What Should I See?

Studies are going quite well. We had our Unit 2 test yesterday and I did quite well. So far I have been able to stay on top of everything and for the most part I feel like I am actually ahead of my class. I don't think I'm quite far enough ahead, though, to jump into the class above me. The teacher there knows a lot less English, so if her students aren't understanding her it is hard for her to explain. Even if I did decide that I wanted to jump up, she would have to accept me and from what I have heard about her I don't think she would. Also, I would be going from a class of 6 to a class of 16.

I think at this point I am going to work through our textbook at the pace my class is going, but supplement that with other self-directed study. We have a freebie table in downstairs and somebody left "Le Petit Maison Dans La Prairie." I am quite excited about reading the adventures of Laura Ingalls-Wilder in French. When I read those stories in English, I could read about as well as I can read French now. Well, maybe a little better. But I will be re-living my childhood and learning at the same time. Fantastic!

I also have begun flashcard production in earnest. On Wednesday I spent at least half an hour drilling the same flash cards over and over and over and over to the stopwatch. Now I know how my LearningRX guys felt. I was drilling the numbers over and over and over. In the first four times through the deck my times got much better. Then, for four or five times in a row it took me about 1:54 to get through the deck. I really wanted to do the deck faster than I run a 400. So I kept at it, and my head got more and more sore, and finally I told myself, "Okay, one more time." And I blazed through the deck in 1:24. Today, when I went to the post office and the lady told me how much I owed her, I actually knew what she said. It took a second or two, but I got it. It was fantastic.

But anyway, none of this pertains to the subject line of this blog. Here is the deal. I am in Paris. You have maybe wanted your whole life to go to Paris, and you will never get the chance. I have never had any particular desire to go to Paris, but I love history and pretty buildings and especially pretty things with history. However, since I have never spent much time studying French history or much of anything else French, here I am and I have no clue what I should go see. SO... if you will tell me what I should go see and why I should go see it, I will go and take pictures and send them to you, along with a report of what I found. Deal? Sweet!

Tomorow is a once-a-year event known as heritage days. Many public buildings in Paris are opened to the public that normally are closed, including the presidential palace, a number of impressive mansions, and the senate building. I'm trying to decide what to go see. None of them would mean a whole lot to me at this point. The other option is to walk up the street to Antony, where they had the wine and cheese festival last week, and where this week they are rededicating some kind of public square or something. There a bunch of American reenactors here for the occasion from the Lexington, their sister city, dressed as minutemen. So that might be a good photo shoot, even if it is rather boring otherwise. I had thought at first that there would be an actual reenactment, but I guess not. Triste.