My First Few Weeks Studying Abroad in Paris

Sep 7, 20204 min read

I arrived in Paris on a Wednesday, so my first full day was a Thursday. On both Thursday and Friday, I had IES Orientation. I got my schedule and saw that I had 3 three-hour classes. Woo! Thankfully, none of those were on the same day. I also had two other classes that met twice a week for an hour and a half. Not too bad I suppose.

In orientation, they talked about the dangers that nightlife in Paris poses. One staff member told us a story of how she was followed and walked into a café for safety. Little did I know that within 12 hours of hearing that story I would have a very similar experience. That evening, my roommate and I walked about a mile from our homestay to meet up with friends we met during orientation. On our way back we came across a man walking toward us who, upon passing us, tried to touch me inappropriately. Thankfully, he missed, but proceeded to follow us for a few blocks. I immediately called my mom to let her know what was happening and stayed on the phone with her for a while. Luckily, we came across a café and sat down there for a few minutes to shake him off. After that, we practically ran home.

LESSON: I definitely advise you to call someone if you suspect something fishy is happening. Going into a populated area where other people are present is a good idea, too. Even when I’m on Purdue’s campus and it's late or dark, sometimes I will either call someone or pretend to be on the phone with someone. Not to say that Purdue isn’t a safe campus because it is, but because of all the stories of women being approached, it makes me feel better.

Monday, January 20th is when my French intensive courses started. Essentially, we had a three-hour French class to help us adjust to the language barrier of being in Paris. Since I only had three hours of class, I had a lot of time to walk around Paris and discover things. One morning during that week I decided to walk from my host mom’s apartment all the way to Champs Élysées. My host mom lived about a fifteen-minute walk away from the Eiffel Tower. I walked from her apartment to the tower, and then across the river to the Champs Élysées. I definitely earned the large dinner I had that night. There was also the time I walked for three hours just exploring the city. I think I got around 17,000 steps that day.

Here are some photos I took during my walks (There is an arrow in the middle of the photo on the far right side that helps you navigate and scroll through all the photos):

I even got to walk past the oldest café in Paris: Le Procope.

For those who do not know, as I did not until I arrived in Paris, the city is set up into 20 “arrondissements,” or districts. It is an interesting layout as you could be in district 9 and be a 10-minute walk from district 1. My homestay was located in the 15th district.

FUN FACT: looking at the last one or two digits of a Parisian zip code tells you what district you are in. Living in district 15, the zip code for my homestay’s address was 75015. On the other hand, the address for the Eiffel Tower has the zip code 75007, as it is located in district 7. Pretty cool, right?!

The metro is faster and more efficient when navigating a city like Paris, but I enjoyed the scenic route for its views and workout. I didn’t end up using the metro too often for that reason and the fact that I lived so close to the IES center that I physically could not metro there. It was about a 20-minute walk to get to classes which gave me a nice opportunity every day to clear my head and take in the sights of Paris. One of my favorite parts of my walks were smelling the pastries that were baked fresh every day:

Somedays after classes my friends and I would explore the city. We would often go to the Latin Quarter of Paris which is near Notre Dame. Paris was so scenic I couldn’t help but take pictures everywhere I went.

Here is a photo of an alley in the Latin Quarter:

Here is a photo of me and my friend Sabina when we went to Sacré-Cœur:

The first week of actual classes felt like it dragged on forever. As I mentioned before, some of my classes were three hours long. The others were an hour and a half long. Before this, the longest class I had was only 75 minutes. My attention span does not go far beyond an hour and a half, so this was a real test for me. Some of my classes began at 3:00pm and ended around 6:00pm- right around dinner time. It was hard to go back to my homestay and want to do homework after that. I compensated by waking up early and doing homework assignments before many of my classes.

I hope you enjoy all the photos I took. I loved taking and editing them.