September 21-27, 2020. This is the first week that I didn’t have to rush every morning to get to Alliance Française for my daily four-hour language classes. I had intentionally not enrolled in the last week of the B1-level program because I wanted at least a week for some rest before my LL.M. (Master of Laws) international arbitration program commenced.
To make most of the free time, I had previously decided to take a leisure trip. The original destination I had in mind was Hamburg, to visit a good friend. But a month or so ago, Germany introduced stricter measures for all persons entering from France, which meant it was too cumbersome to make a visit. I would have had to isolate myself for two weeks upon arriving and that would have been too much trouble. Also, of course, if I only had a week to spare, there wouldn’t have been enough time to complete the two-week quarantine.
Thus, I decided to go somewhere within France instead, where there were no travel restrictions. Some weeks ago, the French domestic train network went on promotion to sell tickets at a bargain. Tickets were selling for as low as 10 euros one-way to select destinations. I was able to book roundtrip train tickets to Marseille and Rennes.
But before I get to that, let me tell you about my trip to the prefecture (administrative / police office) at the beginning of the week to submit my foreign resident visa requirements and finally being granted a “récépissé” or preliminary resident permit.
Finally getting my récépissé. I have probably recounted before that getting a rendez-vous (appointment) with the prefecture, which is the office that handles the renewal of resident visas for foreigners in France, was such a pain. Well, first you have to know that because of the pandemic, you can’t just show up at the prefecture without booking an appointment. Next, you have to know that booking an appointment at the prefecture’s website is such a game of luck. The slots only open on Mondays at around 9AM. I say “around” because it’s not precise. You just have to keep refreshing the webpage starting at 9AM until the slots appear and then fill up the forms as fast as you can, before the very few slots available run out. To cut the long story short, I was able to book a rendez-vous two weeks ago, scheduled for this Monday, September 21. By this date, my existing resident visa had already expired. But I was told I need not worry because holders of recently expired resident visas are given consideration because of the pandemic.
The prefecture in charge of handling applications from my place of residence is located in Antony, a suburb around 12 kilometers from the center of Paris, or around an hour by train from my place in Boulogne.
I had previously encountered an irritable female officer to handle my request the last time I had an appointment three weeks ago who quite literally just told me to go away and book another appointment because my documents were not in order. I had hoped I would not encounter her again but behold me, there she was.
I faced the challenge head on. As usual, she was in an unpleasant disposition and refused to show any sign of consideration even if I was clearly struggling with communicating. She spoke fast French all throughout but thanks to weeks of French classes, I knew better (but not perfectly) how to respond to her questions and demands. I wonder how non-French speakers have to deal with this unpleasant French bureaucracy! Anyway, after a few minutes of checking my documents, she finally provided me a récépissé or a temporary resident visa that would allow me to stay in France while they prepare my carte de séjour or foreign resident identification card.
I was so relieved upon receiving the resident visa. Because it was a very pleasant day, I took a walk inside the vast Parc Sceaux which was just nearby. I didn’t realize how beautiful the park was. I spent a little more than an hour just sitting under the shade of a tree reading a book (in French, as a means of practicing my reading comprehension). I also took a stroll around the quaint town center of Sceaux until later in the afternoon. I did some groceries, too, because I had thought of trying to make fried rice and other meals for the next few days.
August 10-16, 2020. Weather has been cooler, which is a relief from the scorching temperatures we’ve been having.
This week I started going to the gym upon realizing that my membership was still active and that the club had credited the months of covid confinement in France to the months when the gyms were allowed to open. In other words, I had a little more than a month to use. I might as well take advantage of the months I had paid for, I thought. Alas, nanggigil ako, I think I overdid some weights after such a long time of not doing any gym/fitness activity.
On Thursday, I had dinner with Thomas, our Filipino friends and his other friends for his birthday, at a nice Italian place in Saint-Cloud, across the Seine from Bois de Boulogne. I just walked all the way from my place, and it turned out to be an hour’s walk along unusual paths. It was my first time to cross the Seine through the Pasarelle de L’Avre, with a nice view of La Défense.
Nothing spectacular the rest of the week. I attended all my classes at Alliance Française. I did a short visit at Ikea near metro Madeleine last Friday. Then on Sunday, bid farewell to my Japanese friend Keishi before he returned for good to Japan.
August 3-9, 2020. This week I started my intensive French classes at Alliance Française Paris. One of the reasons I came back to Paris two months ahead of the start of my LL.M. classes, aside from the primary reason being that I needed to re-enter France before my visa expired and apply for an extension from within continental France, was that I wanted to study French intensively get past my current level of proficiency. The intensive classes are held for four hours every day (except weekends) for two months. Hopefully, I will be able to advance in my proficiency. It would be a shame not to be able to speak, read and write French proficiently after more than a year living in Paris. It took me a while to get used to the first few sessions, it really was intensive, and the primary rule was that we couldn’t communicate in English–at all, so at first I was having a hard time communicating what I didn’t know how to express in French. It felt a lot like drowning, trying to grasp and express words I didn’t know in French like gasping for air. It quickly got better.
