Ikea and Versailles: All in a Day in Paris

Today was quite the day. I was just about to go out and run some errands when my host mother asked if I wanted to accompany her out the “compagne” (countryside) to run some errands. Her car had been at the mechanics since before I got here, but was finally fixed and needed to be re-broken in. So off we went! Apparently our errand was going to Ikea… I couldn’t complain; I love Ikea. Anyway, on our way there I saw lots of signs for Versailles and asked if we were close, Marie-Claire said that we were really close. Then like five minutes later she was like oh by the way there is Versailles over there. Low and behold there was part of the gorgeously huge castle just down the hill from us. Much cooler than anything I have ever seen between Tacoma and Ikea. Anyway we meandered around Ikea, bought a couple of things and ate lunch. I discovered that the orange and elderflower marmelade I love so much in the morning is from Ikea, haha! On our way back home my host mother asked if I’d like to see Versailles, which of course I did, so she took me on a little detour to get a good view of the castle, it was more amazing than I remembered it by far!!! It’s such a beautiful building and so ornate, I can’t wait to go back and tour it again, this time I will definitely make it an all day thing. We also drove around a really little, cute, quaint French village that was just adorable and I would love to one day own a little cottage there. Many of the buildings dated back to the 17th century according to my host mother!!

The afternoon I spent running errands. I went back to the mall and tried on some clothing. I think I found the dress I want to by for my sorority preference night in January and also a cute shirt and some boots. I might go back tomorrow and buy one of them. I finally bought something from Paul, the bakery; it was delicious! Then I went to a paper shop and bought some school supplies (some notebooks and some folders). Last on my list was Monoprix. I had to take a detour by an eyeglass store because while driving out in the country I discovered a screw had fallen out of my sunglasses and I could no longer wear them. Lucking a local store put the screw back in for me, free of charge. At Monoprix I bought some bread and wine along with some other necessities, like laundry detergent!

Tonight my host mother took me to the synagogue that is only a kilometer from the apartment. It’s a very pretty building and is on property that used to belong to the Rothschild family before WWII. We had to sit up in the women’s gallery, which I found rather awkward and it made it very difficult to see what was going on bellow. Services were quite different from those I attend in the U.S. Everyone walked around, chitchatted and had a side conversation with the Rabbi during services. People even walked on and off the Bima (pulpit) as they pleased. We started with Mincha and no one every announced a page number or prayer, so you really had to be educated to be able to keep up with where we were. I found it rather difficult! Services were quite quick though, probably due to the fact that they kept a pace about twice as quick as what I am accustomed to and there was no reading in French. There seemed to be a competition among the men as to who could read/ sing the loudest so that was rather amusing compared to the lack of participation I often see in the U.S. There is a conservative synagogue in the 15th arrondisement I want to try out, I looked into High Holiday tickets there and they cost 90 euros for students! We’ll see about that. Tomorrow I’m planning on going into Paris and doing something, but I’m not sure what. A bunch of the metro stations are closed because of the Pope being here so I have to find something that isn’t in the area of town…