tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51432794422707521042024-02-19T11:22:15.737+01:00Paris, je t'aime!Thanks for checking in to follow my adventures across the Atlantic! I'm studying at the Institut Catholique in Paris from September 23 to December 19, 2009 and I'm so incredibly excited for the amazing blur of crazy adventures and awesome experiences that this short ten weeks will bring. Stay tuned!
Sending an unbelievable amount of love to my family and fabulous friends back home <3Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-12978622720034518492009-12-17T15:38:00.000+01:002009-12-17T15:38:42.680+01:00Je reve d'un Noel blanc!Yes, indeed, it is legitimately SNOWING in Paris! Some flakes fell on Sunday but didn't stick, so I was disappointed but also relieved that I didn't have to brave the elements. However, this morning as I was getting ready to walk to school for my last day of French language class, I looked out the window and realized that it was really snowing - and this time it was sticking to the roofs and trees! When I walked out my front door, I realized that it was not going to be a nice, picturesque walk through a snow-covered park because the snow was still very actively falling. After half a block, I shrugged, turned around, and went back to bed. You can take the girl out of California, but you can't take the California out of the girl!<br />
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The scene that greeted me this morning! <br /></div>
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When I ventured out for a coffee date with a friend around noon, it was still snowing and I had quite a time trying not to fall on my butt on the slippery and icy sidewalk! But I made it and I'll admit the city does look beautiful under an inch of white :) It's stopped for now, but I think it will probably continue until I leave. Who would've thought?<br />
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I think a lot of people have very soggy motorcycle seats today...<br /></div>
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Here, as promised are some pictures of my neighborhood - before the snowfall! My block isn't super interesting, but there's more up the street a few storefronts down.<br /></div>
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My cafe! My door is the brown one on the far left of the storefront. There are always cars parked on the street so it's impossible to get a clear shot of anything!<br /></div>
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The neighborhood boucherie, or butcher shop. Apparently it's really good quality and has won awards, and there's always a long line out the door before dinner when people are on their way home!<br /></div>
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Finally, my FAVORITE boulangerie (bread bakery) in the world! This is the one I rave about, and whose owner and only employee is probably the nicest person I've ever met. Seriously. We stop in about twice a week to buy bread or a pastry, and he is always SO friendly and welcoming with a huge smile and a big "bonjour!" I practice my French on him when I have the time :) And, since I walk by his big window every time I leave the apartment, I often get a wave and a big smile from him several times a day! Turns out he's featured in a book called The Patisseries of Paris by Jamie Cahill (a beautiful guide to the best patisseries, boulangeries, chocolateries, etc. in the city). His name is Bruno Solques and he opened the shop in 2001. Anyway, he's my favorite Parisian person of all time and I sincerely hope I can see him again! Here we are...<br /></div>
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I would seriously marry this guy if we spoke the same language! <br /></div>
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I also think he does a lot of clay work because his shop is decorated with lots of cool ceramic art (like you can see in the background). More photos to come of his beautiful pastries and bread - we're going back tomorrow morning when he has the full selection on display!<br /></div>
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<br />Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-48050048151511671472009-12-15T21:05:00.001+01:002009-12-15T21:07:01.385+01:00Le fin :(<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Please enjoy the photos from the past week - probably the last interesting things I'll have to show you before I leave in 3 days! As you can see, Christmas is in full swing here in Paris and even the Pantheon is getting in the spirit :)<br /></div>
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Thursday night was Tenny's birthday celebration at my favorite restaurant in Paris, Pomze! Everything there is made with some kind of apple ingredient, and it's absolutely amazingly delicious...<br />
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My entree: Cromesqui de Fourme d’Ambert, compote de Reinettes et salade d’automne<br /></div>
Warm blue cheese with apple preserve and salad<br />
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Plat: Filets de bar sur peau, au miel de Tentation, sauce pain d’épices, panaché de tubercules d’automne<br /></div>
Sea bass with gingerbread sauce, seasonal tubers and apples<br />
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Dessert: Fondant chocolat, coeur de pomme, glace caramel au beurre salé<br /></div>
Warm apple & chocolate fondant, salted butter caramel ice cream <br />
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As you can see, I am thoroughly enamored with the food at Pomze. I just needed to share some of its fabulousness with you!<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9KLy-7h6nonxtJB6n3fjjz7f5IvfY2lMZyLza0_2wybxVmq-r3tRyXb7wBWx7JftkkaZ0zNYiPLivOaO8xpmgLs7ZVFEQBXUZczkDELH4VGoGOGPh13AJBvjD_DFXxzy98lFy0Fl9uVC4/s1600-h/IMG_2975.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9KLy-7h6nonxtJB6n3fjjz7f5IvfY2lMZyLza0_2wybxVmq-r3tRyXb7wBWx7JftkkaZ0zNYiPLivOaO8xpmgLs7ZVFEQBXUZczkDELH4VGoGOGPh13AJBvjD_DFXxzy98lFy0Fl9uVC4/s320/IMG_2975.JPG" /></a><br />
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On Saturday, Tenny and I visited the Musee d'Orsay, my favorite art museum probably in the world. Which isn't saying much, but it's one I can actually mostly appreciate and not get super bored in :)<br /></div>
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Oh, just me and Vincent<br /></div>
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"Buche de Noel" - Christmas log - is a traditional French holiday dessert that I've been desperately waiting to see! They are generally very expensive to buy a full size, but most patisseries sell mini ones like these! Quite delicious - the minis are mousse with filling in the center, while the large ones are usually cake rolled with cream (like a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake)! If you get fancy with it, they can be decorated with marzipan mushrooms to look like a real log, or all gold flaked and fancy (and cost 50 euros)...<br /></div>
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Eclairs at Fauchon, the most expensive grocery store in Paris! Cool to see, but I'm not sure it's worth the price tag that is often 3 times more expensive, like these eclairs for 6 euros each. And yes, that is the Mona Lisa looking at you... <br /></div>
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Tenny and I had to revisit L'As du Falafel, the most incredible falafel joint in all the world, before we returned to the states. No, seriously. I probably rank this among the top things I will miss when I return home! <br /></div>
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This is heaven in a pita. <br /></div>
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I'll leave you with this beautiful image of the Galeries Lafayette, one of Paris's "grands magasins" - ridiculously gigantic department stores with gourmet restaurants inside (think Nordstrom but NICER and BIGGER)!<br />
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</div>Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-60062786749203608422009-12-13T22:51:00.003+01:002009-12-13T23:28:23.205+01:00Thoughts...As my time in Paris draws to a close, and I make the mistake of having coffee at 5 pm, I find myself lying in bed thinking of things that I will miss and things I won't have trouble leaving once I hop on the plane at Charles de Gaulle on Saturday. My musings...<br />
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THINGS I WILL MISS<br />
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1. The pride the French take in their food "craftsmanship." Tenny asked me the other day what the equivalent of our favorite Parisian chocolate shop would be at home, and we realized that there simply isn't one! I could only think of Godiva and See's, and those are two very large factory-supplied chain stores and not at all the boutique, specialty, artisanal stores we have here. Granted, a single piece of chocolate costs about 1 euro at these stores, but there's a lot to be said for the love and devotion these artists have to their chocolate, bread, pastries, etc. Even here they're a dying breed, but there will always be Parisians who know that the artisan baguette from around the corner is worth the extra euro and who will support these amazingly devoted people. I will be truly sad to go back to a land of chains and mass production :( Here are a couple of websites for artisan chocolatiers I have patronized...<br />
www.patrickroger.com<br />
www.alareineastrid.fr<br />
www.jeff-de-bruges.com<br />
www.chocolaterie-servant.com<br />
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2. The ability to walk everwhere I need to go. I have used the metro probably once a week for the past month and a half and it's been the greatest decision I've ever made! Not only do I get exercise, fresh air, and can now better orient myself in the city, but I haven't been making my normal GIANT carbon footprint for about 3 months! The grocery store is 5 minutes away, the boulangerie is down the block, the laundromat is across the street and great restaurants are often just a short hop away. This may just be a feature of urban life that I haven't experienced growing up in Los Altos, but I think it's a shame that there's no way I can keep it up when I get home. It would take me an hour to walk to the nearest Safeway...<br />
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3. History. Everywhere you go in Paris (or in France, or Europe for that matter), there's so much history EVERYWHERE, even if it's just in the fact that many buildings were built about the same time we were heading over on the Mayflower. It's no fault of America's, but it's just going to be sad to have an "old and historic" building be built in the 1800s! I randomly run into cathedrals and towers and palaces in my walks - where else but here could you say that?<br />
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4. The language. French is the most beautiful language in the world, and I'm horribly sad that I will lose all ability to speak it once I leave. I feel like I'm getting on a roll with my accent and my ability to interact rather fluidly with people, and that's all going out the window as soon as I hit the US. Tragic. Even though I can't catch most of what people are saying on the street, just hearing French being spoken all around me is very soothing and I absolutely love it!<br />
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5. The cafe experience. I'm sure I will get nasty looks if I try to sit in a coffee shop or a restaurant for an hour in the states, and having to find the waiter to ask for a check will no longer be a challenge - or necessary. The French take such a relaxed and indulgent approach to eating, and I think that Americans really need to chill out, have a glass of wine, and CHEW their food. I agree that a 2 hour lunch is a little excessive, but shoveling food down in 15 minutes and then having the waiter slam the check down on their way running to another table is not the way to do it... I will also sorely miss the French "cafe creme," an espresso shot with steamed milk served in a tiny cup. Starbucks tall size looks gigantic to me now - I don't want to drink a whole carton of milk with my caffeine fix, just a small bit of milk and a sugar to tame the coffee! I have to figure out how to make this at home...<br />
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THINGS I WILL <span style="font-weight: bold;">NOT</span> MISS<br />
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1. The prices. It's horrendous. I am totally broke after 3 months and have no idea how I could possibly sustain this for much longer. And honestly, I don't even spend that much. Really. The euro is slaughtering the dollar right now, plus the prices in euros are high! Go figure.<br />
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2. The weather. It's really cold and gray, and I don't appreciate not being able to wear cute clothes or feel my extremities.
3. The utter lack of bathrooms. It's impossible to find a public restroom here - even in a large shopping complex, Connie and I spent about 15 minutes trying to locate one. On the street, I once walked for 30 minutes without seeing a single place I could go inside. The Starbucks on St. Germain had a code lock on their bathroom door!<br />
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4. My apartment. It's tiny and has approximately... ONE room. Oh and the windows leak cold air, we can't control the radiator, it has no oven, no dishwasher, and no working light in the bathroom. I also have about one shelf to keep clothes on and a fridge smaller than the one in my freshman dorm room.<br />
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5. French men. Yes, you may be seductive with your beautiful French accents but it's really NOT cute when you to try to grab my butt as I walk by on the sidewalk or grope me on the crowded metro. Really? In what universe is that culturally acceptable? I don't know how French women put up with it - I looked and was acting like a total local in these situations so I guess anyone's fair game...<br />
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6. The complete and utter lack of fresh produce in grocery stores. There are places that you can find good stuff I think, but I haven't found them and the convenient supermarkets have terrible selections, with a vegetable aisle that is approximately 10 feet long and not very fresh. California, I miss you!<br />
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It's definitely going to be a big adjustment going home, probably bigger than when I first got to Paris. And, as sad as it's going to be to leave, there's so much to look forward to when I get home. As always, it's a bittersweet ending to an incredible time in my life. I can't wait to see you all and be home for my favorite time of the year!<br />Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-67756495288899264642009-12-13T20:45:00.005+01:002009-12-13T22:49:13.726+01:00My life, on video :)<div style="text-align: center;">I have a lot of free time lately, and Dad was telling me how he wanted to see what I see in my daily life, so I thought I'd start with the two things I see the most - my stairway, and the street outside my apartment! Enjoy the compelling footage :)
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxqLmLsDw9f1Bt5vGZ-HkwXM9I5WtYdX0Ba2lNg_gT1wI4KJOm8wUUWNiyLUehowywC8NW4BJ2KT-YqnWxtww' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>
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<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyW-oteC_4juciOznyfES2jOVRgQ4U4QsylsbI3VzOezxoEEFOXP354of0jFZRFyKGTO1uDs7v88ZCNuvNIbA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-42371174710523996652009-12-08T12:55:00.000+01:002009-12-08T12:55:34.455+01:00Guten tag Berlin!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Oh goodness, another weekend and another trip to a famous locale in Europe :) After being separated from Julia and Alex for oh... 2 days... I boarded a flight for Berlin! Although it definitely does not rank high on my list of beautiful cities (the Germans, especially the East Germans, unfortunately don't win any awards for architecture...), it was a history and Christmas spirit-filled weekend that was a great way to get acquainted with the country. Germany, and especially Berlin, is famous for its Christmas markets - small, temporary villages of wooden booths that spring up in every square in the city and feature craft and food vendors. Berlin alone has 60!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRUCpOaeSBX5g7EIe9PJN5JalgTFukipKV20FSaIg1eBvc56KkStxRSWZ-t5UUXjE38c8sCy-9HH6423_NtrjFeslhwP20PsTIFcE0lTIqXVYBfLGI2IfrfnU1FPbuSSqII_4ckCYAMQNU/s1600-h/IMG_2874.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRUCpOaeSBX5g7EIe9PJN5JalgTFukipKV20FSaIg1eBvc56KkStxRSWZ-t5UUXjE38c8sCy-9HH6423_NtrjFeslhwP20PsTIFcE0lTIqXVYBfLGI2IfrfnU1FPbuSSqII_4ckCYAMQNU/s200/IMG_2874.JPG" /></a>DAY 1: I arrived in Berlin after lunch and took a bus to our hotel, an almost hostel-like operation where the average age of the staff and the guests was about 25. There was even a bar in the lobby and a vending machine with cold beers! What a deal. After Julia and Alex arrived by train, we decided to walk around the area. The Reichstag (actually now officially called the Bundestag), the German parliament building, was pretty close to the hotel and we decided to wait in line and walk through the huge glass dome on top of the building. It gave us spectacular views of the city on our first day there, but it was open at the top so we were still freezing inside!<br />
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Afterwards we headed to the nearby Brandenburg Gate, an important symbol of Berlin for hundreds of years. Of course spotting the Starbucks next door, we had to stop for a mocha and a muffin served with central heating :P When we emerged it was already dark (!) and we made our way to Unter den Linden, a main drag of the city that dead ends into the Brandenburg Gate. This led us to several Christmas markets, where we strolled among the booths muching candied almonds and drinking hot gluhwein (mulled red wine) before grabbing a delicious but kind of gross looking and definitely heart-stopping meal of schnitzel, gravy, and potatoes fried with bacon and onions. When in Rome, right?<br />
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Julia chowing down on schnitzel!<br /></div>
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DAY 2: We had been told not to miss the free student-led tour of the city called newBerlin, so we bundled up and met our tour guide, Louis, a recent graduate from Manchester, England who had an undergraduate degree in modern German history. So he kind of knew what he was talking about! It was an amazing tour and he was the best guide we could have asked for - but it was 3 1/2 hours of walking outside in 1 degree weather. No joke. I stopped being able to feel my legs after about 5 minutes outside though, so after the numbness over my entire body set in I stopped feeling it as much :) Hitler's bunker (now a green patch in a parking lot of a condo complex), the Memorial to the Murdered Jews, Checkpoint Charlie, and Museum Island (an island... with museums on it...) were some of the highlights of the tour. I learned a LOT about recent German history and I realize how much I was completely unaware of. Julia and Alex, both history majors, were having rather large nerd-gasms as well!<br />
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The Memorial to the Murdered Jews<br /></div>
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Checkpoint Charlie - aka a HUGE tourist trap<br /></div>
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After defrosting over a quick lunch, we headed to the DDR Museum, a small private museum that gives you a glimpse into what life was like in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). We got to pretend to drive in a real Trabi and admire the oh-so-stylish fashions of the time. <br />
Of course, we had to head back to the markets for dinner! Even though we'd gone to two on Thursday night, there were another few within minutes so we grabbed delicious sausages for dinner and perused some more, nibbling on the seemingly endless forms of fried dough and sugar that abounded.<br />
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Froheweihnachten means Merry Christmas!<br /></div>
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DAY 3: After a low-key morning, we hopped the U-bahn to the East Side Gallery. It's about a 1/4 mile long chunk of the wall that has been covered by huge murals by international artists, mostly depicting messages of peace, reconciliation and human rights. We spent an hour admiring the art and reflecting on the sentiments behind the images.<br />
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A delicious falafel sandwich for lunch led to settling in Balzac Coffee (with the delightful emblem of a naked cherub riding a vespa) for a couple of hours of chatting over hot drinks and more muffins. Finally dragging our butts out into the cold, we walked to the Pergamon Museum of the Near East on Museum Island. On the way, we passed by a flea market chock-full of antique Communist merchandise - I could have bought my very own hammer and sickle star pin! The museum was a great detour and we learned about early Islamic art as well as some very impressive feats of architecture from ancient Mesopotamia and Greece.<br />
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Mosaics are rather exciting! <br /></div>
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The Ishtar Gate<br /></div>
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Our last stop was the museum underneath the Holocaust memorial we had visited earlier. It's built completely underground, so you'd never know it was there if you didn't see the stairs! It was an extremely sobering visit, and focused more on the humanity of the victims than other exhibits and museums I've visited. I felt like I learned a lot about the sequence of events and less publicized aspects of the Nazi atrocities, and it was definitely an experience that touched me profoundly.<br />
The last dinner in Berlin was a fancy affair - we sat down in a chic Italian restaurant and enjoyed pizza and prosecco while nursing our tired feet. I still couldn't feel mine, so it was less of an issue for me :P<br />
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DAY 4: Really. Bad. Day. Got to the airport only to realize that my return flight (on a different airline than before) left from the OTHER airport in Berlin. I'm an idiot. There was no time to get there before my flight left, so I watched the departure time come and go. After having a minor breakdown in the middle of the terminal and calling home at an obscene hour (sorry Mom and Dad, I know you thought I'd died or something!), I had to buy a new plane ticket. The only consolation was that on airFrance 1. everyone spoke French and it was quite soothing to hear it again and 2. they served an actual lunch that was quite delicious. Needless to say I'll be quadruple checking every online booking I ever make in the future...<br />
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I only have TWO MORE WEEKS left in this beautiful city, and I'm determined to make the most of it! The only problem is the general gloominess and rain, but there are several large Christmas markets that I want to check out and there are favorite cafes yet to be revisited. I'll keep you posted on any new developments - but until then, I love and miss you all and can't wait to be back in the US of A on December 19th!<br />
<br />Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-29387886305521872312009-12-01T23:12:00.001+01:002009-12-01T23:18:56.359+01:00Dobry den Praha! (Hello, Prague!)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Happy December loyal readers! I'm happy to say that I was able to spend a spectacular JULIA-filled week in Prague celebrating Thanksgiving and general holiday-ness with my love :)<br />
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DAY 1: My first adventure was flying out of Beauvais airport, the third and smallest airport in the Paris area. I discovered that calling it "Paris" would be like calling San Jose airport "San Francisco," but the flight was cheap and I honestly didn't know it would be that far! I had to take the metro to the end of one of the lines and then from there take a special Beauvais airport charter bus for AN HOUR AND A HALF to the airport. Once I arrived, I realized that it had a grand total of 3 gates. Wow. But after a short hour and a half flight out of cold and rainy Paris, I arrived in sunny and beautiful Prague, took a cab to my hotel, and had a couple of hours to kill before Julia got out of class.<br />
