

Life wise, I'm quite happy. Paris is a great, if very expensive, city to live in. It's almost impossible to get bored - the Louvre itself merits at least three visits to be considered 'done' properly, and that's not even scratching the surface, not even a little bit. [I'll admit, though, that I still prefer London and I can't wait to get back to the Big Smoke next September]

I've met loads of new people, even if they are practically all English and none of them French, I get to scoff freshly baked croissants and baguettes as often as I please and being in a major transport hub, I've practically got the whole of Europe on my doorstep.

So far, so gushy.

Unfortunately, the people in the year above me at Queen Mary weren't exaggerating. 

I would never go so far as to say that in England, we're spoon fed, because that wouldn't be fair. We still have to do all our own reading and research etc. But I feel a whole lot more supported there than I do here. 

To some degree, that's an element of feeling thrown in the deep end. The tutorials are supposed to provide some of that support, but I'm having trouble getting much out of them because the speed at which people speak is sill a huge issue for me, and they also count towards my final grade, unlike in London, which adds quite a lot of pressure to a session in which i'm supposed to become less stressed and confused rather than the other way around! For instance, in my obligations tutorial this week we are going to be subjected to an 'interrogation' which I can only pray won't be as ominous as it sounds!

In any case, the tutorials are only available in 2 of my 5 subjects. The other 3 are lectures only, which means there is next to no additional support if you don't understand something. Lecturers here come in, speak, put down their microphone and leave. The door is banging behind them before you've got time to register that the lecture is over, let alone anything else. Questions just don't get asked.

And my nice, English education just hasn't prepared me for the strict formula that essays have to follow here, or any of the strange nuances of the French system. For example, at home, we structure our essays, obviously, but we basically do that however we want. 'Creativity' is in the mark scheme. Not so here. Here, everyone follows the same, strict structure, no deviations, no creativity. Your opinion is irrelevant; the only thing that matters is the law, and that's something I just can't seem to wrap my head around. The other issue, of course, is that I'm used to a common law system, not a civil law system. 

So whilst life is quite fun and wonderful, study is, quite frankly, the bane of my life at the moment, although I suppose the upside to that should hopefully be that my final year will look like a piece of cake in comparison.

That's not to put anyone off of doing a year abroad, not all all. Instead, it's something to be aware of so you don't get caught out and feel as stressed as I do right now. For instance, I can't stress enough how important it is for your listening skills to be up to scratch. The lectures are the one place at the moment I feel somewhat productive. 

Tonight, I've been venting over FaceTime to my Mum, Dad and Brother, who have all been appropriately sympathetic and helpful, and this post is much more positive now than it would have been if I had written it three hours ago! I know I'll get there. Everyone always says that the first three months are the hardest, and the first three months have been hard, it's true, but I wouldn't change my decision to come to Paris. I do wish I'd been a bit more prepared, but that's water under the bridge now. I can only go up from here!

I've been staying in a fair amount lately trying to stay on top of my rapidly snowballing workload, and I haven't managed to cross much more off of my things to do list [which I've updated and will be re-posting about very soon] but I'm going to make sure I get out and about this weekend. I'm sure I'll focus better if I manage to switch off for a few hours!

So until next time, when I'll hopefully be feeling significantly more positive than I do tonight [hey, a depressing post or two was sure to pop up eventually] - 

Vicky xx

Le stress et le feu d'artifice

I knew it was coming, it's taken a while, but it has finally happened. My first year abroad "why am I doing this I must be crazy oh my god" meltdown has occurred.

Yesterday, I had my first travaux dirigé, in Droit des Obligations. Two hours before said tutorial, I was alternating between staring at a blank word document and a question sheet which I did not - do not - understand. 

In the tutorial, my tutor seemed to speak really quietly and at about 500mph, all at the same time. I didn't understand a word, which really worries me because this year, for the first time since I left college, I have January exams to worry about and if things keep going at this pace, I'll be moving backwards, not forwards. And to top it off, there was a girl with the same name as me in the class, and everytime he said her/my name I was like, "please be talking to her, please don't talk to me". It's something I'm absolutely going to have to get over, and soon.

Anyway, the sum of it all was that I have never left a class quite so traumatised in my life. And that's not (much) of an exaggeration. 

Don't get me wrong. Three of my five subjects are going fine. I might not be completely understanding what I am being told, but I am understanding enough, and I'm getting better. Excellent.

Unfortunately, Obligations (and Droit des Affaires, in case you're wondering) do not fall in that category. Nuhuh, no siree. I understand *nothing*. 

Hence yesterday's little meltdown and all the self doubt it's dredged up. Still, I can't afford to wallow, that would be completely counter productive, so there's only one thing for it - I'm going to have to relisten to all the lectures again until I pick up what I've missed (thank goodness my parents had the wisdom to buy me a dictaphone last year)

It's disenheartening, but the year is still young and I never expected to waltz in here and understand everything.

On the plus side, my 21st birthday is in nine days time (I'm going home for it, woo!) and my mum gave me some money to spend on myself as an early birthday present, so to cheer myself up after yesterday's disaster, I popped over to the Champs-Élysées to buy myself a new dress to wear out for my birthday and to pick up some good ol' British comfort food in Marks and Spencer :)

Study problems aside, I have been making sure to go out and enjoy myself as well. Earlier this month, me and two other QM girls headed over towards the Louvre on Nuit Blanche to watch the fireworks put on by whoever it was to design the fireworks for the opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics, which was pretty cool to see. 

Paris at night is so pretty. We walked right down beside the river, which you can get so close to, not like the Thames in London, although that's probably because it's tidal, and the Seine is much much calmer than that. 

And it helped that half of Paris was also out for Nuit Blanche, so there was a buzzing atmosphere. I would have liked to have gone and seen some of the other all night stuff they had going on for it, but I'd managed to catch a horrendous cold and I felt pretty hideous, so I retreated for the safety of my bed!

This weekend, I'm going out to celebrate my 21st with a few people. We're going to eat first, at La Bar A Huitres, in Montparnasse (which looks absolutely wicked. They have a fish bar outside which makes me want to eat there every time I pass) and then we're going out, back to Bastille, where we were a few weeks ago, so that should be good :)

I'm still planning to go visit (amongst many other places) the Catacombs, but something has come up every time I've tried so far! Me and my flatmate are also planning a trip in December (I'm all for Strasbourg, but she votes Lille) to a Christmas market :) - if anyone knows anything about either of those places, please comment. I'd love to hear a few opinions!

On which note, I'll sign off. 'til next time -

Vicky xx