Papaparis

Monday. Paris.

And here we are, finally in Paris. I'm in the 5th arrondissement, home to the city's Latin Quarter, a bunch of universities, hospitals and schools. I'm within walking distance from both the places at which I need to take classes, not to mention this street lined with restaurants and cafés called Rue Mouffetard, Notre Dame and Jardin du Luxembourg. It's definitely one of more centrally located neighbourhoods by far, and I'm really happy about that.

The Pope himself, who paid his first visit to France over the weekend, made two stops in the area. I went over to Notre Dame with Cody and two other friends to try and catch a glimpse of him — along with 250,000 other Parisians. Definitely an interesting experience with Vatican flags flying about and "Benedicto" being chanted all evening. Not so easy, trying to see the Papa. (Check out Cody's post below for a more detailed account)

My host family, the family Bonnet, consists of Christian, a professor of philosophy; Cécile, who researches Ancient Greek; their kids Grégoire (28), Pierre (25) and Marie (18). Grégoire's a music composer/jazz pianist, Pierre a journalist, and Marie studies medicine. An academically inclined family, but very interesting all the same. Perfect, dare I say, for me.

The apartment is a bit small - nothing like your sprawling mansions in the 16th arrondissement - but it's cozy (in a non-euphemistic sense) and is lined with tons of books. French classics, Shakespeare (in French, of course), volumes of German and French philosophy - a veritable library. Things look good on the host family front. Paris is off to a promising start.