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I have fortunately developed a sense of direction that before now was completely absent from my brain, so I felt reasonably confident taking a map from the hotel and setting off to explore the Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square that were very close to the hotel (perfectly located in the center of town!). I grabbed a mocha from Coffeeheaven and strolled among the throngs of tourists, looking in shops and perusing the souvenir market. It definitely felt like the holidays and there were lots of bustling tourists. <br />
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Julia and Alex met me at the hotel and we went to Chez Marcel next door. Yes, that's right, a French restaurant! Needless to say, my brain was now dealing with THREE languages on very little sleep so it was slow going on the mental processing when I was ordering :P After dinner, Julia and I returned to the hotel where we joyfully popped the bottle of sparkling wine her fantastic parents ordered for us on our arrival, opened a bar of dark chocolate Toblerone and a roll of Hob Nobs cookies (which I imported from London), and proceeded with a much-needed catch up session and girl talk late into the night!<br />
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DAY 2: We woke to a sunny Thanksgiving morning and took the opportunity to grab coffee and walk across the Vlatava River to Prague Castle - actually a complex of a cathedral and several buildings up on a hill. The walk up was beautiful and I got to see a fantastic panorama of the city on my first day. We visited St. Vitus Cathedral, which I think may be my second-favorite cathedral in Europe after Notre Dame! It's very gothic in its architecture but apparently was finished in the early 1900s, so the back half of the cathedral has art nouveau stained glass that was very unexpected but stunningly beautiful.<br />
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After lunch at an adorable restaurant with a name I cannot pronounce (Julia can confirm that I was literally obsessed with the interior decoration), we visited the John Lennon wall. It's just a random wall, but after Lennon's death someone graffiti-ed on the wall as a memorial. The government covered it up but people kept coming back and painting lyrics and pictures. Now it's left up as a colorful and beautiful tribute to his words!<br />
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We went to Thanksgiving dinner at the Marriott with Julia's study abroad program and were met with a mouth-watering spread of literally every food I could think of. Except mashed potatoes and green beans. Really? They literally could have asked any American on the street and they would've told them they were rather essential. Regardless, the food was DELICIOUS and hit the spot! We retired in our food coma to reruns of Law and Order online in our giant comfy hotel bed :)<br />
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DAY 3: On Friday morning Julia took me to the Jewish Quarter. Apparently Prague used to have the third largest Jewish population in Europe, but after the Holocaust there are very few left in the city so the synagogues and buildings from the former Jewish ghetto have been converted into museums. We started at the Pinkas synagogue, where the names of all of the Jews who were deported from Prague during the war are listed on the walls. There were also drawings on display that were made by the children kept in the detention camp nearby. It was a sobering and powerful reminder of the lasting influence of the genocide on the population.<br />
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We moved to the Old Jewish Cemetery, where generations of Prague Jews were buried in subsequent layers, making the ground level about 10 feet higher than street level! It was an amazing sight to see the old giant tombstones in varying states of uprightness, and it was definitely worth the price of admission!<br />
The Spanish Synagogue was decorated in a very different style than I was used to, with a lot of dark interior wood and gold and jewel toned paintings in a Moorish style. I thought it was spectacular and was sad we couldn't take pictures :(<br />
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After lunch at Bohemia Bagel, Julia's favorite hangout spot, we went to the Alphonse Mucha Museum. He's the artist behind most of the famous art nouveau work that we think of today, and spent most of his professional career in Paris! His name and art is all over Prague, as he was a very proud Slav and lived outside of Prague later in life. I was so happy that I finally got to know the story behind the art that I love, and definitely bought a couple of posters to take home :)<br />
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Julia and I had a picnic dinner on our bed while watching more SVU, then joined Alex and her younger sister Emily (visiting from Tacoma) for drinks at their favorite bar, Orange Bar. They were delicious and we had a great girls' night - for about half the price as in Paris! I love Prague :)<br />
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DAY 4: Saturday we ran some errands in the morning, made a pit stop at Coffeeheaven, and then took the tram to Petrin Tower. On the hill below the tower is the Disappearing Man, a memorial to the victims of the Communist regime. It represents a loss of humanity and I thought it was extremely powerful. We then took the funicular up to the top of the hill and then climbed the stairs of Petrin Tower to get an incredible panorama of the city! Petrin Tower was built after some Czechs saw the Eiffel Tower at the World's Fair in 1900 - it's much smaller, but still gives the same great view of its home city as the Eiffel Tower! It's too small for an elevator though, so we had to suck it up and climb the spiral staircase :)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Kjm6bed82f89Xpqz44sIrR3wgFIvxcjPkLoDeAxy44_5PGXKryTl1pQ3fvkYJ9pLS33pTR_SO6rqIzEhFrpK9QNO0pexTmpIliEmPSPiODMjVs7pwUTMsNQm7Dp4qQHhegKCd6Dnzutw/s1600/IMG_2854.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Kjm6bed82f89Xpqz44sIrR3wgFIvxcjPkLoDeAxy44_5PGXKryTl1pQ3fvkYJ9pLS33pTR_SO6rqIzEhFrpK9QNO0pexTmpIliEmPSPiODMjVs7pwUTMsNQm7Dp4qQHhegKCd6Dnzutw/s200/IMG_2854.JPG" /></a><br /></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwvFbi2hw18nGMm573RzOMHg5V26pIcBVgJbMdIugBCrTQApW05KhgGU3ulKNJTPUlGdysQBiJPEBAy2Dl_vx1LswwosSyNy3kRZiJ8-dlRUIzBTBRJSd79Oe65eY36TfHZHeO9fKM3ls-/s1600/IMG_2853.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwvFbi2hw18nGMm573RzOMHg5V26pIcBVgJbMdIugBCrTQApW05KhgGU3ulKNJTPUlGdysQBiJPEBAy2Dl_vx1LswwosSyNy3kRZiJ8-dlRUIzBTBRJSd79Oe65eY36TfHZHeO9fKM3ls-/s200/IMG_2853.JPG" /></a>The four of us met up at a neighborhood pub restaurant for traditional Czech dinner - a plate of goulash and dumplings accompanied by a mug of Pilsner Urquell! It was DELICIOUS, and I didn't even hate the beer like I was expecting :P Definitely a big fan of the dumplings, they were perfect for soaking up the thick, savory, slightly spicy sauce!<br />
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Saturday was the opening day of the city's Christmas markets, which were spread between several open squares around the center of town. Huge Christmas trees, street lights, singing choirs, roasting sausages - I was in heaven! It definitely was the perfect way to kick off the holiday season! For dessert we bought trdelnik (don't ask me to pronounce it), an ubiquitous street food at the market that we had to try. It's basically sourish dough wrapped around a metal dowel and toasted, then rolled in cinnamon and sugar. Like a churro flavor, but a bit less sweet. In other words, YUM.<br />
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DAY 5: Sunday began with brunch at the Globe, an English bookstore and restaurant that is one of Alex and Julia's favorite spots. It was <u>beautiful</u> inside with red walls, fun art, and a loft dining area. I had the eggs benedict I'd been craving, and lo and behold it came on a delicious toasted (and huge) bagel! Three bagels in one week - that's more than I can say in the states!<br />
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Under the pretext of sore feet, but really out of a shameless desire to see Robert Pattinson (I'm team Jacob, for the record), a bunch of us went to see New Moon, the new Twilight movie. Czech subtitles really made it an experience, and I have to admit that I actually enjoyed the movie - more than I can say for the last one, where I actually felt myself getting dumber as it went on...<br />
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After strolling the markets again and trying some candied almonds (again, YUM!), we headed to dinner at Julia's favorite Prague restaurant, Clear Head, a vegetarian place that's more of a local place and off the beaten path. It was the BEST food I've had in months, and I thoroughly relished every bite of my bulgur risotto with stir-fried veggies, tempeh and sundried tomato and peanut pesto. Ahhh now if I could only find that in France! I don't think "vegetarian" translates here...<br />
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DAY 6: Unfortunately, I had to leave early Monday morning in order to be home for class in the afternoon, so I spent Sunday night in Julia and Alex's dorm room. Problem was, Emily was sleeping there too and so four of us had to share two TWIN beds. Not a good arrangement by any means. Emily had to leave at 5am and I had to be up at 6:30, so needless to say I did not sleep too well. But after dragging myself out of bed I bid a quick and sleepy goodbye to Julia and boarded the bus to the airport in the cold Prague morning. When I finally stumbled into school that afternoon, still carrying my backpack, I discovered that class had been canceled! I joyfully walked home and fell into bed.<br />
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What an amazing week! Prague is an amazing city and I would highly recommend it to anyone traveling through Europe. It's much smaller and more manageable of a city than Paris, and I can see how Julia really feels at home there. Although I definitely feel almost like a native Parisian now, there's still an incredible amount of the city that I don't know! But I only have one more day until I leave again, this time for a weekend in Berlin with Julia and Alex. Funny how I'm seeing Julia more in Europe than I have when we've been at school in San Diego and Tacoma...<br />
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Stay tuned for more pictures and Christmas market adventures! Love to all - I'm thankful for YOU this year!<br />
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<br />Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-88357095907786398702009-12-01T20:53:00.001+01:002009-12-01T23:18:34.841+01:00Fun things from the past couple of weeks...<div style="text-align: center;">
Here are a few fun pictures from the past couple of weeks!<br />
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Apparently when the French take their children on school field trips, they all have to wear FLOURESCENT yellow vests! I encountered this adorable group on my way home from school in the park. Adorable.<br />
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Shops are starting to all have beautiful holiday decorations over their doorways!<br /></div>
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Never fails to make me smile :)<br /></div>
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This is Jean Charles Rocheaux, a famous chocolate maker near school. <br /></div>
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My friend Stephanie from French class (she's a student at Gonzaga who's staying here for a year) took me to her favorite restaurant, Le Laurier, for lunch. Here you can see my entree - a puff pastry covered with caramelized apple puree, smoked duck breast, and lettuce with an herb cream sauce - and my glass of Beaujolais Nouveau (a highly anticipated new red wine that comes out the 3rd Thursday of November every year and is the cause for much celebration in France!)<br /></div>
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Here is my plat - duck breast cooked with a cherry and red wine sauce...<br /></div>
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... and dessert, an apple tart with raspberry syrup!<br /></div>
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Me and Stephanie!<br /></div>
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Don't worry folks, I don't normally eat this way. I can't afford it :P<br /></div>
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</div>Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-61740241257259569962009-11-22T15:16:00.003+01:002009-11-22T18:40:55.391+01:00Paris in 40 hours - can it be done?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I had the super awesome opportunity to play tour guide again this weekend when my friend Helena came to visit! She's studying in Valladolid, Spain (about an hour outside Madrid). It was a whirlwind trip - she arrived at my apartment at 5pm on Friday and left Sunday morning at 9:30am - so we had to have our best walking shoes on and appetites ready.
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</div>Helena is great at Spanish, so she was able to follow the signs from the airport and take the bus to meet me at the train. We took a couple of hours to catch up and relax, then walked over to Fizz (my favorite crepe restaurant just a couple of blocks down rue St. Jacques) for dinner. It's always so fun to introduce my friends to buckwheat crepes ("galettes") and the hard cider traditionally served with them. Helena got one with tomatoes, cheese and ground beef and seemed quite satisfied after exploring the new form of food :) Of course, to top it off, we had to share La Creole - bananas and dark chocolate inside, ice cream and whipped cream on top. Heaven.
We headed home and had Skype dates with Marissa and Ali, who jumped on the opportunity to get both Helena and I at one computer! I then took Helena to the Cite Universitaire dorms, where my friend Connie very generously offered to let her stay while she was in Strasbourg for the weekend.
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The next morning, we set off at about 9:30am for a very full day of exploring! We decided to do the whole day on foot in order for Helena to fully take in the sights - and save some metro tickets... Luckily the weather was the most beautiful and warm we've had in the city for weeks! First we walked to Notre Dame and took in its inner and outer beauty. It's definitely my favorite historical sight in Paris, and even though it's often rather crowded there's something very peaceful and reflective about being inside that I don't always find in other cathedrals.
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We rested and recharged for a bit before packing up our picnic dinner at heading to the Eiffel Tower. Our shopping had yielded quite a delicious spread - deli chicken, a baguette, cheese, a mini quiche lorraine and a tartelette au citron. We happily parked on a bench and watched the light show while munching our delicious smorgasboard of French delights. Worn out after a long day, we called it an early night.
This morning, we met up for breakfast at a nearby cafe - after discovering it was the only one open that early on a Sunday morning! - and enjoyed a "real" French breakfast of cafe creme and a tartine (toasted baguette served with butter and jam). Then it was off to the metro station so Helena could catch her bus back to the airport! I still can't believe we fit it all in - but I think I did quite a thorough job of showing the best of the city in a day and a half. Of course, Helena was quite a trooper and made a valiant effort to eat everything I threw at her :) Such a great way to spend a weekend!
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I'm getting to the point where I've literally checked off everything on my very extensive tourist "to see and do" list and I find myself wondering what I can do with my free time now! It's a weird feeling to see the next month as just living in Paris, not necessarily going to destinations to see and do things. I have favorite restaurants, cafes, parks and stores and a routine that I'm really comfortable with. I'm starting to miss the comforts and people of home, so it's going to be a bit harder of a last few weeks than in the beginning when I was overwhelmed by the newness of it all! It's going to be sad leaving here, but I also have so much to look forward to with Christmas at home and the start of a new quarter at UCSD. Hopefully I'll continue to have little adventures along the way though, like this little video I took at the metro station! I love pleasant surprises :)
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyhhhWPT4slRoDqdnoS8aTWQ2lkBazk2n4Tm8FV1-Wekcz_8UCqqCW8IHZKYmJ246_tcjisGergQ4SevHGbCA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-66580710897070385892009-11-19T22:02:00.001+01:002009-11-20T14:11:39.540+01:00Oui, Chef!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last night, I was lucky enough to be able to attend a cooking class at le Cordon Bleu! Yes, that hallowed ground of Julia Child and the most prestigious cooking school in the world. Obviously, we didn’t go to a class with the actual students, but the school offers classes for the public that are not hands-on and instead consist of two hours of observation and note-taking as the chef prepares the menu, and then sampling it after! The school is on a very non-descript side street in an outer arrondissement – I totally expected it to be right in the middle of “expensive Paris” but it was a modest facility. We were given a folder with the recipes and a Cordon Bleu pen (!) and ushered into a room set up like a lecture hall, with theater-style seating to allow everyone a clear view and rows of chairs with flip-out desks. Just what I’ve been missing :P<br />
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The front of the room was set up with an entire working kitchen, with a large island countertop with electric range built in, ovens in the background, etc. Above the island was a giant mirror that reflected everything the chef did below it and allowed us to see his technique and what exactly he was doing. We sat down and the chef, two assistants and a translator entered and started the class. The chef’s name was Marc Thivet, and his bio listed an impressive array of awards and positions as head chef in many famous and expensive restaurants. He was instantly likable and friendly, always cracking jokes and joyfully telling us his “little secrets” and giving us “little gifts” like adding black truffles and mushrooms to the salad which only called for apples. The translator was SUPER annoying because she talked like a bad news anchor and was totally distracting from the chef. I was very proud that I essentially didn’t have to listen to her, and it was fun to laugh at his jokes with the French people right after he said them and not having to wait for the English translation like the Americans. <br />
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It was hilarious to watch him interact with his assistants, two young Japanese students whom he called “mes enfants” – my children. Out of deeply engrained protocol in the patriarchal kitchen system, they had to respond “oui, Chef” to his every request. Apparently “non, Chef” is not part of the vocabulary… He explained to us that in the kitchen, the chef is like the general in the army and the cooks are his soldiers; it is essential to respond to him as the commanding officer! To his great joy and amusement, he had us practice shouting “oui, Chef!” as a group.<br />
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The menu for the evening was cappuccino de carottes au cumin et croustillant de canard confit avec confiture de roscoff et pruneaux – a carrot puree with cumin topped by whipped cream, followed by a mixture of duck confit with Roscoff onion and prune jam wrapped in a thin crispy shell, drizzled with port wine sauce and served over a lamb’s lettuce salad with apples, truffles and mushrooms and a lemon vinaigrette. Oh yes. It was so interesting to see all of his tricks, and also depressing because there’s no way you could be that good at slicing stuff unless you literally sliced for 3 hours a day for 20 years. Which he has.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju3kzmDBP8wEWLv7CgiH939jeB3sYDH-4UrNFjLGkU0hynAl4xj7YtqxdCd-gr3iessGYn5G1CHIu4c8mlY0fLkyBJ2U45MLShs9MkSRqLqBQFBGMmla_VtFfjbcF8Lq74zdMeCOSaDcIa/s1600/Paris+022.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju3kzmDBP8wEWLv7CgiH939jeB3sYDH-4UrNFjLGkU0hynAl4xj7YtqxdCd-gr3iessGYn5G1CHIu4c8mlY0fLkyBJ2U45MLShs9MkSRqLqBQFBGMmla_VtFfjbcF8Lq74zdMeCOSaDcIa/s320/Paris+022.JPG" /></a>Anyway, we watched impatiently while he took the full 2 hours to prepare the meal for the group of about 28 students. I realized pretty much instantly that we were not going to get a meal at the end, just small tastes, which was not what I had anticipated and what had been described to me. Sooo I hadn’t eaten since lunch and was absolutely dying of hunger, which made the 2 hours rather tortuous, especially when the room was full of the incredible aroma of duck and onions!<br />
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We finally got our tastes, and unfortunately I wasn’t a huge fan of the carrot cappuccino. It was spicy, which I wasn’t expecting , and what I love about carrots is their sweetness. So, it was very pretty and a good idea but not my cup of tea. The duck croustillant however, was FABULOUS and I could have eaten about 10 portions. The shredded duck meat was mixed with the onion and prune jam (really a reduction of very thinly sliced onions and prunes) and wrapped in a filo-like dough, then buttered and baked until crispy. It was essentially a duck egg roll and the flavor was rich, complex and pretty much unlike anything I’ve ever tasted. The port wine sauce just topped it off, and the salad was a great contrast with the crispy apples. I tried to appreciate the truffles, but they didn’t taste like anything to me! Guess I’ll be able to save some money :) They also served us a glass of wine, which was probably my favorite wine I've tasted in my whole life! It was a Brouilly and apparently it's proper to serve it slightly chilled - I guess it <u>can</u> be done!<br />
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I’m kind of in love with this whole duck thing – the other day I had an appetizer of thin slices of duck breast served on top of a caramelized apple puree on a crispy pastry base with an herb cream sauce and almost died. Now this? I am now making it my goal to try duck in every possible form. Why don’t we eat it in the states?<br />
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I’ll leave you with this thought – if you find duck confit in California, I will make this recipe for you and hopefully capture some of its greatness :)<br />
</div>Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-8154578166975317102009-11-18T09:43:00.000+01:002009-11-18T09:43:30.014+01:00Malouin first, Breton sometimes, French never!This weekend, my program took a trip to Mont St. Michel and the town of St. Malo, both located on the northwestern coast in the region called Brittany (“Bretagne” in French). It’s about 3 hours by TGV outside of Paris, so we once again had to leave the apartment at 6:30 am to catch our train! It never gets easier…<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLx2tpqpEUKvW1Ul4w8ZY_VG7TTVRsjbu-olKTiRNZ1nCSDL1GeoHZOC02xyLOGwud7i2Hq6uoQ6GFYpG3tVxrDLW3kZj-UitnurgNtERQqg-0hXhLkJ2Mmegb2vOhbzYX293iYg-lymjQ/s1600/Bretagne+019.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLx2tpqpEUKvW1Ul4w8ZY_VG7TTVRsjbu-olKTiRNZ1nCSDL1GeoHZOC02xyLOGwud7i2Hq6uoQ6GFYpG3tVxrDLW3kZj-UitnurgNtERQqg-0hXhLkJ2Mmegb2vOhbzYX293iYg-lymjQ/s200/Bretagne+019.JPG" /></a>We arrived in St. Malo before lunchtime and loaded onto a charter bus to drive for 45 minutes to the small fishing village of Cancale. Bretagne is famous for its seafood, especially oysters and mussels. It’s right on the beach so it was ridiculously windy – probably the strongest wind I’ve ever been in! We were blown about the street until we found a cute little restaurant that didn’t only serve shellfish, although Connie and Maddie ordered oysters (“huitres”) for their entrées. They are braver souls than I… For dessert, we had a piece of “far breton,” which is essentially a slice of cake with a flan-like texture, made usually with prunes on the bottom. It was very good – not as sweet as many desserts but hearty and yummy!<br />
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After lunch we drove another half hour and across a long bridge to Mont St. Michel, where we trekked up to the top of the mountain to take a tour of the abbey. It was built in 708 when a bishop had a sanctuary built to honor the Archangel Michael. In the 900s, Benedictine monks settled in the abbey, expanded the building and a city sprang up behind its walls. It was a French stronghold during the Hundred Years’ War against the British and it became a symbol of French national identity.
