2008 College of San Mateo Martha J. Tilmann
[PARIS STUDY ABROAD PROGRAM] For more information goto website: collegeofsanmateo.edu/studyabroad/
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FIAT Jean Monnet 30, Rue Cabanis PARIS 75014 The FIAT is a modern building that provides the main base of the Study Abroad program in Paris. About half of the students live in the FIAT. It also holds many student activies and services including classrooms and faculty offices.
FIAT front entrance
FIAT Lobby
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Many students befriended the workers at the FIAT Cafe. One server was known for helping students with their French.
Breakfast Dining
AIFS STAFF OFFICE
Kirsty Isherwood, Program Director
Pete Saull with students
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STUDENTS
Paris Class of spring 2008
Simone Francese, Stacey Hannon, Natalie Cairo, and Jay
These students spent an hour answering targeted questions for me. The summary of this conversation is included under “Student Expectations” in part 1 of this report.
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FACULTY
Diane Richey-Ward, Art, Consumnes River College
Mike Burke, Math, College of San Mateo
Monte Freidig, Political Science, Santa Rosa College
Judy Meyer, English, Diablo Valley College
CLASS ROOM in the FIAT
Water was always provided.
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Pictured here is the small computer lab on the second floor of the FIAT. Wireless is provided in the lobbies and rooms.
STUDENT ROOMS in FIAT
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“French Life and Culture (FLC) Course” Typically the culture class is orchestrated by the AIFS with local lecturers. This time the Study Abroad faculty took an active role in designing and delivering the FLC course. FIELDTRIPS and WALKING TOURS
Seine River Trip, Louvre, Cirque D’Hiver, Rugby Match, Soccer game, Normandy Weekend, Centre Pompidou, Interlaken (spring break trip), Classical Concert Stainte Chapelle, Chartres, Parc Asterix, Musee D’Orsay, Opera Garnier, Canal St. Martin, Hemingway’s Paris, Da Vinci Code, and others. Impressionism Nine out of ten viewers will list Impressionism as their favorite artistic style. The period lasted 12 years from 1874 to 1886 with artists: Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cassatt, Morisot Pissarro, Sisley, and Cezanne, among others.
Diane Richey-Ward, faculty from Cosumnes River College, gives a lecture on Impressionism
Edgar Degas, The Ballet Class Degas’ work “stopped motion” much like a photograph, but before the camera was invented.
Claude Monet, The Argenteuil Bridge In 1874, the year of the first Impressionist exhibition, Claude Monet painted the Argenteuil Bridge
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STUDENT APARTMENTS Citadines Over 30 students stayed in the Citadines apartments located at 18 Place D’Italie. Typically, two or more students share a space with a kitchen, bath, and bedroom/living area. Each apartment has a TV that receives a couple of English channels including World BBC. The apartment block has a 24 hour reception, and there is a weekly cleaning service. Laundry facilities are available on the first floor. Nearby are grocery and clothing stores, additional laundry services, specialty shops, and of course, many restaurants, bars, and cafes. Upon arrival, students are given a brochure with the “House Rules.” These include but are not limited to: No unauthorized occupants; No visitors before 8am; No smoking or lit candles in the apartments; and No Parties.
Bedroom/Living room. Couch pulls out into a bed.
Kitchen
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STUDENT HOME-STAYS A home-stay places the student (or faculty) with a Paris family. Most have a long standing relationship with AIFS and all are known to be “good families.” Students have access to a kitchen and other part of the house. It is not uncommon for a student to become part of the family and maintain relations after the program ends. Pictured here is an extraordinary one-family home that has been passed down through four generations. The woman of house (pictured in the center below) was extremely gracious and kind as we toured both the students’ rooms and the general living area.
Dining Room
Student Bedroom
Senior Vice President of the AIFS, Ailsa Brooks, also joined us on our home-stay visit. She is pictured here in the back yard which is available to students for outdoor dining and pleasure.
