Palais du Luxembourg
Wednesday proved a pretty tiring but particulalrly useful day. We were, thankfully, led by the hand through the reams of beuraucracy presented to the foreign students, and were introduced to countless numbers of “important” people whom we should contact, under a whole host of different circumstances.
There was also, of course, the obligatory “stand up and tell the class about yourself in no more than 2 foreign sentences”. For me, this involved a throwaway remark from the administrator about turning up to move in with my parents, and some bizarre “oooh” noises from the whole class as soon as Imperial College, Londres was mentioned. If they expect me to be intelligent, they will sadly be disappointed.
The biggest lesson of the day was that whilst only housing about 1000 students, the college is a vast rabbit-warren of small lecture theatres, staircases, lifts, corridoors and inexplicable level numbering schemes. Combine this with having to decipher babbling French lecturers for the first time, and I understandably spent most of yesterday sleeping.
Today I made up for it: grabbed a croissant from accross the street, cobbled together a packed lunch from a baguette, some salami and a packet of Walkers crisps (from the seemingly bottomless supply that I brought from home) and headed into the 6th Arrondissement to check out a 12th century church, and the Jardin du Luxembourg. This fairly large park, with its network of paths through tennis courts and horse chestnut-lined avenues, suddenly gave way to the magnificent palace and gardens pictured. Lunch is served.
Fairly worn out, there was just enough time to wander through the student ghetto that is the 5th, absorbing the winding streets, the infamous Sorbonne and the rather banal Panthéon. After heading home for forty winks, it’s now time time to set out in search of food, students, and a party: the Cité Universitaire.