I thought it was an amazing feat of architecture and its location on the mountain on an island was beautiful and very remote, but the actual structure itself is not that impressive. A LOT of gray stone with no adornments of any kind (I guess the monks weren’t big on interior decorating, and if they were, it wouldn’t be in such good shape after 1000 years), so we all finished the audio tour rather quickly! We had another hour free to explore the town, but it turned out to be a giant tourist trap with tacky souvenir shops and overpriced crepes and waffles. We decided a nap on the bus would be the best use of our time.<br />
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After visiting the island, we drove to our hotel (in the middle of NOWHERE) and had dinner at the hotel restaurant. It was not exactly great food, and reminded me of all those awful meals on band trips. It’s kind of comforting to know that the French can have cheap, bad food too :)
The next morning, we took our bus to the town of St. Malo to spend the day touring a maritime museum and the old city and have lunch and free time. We all kind of grumbled, “St. Malo? I’ve never even heard of it!” but surprisingly, this was my favorite part of the trip!<br />
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St. Malo was an island first used as a retreat by a Welsh monk named Macloud who came to convert the inhabitants of the nearby mainland to Catholicism. Sometime later, the town on the coast was moved to the island to better protect it, and in honor of the monk it was named St. Malo de l’Ile (“St. Malo of the island”). Our guide explained that it was hard for the locals to pronounce “Macloud,” so it deteriorated quickly to “Malo!” Anywho, St. Malo eventually turned into a HUGE trading port that was the object of envy of the English (just 200km across the channel), Bretons and French (at this point Bretagne was still an independent duchy). They obviously had a lot of clout and a LOT of money, so the Malouins toyed with their larger competitors and were at one point Breton before agreeing to join France – ONLY after the king converted to Catholicism, they were exempted from taxes, and they were given the privilege of flying the Malouin flag higher than the French national flag. Hence the well-known saying that is the title of this post :) Bretons in general, although they are technically French, really don’t identify that way and they have a very strongly rooted independent streak and their own distinct culture from the rest of the country, especially Paris. Every other store in the city sold regional products such as butter cookies, hard apple cider and salted butter caramel (spreads, candies, crepes, waffles, you name it!). I asked our guide why the caramel was so prevalent, and she explained that in order to hide their salt from the tax collector – it was a precious commodity at the time that was highly taxed – the Malouins mixed it with their butter! I was in the town that invented salted butter!! Truly a historic moment and a very important marker in modern history, don’t you agree?<br />
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We had a guided walking tour of the city, during which we learned that it was 80% destroyed in a three week long fire caused by American bombings aiming to free the city during WWII. I’d call that a failure of planning… But they rebuilt the city in 6 years and did a very good job of making it look very old. Could’ve fooled me! The ramparts are the only original structure that remain, and they make a nice elevated walkway on which to see the ocean and the island forts that secured the city. We also got to see the dramatic tide change – at 2pm the nearest fort was connected to the city by a strip of sandbank, and by 6pm the water level had risen to completely submerge the land and rose up to the top of the rocky hill the fort was set on. Apparently St. Malo sees the largest tide change in all of Europe, with a difference of 30 meters of depth between high and low tide!<br />
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Low-ish tide at 2pm, high tide at 6pm! <br /></div>
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Anywho, the old town of St. Malo (inside the ramparts) was ADORABLE and didn’t feel as cheaply touristy as Mont St. Michel. There were chain stores such as Esprit and Subway, but also We found a tiny creperie for lunch where we enjoyed lunch and a crepe covered with warm caramel sauce for dessert, and spent a leisurely hour and a half inside a café with tea and a regional pastry called “kouign amman” (pronounced “koogamen”). It’s hard to describe but is basically a spiral of dough layers that’s brushed with sugar syrup before baking and can come with thin layer of apple baked in. After a long but relaxing day that I found very interesting and informative, we hopped back on the TGV to Paris and I finally got home at midnight last night! Whew :)<br />
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It’s hard to believe that I only have 34 more days left in Paris! After this weekend, when my friend Helena is visiting from Spain, I don’t have any more full weekends in Paris! I honestly have no idea where the time has gone, but when I think about all I’ve done and seen and eaten in the past 2 months I’m quite proud of myself. I’ve completely checked off my original “to see and do” list, so I’ve added a couple more, smaller sights and will probably start to revisit some of my favorite places.
Thinking of you all and hope you’re having a great November!<br />
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It’s weird not having any Thanksgiving here to mark the time between Halloween (which actually doesn’t really exist here either…) and Christmas, so I’m guessing I’ll really start seeing “Joyeux Noel” (Merry Christmas) at the beginning of December. The street decorations are starting to go up, so I feel it’s appropriate to begin playing Bing Crosby and Dean Martin Christmas songs :)<br />
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This is pretty representative of the weather at Mont St. Michel. Also why there are few to no pictures of any of the girls on the trip.<br />
<br />Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-75523878186583246532009-11-16T19:51:00.004+01:002009-11-16T20:37:14.198+01:00Free day frolickingI love days off :) On Wednesday, Jen and I investigated the Jardin des Plantes (botanical gardens) next to the mosque, and it was kind of sad because all the flowers that I imagine would be there in the spring and summer were dead... But it was still nice to walk around - it turns out that there is a natural history museum, a menagerie and several other buildings within the park, so it reminded us of a mini Balboa Park!
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGWUPq5dV2rqONQdOl1GHBSG4ZBSJo88KK0cWDPmy-gDUKLBeNBXUazgnbvdnQmazAdwB77QOaduFCv-yN25cC4c-OHazaP2pw3J4hGiGdu-9NhJ0j7s5LWsqTwQY57maStGOVde3lHSFj/s1600/Paris+005.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGWUPq5dV2rqONQdOl1GHBSG4ZBSJo88KK0cWDPmy-gDUKLBeNBXUazgnbvdnQmazAdwB77QOaduFCv-yN25cC4c-OHazaP2pw3J4hGiGdu-9NhJ0j7s5LWsqTwQY57maStGOVde3lHSFj/s320/Paris+005.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404781910218686498" border="0" /></a>
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<div style="text-align: center;">Then we stopped for tea at my favorite local joint - Jen hadn't been to the mosque before, and their mint tea is the perfect mid-day snack!
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<div style="text-align: center;">On Friday, Jen and Connie and I met up at Berthillon on Ile St. Louis. The shop is FAMOUS in Paris for its ice cream, and we had to try it! It definitely surpassed my wildest dreams, although the scoops were definitely not generously sized for the price :P I could easily eat 3 scoops, which would definitely not happen at Baskin Robbins! I tried caramel au beurre sale (salted butter caramel), apricot and vanilla with chunks of flourless chocolate cake. I almost died, they were all so good! Berthillon is especially famous for its fruit flavors (all of its products are made on-site and with all-natural ingredients), and the apricot literally tasted like I was eating an apricot. YUM!
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<div style="text-align: center;">Friday afternoon, Connie and I walked around the Montparnasse Cemetary, where lots of famous (or just well-connected) people are buried. We passed the grave of Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, Serge Gainsbourg (the most famous French pop singer like, ever), and just took in the beautiful fall colors among the crazy assortment of headstones and crypts. Kind of a weird field trip but made for some good pictures :)
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Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre share a grave
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This person isn't famous but he had my absolute favorite headstone EVER. A giant clay pelican? I like this guy.
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</div><div style="text-align: center;">For dinner on Friday night, I met up with Breanna! Ironically, she was scheduled to come to Paris with her program from Spain two weeks after she visited with Julia and Alex, but I was gone to Bretagne the rest of the weekend. We decided to try a restaurant called Pomze (like "pommes" or apples), which is apple-themed and makes all of their dishes with some kind of apple. It was just lovely to see Breanna again, and the meal turned out to be hands-down the best food I've eaten in Paris! Not cheap, but AMAZING!
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We started our meal with creamy apple butter spread on delicious rolls (that even had a hint of apple!) and a glass of hard apple cider, followed with salads topped by chopped fresh apples, goat cheese and cashews. Our plat was "croustillant de saumon," a salmon filet layered with thin slices of apple, baked inside a crispy filo dough crust and surrounded by a citrus-apple sauce. For dessert we split "pain perdu" (basically French toast but WAAYY better) with vanilla ice cream and caramel apple sauce as well as a chocolate mousse made with Calvados, an apple liqueur. I was in an absolute food coma at the end and I will absolutely be returning with my Paris friends before I leave!
</div>Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-13885761626203863642009-11-13T10:13:00.005+01:002009-11-16T19:51:35.948+01:00Dining in the darkLast Thursday I took a small pilgrimage to rue Cler, the street where my parents and I stayed the last time I was in Paris. I don't have any reason to go anywhere near that area so it was out of my way but I met up with Jen, who has class nearby, and walked around. We visited the Ecole Militaire (France's military school since the time of Louis XV), the restaurant Aux Marmites d'Agnes where my family ate (unfortunately it was closed until dinner time so I couldn't show Agnes the picture of her with my family), and the Hotel Londres Eiffel where we stayed. What a blast from the past. I didn't remember most of the area but certain stores jogged my memory and I had crazy flashbacks to almost 8 years ago!
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In front of the Ecole Milita
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rue Cler - already has its Christmas lights up!
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The hotel where we stayed oh so many years ago
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Agnes wasn't home :( But I had to commemorate the moment anyway!
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That night I had, hands down, the most unique experience of my life. It's completely impossible to do the meal justice, but I'm going to try very hard to!
My friend Connie turned 20 yesterday, and for her birthday she wanted very badly to try a restaurant called Dans le Noir ("In the Dark"). The concept of the restaurant, which started in Paris and has been copied around the world, is that you eat completely in the dark. COMPLETELY. The wait staff are all blind, so they teach you how to navigate the room and are the only people really qualified in the slightest to be serving food in the pitch black! They have only one seating for brunch, lunch and dinner, so we made our reservation early.
We arrived and were told to put all of our belongings in a locker and wait in the bar area with the other guests (lighted room). A host came around and took our "orders," except by order, he meant whether we wanted 2, 3 or the full 5 course meal. You don't get to choose your food. You don't get to know what your food is! We decided to go for the entree, main course and dessert.
After ordering, the six of us lined up in front of a black curtain, where we were greeted by our server Sarah. She instructed us to put a hand on the shoulder of the girl in front of us, took the leader by the hand and led us into the darkness! I'm not exaggerating when I say it's the blackest black I have ever experienced. There was absolutely no difference between when my eyes were open or closed! She seated us at a table and told us she'd be back with the entree. The first few minutes was absolutely terrifying and my brain was literally having a panic attack while the rational part of me was trying to calm it down. One of the girls started crying! But we all realized that it was going to be like this for 2 hours so we had to get used to it :)
There were no concessions made in terms of drinks - if we wanted water, we were given a carafe and glasses and told to pour it ourselves, like usual! The trick is to put a finger in the glass to feel when you've reached the top. By the end of the meal, we were pros! Conversation was very different because we couldn't use visual cues to tell when someone was done with a thought and kept interrupting each other. Or, we couldn't tell who was talking to who. My sense of hearing was so enhanced that I had trouble focusing on the person I wanted to.
Our entree was delivered, and we tentatively tried to use forks and knives. That approach was quickly abandoned in favor of our fingers, which helped us to know what it was we might be putting in our mouths... The chef had put three items on the plate with various temperatures and textures, so with each bite we would comment and try to guess what we were eating. It turns out we had a roasted fig stuffed with goat cheese and honey, salmon and cucumber rolled in zucchini like a sushi roll, and a "vol au vent" - a puff pastry shell with sauteed shallots on top.
The main dish ("plat") was a whole other adventure! We quickly determined it was fish, from the smell and the taste/texture, but debate raged over the type. There was something we thought was mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms were a given, there was a crusted potato thing and mussels or oysters of some kind. It turns out we had salmon with saffron-oyster sauce, pureed <span style="font-style: italic;">zucchini</span> with coriander and lime and mushrooms in a meat sauce.
Dessert was much easier to identify: pear sorbet, lemon tart, meringue cookie and a crumble of some kind. Turns out it was squash!
By the end of the meal, I had gotten much more comfortable with the situation but it was still uncomfortable. I feel like throughout the night, although we had been laughing and talking, our brains were quietly freaking out! We did have some good times picking our noses in unison and other very mature behaviors, because we were completely hidden - except for the infrared camera that was watching the room! The poor guy who had to watch that all night definitely got a show...
We didn't discover what we had eaten until after we had been led, squinting and rubbing our eyes, back into the bar. There was a book prepared with photos and descriptions of the food, but our host quizzed us first to see how close we were. The debate raged, and we still didn't believe him on some of the dishes. Squash?? Really??
All in all, it was an experience I'm very glad to have had but I don't think I need to repeat. Although the food was very good, it wasn't spectacular (and NOT cheap). However, it did spark some philosophical conversation about what it would be like to be blind. I would highly recommend it if you have the opportunity - I think there's one in San Francisco and LA - but it's probably a good idea to have a glass of wine before and during the meal to keep the panic attacks to a minimum :)
<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8LIhfgros5c5Cias-YFwqHiRT5tDj9ymjFOsdkxvaH1GXPXnRkTPajdcm454n66eI_2Rsv7VxYQl0f3MrrzgFrLKapdnF7U_GnINcxktcWe1awFC_rZsrdCC7dL9eVSLU61ciRwQ6qNxY/s1600-h/Paris+027+copy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8LIhfgros5c5Cias-YFwqHiRT5tDj9ymjFOsdkxvaH1GXPXnRkTPajdcm454n66eI_2Rsv7VxYQl0f3MrrzgFrLKapdnF7U_GnINcxktcWe1awFC_rZsrdCC7dL9eVSLU61ciRwQ6qNxY/s320/Paris+027+copy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5403635862639222002" border="0" /></a>
Me, Maddie, Connie, Emily, Kristen and Tenny
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja_9gJm4YdjssLh6ODKoVp_PabGLFo-m2UqgHFzNoybMBC6LGySiQADTkOk0p3AHeQ72A_rCPYDgtx6NULy-kdAHVK7Q6LIX7Eoyom-rVhsRDFGasYB5coySTCJImBZqaQ42taHL-D45lB/s1600-h/Paris+029+copy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja_9gJm4YdjssLh6ODKoVp_PabGLFo-m2UqgHFzNoybMBC6LGySiQADTkOk0p3AHeQ72A_rCPYDgtx6NULy-kdAHVK7Q6LIX7Eoyom-rVhsRDFGasYB5coySTCJImBZqaQ42taHL-D45lB/s320/Paris+029+copy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5403635863358819090" border="0" /></a>
Birthday girl!
</div>Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-63288334702310903892009-11-10T20:08:00.005+01:002009-11-10T20:34:24.943+01:00Meet my friends!I have had a request from the parentals to specifically identify the people I talk about in my blog so they can pick them out in photos! So here goes...
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsObZH9i6Zr4XKhtFYayBc-srt95epzRJsNFBSbC1vxVMJ9UUD_EzrJNsh-25LJvqIKnzOw42koKQX02WqoUW-eMXi4OnJsTezm_2feHg4HWVTsL2XlSGZNcvqftQ2aIgAfduFtRuIVwNz/s1600-h/Paris+008.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsObZH9i6Zr4XKhtFYayBc-srt95epzRJsNFBSbC1vxVMJ9UUD_EzrJNsh-25LJvqIKnzOw42koKQX02WqoUW-eMXi4OnJsTezm_2feHg4HWVTsL2XlSGZNcvqftQ2aIgAfduFtRuIVwNz/s200/Paris+008.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402558494266420978" border="0" /></a>Tenny: My roommate, originally from Palo Alto (went to Gunn High!). She's taking a "gap semester" before starting at UC Berkeley as a bio major in spring semester.
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhu2IySyBMtjusKceDiCBgPuZxHdh0m7MtfjNUTR07_DpTgu2dxEJzWK-bK-arZO39SIfGVkULVMv_t4o21aiuBdGmwGsRNttZFg_0g7bazMVGJCx5AykBzfdEsuS5GHgzA8Lz9kJMV08l/s1600-h/020.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhu2IySyBMtjusKceDiCBgPuZxHdh0m7MtfjNUTR07_DpTgu2dxEJzWK-bK-arZO39SIfGVkULVMv_t4o21aiuBdGmwGsRNttZFg_0g7bazMVGJCx5AykBzfdEsuS5GHgzA8Lz9kJMV08l/s200/020.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402559632676820082" border="0" /></a>
Connie: 3rd year Cultural Studies major at Columbia College in Chicago, originally from Detroit/Ann Arbor. Will be spending next semester at University of East London!
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqGHv3zj89gA6PzeWFkeOnkNgqwlOW403Anj4bQM8Z31WrvmxHJalSH2U1gldhX-ZonvYNINXT5sh-Nu4WbVTs_T1iXqRWvgS4g_qrPaQGbTRTo_QZtQUWYeWR3R4GV8hyz91snz_O-aDq/s1600-h/London+049.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqGHv3zj89gA6PzeWFkeOnkNgqwlOW403Anj4bQM8Z31WrvmxHJalSH2U1gldhX-ZonvYNINXT5sh-Nu4WbVTs_T1iXqRWvgS4g_qrPaQGbTRTo_QZtQUWYeWR3R4GV8hyz91snz_O-aDq/s200/London+049.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402558497112138322" border="0" /></a>Maddie: 4th year International Studies major at University of Georgia, originally from Nashville. Has a German boyfriend who she met while he was studying at UGA, now she gets to visit him here!
