New Videos

There & Back

Created for a final presentation in my Cultural Translation Workshop, this is a video translation of the last academic year of my life between Paris and Minneapolis. With over an hour of footage to narrow down, I chose clips depicting the constant movement and restlessness of living in two places, which can result simultaneously in both excitement and loneliness. No matter where I live, in Paris or in Minneapolis, my heart is always missing the other.

April

My regular monthly video for April, including visiting Fontainebleau, running the The Color Run 5K, visiting Annecy and Geneva with my sister, hiking on my birthday in the Alps and, of course, regular life in Paris.

A Room With A View

   

    Even though my rent could get me an apartment one hundred times bigger in Minneapolis, I've grown to love my little (emphasis on the 'little') spot above the gardens adjacent to the Luxembourg Gardens on the avenue de l'Observatoire. I know I'll never love my seven flights of stairs, but all of a sudden, I have all this gratitude for my view and my balcony, which are both rare. While enjoying the sun and a glass of wine out on my balcony, I can see the Montparnasse Tower, the Eiffel Tower, Saint-Sulpice, the Grand Palais, the Palais Garnier, the Sacré-Coeur, La Défense, the Louvre and the Palais du Luxembourg.

      

     I'm proud of my barely double-digit square meter-age- it's my first real apartment on my own! I'm a lucky girl, even if I don't have my own toilet or shower. Some of us get dishwashers and elevators, and some of us get glorified walk-in closets with gorgeous views. But hey, I can tolerate anything, especially in Paris. 

And a nice glass of wine always helps, too.

Love,

Rachel

My new forget-me-nots

 

My building

A Walk on the Wild Side

     As a not-born but bred Minnesotan, I'm feeling a little guilty that I made it through a winter without any snow in France. A few times, I've found myself complaining that I was cold, which I don't have the right to do while living here. After twenty-something years of dealing with hell Minnesota Winter, which has provided me with such warm memories as full-out blizzards on Halloween 1991 and my late-April birthday in 2013, I'm contented with the fact that Paris's leaves are now in full-bloom, jackets are optional and my shoes don't have salt stains. It's getting increasingly hard to argue that I'm not on a year-long vacation. Grad school abroad is really, really hard and it only looks like a vacation, I promise.

     On Saturday, after months of whining about it, I was finally able to convince my friends Matt and Emma to go along with me out to the little town of Fontainebleau to visit the château and hike in the national forest, which I did once two years ago. The royal château, dating back to the Renaissance in the sixteenth century, is an old, pre-Versailles royal residence that is infinitely more enjoyable to visit when the weather warms up because the crowds aren't so dense and it doesn't quite have that cattle-barn feel that Versailles has with its borderline-insane tourists. (On an unrelated note, Lana Del Rey's "Born to Die" video was filmed in the Trinity Chapel.)

     The 110-square-mile Forest of Fontainebleau was once a royal hunting park and now it's a great escape for city folk to experience some true, un-manicured nature within Ile-de-France. The forest is also popular for bouldering (Hear that, Emily?) and hiking. While I definitely love living in Paris, I also desperately need breaks to get out of the city, hear twigs crackling underfoot, get mud on my shoes and be among trees that aren't obsessively pruned into rectangles. 

Did you know the Seine isn't always brown, either?

Cheers,

Rachel

     

No tigers here!

The non-brown Seine

P.S. Here's my monthly video for March

Paris (And Fontainebleau) When It Drizzles

     Tout à coup, it's springtime in Paris. Last week, it was even warm enough to skip wearing a coat. Everything is coming to life in Paris and I'm so happy to see the sun again. The fountains in the Jardin du Luxembourg are turned on and there are so many runners and tennis players. I can't wait to get my running shoes in the mail so I can run again and maybe find a place to rent a tennis racket. That's what I really hate about winter, being inside all the time. I really just want to lay in the sun all day long with a good book and a croissant, bien sûr. 

     I never really thought about how much I love being in nature until I went to Fontainebleau this weekend. Anna, Anna's friend, Greg and I left early Saturday morning to take the 60-kilometer train ride out to see the château and go hiking in the Forêt de Fontainebleau, which is known for its boulders and rare species of trees. I'm getting really jaded to how beautiful everything is in Europe and I was not really shocked by how insanely lavish the château was. When I come back home, I'll probably be in shock that Target doesn't have frescoes and gilded ceilings.

     Since it was beautiful weather all week, of course it had to drizzle on and off all weekend in Fontainebleau and back in Paris. Despite the cold, it was not really all that bad since we were under the trees during the hike. It was actually really beautiful since the landscape was covered in a layer of light fog. We hiked up to the bluff overlooking the towns of Fontainebleau and Avon, picnicking and having great conversations with wine, baguettes, and croissants on the boulders. It's strange to think as you're walking, silent except for sticks crackling underfoot, that the urban jungle of Paris is just a forty-minute train ride back. I love being in the city- whether it's Minneapolis or Paris- but it's wonderful to get away from the crowds and the noise and be present, in the moment, and actually hear what other people are saying, instead of shouting over ambulance sirens and bumping into every impatient, black suit-wearing Parisian that ever lived.

     I'm now really looking forward to our weekend hiking trip in May that I'm working on planning right now of which our location hasn't been decided yet. Never thought I'd miss the Apennines from last summer this much, but I do.

Rachel