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SCENES WALKING FROM THE CITADINES TO THE FIAT
It is about a 15 minute walk from the Citadines to the FIAT where classes are held. It is an easy flat walk that takes you along many shops, markets, and interesting places.
CafĂŠ and resturant across the street from Citadines.
The Market
Alternatively you can take the Pairs Metro. Enter a station outside the Citadines front door, and exit about 2 blocks from the FIAT. The Paris MĂŠtro is the rapid transit system in Paris. It has 16 lines, mostly underground, and a total length of 133 miles. There are 298 stations.
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The AIFS staff put together a very creative French Life and Culture assignment that required groups of four to travel around the Paris Metro answering questions like: -
Start at Glaciere/Place d’Italie, and then take line 6 towards Etoile. You’ll pass over the Seine on this above-ground line, where you’ll get a great view of Paris’s most famous monument. This view is between which two metro stations?
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When you reach Etoile, take line 1 towards Chateau de Vincennes. You will pass through “a museum within the metro”. Which station is this?
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Get off at the largest underground station in the world, which is: ________________________
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Walk from line 1 to the platform for the newest (and only fully –automated) metro line of the all, line: _____
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Head in direction Saint Lazare, and get off at a station that’s a popular French girls’ name, and also a sort of French cake.
Etc. Etc.
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OTHER ATTRACTIONS and EVENTS
In 1858, Eugene Mercier founded the Mercier champagne house in Epernay. His goal was to bring this fine bubbly wine to the public. Within 10 years he had done just that. This giant vat could hold 200,000 bottles of champagne. It took eight days, 24 oxen and 18 horses to move the 20 ton vat from Epernay to Paris. Today, courts have decided, the name “Champagne” can only be used to describe wine from this area of Champagne, France.
Ellen, and husband
Sara and Sophie, AIFS staff
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Ballet at Opera Bastille
Designed by Carlos Ott, this opera house was intended to be a demographic modern building. The acoustics are near-perfect, and the 2,723 seats each have an unobstructed view of the stage. It is considered one of the most important opera buildings in the world. There were three acts exposing the students to 19th, 20th and 21st century ballet. Ballet de Paris performed and was accompanied by the Orchestre de l’Opera.
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Versailles Versailles began as a simple hunting lodge and boyhood refuge of Louis XIV. Over time it became a chateau to match his ego. Its luxurious splendor is in part responsible for the French revolution and animosity towards the nobility.
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MusĂŠe du Louvre The Louvre houses over 35,000 works of art. The controversial Pyramid built in 1989 provides an impressive entrance to the Napolean Hall below.
Spiral stair case leading to lower level.
The Dying Slave, Michelangelo
Winged Victory of Samothrace
Psyche and Cupid
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NOTRE DAME
Viewed from the water
Roman ruins found when excavating a parking lot below Notre Dame
Steps leading to Roman Ruins
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Seine River Cruise
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Eiffel Tower The tower was built for the Universal Exhibition of 1889. Designed by engineer Gustave Eiffel, it was fiercely decried by contemporaries. -
The top is 1,063 ft. 1,665 total steps 2.5 million rivets hold the tower together Never sways more than 2.5 in 10,100 tons in weight 60 tons of paint are used every seven years
Level one
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La Rive Gauche The Left Bank is one of the city's most romantic districts. This is the Paris of another era; the Paris of artists, writers, and philosophers, including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and dozens of other members of the great artistic community at Montparnasse. The Left Bank has become a name for a particular lifestyle, fashion, or "look". In 1966 Yves Saint-Laurent launched a ready-to-wear line by the name Rive Gauche. The collection was an attempt to democratize fashion, introducing elements of garments of the lower classes into high fashion, such as the leather jacket. The Latin Quarter is a Left Bank area, and is so named because it has been the center of Paris' university life over seven hundred years.
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Reims Cathedral The kings of France were once crowned in Reims Cathedral. Reims is considered "High Gothic" or "Classical" French cathedrals built in the 13th century.
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Arc de Triomphe
Marais – “Gay Parie”
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