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKbCDhD-HLhh6DZq159P_zZelz_qGoFePsyszJdGjElK9BJ4PwtZa4PaoaHTk-RGM77oWFnVGeD4hmo_9900cG1iaD2rLqfAjm5dCB34n3Nym3IoF7rP1K-qE5NYP8RSq1P_8SpQS5jTzB/s1600-h/jen.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 193px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKbCDhD-HLhh6DZq159P_zZelz_qGoFePsyszJdGjElK9BJ4PwtZa4PaoaHTk-RGM77oWFnVGeD4hmo_9900cG1iaD2rLqfAjm5dCB34n3Nym3IoF7rP1K-qE5NYP8RSq1P_8SpQS5jTzB/s200/jen.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402559625158830226" border="0" /></a>
Jen: 4th year International Studies major at UC San Diego, originally from around Pasadena. I had coffee with her before the school year ended last spring and I adore her! She's taking class at the Sorbonne instead of the Catho so we have to plan around conflicting schedules
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfpA0jMXPXWzUgFpR1NyRxqKsEp85f937EdFJJ8z9NT-XXx82i2_M0oOxcWDMjNT6Mc6wGzFCvI8AUzWtUOIhHl0l7uZKr62krwz-sQLBg9wjZh3OYiAJQ91UAOFGxYuWKsZTy6DpzPFkH/s1600-h/dorene.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 134px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfpA0jMXPXWzUgFpR1NyRxqKsEp85f937EdFJJ8z9NT-XXx82i2_M0oOxcWDMjNT6Mc6wGzFCvI8AUzWtUOIhHl0l7uZKr62krwz-sQLBg9wjZh3OYiAJQ91UAOFGxYuWKsZTy6DpzPFkH/s200/dorene.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402558507323068098" border="0" /></a>Dorene: 4th year Environmental Systems/Economics major at UC San Diego, originally from the LA area. She's a member of Delta Delta Delta at UCSD and actually talked to me during rush last year! She's here with a different program but we're in the same fashion class and we stared at each other for a while before realizing how we knew each other!
<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK9BsvCDg-oCIT8VGgipI6ElV_FPJHAPra0ZgxAiEaBiZGzzUgQ-4oD7e9jlkS3S2rXN3vIKs4r_s6fowlZVWCb9eQ1CEO5YkhJr1usZa8wdk-hJcGvrR-9uLLsvhJOlowjuZl6WKC-pJw/s1600-h/girls.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK9BsvCDg-oCIT8VGgipI6ElV_FPJHAPra0ZgxAiEaBiZGzzUgQ-4oD7e9jlkS3S2rXN3vIKs4r_s6fowlZVWCb9eQ1CEO5YkhJr1usZa8wdk-hJcGvrR-9uLLsvhJOlowjuZl6WKC-pJw/s320/girls.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402560203259752338" border="0" /></a>
And VOILA! From left, me, Tenny, Jen, Connie and Maddie! I love these girls
</div>Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-91039703310270376522009-11-05T21:34:00.013+01:002009-11-08T17:00:59.664+01:00More art. More food.After a successful oral presentation on the history of French pastries, Thursday marked another delightful excursion with my fabulous friend (and fellow UCSD student - small world!)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZSCTmG-KtH8WKEkOvF4SwIz3ONrxaOUIxc7nix-589hsZZAoO5Q-CTaUB6BwV5WHiD_j4s4PnbtvxSAx4BbEmuVrzDcNHzXaAichSX7kF9gKGNGK01XuNiTty3C9rbMrqFL1puTY02qCm/s1600-h/angelina-paris-2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 239px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZSCTmG-KtH8WKEkOvF4SwIz3ONrxaOUIxc7nix-589hsZZAoO5Q-CTaUB6BwV5WHiD_j4s4PnbtvxSAx4BbEmuVrzDcNHzXaAichSX7kF9gKGNGK01XuNiTty3C9rbMrqFL1puTY02qCm/s320/angelina-paris-2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5400728298209690562" border="0" /></a> Jen. She and I have become good friends over the past month and a half, facilitated greatly by our shared love of yummy desserts and long conversation :)
In Parisian gourmet lore, much ado is made about the hot chocolate at Angelina's, an historic salon de the on the rue Rivoli just across the street from the Jardin de Tuileries and a block from the Louvre. We decided to make it our dessert date for the week and had a joyful reunion after being away on our respective vacations for a week. Anyway, after a long walk from Notre Dame to the restaurant, we made it inside just as it began to rain. Yay Paris. Luckily there was no wait to be seated, so we sat down in the beautiful dining room dating from 1901. Ornate gold molding and wall murals abounded! We told our waitress that we wanted to split a pot of hot chocolate and a dessert, and she quite rudely spat back that if we were splitting hot chocolate, we each had to order a dessert. When we didn't have a second order ready, she stormed away and said she would come back when we decided. When she came back, she literally stormed away from the table after writing down our order. We sat there SHOCKED but almost chuckling at the absurdity of it all, and then Jen almost did start outright laughing when she returned with our order and - I am not exaggerating this in the slightest - SLAMMED our cups and plates and food on to the table, stuffed the check under a plate, and stormed away. You'd think she had better things to do :)
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP4X5G8F6DkRzSw6ArlPbV-SO8bMn5nnojro9ilzI9PlGZp4eXp6U8UpTPHaIyM7WhdxpRyYG45IiwX5YXSJFPmm1SCNoo0zf23dzHS2DVfDWRK43NWlxMdrd4fKDMOQRz6k1m0I6D624g/s1600-h/003.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 238px; height: 178px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP4X5G8F6DkRzSw6ArlPbV-SO8bMn5nnojro9ilzI9PlGZp4eXp6U8UpTPHaIyM7WhdxpRyYG45IiwX5YXSJFPmm1SCNoo0zf23dzHS2DVfDWRK43NWlxMdrd4fKDMOQRz6k1m0I6D624g/s320/003.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5401757849522117314" border="0" /></a>But besides the atrocious service, the hot chocolate was indeed the stuff legends are made of! It was less intensely dark than the one Jen and I had at Christian Constant, but we also had whipped cream to add to it so I'm sure that made a difference. However, all in all, the price, the hike and the super accommodating service makes it probably a one-time stop in my Parisian life :P
Friday was a great day for exercising my legs and my brain, and of course eating to offset the intense calorie burning! I started off the morning by walking to the Centre Pompidou in the Marais, which takes a little more than a half hour and is an essentially straight shot from my apartment past the Sorbonne, across the Seine to Notre Dame, past Hotel de Ville (Paris' city hall) and into the heart of the Marais. Even<span style="font-style: italic;"> I</span> couldn't get lost - although I might actually call my sense of direction "decent" after all of my walking for the past couple of months.
<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjMfQ_JlU1xcydYQNYLx7HIMQOWj7tI9PAsO4nKp8E-hWXIQuiG41w6hAR92NxOY7eyboLha3lK7bapxAoGSDObkZz2N6AiAvoPX63tjAThHHoEmNWkaEsFAdLe5SN-eLLZqyDN-yoRdVu/s1600-h/004.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 247px; height: 186px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjMfQ_JlU1xcydYQNYLx7HIMQOWj7tI9PAsO4nKp8E-hWXIQuiG41w6hAR92NxOY7eyboLha3lK7bapxAoGSDObkZz2N6AiAvoPX63tjAThHHoEmNWkaEsFAdLe5SN-eLLZqyDN-yoRdVu/s320/004.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5401758924909684786" border="0" /></a>The view down the Seine from the bridge to Notre Dame (you can see it on the left)
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiBWG2fHxbjOBGlMYafFuK1kMRGI_H9uT5rb1bj4Bj6ZiYFRDNlE2UuzzIH0a3nvhwN_wyIQ0fVoB962S36E2kuyzUXYnJKbAW-4U7zE-LnmFW4jrdD96IqxfDH35yphhFRVFZpse_pPiT/s1600-h/005.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 199px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiBWG2fHxbjOBGlMYafFuK1kMRGI_H9uT5rb1bj4Bj6ZiYFRDNlE2UuzzIH0a3nvhwN_wyIQ0fVoB962S36E2kuyzUXYnJKbAW-4U7zE-LnmFW4jrdD96IqxfDH35yphhFRVFZpse_pPiT/s320/005.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5401758928702227490" border="0" /></a>
A view of Ile-St-Louis in the middle of the Seine
</div><div style="text-align: center;">
</div>I met Connie at the entrance to the museum and we there right when it opened - no crowds! The best part is now that I have my Catho student ID, I get in free to all the permanent exhibits at essentially all museums in Paris! Sweet deal :) My experience in the Pompidou completely solidified in my mind that I don't like modern art. I find it hard to appreciate canvases painted in one solid color, and I often find it disturbing to watch videos of naked women mud wrestling. However, there were rooms with Matisse and Picasso that were a lot of fun to see, because I actually think they made art! Connie and I passed two school groups taking tours in the museum, one from an elementary school and one from a high school, and we discussed how great it was to see art education beginning so early. It's a shame that we miss out on a lot of that in American schools, due to budget cuts as well as just I think less of an emphasis on the arts. Two hours was totally sufficient to feel like I had seen the museum, and it was the perfect time to set out in search of more falafel.
<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0-CAurAxvAkWRdvdr2v6mDs205N9h4EIVUeTMYWrC-QTwvHbFYrLzXUtPKtM_w_LE6ipeyzpS5yF4kD-Oqu2IM6lhEn5bH4jLeHAOiIEL1tFu_24pW9EbXIVqH18WHonLD4gK_5vLmAkq/s1600-h/014.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0-CAurAxvAkWRdvdr2v6mDs205N9h4EIVUeTMYWrC-QTwvHbFYrLzXUtPKtM_w_LE6ipeyzpS5yF4kD-Oqu2IM6lhEn5bH4jLeHAOiIEL1tFu_24pW9EbXIVqH18WHonLD4gK_5vLmAkq/s320/014.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5401758943040723346" border="0" /></a>
Picasso!</div><div style="text-align: center;">
</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFXBJzhEPwQ7hyphenhyphentEfDpAM87b0DOjmi6Ac_0JLN3812hH-cp97KEd6sAr5LnIIQkH7d8-RyQn0u-3WtJH5I1clS7OnaIfjx-9SZ1addA0BYeJO0dDYaH-Wl02B55qk3auS8c8Lp9X9EKAHF/s1600-h/012.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFXBJzhEPwQ7hyphenhyphentEfDpAM87b0DOjmi6Ac_0JLN3812hH-cp97KEd6sAr5LnIIQkH7d8-RyQn0u-3WtJH5I1clS7OnaIfjx-9SZ1addA0BYeJO0dDYaH-Wl02B55qk3auS8c8Lp9X9EKAHF/s320/012.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5401758933262658178" border="0" /></a>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbqYJfLce_wpxIwOB61dbo3nrbkMuqPIa7tsQOGu6NlTwGZvcJ7-Vs32atTD8p9oANhZSAmGXOC9bXBpdq9xehmr7ISR7OQJ8-ZqG2rN7uj6__nmNsOqmBAQ0NiqfviPSzBFQuu3gM42DX/s1600-h/013.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbqYJfLce_wpxIwOB61dbo3nrbkMuqPIa7tsQOGu6NlTwGZvcJ7-Vs32atTD8p9oANhZSAmGXOC9bXBpdq9xehmr7ISR7OQJ8-ZqG2rN7uj6__nmNsOqmBAQ0NiqfviPSzBFQuu3gM42DX/s320/013.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5401758939234151506" border="0" /></a>
Matisse!</div><div style="text-align: center;">
</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtncukoXUXKz-dxzMnxS1TuONBXj2LROlYfT2q0q98cmz4Bsi1yRrFBZ-gNnynbAhaf8ng0t7E99MpQjVlI8FdpxnCNBAfQc1Lvvqpi5QmPgRGO391Pw7A78-Mpmtol73RuN-GkzOrhDbb/s1600-h/019.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 199px; height: 149px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtncukoXUXKz-dxzMnxS1TuONBXj2LROlYfT2q0q98cmz4Bsi1yRrFBZ-gNnynbAhaf8ng0t7E99MpQjVlI8FdpxnCNBAfQc1Lvvqpi5QmPgRGO391Pw7A78-Mpmtol73RuN-GkzOrhDbb/s320/019.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5401761369679837506" border="0" /></a>Connie and I met up with my friend from fashion class, Dorene (who is a senior at UCSD who I met during rush my sophomore year!) and decided to try the <span style="font-style: italic;">other</span> "best falafel in Paris" at L'As du Falafel (The Ace of Falafel). It's essentially next door to Chez Hannah and we had to compare the two. We sat down inside, avoiding the long line at the window, and ordered falafel special sandwiches. I had a little heart attack when I saw the HUGE pita stuffed with red and white cabbage, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN9W3IQ2OkQEAsUsjJQqYRhuqeT1wf40UMzPIEeNH68DnwlnSCEKO1lBcHkr0gJ8ScewvDQcOYxJHqSlbFlqFK2RSkMkEl_YFb90rWVzmQx-eFE05CAksQpW_EPN9bzETj6l5F914RUttj/s1600-h/021+copy2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 292px; height: 219px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN9W3IQ2OkQEAsUsjJQqYRhuqeT1wf40UMzPIEeNH68DnwlnSCEKO1lBcHkr0gJ8ScewvDQcOYxJHqSlbFlqFK2RSkMkEl_YFb90rWVzmQx-eFE05CAksQpW_EPN9bzETj6l5F914RUttj/s320/021+copy2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5401762086522916962" border="0" /></a>tomatoes, fried eggplant, tomatoes, tahini and a big handful of FALAFEL BALLS! There's no way to describe it other than heaven, so I'll let the pictures do the talking. It was a tie between here and Chez Hannah in my mind, although I didn't have the sandwich at Chez Hannah so it wasn't a scientific comparison :P Either one, you can't lose! We decided to investigate the <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp5jJq1UVyGmAL9sfTVvE1YDuvfTLTU3Rf6XJB-3XyH-1sYHK_FjsXh6oPYFNqpxRfRpbbKEfhvcC_cHXqWvPc4mFwphyphenhypheng4OgnuhDmK4JIPb1Fu_W8UyVIkQM1GvuousVFrR56FqOEyg0r/s1600-h/022.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 246px; height: 189px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp5jJq1UVyGmAL9sfTVvE1YDuvfTLTU3Rf6XJB-3XyH-1sYHK_FjsXh6oPYFNqpxRfRpbbKEfhvcC_cHXqWvPc4mFwphyphenhypheng4OgnuhDmK4JIPb1Fu_W8UyVIkQM1GvuousVFrR56FqOEyg0r/s320/022.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5401761375212392802" border="0" /></a>Jewish bakeries on the same street, which alongside croissants and baguettes sold strudel, bagels, rugelach, and all sorts of other Jewish delights. Obviously, we had to pick some goodies up for dessert.
I didn't fully realize the crazy mix of people who live and work in the Marais until today, when we passed by a gay bar, an Orthodox Jewish man and his sons, a falafel stand, and an exclusive and expensive tea salon in literally a span of 5 minutes. Just another sign of hope that we really can all coexist! It's definitely my favorite area of Paris, there's so much diversity in restaurants, sights and shopping that it would be impossible to do everything I want to.
On Saturday, Connie and I made a date for afternoon tea at Mariage Freres, a Parisian <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixGvMCfj29Otg9cNQOjRPYC-1rK0hFg8cmBA5KcaHO09V90KON8ylPy7rAqlaBqLgEqZmHrnABT-wKwB-OgauQPI9h6-s31ift1Tk3g3nzyiqLWjbJNZ5O_otLwekiT7pYjR4tkPtHgoCb/s1600-h/Paris+005.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 210px; height: 280px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixGvMCfj29Otg9cNQOjRPYC-1rK0hFg8cmBA5KcaHO09V90KON8ylPy7rAqlaBqLgEqZmHrnABT-wKwB-OgauQPI9h6-s31ift1Tk3g3nzyiqLWjbJNZ5O_otLwekiT7pYjR4tkPtHgoCb/s320/Paris+005.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5401762093984979090" border="0" /></a>institution and world-famous for its teas. They have a few tea salons throughout the city and many upscale restaurants serve their products, but of course we chose the one in the Marais! We walked through the store to get to the salon, passing by floor-to-ceiling displays of hundreds of varieties of tea, tea paraphernelia, books and candies and jams made with tea. The dining room was beautiful, decorated in an Art Deco style with pale yellow walls, palm fronds and antique posters advertising travel to Africa and other exotic destinations. The waiters (all male) were quite classy in ALL white - starched suits, shirts, bow ties and gloves! In the background, a tea "barista" stood behind a bar and churned out perfectly brewed pots of tea for the waiters to <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6KlgYBmuykcabtW37LF-__WRWCvItkhEal-b3YBAsGyo1KO1Bqs0WGYm2D9uUT-vEHZXgIbjlKFX_JyEFsYFTYJhpmqVU6Sle5dv-YnFk2ihk-DY8bQDxCAkurzO4-6FZSIblOaMgzlFi/s1600-h/Paris+001.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 203px; height: 270px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6KlgYBmuykcabtW37LF-__WRWCvItkhEal-b3YBAsGyo1KO1Bqs0WGYm2D9uUT-vEHZXgIbjlKFX_JyEFsYFTYJhpmqVU6Sle5dv-YnFk2ihk-DY8bQDxCAkurzO4-6FZSIblOaMgzlFi/s320/Paris+001.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5401761379853204658" border="0" /></a>bring to their customers. Connie and I each decided to order Tea Time, which came with a pot of tea of our choice and an assortment of desserts and pastries. Choosing a tea was harder than it sounds - the tea menu took up five pages of tiny print (see left)! I finally settled on Fall in Love, a black tea with vanilla. Let's just say I definitely did fall in love when it arrived, already perfectly brewed and at that all-important temperature that won't burn your tongue but still is hot :) To our delight, we then received a plate with miniatures of a madeleine, financier, macaron, creme brulee and panna cotta. They would have been great anyway, but all of Mariage Frere's pastries are made with some kind of tea; that means our madeleine was Earl Grey, our <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_efJLUSXjrcDwzNHYsBhIXb8chNCEG4FD5SNO8JMxm8hfn9h0oAHtW-_akctUFSiWHKK72XauI3_H_7SeBCHsY_ar1SRCDNi1LZQE2-XEhsOvwGS05cHltRpDx3myQAh8xTPjvyvk4YiV/s1600-h/Paris+002.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 281px; height: 211px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_efJLUSXjrcDwzNHYsBhIXb8chNCEG4FD5SNO8JMxm8hfn9h0oAHtW-_akctUFSiWHKK72XauI3_H_7SeBCHsY_ar1SRCDNi1LZQE2-XEhsOvwGS05cHltRpDx3myQAh8xTPjvyvk4YiV/s320/Paris+002.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5401763070387234274" border="0" /></a>financier was green tea, our macaron was some kind of rose, and the creme brulee and panna cotta were also infused with the flavor and scent of a Mariage Freres tea. Connie is a total foodie too, so we had a fun time guessing each flavor! All in all it was quite a splurge but completely worth it - I could get used to a life that allowed for fancy afternoon tea every day with my friends :) We broke character, however, when we noticed that the two men next to us who had ordered the full brunch had left a WHOLE SCONE on one of their bread plates. That is seriously one of my pet peeves - that scone probably cost literally 4 euros! When we got up to leave, Connie casually snagged it and handed it off outside. Let's just say I enjoyed a cup of tea and a warm, delicious scone with pumpkin jam this morning :)
Today I'm spending a lazy Sunday catching up on writing my film paper and TV shows. Last night a group of us went out with one of the girls' French friends to a bar and then a dance club, but since the French don't eat dinner until 8 they don't even leave the house on Saturday nights until 11 - and when I left to go home at 2:30 I met with much joking disapproval. I think sleep ranks a little higher in my book :) But it was absolutely hilarious to hear the music at the club, ranging from (I'm not joking) Sweet Home Alabama and the Macarena to the Black Eyed Peas and techno. Who would've guessed?
