Segment 1: Voyage à Paris
Bonjour à Paris!
I am Marie Engle: American mezzo-soprano, enjoyer of baked goods, half-marathon finisher, lover of second-hand goods and currently, French student at the Cours de civilisation française de la Sorbonne in Paris, France. Over the course of 2020 when performance jobs were non-existent in the US, I decided to save my unemployment money, study French and find a way to get myself to Paris for the following year. Thanks to the support of my communities around the US, I find myself here in Paris today, taking my first language classes of the year and enjoying a baguette slathered in semi-salted butter.
This blog is my weekly (hopefully!) effort at keeping my supporters and community up to speed with my going-ons, to give you insight into my life abroad and what is developing in my career and other interests: running, eating, thrift-shopping, studying French, etc.
After an exciting summer of chamber music-making at the Marlboro Music School and Festival in Vermont, I anxiously awaited the arrival of my student visa as I couch-hopped along the East Coast for a month. It was wonderful to spend time with friends and family, all the while adding on the final miles of my half-marathon training and trying not to accumulate too many things to add to my suitcases. The Saturday before my trans-Atlantic flight, I ran my first half-marathon in Bird-in-Hand, PA. It was a beautiful run and an amazing intercultural experience with the Amish community there. I finished the race, was happy with my time and subsequently spent an hour in the recovery tent with my sister and niece as my blood pressure returned to a healthy level. The next day, I took the train to NYC to catch up with a couple of friends and see my voice teacher, Marlena, one last time before my trip. Finally, I was off!
I flew from JFK to Berlin, with an ironic connecting flight in Paris. After a year of self-motivated French study, I had taken the summer off to focus on music and found myself being confused about which language to refresh before the trip: German, of which I have more speaking/life experience and which is spoken where I would be staying for the first two and half weeks? Or French, which is only an intermediate level for me and will comprise the bulk of my yearly study? I found a happy medium by refreshing neither and was delightfully confused when French vocab would sneak into my rusty German in Berlin.
I flew first to Berlin to be an undercover singer at my friend Nora’s weekend festival for female song pianists: Lied the Way (https://www.elenorapertz.com/liedtheway). Along with Nora’s mom, Julie, and friend, Anna, we prepared meals for 30 women over the course of three days from the fabulous kitchen of a German castle. I have to say that everyone had lovely things to say about my mostly vegan, gluten-free and onion-free recipes :-) I adjusted this Dahl (https://www.noracooks.com/red-lentil-dahl/), this chili (https://www.countryliving.com/food-drinks/recipes/a6184/pumpkin-beef-black-bean-chili-recipe-clx1014/) and this lasagna (https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/easy-pesto-lasagne) for the group to rave reviews. For the final afternoon, I whipped up my take on this bread pudding (https://www.smalltownwoman.com/croissant-bread-pudding/#tasty-recipes-45192-jump-target) with a custard sauce that I improvised, thanks to having recently watched several seasons of the great British Baking Show. I can highly recommend all of these! And it was lovely to be in a serving role for these beautiful women who are so often caring for us singers. I am so proud of Nora for making this vision a reality and for making a space for female song pianists to come together in support of one another.
After the festival, I had a week in Berlin by myself- a relief after all the couch-hopping. I had time to practice and got to work on two sets of song repertoire for the Heidelberg Lied Akademy auditions. I went for long walks in the Tiergarten everyday. And thrifty as I am, I found creative ways to consume the leftover food from the festival. Nora returned, and we had a great time together catching up, cooking, drinking Apfelschorle and rehearsing some wonderful songs.
Finally, it was time to make my way to my final destination: Paris! I hopped on the overnight bus, dragged my bags through the lovely Parisian autumnal rain and finally settled into my home for the year at the Fondation des États-Unis in Paris. This dorm is on the Cité Universitaire campus: a campus full of country-themed houses for international students who have come to study in Paris. It is really cool!
The first few days have been pretty rainy, but finally the sun has come out and my language courses have begun! I may have tested into too high of a level for my French class, but I do like a challenge, so who knows? Maybe I will stick with it and ride to the occasion :-)
Stay tuned for more adventures!
Marie in Paris
