“How sad the world is, so beautiful yet so absurd...” ― Irène Némirovsky, Suite Française

     Today I had my entretien de stage (internship interview) at French Travel Partners on the rue Amelot in the 11th arrondissement. The company organizes group stays in France and books accommodations and tours for incoming tourists. So did I prepare at all? Of course not. I rushed over there after realizing I didn't have as much time as I thought after my class, so I ran out of the Chemin Vert station and found the building just in time (The area is so beautiful!) I was given a code to enter the courtyard, but no one told me where to go inside the courtyard. After five minutes of walking in circles trying to find a way in, I buzzed myself in and went up to meet my maître de stage (boss), Béatrice. She was so kind and the interview was easier and more laid-back than any I've ever had. She told me that I speak really good French and that she'll see me soon, which is a huge compliment since she could've just hired a French intern, and not had to deal with an American. She introduced me to the others in the office, and they were all very friendly, too. I'm interning February 20th to April 13th, which falls into a really intense period of work, so I will be helping to book accommodations by phone, email and fax and help out with translation. Ten minutes after getting there, I was headed back out! Success! I feel like L.C. now with my very own fancy Paris internship. Too bad it's not for a magazine or a fashion house!

Interview outfit!

      To treat myself, I went on an adventure instead of going home. I found Shakespeare & Co., the famous English bookstore previously run by Sylvia Beach in another location. It reminded me of Diagon Alley and I also kind of felt like Jo from Funny Face in her Greenwich Village bookstore. The upstairs has a piano and places to read and lounge, which is so cool. It was so bizarre to hear everyone in the store speaking English and hearing "Oh, sorry!" when I got bumped around (It's pretty cramped). I bought The Last Time I Saw Paris by Lynn Sheene, The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris by John Baxter (Who was at the store last night to promote it, but I didn't make it!) and a SIGNED copy of A Secret Kept by Tatiana de Rosnay, the author of Sarah's Key. 

     

Inside Shakespeare & Co.

Signed by Tatiana de Rosnay! (I know, it was written for someone else. Whatever.)

    

     Since I was thinking about Sarah's Key (Which is a book/movie about the Holocaust in Paris), I decided to go find the Vel' d'Hiv' near the Bir-Hakeim station right by the Eiffel Tower. The Vel' d'Hiv' was a bicycle racing stadium that the French government had used to detain 28,000 arrested Jews for a few days before they were sent to Auschwitz in 1942. The building is gone now and is replaced by lots of industrial buildings, but there is a memorial to apologize for the government's actions in a small area by the river, the Place des Martyrs-Juifs-du-Velodrome-d'Hiver. It was so cold, but at least that meant I was the only one there. I'm going to find the rue de Saintonge some other day, which is the street in the book where Sarah's family was taken from their apartment in the Marais. It's so strange to think that the Holocaust touched Paris. You'd never know what happened by just looking around and snapping pictures of the Eiffel Tower, which is only about a block away.

Rachel

"N'oublions jamais" (Never forget)