It's getting very cold now, especially for this California girl, so I'm definitely finding more ways to stay inside and letting myself splurge more often on a hot cup of coffee and a croissant. I think it's worth it :)Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-45700750528304460912009-11-04T18:39:00.008+01:002009-11-04T21:19:03.569+01:00Wednesday wanderingsI don't have class on Wednesdays, so it's become my goal to get myself out of my warm apartment and see other parts of the city! It's a great opportunity for exercise, people-watching and catching up on NPR podcasts, as well as the only way for me to have any semblance of a sense of direction when it comes to how the different arrondissements (if you didn't know, Paris is divided into 19 arrondissements, or <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisSNgdu7FR0hJcOvlnftf56L8ES3UVf5_e_WKmS4fYZW-8YSkIB_OLMisY0ZpnbZ0RMjFdoFmKuUKtWzC6KfAPW_FnfSDMvh4btDXdTQ-NFydPThvFg9edNTbE7dhH7slL9v5UmVP-bJai/s1600-h/Paris+004.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 264px; height: 197px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisSNgdu7FR0hJcOvlnftf56L8ES3UVf5_e_WKmS4fYZW-8YSkIB_OLMisY0ZpnbZ0RMjFdoFmKuUKtWzC6KfAPW_FnfSDMvh4btDXdTQ-NFydPThvFg9edNTbE7dhH7slL9v5UmVP-bJai/s320/Paris+004.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5400341527129211154" border="0" /></a>administrative districts, which spiral out from the plaza in front of Notre Dame).
After a quick prayer for no rain I struck out this morning for a stroll vaguely directed in the direction of the Bastille. After I crossed the Seine and passed Notre Dame, I turned right and wandered east. Somehow, I'm not really sure, I ended up on Ile St. Louis! I guess the streets connecting it to the mainland were so big I didn't even notice I was on a bridge! Notre Dame is on Ile-de-la-Cite, and Ile St. Louis is a smaller island next to it that has a cute collection of cafes, art galleries, etc. As soon as I realized I was on it, I was off of it, and continued northeast to the Bastille.
The Bastille neighborhood is famous for its prison that played a central role in the French Revolution. I just learned that the "storming of the Bastille" was prompted by rumors among the bourgeois that the king was holding political prisoners in the Bastille Saint-Antoine; the thought was that by freeing them, they would strike a decisive blow to the king's authority. However, there were only 7 people in the prison! In exchange for freeing 7 people, 100 protesters died! Hmm...
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgypMvL4T7EuElUKMFNT1khaDkrW4dLvDNfST8Ih3pMSoek2f9_oRrO_f16CpRHVsuuC7C1VpTrSKwkS7bLjOs2tHw-KHRlNKzOlPvWFuOAKdOqvcFYb2GBU6RIf7z8TL_LH3HmoWJjO78V/s1600-h/Paris+005.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 191px; height: 255px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgypMvL4T7EuElUKMFNT1khaDkrW4dLvDNfST8Ih3pMSoek2f9_oRrO_f16CpRHVsuuC7C1VpTrSKwkS7bLjOs2tHw-KHRlNKzOlPvWFuOAKdOqvcFYb2GBU6RIf7z8TL_LH3HmoWJjO78V/s320/Paris+005.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5400339906091011714" border="0" /></a>Anywho, the Bastille obviously doesn't exist anymore, but there's a large Place de la Bastille with a big shiny memorial column topped by the "Spirit of Liberty" marking its former location. About six streets branch out from the central circle, including one with the Opera Bastille. The Opera Garnier was the city's first opera house, but the Opera Bastille was built in 1989 in an attempt <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_IJmG3ImKXQPkTf9JcjP8u9jDhZyH0aBpFp1kcjT8O46eMOmXJNmgQGBrP-SMOVHT2uelpQF2K-viNIza1DknrvwLK9h42Vlxikj1GEjd8VYavAeIyFi89b6bL9ajzNsidmbv2htbv_eQ/s1600-h/Paris+006.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 272px; height: 205px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_IJmG3ImKXQPkTf9JcjP8u9jDhZyH0aBpFp1kcjT8O46eMOmXJNmgQGBrP-SMOVHT2uelpQF2K-viNIza1DknrvwLK9h42Vlxikj1GEjd8VYavAeIyFi89b6bL9ajzNsidmbv2htbv_eQ/s320/Paris+006.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5400341531656274994" border="0" /></a>to make opera more modern and fun? Not quite sure, but its design is considered an eyesore by many Parisians (one on the apparently very long list of things Parisians consider eyesores). I'm not quite sure how I feel about it, other than it's REALLY big and REALLY shiny.
Continuing on my journey, I walked through the Marais district (which I had NO idea was so close to the Bastille!) to the Place des Vosges. It's the oldest square in Paris (dating from 1604), and it's been billed as one of the most beautiful squares in the world, so I had to check it out. A park with a fountain in the middle is completely surrounded by a symmetrical and identically built red and white brick buildings, with an arch in the middle of each side to leave the square. Many famous <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvgosMfn70nJLgm5ax5BJJPheiFJREOh6F7hEe1xqDX3RdEhT-qxj8hh52h20siPnZlPShhOTzRpZD0g3SnetuZjeqg2ZCXwUReYNn1GhUJ_VknFp8f9rfk58Tl5hXHfn1oasMnwx-P5PD/s1600-h/Paris+011.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 270px; height: 203px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvgosMfn70nJLgm5ax5BJJPheiFJREOh6F7hEe1xqDX3RdEhT-qxj8hh52h20siPnZlPShhOTzRpZD0g3SnetuZjeqg2ZCXwUReYNn1GhUJ_VknFp8f9rfk58Tl5hXHfn1oasMnwx-P5PD/s320/Paris+011.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5400341533270539666" border="0" /></a>people lived in the surrounding buildings, including Richlieu and Victor Hugo. I'm not sure I'd call it the most beautiful square in the world, but it was pleasant :) I wandered more around the streets in the area, drooling over every cafe and bistro I passed. However, Parisian prices are a quite effective deterrant to eating healthy food! A salad is 12 euros, and a croissant is 1... Soooo sacrifices have to be made :)
Feeling like a pick me up, I searched for a place to get a coffee and dessert. Everything was super expensive or didn't have a place to sit down, but I stumbled upon the most ADORABLE tea shop I have seen in Paris tucked <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLooXP3iYygCiDN3AnK93GP7dPJ0pp6-OlOJQCO9WQe8tB_YkLonuVjHxqTRx5IVsZwGrYghbIpOMLFXPTmTU5_C6qshTYZd9vTiBb7tvp4gmMRMhdVEI8xChL8lnkSw1JG8jXRUrfY2ll/s1600-h/Paris+014.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 278px; height: 208px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLooXP3iYygCiDN3AnK93GP7dPJ0pp6-OlOJQCO9WQe8tB_YkLonuVjHxqTRx5IVsZwGrYghbIpOMLFXPTmTU5_C6qshTYZd9vTiBb7tvp4gmMRMhdVEI8xChL8lnkSw1JG8jXRUrfY2ll/s320/Paris+014.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5400342220086898354" border="0" /></a>away on a side street. It was decorated a lot like the Crown & Crumpet in San Francisco, but with a European sophistication. Eight euro bought me a coffee, a warm mixed fruit crumble made in-hou<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP6DhOXHD2KJROJHUhBSQyOnfrzbWpA-28Lnv5mal8Eh_Npehq3oqh6SavNkK1dWzishxdPWiMGIPSiKNEXTWKtWDwMy2gbl5Lbn8bEDNVYygZ7zQgLypduB8WPvkBTnoNfbQSQbaQmtOx/s1600-h/Paris+013.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP6DhOXHD2KJROJHUhBSQyOnfrzbWpA-28Lnv5mal8Eh_Npehq3oqh6SavNkK1dWzishxdPWiMGIPSiKNEXTWKtWDwMy2gbl5Lbn8bEDNVYygZ7zQgLypduB8WPvkBTnoNfbQSQbaQmtOx/s200/Paris+013.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5400343236974727474" border="0" /></a>se, and a fantastic atmosphere filled with classical music where I could sit for an hour and read a book. The man who helped me was very nice and I definitely will be coming back with friends for one of their (relatively) affordable lunch formulas or afternoon tea. I love making these kinds of discoveries!
After my wonderful few hours of reflective wandering and research for future outings, I decided that something reeallly needed to be done about the fact that I hadn't shaved my legs in a looonnnngg time... men-folk, you can skip this paragraph, but ladies will appreciate this cultural tidbit! It costs a lot to get your legs waxed in the states, I'd say an average of $40 right? But in Paris, there are places that ONLY do waxing, and they only charge 16 euros for a leg wax! And that's not even at a "cheap" place. So I go in to the shop and start a conversation with the technician as she's waxing my legs, and she remarked that I was unusual because Americans never wax. I told her how expensive it was at home, and she literally didn't believe me. It was like I told her that we ate puppies for dinner! Anyway, long story short it was cheap and took about 10 minutes and I feel SO much better :P
On my last stop, I stumbled upon a fantastic looking candy shop called Servant (someone's last name, not the kind who mops your floors). I had to go in of course, and was greeted by a very nice gentleman who asked if he could help me. I said it was my first time in the store and I was <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgORBwo8fz5ior14waMWVdoBBBWx0lGSg4W7Gc932dZAKNjFjf4F2FhiiFiXSPs72sJEX2ODQqutE-xAPcNLtRSF8m6g4yqLjhjwGaeIcox7hTvPaYCStIJdzj5OJ4huYbaHB0VXic3iNPa/s1600-h/Paris+018.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgORBwo8fz5ior14waMWVdoBBBWx0lGSg4W7Gc932dZAKNjFjf4F2FhiiFiXSPs72sJEX2ODQqutE-xAPcNLtRSF8m6g4yqLjhjwGaeIcox7hTvPaYCStIJdzj5OJ4huYbaHB0VXic3iNPa/s320/Paris+018.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5400339919458823058" border="0" /></a>just looking, and he looked very happy and wanted to tell me all about it! Founded in 1913, several stores in the city that are family-owned and operated, and the chocolate is made downstairs! He opened a door in the floor that led to the underground chocolate Batcave (and added that there was also a back entrance above ground). Anyway, he asked me if I like milk or dark chocolate, mild or strong flavored, and proceeded to give me two free samples of dark chocolates! I probably got like, 1 euro worth of free candy. Cha ching! It was delicious too, and I talked to him for a while about the different flavors and prices of boxes. I took a pamphlet with the different flavors home (because I HATE not knowing what chocolates are when you bite into them) and will probably return in time for Christmas presents. I seriously wanted to give him a hug, he was so nice and our conversation was the total highlight of my day!
Sorry for the excessively detailed post, but I wanted to share my delightful day! Please enjoy these photos from my Wednesday wanderings :)
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0wkEsdeqlazfwf-gy-dFv8F4QsNfmpu55JvFC6j_nAr209IVJZxDGob7uP4h2SH21sRp7hpOTUe5INhYiHlk5Z69xaIaOKVIfcw1p9UlEO15FqhuMlyjBbo-AiLYDW_mbcBUtZU3nK1BH/s1600-h/Paris+001.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0wkEsdeqlazfwf-gy-dFv8F4QsNfmpu55JvFC6j_nAr209IVJZxDGob7uP4h2SH21sRp7hpOTUe5INhYiHlk5Z69xaIaOKVIfcw1p9UlEO15FqhuMlyjBbo-AiLYDW_mbcBUtZU3nK1BH/s320/Paris+001.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5400344079342413282" border="0" /></a>
<div style="text-align: center;">Jardin de Luxembourg on a gray fall morning
</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXAqQVOFqxTS0ZiWB2mX1rdl7C27eU1_jCL3-CZKSpyY1Waas2Wkvo5mRVohb41P8zSHN6qTY7iT-o0EfXZlXWYPlgnSbLKchLwHnzNNxn6s-pBrifpDQtbPyM6lBi8gCNuv7CqkoaLVot/s1600-h/Paris+003.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXAqQVOFqxTS0ZiWB2mX1rdl7C27eU1_jCL3-CZKSpyY1Waas2Wkvo5mRVohb41P8zSHN6qTY7iT-o0EfXZlXWYPlgnSbLKchLwHnzNNxn6s-pBrifpDQtbPyM6lBi8gCNuv7CqkoaLVot/s320/Paris+003.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5400344079697858450" border="0" /></a>
<div style="text-align: center;">I pass pony rides on my way to school!
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzcEd_wD42uEh8LvkgIbl2VPEX1x4I-YmaSv1hvpnSp95kVwIyicgNRYyXNSkcJnz5vKAS6V4nt6KfWFsVinwayaatUp7TQOZmliTCLtrI69bNao22vny3oJykNvMCK4H-n0Sdo5XobT9K/s1600-h/Paris+007.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzcEd_wD42uEh8LvkgIbl2VPEX1x4I-YmaSv1hvpnSp95kVwIyicgNRYyXNSkcJnz5vKAS6V4nt6KfWFsVinwayaatUp7TQOZmliTCLtrI69bNao22vny3oJykNvMCK4H-n0Sdo5XobT9K/s320/Paris+007.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5400344096429227730" border="0" /></a>
Eglise St. Louis-St. Paul in the Marais
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioFWkGUGmj5qHAGWOhcEaEUjMJo2uKEAkOrFRoTeNNHYamdYm5MpL6VEmXmijLhcHtrZV33PiB5JrPjR_3PI-QjRAaljoVVsCeoQIJKWAhGoCZWU3r5IFEqjQyiIuOU1lKe533bp7G9hMD/s1600-h/Paris+012.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioFWkGUGmj5qHAGWOhcEaEUjMJo2uKEAkOrFRoTeNNHYamdYm5MpL6VEmXmijLhcHtrZV33PiB5JrPjR_3PI-QjRAaljoVVsCeoQIJKWAhGoCZWU3r5IFEqjQyiIuOU1lKe533bp7G9hMD/s320/Paris+012.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5400344088745542050" border="0" /></a>
</div><div style="text-align: center;">A typical street in the Marais (you can see an entrance to the Place des Vosges at the end)
</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0y_3ZelI2-8potc32oeSJBbd-rVllukkHUFpmB3KozdYX2AujOLK9IKS3WA-VVWfcMSQ_eB3nRxvGVnZKulfH0C_yZgfsONgHGqONxMPS9vEIiqpcOcXt9jPiyM1cRDhct8IVzVT-CBfI/s1600-h/Paris+015.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0y_3ZelI2-8potc32oeSJBbd-rVllukkHUFpmB3KozdYX2AujOLK9IKS3WA-VVWfcMSQ_eB3nRxvGVnZKulfH0C_yZgfsONgHGqONxMPS9vEIiqpcOcXt9jPiyM1cRDhct8IVzVT-CBfI/s320/Paris+015.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5400344086312349026" border="0" /></a>
<div style="text-align: center;">No schoolchildren to creepily take photos of, but the school was still so cute!
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</div>Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-56582665979234132922009-11-01T17:10:00.006+01:002009-11-01T22:25:28.192+01:00How do you experience Paris in 3 days? A chronicle of friends, food and sore feetTo compound my absolute joy (and suck even more from my rapidly diminishing bank account - thanks for the boost, Mom and Dad!), I was visited this weekend by the dynamic trio of Julia and her two good friends Alex and Breanna. Alex is Julia's roommate from University of Puget Sound as well as her roommate in Prague, and Breanna is Julia's friend from high school who's currently studying in Seville, Spain.
I apologize for the lack of pictures - having four cameras means that everyone has about a quarter of the good pictures!
THURSDAY: I had just gotten home from London late Wednesday night, but I woke up early and unpacked before meeting the girls for lunch. Because their flight had been delayed (fog in Dusseldorf!) Julia and Alex literally walked off the metro from the airport, dropped their bags, and we headed out. It was the greatest feeling to have Julia there - I'm not homesick in Paris, just sad that I can't share it with everyone at home! Definitely a soul-lifting hug after being separated for a couple of months :)
After lunch we walked from their hotel on rue St. Honore near the Louvre to my apartment, which is a bit of a hike across the Seine and almost the entire Latin Quarter, but it was a beautiful day and a chance for me to give a tour of my neighborhood as we walked by Notre Dame, Shakespeare & Co. and the Sorbonne. We weary travelers hung out around the apartment sipping Bordeaux for a bit while catching up and resting our tired feet and sore backs from traversing airports and public transportation all over Europe. Determined to feed them the best representation of Parisian food, I walked the group over to rue Mouffetard for savory dinner crepes and gelato in the shape of a rose (Breanna's request!). It was delicious and I think everyone enjoyed their first buckwheat galettes.
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8P6bSJ4ZxswPlhyEWd3BdFLbFusqkavL4mkkFRGQCrE7QUzEFgG_samX4WGkeDTPEWfGqwIgQ2WyEKgtCVcwXAdEv6lFgk2jMrVeu1XjW0izK5Ewsx50-EU6V_zasuyTatDEj2G6I3ghV/s1600-h/Paris+096.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8P6bSJ4ZxswPlhyEWd3BdFLbFusqkavL4mkkFRGQCrE7QUzEFgG_samX4WGkeDTPEWfGqwIgQ2WyEKgtCVcwXAdEv6lFgk2jMrVeu1XjW0izK5Ewsx50-EU6V_zasuyTatDEj2G6I3ghV/s320/Paris+096.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399187075542422082" border="0" /></a>
FRIDAY: The girls met me at the apartment in the morning so I could introduce them to my friend the baker down the block and feed them his amazing pastries. There was not much conversation as we all savored our cinnamon croissant, pain au chocolat and pear pastries! The boulanger was excited to hear about my friends and I got to practice my conversational skills as I told him about who they were and what they were doing in Europe. He is just so incredibly friendly, I never leave his store without a smile on my face!