This week was also marked by the canicule or heat wave. Day time temperatures have been breaching past 35 degrees celcius daily since Tuesday. The evenings do not bring any relief either, aside from the fact that the sun sets way past 9 in the evening, the heat stays above 30, and worse–there is no wind whatsoever to stimulate the cooling effect of sweat. I often woke up in the middle of the night dripping in perspiration and end up having a bed sheet damp with sweat by morning.
I had been told to buy an electric fan, but the scrimping person that I am, I refused to spend on something that I would only be using for two weeks, maximum–because temperatures are seen to cool down towards the end of the month as autumn comes around the corner.
I met up with my Filipino friends this week. On Tuesday, I met up with Yael, the only other fraternity brother I have in France. We went at the 10e arrondissement at the Canal Saint-Martin area. The summer afternoon atmosphere was amazing, it was like everything was back to normal. People were out enjoying the nice warm weather, hanging out with friends along the canal, lying on the grass in the parks, dancing at the Place de la République, all having a good time like the pandemic was over. We then had dinner at Thai place.
The next day, I met up with my former housemate, Patricia, who along with her boyfriend, hosted dinner at their apartment. I would meet up with her again two days later when we met up with owner of the apartment we used to rent out in Montmartre. I needed to retrieve the rest of my luggage which I had left in the apartment at the beginning of the pandemic. We never got to meet her during our lease because she lived overseas.
On Saturday, I met up with my other set of former housemates and our friends, the ones I lived with in Suresnes when I first arrived in Paris last year. We came together to have a surprise party for Thomas who was celebrating his birthday. We had makeshift samgyupsal using a raclette table grill.
Tonight, I had dinner with my LLM classmates Keishi and Dmitry at Relais de l’Entrecôte near Montparnasse.
July 27 – August 2, 2020. Most days of the past week was spent reconnecting with classmates from the LL.M. program and Filipino friends who had stayed in Paris during the period of confinement.
I had written and posted about the trip to Compiègne and Amiens I took last Tuesday with my Japanese and Russian friends in blog entries here and here, if you want to check it out.
The Monday prior was spent just doing some errands, like returning the keys of my old apartment to the real estate agent near Champs Elysée, and doing some bank errands at La Défense. It was too hot to do anything else outdoors, damn. But being indoors is no relief either as there is no electric fan in the house I am staying in, nor is air-conditioning a normal thing anywhere in the city! I never realized how summer temperatures and conditions can be worse in Paris than if I were in my room in Metro Manila.
On Thursday, I decided to go for a walk around Bois de Boulogne, which is the woods at the western part of Paris, and is just two blocks from where I now live. Parisiens know what this place is known for, but I guess there is room for everyone from the hookers to families with children wishing to enjoy the outdoors. That afternoon, I met up with my friend and ex-flatmate Patricia for lunch near her place in the 17th arrondissement.
That weekend, I met up again with my LLM friends Keishi and Dmitry, this time with Judith, one of our German classmates, flying over for a visit from Dusseldorf! On Saturday, we had apéro drinks along the Seine near Pont Neuf, then walked towards Île de la Cite for dinner at a restaurant in Place Dauphine. We continued walking up until our old stomping grounds near school around Saint Germain, where we ended up at a bar where the beer cost 9 euros a pint!
We met up again on Sunday and had apéro again along the Seine (this time near Pont Alexandre) then walked towards Champ de Mars for pizza at an Italian restaurant.
July 20-26, 2020. The first half of last week was spent contemplating on and preparing last minute necessities for my impending departure from Manila. I made last minute trips to the mall, saw some friends, and finally got myself to pack the relatively few things I would be taking with me–considering that I would be staying abroad for a year. They all fit in just one suitcase and a duffel bag, actually. I flew out of Manila on July 22 and arrived in Paris the day after, spending a brief layover in Doha, Qatar. I wrote a separate blog entry narrating the experience of the entire transit.
It is by fortunate circumstance that I was allowed to leave the Philippines despite the many restrictions in international travel during these times. I have an existing resident visa for France that allowed me to pass through immigration authorities in Manila just a day before the Philippine government reimposed a ban on ‘non-essential’ foreign travel for Filipinos (not that my departure was non-essential). I was also able to enter France with minimal restrictions. I was surprised immigration at Charles de Gaulle airport did not even ask for any other documentation aside from my passport. I was merely asked if, after all the time I spent in France, I had already learned how to speak French. An odd question at the airport, but oui, I said, un peu, suffisant.
Let’s do this from the beginning. On the night of July 22, 2020, there were only three flights out of Manila airport’s Terminal 3–one for Amsterdam, one of Dubai and one for Doha. I was booked on the flight to Doha that would connect me to a flight to Paris. Given all the restrictions in international travel, I had expected the flight to be sparsely booked. I was wrong. The flight from Manila to Doha was packed to the last economy seat. The flight was full of overseas Filipino workers and seamen proceeding or returning to their work abroad.