MY STUDENT MOBILITY IN PARIS: Vera Davidović

Vera Davidović
University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Applied Arts

Erasmus+ Mobility for Studies at:

National School of Decorative Arts in Paris

“Pas la peine de sécher tes larmes, le soleil s’en occupera bientôt!”
“No need to dry your tears, the sun will take care of it soon”
This was a quote that was written on an old window somewhere near Montmartre in Paris and has become a sentence that I now associate with this experience.

My arrival in Paris, in January of the year 2026, was very turbulent. I was met with living on my own in a large city, with a language that I am not fluent in and with a very different schooling program. With all of this it took me time to adapt and to find my own pace but contrary to one’s expectations I never felt swallowed or overpowered by this city, the opposite I felt like I found a place that suits all my particularities and accepts me just the way I accept it back.

Paris is a city whose culture and liveliness comes from its multiculturalism. People were never meant to live isolated from other cultures and societies and Paris understands that. One of the best aspects I have gained from this exchange was meeting other Erasmus students with different upbringings, views and ideas than my own. I felt like I have relearned things that I have already known and that cultures and languages that seem so different are much more familiar than I could have imagined.

Furthermore the courses were mostly focused on our future professions with elective courses from other departments. The classes and assignments themselves were very challenging and demanding but that work and productivity led to progress and the feeling of satisfaction and made it clear for me why ENSAD was so accredited.

More importantly ENSAD is a very open minded school. It is a very old, cherished and established educational institution in France yet it does not strive away from following the time current when it comes to the novelties and technological advancements in the applied art industries while still managing to maintain the traditions these industries rely on. Additionally, since my very first day I was treated as any other regular student, all the academic staff was as professional, strict and helpful to me as they were to the rest of the class which made me feel very respected and appreciated. The class I was placed into was a group of intelligent, hardworking and inspiring individuals. Each one of them was eager to help me with any difficulty I had and made me feel like I was an important addition to the class. This mentality that the success of the whole group is as important as the success of each student really echoed through the school. During my stay there we had various group workshops that helped us understand the value of teamwork and then put it into practice.

To conclude, the key message I wish to spread would be that exchange in any country is an amazing opportunity. It places us out of our comfort zones, taking the shelter of familiarity away from us. Only by doing this can we improve and see what it is that we as a person, a university or a country do better than others and try to influence with these qualities or more importantly see where we fail and see how we can be better. I would say that especially for East European students this would be an incredible opportunity since we very often have less resources than the rest of Europe. Finally, why Paris? For me the most important thing is that art is so omnipresent, it is not a privilege yet a necessity in everyday life. It is respected and cherished and there is no better feeling than when a child blocks your view in a museum because they are so in love with a painting that they have to take a photo with it. That experience alone is reason enough.