Continuing the requested tour of "my Paris," we walked through Luxembourg Gardens, admiring the fountains and fall colors. Julia hadn't yet had her coffee, so a caffeine injection was necessary and the perfect opportunity to visit Cafe Doucet and my mocha-brewing bartender friend. Unfortunately he was just going on break when we got there, but we sat at the counter and enjoyed some warm drinks. Breanna spotted Sadaharu Aoki, the artisan Japanese patisserie, and we admired the beautiful desserts while she picked out a blackberry and chocolate layered pastry and packed it for our picnic at the Eiffel Tower. Our next stop was Laduree, a Parisian institution whose French macaroons are considered the best in the world and whose four tea salons in the city are always full of tourists and locals enjoying the beautiful and refined atmosphere and delicious pastries and tea blends. I had walked by one salon a short walk from school but had never gone in, so this was the perfect opportunity! Even the store windows were breathtakingly decorated, and we were salivating before we even walked inside. Macaroons were laid out in columns of different flavors, each a different vibrant color, and were kept company by a tantalizing spread of pastries and gourmet desserts. Realizing that if we bought at least 6 macaroons each we could all get beautiful (and definitely useful!) boxes in our choice of color and design, we stepped up and chose assortments of the flavors. At 2 euros each for a macaroon that measures about 1.5 inches in diameter the price is nothing to sneeze at, but we would soon forget our lightened wallets!
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh9uDcEabI7AW1f0XYFF1MBQxcO6qCo2XleUSAYy66dU4sl4MK7s2afpDj5-C1vUAV8kvsZ-5y8Vn9QN5NrbEKNTftM_tsXSawEP2IPazAK4Ul9i-EpSiQewNC8hpjjHOGkCbVrgeAna_G/s1600-h/Paris+101.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh9uDcEabI7AW1f0XYFF1MBQxcO6qCo2XleUSAYy66dU4sl4MK7s2afpDj5-C1vUAV8kvsZ-5y8Vn9QN5NrbEKNTftM_tsXSawEP2IPazAK4Ul9i-EpSiQewNC8hpjjHOGkCbVrgeAna_G/s320/Paris+101.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399187083371653890" border="0" /></a>
To compare quality, we had stopped earlier at Pierre Herme, a smaller but no less famous of a pastry and chocolate shop down the street. There is an ongoing debate over who makes the best macaroon, and so we each had to pick one up in order to do our own taste test :)
On our way to the Eiffel Tower, we stopped in Eglise Saint Germain-des-pres. I hadn't been able to get in last time because of a funeral, so it was great to be able to see the interior. It was very dark and very old - it was partially ruined during the war and is definitely not as well preserved as other churches in the area - but still quiet and beautiful.
We caught the metro to the tower and the girls were quite in a tizzy with our first view! With cameras out and desserts in hand, we grabbed a bench on the Champs de Mars and proceeded to delicately taste our purchases. I think a conservative assessment of our discovery is that WE LOVE MACAROONS! Never have I tasted such a fantastic combination of light and crispy wafers with rich and flavorful ganache filling - it was a life-altering experience to be sure. In my mind, Pierre Herme's macaroons were completely equal to Laduree's, and they cost 1.85 each instead of 2 euros... but Laduree's boxes are prettier... the jury is still out :)
I'm sure that everyone thought we were absolutely crazy dancing around with our macaroons taking photos and squealing with every bite, but it was truly magical!
Not to be slowed down on our quest for all things yummy in Paris, I took the girls to the Mosquee de Paris where I had previously enjoyed delightful mint tea and baklava. Happy tummies, happy girls, check! I think it was a great off-the-beaten-track stop and everyone loved it :)
We headed back to my apartment for a rest stop before going to the Louvre. Friday nights are free for people under 26, regardless of student status or nationality, so it was the perfect opportunity for the girls to visit. We made the obligatory journey through the Denon wing and visited the Greek sculpture gallery, Winged Victory, and the Italian Renaissance painting wing (and yes, the Mona Lisa). After seeing Louis XVI's coronation crown and the Venus di Milo, we of little patience and grumbling stomachs called it a successful visit and headed out to dinner at a nearby sushi bar. Another big YUM and the perfect antidote to a lunch of macaroons and coffee. We headed back to the hotel and piled on the bed to watch an episode of Friends on Julia's computer before I caught the last train home.
<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw35IibbhZQMxG1UqB8chSIRnDYCJVKawEpU8iLxTspyTMPTxFm8Wr4OtfjwP_XeF8fYuQhrZFm5rwMXqkPu9yzEp2LzR7fn1f7GowKoSEGWPsn_THVYa3SFmYUpPprkKecmzmvguUmfGk/s1600-h/Paris+105.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw35IibbhZQMxG1UqB8chSIRnDYCJVKawEpU8iLxTspyTMPTxFm8Wr4OtfjwP_XeF8fYuQhrZFm5rwMXqkPu9yzEp2LzR7fn1f7GowKoSEGWPsn_THVYa3SFmYUpPprkKecmzmvguUmfGk/s320/Paris+105.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399187088976168082" border="0" /></a>
It's big...
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpwG5trK29KG3rU1AmLmdt1h9xFbkDfcVtYTJrzJV6GwRBuZN4l1beqCejFYk7POlU29AfCVqhxJt-luIhyLAdiV3579Q0Gt8mo5XollkZpx6zYPZ6qe6I9IEJ2xywQNkvi6TDfEvGfDTG/s1600-h/Paris+107.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpwG5trK29KG3rU1AmLmdt1h9xFbkDfcVtYTJrzJV6GwRBuZN4l1beqCejFYk7POlU29AfCVqhxJt-luIhyLAdiV3579Q0Gt8mo5XollkZpx6zYPZ6qe6I9IEJ2xywQNkvi6TDfEvGfDTG/s320/Paris+107.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399187095813587618" border="0" /></a>
The Mona Lisa mob
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SATURDAY: Thanks to Breanna, the biggest proponent of walking I have ever met, we took a tour through three arrondissements completely on foot! From the hotel we grabbed coffee and walked to the Place de la Madeleine, the area around the historic church of la Madeleine (Mary Magdalene). The church looked like a courthouse from the outside but was beautifully decorated inside. We took the opportunity to light candles and sit for a bit of reflection.
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEideVlhY6XzYK1t79vnZ_MZBHQiYnDDT_V88l1qKqHW2voItmY9mAI_atslX1zWviRTq3Ub6yJFd_9V2mz6PfagH_3DUOxVEXt1kWsTxPOYg8NiIU3y3epMm4oonq0a9IzDh8FmVPOQyPNi/s1600-h/Paris+118.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEideVlhY6XzYK1t79vnZ_MZBHQiYnDDT_V88l1qKqHW2voItmY9mAI_atslX1zWviRTq3Ub6yJFd_9V2mz6PfagH_3DUOxVEXt1kWsTxPOYg8NiIU3y3epMm4oonq0a9IzDh8FmVPOQyPNi/s320/Paris+118.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399197246235821218" border="0" /></a>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOkc51u812en0-Ud_LIV1H2Kd8nOUS-9RAvz6m0eYSQlcNbjsSTjnMUwfJ3ed-UdshoDV6vXeeaQtrg8TeC1E7-NiTKj87ubcTGO3dtG56QXQWEqjUsCY0dET0kC99Q6xj1WymSdLhSfEY/s1600-h/Paris+116.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOkc51u812en0-Ud_LIV1H2Kd8nOUS-9RAvz6m0eYSQlcNbjsSTjnMUwfJ3ed-UdshoDV6vXeeaQtrg8TeC1E7-NiTKj87ubcTGO3dtG56QXQWEqjUsCY0dET0kC99Q6xj1WymSdLhSfEY/s320/Paris+116.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399187100283797538" border="0" /></a>
Afterwards, we walked to the Marais (Jewish, Middle-Eastern, and gay districts all in one!) by way of La Maison du Miel (The House of Honey) and quickly realized how many kinds of honey there are in the world. Honey is my new obsession, so it was quite overwhelming to see not only honey, but honey soap, honey baked goods, honey candy, etc!
We walked past the Centre Pompidou, Paris's modern art museum that many Parisians consider a visual blight upon the city. I think it's kind of cool - it looks like a McDonald's playplace turned inside out! The fountain in the square also has a sculpture by the same artist as Sun God at UCSD, so that's always fun :)
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3YjIpAexkvHW4mAPSz7Wx1K36kTYis37bpHJZhlxCPsLwbJP9u4KU_Azsn-MVcyxsL-FRE0BwhbEVUgBeeRRwcdXyD-9PmB2eYbe6fjCi5aL_goWekdLzYFhsHVbOmiOzHwOoJZHZiIAu/s1600-h/Paris+121.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3YjIpAexkvHW4mAPSz7Wx1K36kTYis37bpHJZhlxCPsLwbJP9u4KU_Azsn-MVcyxsL-FRE0BwhbEVUgBeeRRwcdXyD-9PmB2eYbe6fjCi5aL_goWekdLzYFhsHVbOmiOzHwOoJZHZiIAu/s320/Paris+121.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399196488626876690" border="0" /></a>We were in pursuit of the city's best falafel at Chez Hannah, and were greeted by a huge line of adoring fans at the walk-up window. Deciding that the extra expense was worth it, we took a table inside and enjoyed plates of the most delicious falafel I have ever tasted, hands down. If you are ever in Paris, promise you'll make it here - it's a religious experience! I could have eaten ten more, but we were saving room for our next stop, tea at Laduree (our new obsession).
On the way, Alex and Breanna grabbed their first ever Nutella crepes from a sidewalk vendor and oohed and aahed at the simple but delicious creation. Another Parisian staple, check! At Laduree, we were seated upstairs at a beautifully set table and handed beautiful menus to choose from their beautiful teas and pastries. We chose vanilla tea and I decided to splurge on a chocolate "religieuse," a small chocolate cream-filled puff stacked on a larger one that's supposed to resemble a round religieuse, or nun! Although my dessert was fantastic and richly chocolatey, the tea was the true revelation of the afternoon. As soon as each of us took our first sip, we let out a little gasp. Needless to say, we stopped at their shop after our meal so all three girls could buy a canister to take home :)
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGM3AHbVYLFFohB5YOWpTbtakgLEkocEXG5UFI1v-roSsku9dPbB8r72fSibFaZ3yZKrwy7ViO9pzB1jWN7hOgC6bXtzRZ-Ab5qqrszj2l-Zk6CmKVAdm3aF8rMh8gEEU62BNMPlvXyqqf/s1600-h/Paris+124.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGM3AHbVYLFFohB5YOWpTbtakgLEkocEXG5UFI1v-roSsku9dPbB8r72fSibFaZ3yZKrwy7ViO9pzB1jWN7hOgC6bXtzRZ-Ab5qqrszj2l-Zk6CmKVAdm3aF8rMh8gEEU62BNMPlvXyqqf/s320/Paris+124.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399196484903368610" border="0" /></a>
We had a wonderful dinner at a Middle-Eastern restaurant next to my apartment that I've walked by every day for a month and always wanted to try; the proprieter was very friendly and came by to make conversation (in French, of course, so Julia and Alex were a tad lost) and meet us. The restaurant is often very quiet, so I think he was just glad to have customers!
Grabbing a bottle of wine and waddling to the metro, we headed back to the Eiffel Tower for the nightly light show on the hour. We popped the cork and shared drinks and conversation as we watched the tower light up and sparkle for about 15 minutes at the start of each hour. What a treat - thank you French government for splurging on light installation!
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZMkorn3enNdqYG2ChSw8WZ0LRMLRJw4yshHJERVZa_LZQ9vX2bkawVTl_QSsNYo5GfkpbfRfc3IVvCdT0ys9pRORq8lbV1PQlywJA8sBHX8Bt94CfzERWJbkoFT8wCel3w-jDR0lVp8t2/s1600-h/Paris+129.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZMkorn3enNdqYG2ChSw8WZ0LRMLRJw4yshHJERVZa_LZQ9vX2bkawVTl_QSsNYo5GfkpbfRfc3IVvCdT0ys9pRORq8lbV1PQlywJA8sBHX8Bt94CfzERWJbkoFT8wCel3w-jDR0lVp8t2/s320/Paris+129.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399196490772571266" border="0" /></a>
SUNDAY: Julia and Alex had to head out at 10am to get to CDG, but I met them for breakfast and coffee. What we didn't count on was that today was not only Sunday but Toussaint's and literally NOTHING was open! Luckily there was one brasserie open that served a delicious cafe creme, but they only had tartines (baguette and jam) and no croissants because all the boulangeries were closed! It wasn't a sad goodbye at the station because I know I'll be seeing Julia and Alex for Thanksgiving in just three short weeks :)Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-10970604434550647622009-11-01T12:48:00.010+01:002009-11-01T16:06:09.460+01:00Hopping the pond for fall break!I'm so sorry it's been so long since my last post! I've been super busy, which makes it hard to find time to write - but also gives me lots to write about!
I'm pretty sure every school in Paris, from elementary schools to universities, had this past week off of classes in anticipation of Toussaints (All-Saints' Day) today. It was the perfect opportunity to take a trip that I've been dreaming of for years - to LONDON! Anna and Lindsey spent 6 weeks studying there this summer and came back with great memories and only good things to say about the city, so I was quite excited to have the opportunity to spend a full 6 days there. Looking back, it would have been very frustrating to only have had a weekend but the extended vacation gave Connie, Maddie and I a chance to see everything we wanted to without being frantic.
DAY 1: After morning French class on Thursday, I came home, finished packing, and met Connie on the train to Charles de Gaulle (we were taking an earlier flight than Maddie). I love that my apartment is right on the same line so I barely had to walk with my luggage. We were taking easyJet, a low-cost airline that charges extra for checked bags. Thinking we were very savvy travelers, we only packed carry-on sized bags. However, easyJet's standards for "carry-on size" were quite stringent and the ticket lady literally had us each put our bags in the box to check the size. And, of course, they didn't quite fit. So we moved a lot into Connie's bag, paid 22 euro to check it, and I carried mine on. Other than that, the flight was smooth, SHORT (45 minutes!) and we were soon landing in Luton airport. However, Luton is a 45-minute bus ride outside of central London so we had to buy a rather expensive bus ticket to get to the tube so we could buy an Oyster card (London's metro pass) so we could take it about 10 stops so we could walk for 30 minutes to the flat where we were staying. Needless to say, I was a tad cranky and very tired and sore by the time we finally arrived late that night! Connie's friend Thom is studying in London and he and his roommates were nice enough to let us stay in their flat for free for 3 nights while they were in Spain :) Maddie's flight was delayed and when she arrived after midnight the tube had stopped running, so she took a taxi and didn't arrive at the flat until 2:30am! Connie and I were definitely a little worried, so we huddled around the open oven (it was quite cold, and the landlord hadn't turned on the heat yet!) and drank tea until she finally got in. It was good to sleep that night.
DAY 2: After sleeping in, we went in search of a real English breakfast (well... late lunch) and found one at The Chelsea Bun. It was the real deal: eggs, grilled tomato, sausage link, a scoop of canned beans, "back bacon" (more like Canadian bacon), and WHITE toast accompanied by black tea steeped in milk. I was suspicious, but actually enjoyed the new flavors! That's one cultural difference - the British ONLY eat white bread, and it's the whitest bread I've ever seen!
Connie's family friends were vacationing in London the same week, so Maddie and I were on our own to explore in the afternoon. We took the tube into the heart of the city and took a stroll along the Thames to get oriented. Our walk took us past the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, the London Eye and all the way to Tower Bridge. Along the way, we stumbled upon a wine and cheese festival (well, more like ten booths in a courtyard) where we sampled, shocker, French wines and cheeses! We also ventured into the Tate Modern museum, where we contemplated the strangest, most frustrating works of "art" I've ever seen. If putting a vacuum in a plexiglass box is modern art, I'm not a fan...
We were exhausted after our trek, and after chatting in comfy chairs over a mocha (!) at Caffe Nero (a cheaper Starbucks-like Italian coffee shop chain) we grabbed salads at a store called Pret a Manger. London is absolutely overrun by Pret a Manger and Eat, two pre-made food shops that sell fresh and all-natural pre-made sandwiches, salads, soups, etc. that you can eat in or out. Definitely a niche that has not been filled in the states - I'd eat there every day if I could! We met up with Connie in SoHo and met Maddie's friend for drinks at a casual pub/bar before calling it a night and making the long haul back to Thom's flat (it's about a half hour tube ride from the city center).
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV1RAXaJfLd1IhKgfDcA9cO-Abienw4pTIVQQ9KS-plalPjAYhIwLFii5uitttiTyTrAEoX6_4IhgHmz-6s3wNnQ1gf3mamlavmZFJF0T-i-oSUuEVGM0ZsJvvdgPmwCOAVGOtuqpJap0h/s1600-h/London+012.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV1RAXaJfLd1IhKgfDcA9cO-Abienw4pTIVQQ9KS-plalPjAYhIwLFii5uitttiTyTrAEoX6_4IhgHmz-6s3wNnQ1gf3mamlavmZFJF0T-i-oSUuEVGM0ZsJvvdgPmwCOAVGOtuqpJap0h/s320/London+012.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399139027410534514" border="0" /></a>
<div style="text-align: center;">The London Eye overlooking the Thames
</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIIblBjLiPmb8C6rbsIvmKjBw5orAIshFfrMb3PW95FPYjuCBBMOfeGVFo7Qu3mHJi65TRSGDvN0oo9TOtG8PCjQbVuaAxQtM22o_idF4qJFPI-tm6xbqwYNVdUy9CGEorn1NAkGzvg7jQ/s1600-h/London+013.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIIblBjLiPmb8C6rbsIvmKjBw5orAIshFfrMb3PW95FPYjuCBBMOfeGVFo7Qu3mHJi65TRSGDvN0oo9TOtG8PCjQbVuaAxQtM22o_idF4qJFPI-tm6xbqwYNVdUy9CGEorn1NAkGzvg7jQ/s320/London+013.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399139029162282866" border="0" /></a>
<div style="text-align: center;">Big Ben! Not as big in person as we thought though.
Connie kept asking if there was another clock that was bigger that we'd missed...
</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYiGSkZ_TjQlW6Z4upbg0BL5OnPQutR6ERa_OgU3IJxpspTPW9-eW-RGux5FN6FvfQsY4od-QcqhrDGfOUfSv0kW0upRvLRM80wb7Fnc6ayyvtoJ4xwSSEDw6psOMZlPyO4j21prI0p3u6/s1600-h/London+023.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYiGSkZ_TjQlW6Z4upbg0BL5OnPQutR6ERa_OgU3IJxpspTPW9-eW-RGux5FN6FvfQsY4od-QcqhrDGfOUfSv0kW0upRvLRM80wb7Fnc6ayyvtoJ4xwSSEDw6psOMZlPyO4j21prI0p3u6/s320/London+023.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399139034157496674" border="0" /></a>
<div style="text-align: center;">Shakespeare's Old Globe Theater
</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWdbia19f84MYnjVN46Y7YpUIGVlt7KPXqB-vGiZokY0_6u6Rzl11700F0YlluZGgY2zUIMzykhKDYZ6iJvyy6YKxQ3cHQgGWtNEgc4e1X5ugCe1mjuFA9UcjbIjppAKhwxEJgqzKle2EU/s1600-h/London+021.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWdbia19f84MYnjVN46Y7YpUIGVlt7KPXqB-vGiZokY0_6u6Rzl11700F0YlluZGgY2zUIMzykhKDYZ6iJvyy6YKxQ3cHQgGWtNEgc4e1X5ugCe1mjuFA9UcjbIjppAKhwxEJgqzKle2EU/s320/London+021.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399140069326354498" border="0" /></a>
<div style="text-align: center;">Looking pensive in front of Monet's Waterlilies. This one I can handle.
