Printemps & Navettes

Springtime has the annoying quality of reminding me of Paris: picnics at Canal St. Martin, Champ de Mars, et Sacre Coeur; finishing a bottle of wine on my bedroom balcony; and, of course, my last meal in Paris–free baguettes and avocado tartare (cheapest menu item if I wanted to drink wine). It was in Paris that I truly learned to wander and not care if I was lost because there would always be a bus to take me home. But it was in Marseille and Nice where I realized how much French I had actually learned and was able to speak, just because most of the people I ran into were so friendly and willing to have a conversation with me in French.

On Monday, I started taking French classes at the Alliance Française in Washington. The Alliance is such a cool organization for any Washingtonian francophile (comme moi) and has an awesome blog, if I do say so myself (read my latest post about navettes here!). I was quite impressed with how much French I could actually understand, especially since listening to France Culture makes me feel like I am back in elementary school trying to memorize “tête, épaule, genou et pied.” I will really have to work on that.

(Ok, yes, maybe this post was just a shameless plug for you to go read about navettes. They are delicious, though, so…worth it.)