Musée du Quai Branly

 

One of Paris' lesser known attractions, the Musee du Quai Branly is found on the edge of the Seine, tucked away in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. A large garden separates the unabashedly modern architecture from the river, so you have a bit of a journey through nature before even making it to the building.

Une des attractions moins connue à Paris, le Musée du Quai Branly se trouve au bord de la Seine, sous l'ombre de la Tour Eiffel. Un grand jardin sépare l'architecture très moderne de la rivière, donc on doit faire un petit voyage dans la nature avant même d'entrer dans le bâtiment.

Once inside, you wind your way through the continents: Africa, Australasia, Asia and more are marked out on the floor by different coloured sections. The museum is dimly lit, making you feel a bit like an intrepid explorer making their own discoveries. 

Une fois dans le bâtiment, on se retrouve tout d'un coup dans les différents "continents" : l'Afrique, l'Australie et l'Asie sont marqués sur le sol avec des couleurs différents. Le musée est un peu faiblement éclairé, et du coup on se sent un peu comme un explorateur intrépide qui fait ses premières découvertes.

Travel Journels

Totems

 

Traditional Clothing

The museum is a little expensive, and some wings don't seem to be finished - but I imagine in the summer it would be a lovely place to go and sit in the gardens and wile away the time. Plus, the hot chocolate in their cafe is second only to Angelina's - and  in a mug of twice the size, it comes in at a whole €3.00 cheaper. You can thank me later.

Les billets du musée sont un peu cher, et quelques ailes ne semblent pas d'être complètes - mais j'imagine que pendant l'été ce serait très agréable d'y aller, pour se détendre dans le jardin et passer le temps. En plus, le chocolat chaud dans leur café c'est le meilleur que j'ai goûté à Paris, après seulement celui chez Angelina - et dans une tasse de deux fois plus grande, il coûte €3,00 moins cher. Vous pouvez me remercier plus tard ;)

À Bientôt !

x

  

Parisian Pals

Being an Erasmus student is hard. With minimal language, it's difficult to make jokes, be yourself and show that you actually have a personality. I feel like a fool every time I have to say 'pardon ?' and ask someone to repeat themselves. Teachers tend to ignore you in class, French students (understandably) already have friends and it sometimes feels like a miracle that anyone would reach out to you! So, I feel very lucky to have been befriended by a group of French/French speaking girls in my lectures at Malesherbes.

With Arabic, French and English as common tongues within the group, we've been speaking a bit of a "melange" of languages - who knows, perhaps by the end of the year we'll all be fluent in all three ;) So far we've just been having lunch together and drinking coffee, after bonding at Soiree de Rentree at Le Barilleur in the 5e arrondissement.

Bonding at La Barilleur :)

Shopping at La Defense

 Free Nespresso Coffee at La Defense

My coffee was quite strong - can you tell?!

Unfortunately expensive hot chocolate at Malesherbes

Next on the cards, we might branch out from drinking beverages..a trip to the Musee Rodin is on the cards - watch this space.

À Bientôt !

x

Saturday Fun

We left off outside Angelina, where the short queue to get in only serves to build anticipation. There was a table waiting for 3 so we cheekily bypassed the waiting couples and were seated in the slightly quieter area at the back of the salon. The atmosphere is very luxurious with muted colours, thick creamy table cloths and soft pink lighting. Thinking about it makes me want to snuggle up and go to sleep!

Angelina is an experience - sickeningly decadent and very chocolatey. Like roller-coasters and scary movies, you start to wonder what you've let yourself in for, and yet immediately afterwards you'll be wanting to go again.

Despite having been once before and unable to finish either my hot chocolate 'à l'ancienne dit Africain ' or my cake, I of course nonetheless believed that ordering a chocolate pâtisserie alongside my drink was a good idea.  

The result was a serious chocolate overload as I chose the 'Choc Africain' chocolate mousse-y gâteau to go with the molten chocolate drink. Tom more sensibly plumped for a kind of vanilla choux pastry - the "Paris-New York", whilst Sarah got the Tarte au chocolat praline. Find the menu to see them here! The waitress kindly told us that all the chocolate was good for our health due to all the magnesium!

We wandered back through the Tuileries and headed to the Musee des Arts Decoratifs - which I'll have to write about another day.

Sadly, my university books have arrived which means I may have to begin reading them (!)

À Bientôt !

x

Steeped in History

Anxious to make the most our time, I hurried Sarey & Tommo out of the door & onto the Boulevard St. Germain, where we spent some time peaking into the windows of classy shops.

Beautiful old original posters - I don't want to think about the price!

Before long we had reached "Les Deux Magots" and were seated outside. Whilst I naïvely baked in the lingering glory of the literary heavyweights who frequented the cafe, Sarey & Tommo more realistically begrudged the lack of pain au chocolats and pain aux raisins. 

Unembarrassed, the waiter shrugged     

off this disappointment as I guess that the combined fame of Hemingway, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Picasso, Camus and other famous guests is more than enough to keep this cafe's good reputation alive..! 

The nearby Musee du Moyen Age.

Continuing down the Bvd. St Germain, we ended up at The Sorbonne where I am studying this year. I was worried that we wouldn't be let in as tourists are sometimes turned away, but luckily my student card was enough for all 3 of us to be let in with a wink and a smile from a cheery security guard.

Inside the Sorbonne - I'm so lucky! No one would look twice at the university buildings back in Durham! Was particularly chuffed to see the statue of Victor Hugo who I'm studying this year :)

Back on the banks of the river, we headed towards The Louvre where the promise of sickeningly decadent hot chocolate at Angelina beckoned. I'll leave you there, the rest of the story is for another day!

 À Bientôt ! x