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DAY 3: Connie's friends took her out for the day to the opera, tea and gourmet Indian food for her birthday, so Maddie and I were once again on our own to explore for the day. Our first stop was the Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill, supposedly a great place to find fun shops, antiques and food stalls on a Saturday. Apparently every single tourist in the city had the same idea because when we got there it was miserably crowded and impossible to walk comfortably or see anything. To lift our spirits, we found the Hummingbird Bakery (Lindsey's favorite - and they sell their cookbook at Anthropologie!) and after waiting in a horrendous line enjoyed tea, banana bread and carrot cake. YUM. Not anything super gourmet but the perfect sweet fuel-up for the day.
<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCAaX9DwGLxu46UbDNSm7jqH7eM1WMlCPRJHyfl1WDywP1fkgfcf7-xMuE0CgTUf8R7Kh32Lbp6Aw-K0fYNA-4i24eksmqmqRT5m-qAZlQLUJtx2aCzZK0cXwFy3MtuOLDkukOzJmKZSZY/s1600-h/London+026.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCAaX9DwGLxu46UbDNSm7jqH7eM1WMlCPRJHyfl1WDywP1fkgfcf7-xMuE0CgTUf8R7Kh32Lbp6Aw-K0fYNA-4i24eksmqmqRT5m-qAZlQLUJtx2aCzZK0cXwFy3MtuOLDkukOzJmKZSZY/s320/London+026.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399139037748130226" border="0" /></a>
Not fun.
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</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXMt54sdnwdY-v-8y7ks-LhOsW7heSByk02fUx6SBsv67M8y7UfvjhWgjzPs1YYbUDos3cPu9Hey5kGVXbG4oCxypSxVvn5ziLsuOA_6sFmw1btp3e58gz3sL5QnZKTX2Kn_PuDfJDCDIv/s1600-h/London+027.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXMt54sdnwdY-v-8y7ks-LhOsW7heSByk02fUx6SBsv67M8y7UfvjhWgjzPs1YYbUDos3cPu9Hey5kGVXbG4oCxypSxVvn5ziLsuOA_6sFmw1btp3e58gz3sL5QnZKTX2Kn_PuDfJDCDIv/s320/London+027.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399139040950143186" border="0" /></a>
After the market, we decided to visit the Victoria & Albert Museum (London museums are pretty much all free!). However, we were so pooped that we only made it to the fashion exhibit - which, let's face it, is the only truly interesting thing there :) It was a lot of fun for me because I could practice all my new knowledge from my fashion history class and got to see a dress by the first true "couturier," Englishman Charles Worth. After resting on a bench in the museum pretending to appreciate art, Maddie and I soldiered on to Harrod's, the mythical British land of all things gourmet and expensive. Again, the entire foreign population in London decided to meet us there because we couldn't even make it through all the food halls without getting fed up and making a slow and arduous escape. It was cool to see but it was incredibly excessive in every way (price, number of restaurants and food counters, and designer clothing) and I definitely don't feel compelled to return. It was one of those depressing experiences where I wanted to buy everything in the store but that little angel on my shoulder told me that 4 pounds was a tad excessive for a scone...
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4FlTsgQI5tNOz3F7Lpp485O6kputDxPq4teUDSpt6_70wHz9CpQ7jx_WQ6Lj7b7DfUAO02tzcLIWgAVFZh_1JdNl8ryizJdUZqVdiL8xnzOdQwMYojvFGiRh34YSaKl8pxDpCZdPbDO9x/s1600-h/London+028.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4FlTsgQI5tNOz3F7Lpp485O6kputDxPq4teUDSpt6_70wHz9CpQ7jx_WQ6Lj7b7DfUAO02tzcLIWgAVFZh_1JdNl8ryizJdUZqVdiL8xnzOdQwMYojvFGiRh34YSaKl8pxDpCZdPbDO9x/s320/London+028.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399140073757503362" border="0" /></a>
<div style="text-align: center;">A gown by Charles Worth
</div>Not to miss out on the legendary Indian food of London, Maddie and I went to Rasa, a small chain specializing in vegetarian Indian food. We breathed a sigh of relief at the chance to sit down and destressed over a half bottle of chianti, eggplant in yogurt sauce and chicken biryani while mapping out our remaining time in the city. Happy and full, we decided to return to the flat for an early night in watching Grey's Anatomy and Project Runway online.
DAY 4: After another English breakfast at the hotel on Sunday morning, we packed up our stuff and moved to a hotel in SoHo to make room for Thom's return. It turned out that we were just a couple of blocks from the British Museum (natural history) so we decided to check it out. It had an amazing collection of artifacts from all the major civilizations from all over the world, from Greece and Rome to China and Africa. We joked that it should have been called the "Look at all the stuff the British took from other people" Museum, but it was really cool to see so much history, including the Rosetta Stone. Once again we found ourselves totally exhausted and after a nap at the hotel we ventured out in search of great fish and chips! After googling "best fish and chips in london," we ended up at The Fish Club and were not disappointed. I ordered haddock and we shared both sweet potato and regular chips. ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS. Americans should just stop while they're behind, because nobody can make it anywhere close to that amazing!
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0hJ9mcQ84PkVZ6ie-YNNzTX9GpYLiDwgBvZ4c6vXHHdFFgpMn7wPlhoEjMOL3fSn767xA2OXs-doSZazc9N0k0WHiuy02P73NRlVHsTXUmdWACuRdKPlhVdK2vuCHiNDB0rWBDNEL48Ks/s1600-h/London+036.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0hJ9mcQ84PkVZ6ie-YNNzTX9GpYLiDwgBvZ4c6vXHHdFFgpMn7wPlhoEjMOL3fSn767xA2OXs-doSZazc9N0k0WHiuy02P73NRlVHsTXUmdWACuRdKPlhVdK2vuCHiNDB0rWBDNEL48Ks/s320/London+036.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399140077631196034" border="0" /></a>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibkZnENlM5bbOaUWz2RnWefBhWp0jHgquRMw6KpcdFhUDBh5_ngAbnA8UU-N7dvitGNCv4MQqGS5MCF2yieYC5dNQoMbJq6-KUrsFa9R8cConicwkhe0Nnr6_roio0Rc2m_rBxOXQJixrA/s1600-h/London+044.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibkZnENlM5bbOaUWz2RnWefBhWp0jHgquRMw6KpcdFhUDBh5_ngAbnA8UU-N7dvitGNCv4MQqGS5MCF2yieYC5dNQoMbJq6-KUrsFa9R8cConicwkhe0Nnr6_roio0Rc2m_rBxOXQJixrA/s320/London+044.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399140085216767794" border="0" /></a>
<div style="text-align: center;">Ketchup comes in a plastic tomato!
</div>Ironically, we had enough time and energy to go out on the town that night (Sunday isn't the biggest party night apparently?) and decided to dress up and wander the streets of SoHo in search of a fun looking place to grab drinks. After having to quickly turn a corner as we noticed the impending neon signs of the red light district, we stumbled into an area with swanky and cute bars and restaurants that looked great! We stopped in one restaurant window to check out their dessert and bar menu, which looked spectacular, but I quickly realized that there was not a single woman in the entire place... As we stood debating the potential awkwardness of our choice of establishment, the host opened the door and said cheerfully, "Well are you going to stand out there all night or what?" Laughing and shrugging, we stepped inside and were seated by a fabulous waiter who couldn't help but chuckle at us. We ordered a bottle of prosecco and three fantastic desserts and had a generally fantastic hour chatting with our waiter. One waiter came by our table and OFFERED to take our picture. I fell in love. After our fantastic meal, we made our way back to Nellie Dean (the bar from Friday night) and sat down next to a young man and woman who kept us thoroughly entertained for the rest of the night with enthusiastic, not entirely sober conversation comparing holidays and swapping stories about our traveling experiences. Laughing and in thoroughly good spirits, the three of us walked back to our hotel and fell asleep with grins on our faces :)
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWgVfyvj3VgkiB99v_XhjveGhFBQXTULcDicT8rIvX1Z_i2Z-QrBawln6gDISLbWBK8xQGV0zgRXsifL3kQbzKsdCTy6EYJiY3qPxBWwYy-w5rOmKzqCGstEQ7B7kJc-wbnA4eyLZLIAUX/s1600-h/London+047.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWgVfyvj3VgkiB99v_XhjveGhFBQXTULcDicT8rIvX1Z_i2Z-QrBawln6gDISLbWBK8xQGV0zgRXsifL3kQbzKsdCTy6EYJiY3qPxBWwYy-w5rOmKzqCGstEQ7B7kJc-wbnA4eyLZLIAUX/s320/London+047.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399145790430207394" border="0" /></a>
DAY 5: Monday morning we walked to Leicester Square to wait in line at the discount ticket booths for London's West End shows (think Broadway!). After the frustrating discovery that even the cheapest tickets to Wicked and Billy Elliott were over 50 pounds, we decided to see Avenue Q later that night. We then met Thom and went to his favorite pub, The Churchill Arms in Kensington. The outside is beautiful brick and covered with flowers, and the inside is the traditional deep red and green and brass-decorated pub. However, keep going and the pub leads to a Thai restaurant! The interior looks like a butterfly house, filled with hanging plants and butterfly wall hangings. We had a delicious lunch and then walked to St. Paul's Cathedral. Beautiful and historical, but it costs a lot to get in so we admired from the outside and then walked to the Tower of London.
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Lo and behold, admission was even <span style="font-style: italic;">more </span>expensive there! We decided that it would be worth it to spend the money and made plans to come back the next morning. We strolled across Tower Bridge and then headed back to SoHo for dinner and the show.
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9NLjBUpLaVMNQOoPM8ZYtbaQLaECBo-u1VpgvkQFnj6mPkk4k_jWfNd3YLCk-mWLiJgHgSl35cEe-BOC5u0551k9PgbeFZ7F_RfqRZNiUMWKHI6NqoAaFC_HJ1ePB21iVOQznbD6c8u5y/s1600-h/London+063.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9NLjBUpLaVMNQOoPM8ZYtbaQLaECBo-u1VpgvkQFnj6mPkk4k_jWfNd3YLCk-mWLiJgHgSl35cEe-BOC5u0551k9PgbeFZ7F_RfqRZNiUMWKHI6NqoAaFC_HJ1ePB21iVOQznbD6c8u5y/s320/London+063.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399145805796012674" border="0" /></a>
<div style="text-align: center;">The girls on Tower Bridge
</div>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGlGcDZlLaMxyymLNzVV8Bes9dUEexOY0Mw6oR9RhGTciaqKIDteNq9nNgfTBb1DurxRogXsA1ZlKaU3DMrhHZmbxKPYegyD92CYUIA0OED46Xyqh0YLQcFrNZOnFTMXL9An7jnHNQpBDr/s1600-h/London+064.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGlGcDZlLaMxyymLNzVV8Bes9dUEexOY0Mw6oR9RhGTciaqKIDteNq9nNgfTBb1DurxRogXsA1ZlKaU3DMrhHZmbxKPYegyD92CYUIA0OED46Xyqh0YLQcFrNZOnFTMXL9An7jnHNQpBDr/s320/London+064.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399145811825438594" border="0" /></a>
<div style="text-align: center;">I never realized what a modern city London is!
The small squatty medieval buildings are quite a contrast to the shiny office buildings
</div>Of course, we had to make a pilgrimage to Whole Foods (there are 5 in the city), so we indulged in a yummy, fresh and healthy meal before we took our balcony seats.
I absolutely LOVED Avenue Q - it is a snarky, smart, and current show that stars actors and puppets in a satire of the Muppets and Sesame Street with a lot of social commentary. I haven't seen something this funny in years, and I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone! Just don't take the kids, it gets a little inappropriate at times :P Before the show I was musing about how I wish it was possible to pack ice cream as a snack, and to my complete joy as intermission started the usher came out with a tray of mini Haagen-Dazs ice creams! My prayers had been answered and the night was officially perfect.
DAY 6: We struck out early to the Tower and handed over our pounds with a sigh for our tickets. We stumbled upon a tour that was just starting and decided to join in. It was led by a beefeater in full regalia (the Prime Minister of India was visiting London that day) and he gave a very thorough, interesting and <span style="font-style: italic;">hilarious</span> history of the Tower complex. The "Tower of London" is actually a few towers and buildings surrounded by a thick outer wall and a moat, so we got to see the royal residence and the Chapel Royal as well as the tower where prisoners awaited their beheadings! It was definitely worth the money and I'm glad we decided to make it our splurge of the week. A <span style="font-style: italic;">very</span> secure building housed the Crown Jewels, so we got to stand on a moving walkway and pass by a lot of really big sparkly stuff :)
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP2BRKQFmbGDctMyxFJvqL6gotor70rFcFrB8vv-Z5TnJ-KchrXTJaMQPH98lpnQ9ve1jo9ev0hiWCys4-domFULGVMl9gufpla6SJ8oCbedwn_zxsZ_knNhOfdW1iUEbwio3rDZ31Bk1M/s1600-h/London+067.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP2BRKQFmbGDctMyxFJvqL6gotor70rFcFrB8vv-Z5TnJ-KchrXTJaMQPH98lpnQ9ve1jo9ev0hiWCys4-domFULGVMl9gufpla6SJ8oCbedwn_zxsZ_knNhOfdW1iUEbwio3rDZ31Bk1M/s320/London+067.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399147772223821986" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq_j3DEWy4QZh_0dG_Flp097ydnM62dEcrAAKzSciP-zU70fJ2SFTdifiXLgT4KdICEiQ6TPQLHo_Qpt2hmA1SGmU5OeTEw4VWKkbRQfq6BQu7F11ZX2crr-f9ubJz-2yn1w0nBiwFvTSl/s1600-h/London+069.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq_j3DEWy4QZh_0dG_Flp097ydnM62dEcrAAKzSciP-zU70fJ2SFTdifiXLgT4KdICEiQ6TPQLHo_Qpt2hmA1SGmU5OeTEw4VWKkbRQfq6BQu7F11ZX2crr-f9ubJz-2yn1w0nBiwFvTSl/s320/London+069.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399147775275430978" border="0" /></a>
After lunch from Eat on the steps of the Tower plaza, Connie went to tea with her friends (Maddie and I had a later reservation) and we took the tube to Buckingham Palace. The Queen was home, so we couldn't go inside, but we could check it off our list. After a beautiful walk through St. James Park, we walked down Piccadilly Road and toured Fortnam & Mason, known as "the Queen's grocery." In my opinion it was much cooler than Harrod's - it sold housewares, gourmet groceries and all manner of chocolates, teas, coffees, baked goods and jams. I literally almost passed out from sensory overload, and definitely could have spent thousands of dollars without blinking! It also definitely put me in the Christmas spirit :)
The Wollesley Hotel was just a block away, so we arrived just in time for our reservation and sat down to a late afternoon tea. We split a pot of English breakfast tea accompanied by tea sandwiches, a mini eclair, macaroon and cheesecake, and fruit scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam. Heavenly only just begins to describe it! The Wollesley is a beautiful and very swanky historic hotel so just being in their tea room was a fun experience :)
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizJAX0Q_4KLQ6i8yh7EELze74AOFxL38N0hyCWO2gL3HvDAU4EWWcCHY7kaJjKkXWZRAlQ3ZwuI632bkqu05rY2Pf4h02v4a-f1rL8zCJNok84J-FpA8HTFIGJELgInX1nO_QO3d_wyDZM/s1600-h/London+080.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizJAX0Q_4KLQ6i8yh7EELze74AOFxL38N0hyCWO2gL3HvDAU4EWWcCHY7kaJjKkXWZRAlQ3ZwuI632bkqu05rY2Pf4h02v4a-f1rL8zCJNok84J-FpA8HTFIGJELgInX1nO_QO3d_wyDZM/s320/London+080.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399147777003788962" border="0" /></a>
<div style="text-align: center;">At the gates of Buckingham Palace
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Is this what heaven looks like?
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</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOH_-wjWTgrJSC3ehHBS4aOTEfeRjschaeqWXYQelmjrqMXHs_8zqewGaJ-QQkeYJOqQqqzmOtc-4vzmfFxY7Y-Oh5Kh-BuRnPkBygUMdP9w6sKmlyh8IYGNzZlLhUvczxOjO8gTWv2E21/s1600-h/London+087.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOH_-wjWTgrJSC3ehHBS4aOTEfeRjschaeqWXYQelmjrqMXHs_8zqewGaJ-QQkeYJOqQqqzmOtc-4vzmfFxY7Y-Oh5Kh-BuRnPkBygUMdP9w6sKmlyh8IYGNzZlLhUvczxOjO8gTWv2E21/s320/London+087.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399147785730613218" border="0" /></a>
DAY 7: Our flight back to Paris was late Wednesday afternoon, so we had the morning for brunch and a last bit of sightseeing. We went to The Breakfast Club in SoHo and I thoroughly enjoyed a giant goblet of greek yogurt, honey, berries and muesli in their funky bright yellow dining room. We caught the tube to the British National Library and walked around their historic library with the original handwritten lyrics to Beatles songs, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland manuscript, Jane Austen's notebooks and Handel's original Messiah draft, just to name a few! What a cool experience - I definitely thought of Linda and Julia when I saw Jane Austen's handwriting :)
We took a detour to King's Cross train station to make the obligatory pilgrimage to Platform 9 3/4. However, when we got to platforms 9 and 10, there was construction and a sign that directed Harry Potter fans to the temporary Platform 9 3/4! So we found the fake platform ("the playplace for Americans" according to Connie) and played around for a bit :P
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</div><div style="text-align: center;">
</div>Last stop was Westminster Abbey, which again we didn't have the funds to pay for but checked off our to-see list. It was beautiful and reminiscent of Notre Dame with the same Gothic flying buttresses. After that it was back off to Luton and finally home to Paris! It really was like coming home, and I realize how comfortable I am in the city now.
