What You Will Learn

The purpose of this Living Literature Study Away in Paris is to give students an opportunity to experience the City of Lights as the intellectual capital of Europe. Students will learn to live in Paris: how to move around the city using its amazingly efficient Metro system, how to find good local food and drink, how to interact with the Parisians, and how to appreciate the easy pace of life in Paris. The goal is to live more as visitors who come to share the experiences of the Parisians than as tourists who come to see famous sights. Obviously, we'll need to read the literature (or at least some of it) to get to know the city. Scroll down this blog to see what we will read.

Hotel Rooms

Here's how our living arrangements will be in Paris. You might want to post a message to your roomates here (if you don't already know them).

Room 1 – Alexandria Baumert, Zidana Nance, Holly Johns
Room 2 - Erynn Campbell, Elaina Ross, Katrina Huitt
Room 3 - Jessica Catcher, Megan Wright, Karla Coulson
Room 4 - Anna Gurley, Valeria Rader, Kayla Wilkoxson
Room 5 - Catheryn Jennings, Jason Jennings
Room 6 – Eryc Nikkel

92 RUE DE VAUGIRARD PARIS, 75006 FRANCE
We will be staying at the Holiday Inn Saint Germain des Pres. The hotel is ideally situated in the Latin Quarter area, in the Saint Germain des Pres and Montparnasse neighbourhood. The hotel is located within walking distance from Notre de Dame, the Louvre Museum, the Seine River and Luxembourg Garden. The Holiday Inn Paris Saint Germain des Pres Hotel is fully Air Conditioned and has High Speed Internet access (ASDL and Wi-Fi). The hotel offers a restaurant, room service and a friendly bar. A hot buffet breakfast will be provided each morning in the hotel's restaurant. Rooms are provided with air conditioning, cable television, satelliet TV, AM/FM alarm clock, bath tub, bidet, phone, mini bar, writing desk with lamp, and coffee maker. The hotel also offers baby sitting services, a concierge desk, photo-copy service, currency exchange, a 24-hour front desk, email service, hairdryers, ice machine, high speed internet access, clothing iron, safe deposit box, laundry/valet services, and wake-up service.

Paris Transportation

Are you physically prepared to take this class?

This class requires moving about the city of Paris. For a healthy adult of any age, this trip will be quite manageable. However, France is not handicapped accessible because Europe does not have the same laws regarding accessibility as the United States. Consequently, anyone with substantial mobility limitations will have to refrain from certain activities. A lot of walking is required to get around Paris. Most places in Paris have no elevator or escalator--even buildings that are many stories tall and subway stations that are several stories below ground. It will also be necessary to stand for extended periods of time and climb many stairs. We will attempt to find a place to sit whenever we can, but the city of Paris will not alter itself to accommodate us. If you are concerned about your physical condition, and are not certain about your ability to stand, walk, and climb stairs for three continuous hours without sitting, please consult your family physician as to whether this class is suitable for you.
Here are questions to consider with your doctor:
1. Can you walk 5 miles a day (for ten days) without injury?
2. Can you stand for several hours without requiring a rest?
3. Can you carry all your luggage up three flights of stairs by yourself? (Pack accordingly!)
4. Can you walk a half mile in 15 minutes without discomfort? Can you keep that pace for at least 45 minutes?

For students who are not physically disabled, I recommend preparing for Paris by building your walking stamina to five miles a day. Do this gradually in the weeks before we go.

Everyone must consider the following possibilities:
1. I will make sure disabled students have an alternate activity for the day if they are unable to get to a particular destination, but there will be no way for students with substantial mobility problems to descend into the catacombs or climb to the top of Notre Dame. This is just a fact of traveling in Europe. Please remember that it is more important to protect yourself from injury than to participate in an activity. With several students in our group, the professor's principal responsibility is to ensure the planned activities of the entire class. I will do everything humanly possible to give each student the full experience of Paris but it will always be my first priority to prevent injuries.
2. If you wish to take a taxi at any point in order to reach a destination, it will be at your own expense. Please be sure to bring extra money for this if you know you amy experience difficulty walking for extended periods of time. If you cannot keep a regular walking pace, you will be limited to participating in stationary activities (which I will provide). Just realize that if you have serious mobility limitations, there will simply be places you cannot go and things you cannot see.
3. No one will be available to lift or otherwise physically assist you at any time. Wheelchairs and porters are not provided by our hotel, the city of Paris, or NSU. If you require any type of assistance, you must bring a capable travel companion who can help you participate in the tour as described above.
4. If you are unable to stand for 3 hours without sitting down, you will need to bring a portable seat of some kind with you because our time in museums will not always be spent in rooms with available seating.

