Parisian weekend adventures

Between periods of vegetation on my bed watching Project Runway, I had a very interesting and entertaining weekend! On Friday I slept in and then met Maddie and Connie for tea and snacks at the Cafe de la Mosquee de Paris. There is a large Muslim population in Paris, and they have built a strong community based in and around the Mosque and Institut Muselman (Muslim Institute) located about a 10-minute walk from my apartment. We wanted to explore a little inside the compound but arrived during prayer time and therefore couldn't go inside. It was very intimidating being caught in the stream of devout Muslim men and women going into the gate, and I'm not sure that I'd feel comfortable going in even during an appropriate time. I felt very white and very Christian! But we found the cafe entrance around the corner in the compound and had a delightful afternoon snack. You walk in and are greeted by a dining room where you can sit and order all kinds of couscous and tagine dishes or a beautifully tiled courtyard where you can order drinks and munch on Middle Eastern pastries that you choose from a case at the entrance. We decided to pick three different pastries and share so we could taste all of them (the only recognizable one was baklava!) and settled down with steaming glasses of mint tea. It was a perfect oasis of calm and the pastries and tea were delicious! One of the cakes literally had honey oozing out of it - it was cool to see how their pastries were honey and nut based (lots of pistachio and hazelnut) instead of full of butter :)

The outside of the mosque compound

Tea with friends!

Friday night Connie, Maddie, Tenny, Jen and I decided to venture out to a bar called Polly Maggoo's a few blocks away from our apartment. The bars nearby were all hopping with people but we didn't see any with a dance floor :( We settled at a table and looked with dismay at the drink menu before deciding to suck it up and splurge on drinks. Between glasses of champagne, kir royal, Tequila Sunrise, Blue Lagoon and my Sex on the Beach, we had quite a rainbow of drinks! But we had to leave at about 12:30 because the metro stops at 1am! Sadness. It was also pouring rain so that was fun. I've learned to ALWAYS carry an umbrella with me because apparently Paris gets random downpours all the time. Super!

YUM :)

Saturday afternoon, Maddie, Connie and I went with a few other people from the dorms to the Fete des Vendages de Montmartre (Montmartre's annual Harvest Festival). It's a half hour metro ride to Montmartre and then a good walk up the hill through the town to the Sacre Coeur, the giant white cathedral the city is famous for. There were a lot of stairs to climb at a very steep angle, so we were a little weak in the knees by the time we made the summit. But it was so worth the trek, because we were greeted with streets lined with white tents offering the wonderful tastes and smells of all sorts of French food (most of it locally produced)! We started off with a glass of champagne (5 euros for the drink and a souvenir glass from the vineyard was the best deal I've found in Paris so far!) and strolled through the crowds. There was a cooking demonstration and free wine tasting in one area, and then the rest of the festival was composed of vendors who often gave out free samples. We tried samples of sausages, cakes, honey, jam and tapenades and bought a slice of gateau breton (a dense, almost cornbread-like textured traditional cake from Brittany that was DELICIOUS) and plates of escargots and huitres (oysters). No, I did not eat any of the snails or oysters, but I looked on and took pictures - probably with an unconscious grimace on my face - as my friends just "let it slide down their throats..." All in all it was a great day of eating, drinking, getting to know some new friends and discovering the city of Montmartre which is really cute and definitely warrants a trip back.

Maddie meets an oyster Sacre Coeur

The view from Sacre Coeur

Saturday night Tenny and I met Taylor and her friend Travis who's visiting from the US for wine and cookies under the Eiffel Tower. The tower was lit up in red and white and we couldn't figure out what was going on when we encountered hordes of Turkish people waving Turkish flags underneath. It turns out that the French government started a program where every year it highlights a different country with cultural programs, etc. throughout France. This year is Turkey, and the tower was lit up for the visit of the Turkish president that day! This morning, Jen and I went to the Marche aux Puces de Porte de Vanves (literally "market of fleas"). It was a gray and chilly morning but it was fun to walk along the street and see all the undiscovered treasures. And junk. The prices seemed a tad high for the product - I was told by a vendor that a picture frame cost 200 euros - but it was a nice way to get out without spending money. When I got home, Tenny and I decided to make an expedition to the laundromat down the street. It was the first time I'd ever used a laundromat and we'd heard horror stories about people stealing laundry from running machines or moving people's stuff before it's done, so we took turns guarding our clothes while they washed and dried. It was successful (though we're now 8 euros lighter), and it's about time we had clean clothes! In other news, our upstairs neighbors have decided to renovate their apartment. This means drilling and hammering at all hours of the day (and even past midnight) that we hear as loudly as if they were doing it in our bedroom. Yay! Miss and love you all! Bises xoxo