CROUS!

Day 24 in Paris

Spaghetti carbonara, seafood terrine, and custard pudding. Cost: 3,10 EUR. That's only 0,15 euros more than that sad frozen bagel. 

Due to some unforeseen slowness on the part of my school's administration, my student loan has yet to be disbursed. Well, in truth, I did foresee it. I was just hoping against all hope that all the stereotypes about seemingly lackadaisical, glacially slow French office workers was false. But alas, personal experience has done nothing but further provide evidence to this reputation.

So, that being said, I've been quite low on funds lately. At school there are two on-site student canteens, or rather, food stands, that sell subsidized meals to students. And by meals I mean baguette sandwiches: jambon beurre, mixte (ham and cheese), poulet-crudité , jambon-crudité, tuna-crudité. If you're feeling particularly flush with centimes, you can spring for a whole formule: sandwich, yogurt, and drink. All for 3,70 EUR. Needless to say, I think in the past three weeks I've had quite enough subsidized bread and sliced ham.

Just when I had resigned myself to forever eating carbs and butter for lunch (which surprisingly you can get sick of), or being doomed to pack my lunch (the sandwiches I make at home are even sadder), my fellow American--the only other one in my Masters program--reminded me of the university student restaurant a couple blocks away from school. In Paris, there are no "campus" universities and university students from all different kinds of schools are instead served by a nationwide system of services called CROUS (Centre régional des œuvres universitaires et scolaires). This includes, university dorms (Cité Universitaire), university  restaurants, and cultural programming. All of which is generously subsidized by the State.

I perked up at the idea of hot food. We walked to the restaurant and joined the line up to the dining room. It was fairly impressive. The space was newly renovated (or it appeared so, but then again this is relative to the rest of Paris), and the food. Oh, the food. It was varied, pretty healthy, and so cheap. Basically, you get get three courses for 3,10 EUR. So in awe I was at the sight that when it came to my turn to order I couldn't even think straight and just said whatever was in front of me, which happened to be the spaghetti carbonara. Though, in hindsight, I would have prefered the feuilleté (savory puff pastry pie) and ratatouille. Or maybe the rice and chicken curry.

Granted, it's not the best food. But it's tasty enough, on par with dining hall food from BC (if not better, depending on the dining hall), and again, you just can't beat the price. I even saw professors and library staff eating there, so really, no one can resist.