What to Wear

When I met many of you at the first informational meeting in Broken Arrow October 30, many asked about what clothing would be appropriate for Paris. This is an important question because how you look determines how you will be treated. The goal is to avoid looking like a tourist, to blend in as much as possible. Here are some websites that give good advice:
http://www.goj3.com/media/What_Not_to_Wear_in_Europe.pdf
http://www.squidoo.com/travelista

Evelyn P. Woods Scholarship

The Evelyn P. Woods Scholarship will be awarded to two students who meet the following criteria:
1. Recipients must be enrolled in the NSU class for college credit.
2. Recipients must be employed as high school teachers.
3. Recipients must apply for the award before February 1, 2009.
3. Preference will be given to teachers of language and literature.
4. Preference will be given to teachers currently pursuing an M.A. at NSU.
Due to the recent market falls, we cannot be sure what percentage of the trip this scholarship will cover for selected recipients. An application form will be posted here soon.

Literature you will experience:

Students will be asked to have completed two readings for the trip prior to arrival in Paris: The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir and Horace by Georges Sand. Both novels acquaint students with a sense of the Parisian life of the early 20th and 19th centuries while introducing them to some of the important intellectual and artistic personalities of the periods (via the authors’ thinly veiled “characters”).

While in Paris, students will read aloud together significant pieces of prose, poetry, travel writing, and political documents. Each of the readings will be discussed in a location appropriate to it. For example, Victor Hugo’s description of Notre Dame from Notre Dame de Paris (AKA The Hunchback of Notre Dame) will be read in the garden behind Notre Dame—a shady pleasant place with a view of the extraordinary flying buttresses around the nave.

Students will read Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal (in translation), poetry about sensuality and death, while deep inside the catacombs where the bones of thousands of late Parisians are arranged along the walls.

Experience Paris

While in Paris, students will be asked to eat only at French restaurants or to prepare their own meals from food they buy at nearby stores or open markets (the most economic option). We will move about the city using the same methods the Parisians use (never setting foot on a tour bus). In order to experience Paris as a Parisian, it will also be necessary to keep the pace leisurely: ample time for meals and evenings free to explore the city as one wishes. All visits to locations in the city will be related to the readings.

Students will be encouraged to explore the shops, gardens, parks, Metro stations, and open-air markets of Paris as much as (if not more than) the museums and expositions. Students will receive instruction on the French expectations for politeness so that they can experience the warmest welcome from Parisians while exploring the city.

Carnavalet Museum

Because the French Revolution is a special area of study for the professor leading this trip, readings of Robespierre and The Rights of Man and Citizen will take place at the Palais Royale (where the revolution began) and the third floor of the Carnavalet Museum where the most remarkable collection of artifacts from the revolution are on display.

What you will read

Novels:
The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir
Horace by Georges Sand
“This Will Kill That” from Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo
Drama:
selection from Candide by Voltaire
Poetry:
selections from les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire
Selected Poems of Victor Hugo
Travel Writing:
selections from Paris, France by Gertrude Stein
selections from A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Political Documents:
selections from Robespierre
The Rights of Man and Citizen

Our Hotel

92 RUE DE VAUGIRARD PARIS, 75006 FRANCE

We will be staying at the Holiday Inn Saint Germain des Pres. The hotel is ideally situated in the Latin Quarter area, in the Saint Germain des Pres and Montparnasse neighbourhood. The hotel is located within walking distance from Notre de Dame, the Louvre Museum, the Seine River and Luxembourg Garden. The Holiday Inn Paris Saint Germain des Pres Hotel is fully Air Conditioned and has High Speed Internet access (ASDL and Wi-Fi). The hotel offers a restaurant, room service and a friendly bar. A hot buffet breakfast will be provided each morning in the hotel's restaurant. Rooms are provided with air conditioning, cable television, satelliet TV, AM/FM alarm clock, bath tub, bidet, phone, mini bar, writing desk with lamp, and coffee maker. The hotel also offers baby sitting services, a concierge desk, photo-copy service, currency exchange, a 24-hour front desk, email service, hairdryers, ice machine, high speed internet access, clothing iron, safe deposit box, laundry/valet services, and wake-up service.

Each student will stay in a room with one other student.