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje9kK1lNk9FbVWkbKgm3sG9sqMfVzpMN8u5bhbGHSCKvj2jG4rOZIZJwV2S-D_BKl7xb-dChxVR_HIdFct0ENPRzAvKeFBAZGgSqDKhZh0jb3fwWS1h-qILJwRBUR2b9eYTb76dqBsXgA4/s1600-h/London+092.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje9kK1lNk9FbVWkbKgm3sG9sqMfVzpMN8u5bhbGHSCKvj2jG4rOZIZJwV2S-D_BKl7xb-dChxVR_HIdFct0ENPRzAvKeFBAZGgSqDKhZh0jb3fwWS1h-qILJwRBUR2b9eYTb76dqBsXgA4/s320/London+092.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399149711306776258" border="0" /></a>
London was amazing and a beautiful city with so much to do and see. I'm so glad I had the chance to spend so much time there exploring the touristy and not-so-touristy sights! However, Paris will always hold the spot in my heart as my European home away from home :)
I am currently recovering from a very full weekend sharing my beautiful and wonderful city with the even more beautiful and wonderful JULIA MILLER, so as soon as I do some reading for class and do some laundry, I'll be back with a post about that!Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-856617299619488342009-10-19T20:44:00.014+02:002009-10-20T20:47:31.285+02:00Two days, four castles!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDajfMRO8HP9cjz4Q3gcpKTg5KvAaKTy1m1btmVr4fzKSenqfrvurou54AUuW2jSMOVPos2Ka-gu-NcCT8rLMGWp9Apa6MzgMpnQwYj8citG4vDBRwG-jZlrWDe0GSHFzwm71EDb-1KFOw/s1600-h/Loire+Valley+011.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 199px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDajfMRO8HP9cjz4Q3gcpKTg5KvAaKTy1m1btmVr4fzKSenqfrvurou54AUuW2jSMOVPos2Ka-gu-NcCT8rLMGWp9Apa6MzgMpnQwYj8citG4vDBRwG-jZlrWDe0GSHFzwm71EDb-1KFOw/s320/Loire+Valley+011.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394750403353933186" border="0" /></a>Hello lovely readers!
I just returned from a delightful weekend in the Loire Valley, a region known as the "Valley of the Kings" because of its abundance of chateaus! My program organized a two-day trip based in the city of Amboise that turned out to be an exhausting but very fun outing. We had to meet at the train station at 7am, which meant that I had to wake up at 5am. Really fun. After a 2-hour train ride during which all 17 girls were completely passed out with iPods in ears, we arrived in Amboise. The town was very small and very touristy, obviously based around its two famous castles. After refueling at a neighborhood cafe with a cafe creme and waffle with whipped cream (the French gaufre is a lot lighter than a Belgian waffle we eat at home, and a common snack), a few friends and I toured the Chateau Clos-Luce, unremarkable except for the fact that Leonardo da Vinci spent the last 3 years of his life there! <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsn2-qRz92DU4i-COGWsyHWu_TjZjTmgXsHJz4kN7ou4hbzPpkBG4cD2vX-WUBJ5PAaV0kvhSJE7PAKiAspu7sjVZ5v3kbN0b2gd5IFZIpnf0GtA29Maqj1mh7pLUCkTGDsV-T5HyFHgWn/s1600-h/Loire+Valley+006.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 207px; height: 154px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsn2-qRz92DU4i-COGWsyHWu_TjZjTmgXsHJz4kN7ou4hbzPpkBG4cD2vX-WUBJ5PAaV0kvhSJE7PAKiAspu7sjVZ5v3kbN0b2gd5IFZIpnf0GtA29Maqj1mh7pLUCkTGDsV-T5HyFHgWn/s320/Loire+Valley+006.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394750394626863442" border="0" /></a>The chateau is full of models of his inventions and the extensive grounds have a trail that leads to large models like his helicopter apparatus, as well as a play structure we took full advantage of :)
We took refuge from the chilly fog in a cafe and I had the BEST soup I've ever eaten! It was just called "vegetable soup" but it was absolutely delicious and with crusty bread made the most amazing winter lunch. The four of us spl<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmXr6aswiNytLJxpDXgGg8LuF46nwVxgg8ElOICumdbo_ft_5tuIqIMDf6mehiVau2zP5U_etcLt3uLGml099m-ECjFiDKXbwVzPbhisXZASRA3kPagVFE-QQ3kkqKYgSqSdrXErzfm_19/s1600-h/Loire+Valley+017.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 273px; height: 205px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmXr6aswiNytLJxpDXgGg8LuF46nwVxgg8ElOICumdbo_ft_5tuIqIMDf6mehiVau2zP5U_etcLt3uLGml099m-ECjFiDKXbwVzPbhisXZASRA3kPagVFE-QQ3kkqKYgSqSdrXErzfm_19/s320/Loire+Valley+017.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394751177994615410" border="0" /></a>it an incredible caramel and creme brulee ice cream sundae and called the meal a success! After lunch, the group met up to tour the Chateau d'Amboise. Unfortunately, the majority of the original castle was destroyed by wars and neglect, so only the king's quarters and the chapel remain. There was a roaring fire stoked in the giant fireplace inside the cold stone building, so it was a great place to stand and listen to the tour guide :)
After using our free time to nap, we had dinner as a group and then returned to our beds to rest up for the next day of touring! Breakfast at the hotel and then onto a charter bus to the Chateau de Villandry. The chateau was impressive, but the gardens were absolutely amazing. We wandered around admiring the incredible geometric patterns and colors that are obviously painstakingly cared for, and to our surprise the fog lifted and we could even take off our coats!
<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0dV38fa7uZuCjfM3BFcgl2phIMvP0y8lm8wR-xQ3MBUal5GNiWAk6jQ1NUUADdjITbzuk6FCwfpsKmqzg7iGlPybDdUKsHSypT_liEcpKjGEeF4W8oEWHwFv8yOEJWBiLyOWwGtpGzwYq/s1600-h/Loire+Valley+029.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 269px; height: 202px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0dV38fa7uZuCjfM3BFcgl2phIMvP0y8lm8wR-xQ3MBUal5GNiWAk6jQ1NUUADdjITbzuk6FCwfpsKmqzg7iGlPybDdUKsHSypT_liEcpKjGEeF4W8oEWHwFv8yOEJWBiLyOWwGtpGzwYq/s200/Loire+Valley+029.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394752508195250514" border="0" /></a>Finally fall!
</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_NyqCUNhvkJQ4-_epJLE_kGC1SX1kBY9IdIck9q7mktNHjeqW1yhEKvhw5u3o1hmbcgxb2nIauwd81chbj9y_VOC_VBwWI_-6Y5yfK7HQ-InykQHuQOsBsLqv0pvUEA0Sk-cOzQe-29iO/s1600-h/Loire+Valley+043.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 279px; height: 210px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_NyqCUNhvkJQ4-_epJLE_kGC1SX1kBY9IdIck9q7mktNHjeqW1yhEKvhw5u3o1hmbcgxb2nIauwd81chbj9y_VOC_VBwWI_-6Y5yfK7HQ-InykQHuQOsBsLqv0pvUEA0Sk-cOzQe-29iO/s200/Loire+Valley+043.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394752524436848498" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7VxhAA-Bp5EA_vw1Wr5Axl6r2fto_KtFeORovTT-qTVc1vJurV83S2IZSdjaahLt5wqxXC8HGevBrjTnzoaIeBL2sVBeEDmJISUMMvIH8-GoHSXIKFXH9S8eC8nXvfkVd0gaz6914ejqt/s1600-h/Loire+Valley+038.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 282px; height: 196px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7VxhAA-Bp5EA_vw1Wr5Axl6r2fto_KtFeORovTT-qTVc1vJurV83S2IZSdjaahLt5wqxXC8HGevBrjTnzoaIeBL2sVBeEDmJISUMMvIH8-GoHSXIKFXH9S8eC8nXvfkVd0gaz6914ejqt/s200/Loire+Valley+038.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394752509541012482" border="0" /></a>
Another fantastic lunch (and coffee) and we were off to visit Chateau d'Usse. It was the inspiration for the author of The Sleeping Beauty, so we were all very excited to see it in person! <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiErZlZvpIp8y2pTsNQuXZA9tU00xtPJS21JJsH9-cb6em4XRqeoYtS3OoL0BkEuZpXRnfkbeqz2u13ndB-eUadvMVmsPRxipH5iTzqDtNcoWGmq2y3esOHdjVYyoC4GLJhY6Ub8kpVevwr/s1600-h/Loire+Valley+056.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiErZlZvpIp8y2pTsNQuXZA9tU00xtPJS21JJsH9-cb6em4XRqeoYtS3OoL0BkEuZpXRnfkbeqz2u13ndB-eUadvMVmsPRxipH5iTzqDtNcoWGmq2y3esOHdjVYyoC4GLJhY6Ub8kpVevwr/s200/Loire+Valley+056.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394753247775938034" border="0" /></a>The outside was absolutely beautiful, the image of a fairy tale castle. However, the tower and the chateau were very classily decorated with mannequins wearing costumes representing the progression of the story, from the evil fairy standing over baby Aurora to the prince kissing her in the top room of the tower. It was SO tacky and everyone walked out shaking their heads at the ridiculous scenes we had just witnessed. So sad :(
We caught the train back and arrived home around 9pm - quite a full weekend! Tenny and I were especially joyful to realize that our landlady had taken pity on us and turned on the heat for the building! Hurrah!
Today I spent a great morning walking rue St. Michel in search of the perfect pair of tall gray boots and good French conversation. I stopped in our neighborhood boulangerie (we just call it "ours" now) and had a great chat with the friendliest French (or any nationality) person I've ever met about my weekend - he agreed with me about the creepy mannequins at Chateau d'Usse :P After picking up my regular loaf of whole-grain bread, I stopped in every one of the numerous shoe stores in search of my prize, practicing my shoe vocabulary along the way. I am apparently a borderline freak of nature because of my feet; French shoes do not come in any sizes bigger than a 41, which is my size. When I tried on 40s and said they were too small, the sales lady looked absolutely incredulous! I finally found a pair at the last store on the street and had a long conversation with the sales girl about choosing them (and justifying the price...). It was a lot of fun and I will definitely try to have "unnecessary" friendly conversations at every available opportunity!
Also, please enjoy these photos from Eglise (church) St. Severin, Notre Dame, St. Germain-des-pres and St. Sulpice. I had a fabulous 3+ hour walk by myself last Friday when I took a self-planned tour of the larger historic churches in the area and ended with a yummy salted caramel and chocolate mousse tart from a famous (translation: expensive) Japanese patisserie that's consistently voted one of the best in the city. A delicious end to a very nice day with myself :)
<div style="text-align: center;">NOTRE DAME - biggest, most famous and my absolute favorite church in Paris
</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-gy1v69MnV-MRQ5UZi42RWBGvFYkY6vaivTYCQQjlc-h9LDrZDtjCXZ2sQJWc_vxjpHThagOIlmq6GUaLOQCHOWyvlZdmFv_Nx6XLU_E84PKLU6pSo_cbInmmxlW5lwBre0WJnpAQs0N6/s1600-h/Paris+015.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-gy1v69MnV-MRQ5UZi42RWBGvFYkY6vaivTYCQQjlc-h9LDrZDtjCXZ2sQJWc_vxjpHThagOIlmq6GUaLOQCHOWyvlZdmFv_Nx6XLU_E84PKLU6pSo_cbInmmxlW5lwBre0WJnpAQs0N6/s200/Paris+015.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394754226429466802" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizNvf59ResALCUvR_E5QryJ2exkmolKb2E3TuppWQKroAsq1CCVVRgGvpgsQu3RdplDIC_kwbBk4o29cLppqMBFfkoImLZdE0hySQS2aqh4ZTuVV9XvTh-uyi6RPaU2vQ2BE7SHWSXI3sj/s1600-h/Paris+017.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizNvf59ResALCUvR_E5QryJ2exkmolKb2E3TuppWQKroAsq1CCVVRgGvpgsQu3RdplDIC_kwbBk4o29cLppqMBFfkoImLZdE0hySQS2aqh4ZTuVV9XvTh-uyi6RPaU2vQ2BE7SHWSXI3sj/s200/Paris+017.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394754214141698706" border="0" /></a>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcb3amjlTXy3t7hX_weK_yZRoONbUf5Q_FJPFpHvUzZ-T_m7QBSzASyiaC5DZcGkD-24sceAUqe7Y5nqHKJ3fUv2kMv55n9RytUanNEt5OQsjjAf5EJFf7zqXhlcEAkdU5B9vKcqIKKmFN/s1600-h/Paris+027.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcb3amjlTXy3t7hX_weK_yZRoONbUf5Q_FJPFpHvUzZ-T_m7QBSzASyiaC5DZcGkD-24sceAUqe7Y5nqHKJ3fUv2kMv55n9RytUanNEt5OQsjjAf5EJFf7zqXhlcEAkdU5B9vKcqIKKmFN/s200/Paris+027.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394754234307068530" border="0" /></a>
ST. SEVERIN - my favorite "undiscovered" church
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSEHpy3wIjejmPSVD-tqjJEDq7rPDlzKwPqbk_B4o-JBtg31hst8lK6FH93mEfd4GxZEkSTP5vSVTmgAJgSx6W8WyCxxf2UHwmHdKVMjnB8LrGaygIKh9r3Lbf8e3OuvuPivchM8VDVmRN/s1600-h/Paris+005.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSEHpy3wIjejmPSVD-tqjJEDq7rPDlzKwPqbk_B4o-JBtg31hst8lK6FH93mEfd4GxZEkSTP5vSVTmgAJgSx6W8WyCxxf2UHwmHdKVMjnB8LrGaygIKh9r3Lbf8e3OuvuPivchM8VDVmRN/s200/Paris+005.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394754842123846002" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjno2S9T5hb6H-yTnCn7fyiIOAOwFpnmBM6HC_TcCIPDnT7HLyd_suqM5hbAnK5wbVKkKVDZ3PlLbVuH9_5Z05uTTzIVUlfoiXadKdB_ii7CdnNfW4yYTHSi3dCXkbs18cW6VSJ4E0jzuT/s1600-h/Paris+009.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjno2S9T5hb6H-yTnCn7fyiIOAOwFpnmBM6HC_TcCIPDnT7HLyd_suqM5hbAnK5wbVKkKVDZ3PlLbVuH9_5Z05uTTzIVUlfoiXadKdB_ii7CdnNfW4yYTHSi3dCXkbs18cW6VSJ4E0jzuT/s200/Paris+009.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394755009505693362" border="0" /></a>I loved the description behind this pillar - apparently it's supposed to show the Tree of Life, emphasizing the life-giving and redemptive aspect of the crucifix, not Jesus' death on it
</div>Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-5995877485525702642009-10-16T11:19:00.006+02:002009-10-16T12:02:37.077+02:00Say "fromage!"This week was probably the most normal of any so far, I really have a routine now and it's nice to have a sense of what I have time to do each day. Monday mornings I lounge and do homework before meeting friends for coffee and class at 2:30, Tuesdays I'm in class all day and come home to crash, Wednesdays I have completely free for grocery shopping, sightseeing, etc., Thursdays I have class in the morning and come home to nap and go out walking/sightseeing later. I don't have many Fridays left in town (because I leave for most of my trips on Thursday afternoons) so today I slept in late and plan on visiting a few churches in the area (St. Sulpice, Eglise St. Germain-des-pres and Notre Dame).
But Wednesday I had a great time at Salon du Chocolat with Tenny and Jen! Basically, the Salon travels internationally and appears in major cities like New York, Tokyo and Paris for about a week. Local vendors appear with their wares and for a 12-euro entry fee, you can go and sample pretty much everything there (and of course buy bigger portions too)! I think my sugar tolerance is going down, because it was only about an hour into the event that I started feeling a little overloaded... Ironically, the best chocolate we sampled was from the first two booths we visited - a fair-trade brand called "Alter Eco" and a Kraft brand called "Cote d'Or." I'm a little embarassed about the latter, but it was seriously better than the super expensive brands! Good news for my wallet :) As we progressed into the convention center, we encountered stranger and stranger flavors. We tried chocolate made with flowers, and if you've ever wondered what potpourri tastes like, it's not good. Another notable one was "olive oil chocolate," a small piece of which made the three of us run to wash out our mouths. Truly disgusting. Towards the end, I was turning down samples (I know, right?) because they looked so <span style="font-style: italic;">weird</span>! It was quite an education, though, in the way that chocolate can very SO much in taste, even if they're all labeled 72% dark, for instance.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv1HVkNBUzKzhFWbBXvGDi-GQVU4DaSnXjeZd0OHvtPrqI81uBqDGZArIm3rJ4_Yhi3u_jDYKj7KFnR9put9Boi5SvNrgpbIto1P61MUhBpO7mr0jNdlAzUilMCox-web3IU1Aae1ck_S0/s1600-h/Salon+du+Chocolat+001.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv1HVkNBUzKzhFWbBXvGDi-GQVU4DaSnXjeZd0OHvtPrqI81uBqDGZArIm3rJ4_Yhi3u_jDYKj7KFnR9put9Boi5SvNrgpbIto1P61MUhBpO7mr0jNdlAzUilMCox-web3IU1Aae1ck_S0/s320/Salon+du+Chocolat+001.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393132758510148306" border="0" /></a>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgasp79dAoVQXrKkz7WspaUVT0YHA7lUU7uogrZ3gvHdskbNUDXKbLbJvro_dfaBpBuRFXvh5qYhuwKceuK-hQr-Mij3mKDbdr0ymULDKHq1guSMYvYX3NzPMFAppaIfWc93TybR6pJoHxr/s1600-h/Salon+du+Chocolat+004.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgasp79dAoVQXrKkz7WspaUVT0YHA7lUU7uogrZ3gvHdskbNUDXKbLbJvro_dfaBpBuRFXvh5qYhuwKceuK-hQr-Mij3mKDbdr0ymULDKHq1guSMYvYX3NzPMFAppaIfWc93TybR6pJoHxr/s320/Salon+du+Chocolat+004.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393132766644301362" border="0" /></a>
Potpourri chocolate. Gross. Pretty, but gross.
</div><div style="text-align: center;">
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX5D8N7sa1S9aJYV_oBbsYh2lNZFJu5gJldl9iOe3DVIV2m1dE5joHl2WP7NuDquiJd1p-dm8C_cis54C8DYBJfvw9szJio8kXRHB4Bc0Too3hzT49wmK5LIw8q1mSF2Fvn9nMA3qTyg6P/s1600-h/Salon+du+Chocolat+017.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX5D8N7sa1S9aJYV_oBbsYh2lNZFJu5gJldl9iOe3DVIV2m1dE5joHl2WP7NuDquiJd1p-dm8C_cis54C8DYBJfvw9szJio8kXRHB4Bc0Too3hzT49wmK5LIw8q1mSF2Fvn9nMA3qTyg6P/s320/Salon+du+Chocolat+017.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393133723878478722" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0qlNewbeZOfi5kNxvB9fQaVPD35t3Otjd4BHHv3ztW6-nS0-N_406lT7sPvSpHfXpflASAzLR54fc0N7zJwORSVA_m9wr4jqJZqy0pV29rKoPhzdVAED8-bhHVaLmed7KL_tytCbt3keH/s1600-h/Salon+du+Chocolat+011.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0qlNewbeZOfi5kNxvB9fQaVPD35t3Otjd4BHHv3ztW6-nS0-N_406lT7sPvSpHfXpflASAzLR54fc0N7zJwORSVA_m9wr4jqJZqy0pV29rKoPhzdVAED8-bhHVaLmed7KL_tytCbt3keH/s320/Salon+du+Chocolat+011.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393133720807497970" border="0" /></a>Pick your percentage!
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0RbjKeu8QgtXd2kUZctIBolNJ-cC1tmhmiuwNIagqNQcXbrZVcpB5tYuOB0HYv3BcgTF2-Jh7oKggm_fF6guhRqHP3k6z4Bq6CokS3mqUMdZUqR1bHgkrPXVeEfWM4RdnqC5YbMyLiSg_/s1600-h/Salon+du+Chocolat+014.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0RbjKeu8QgtXd2kUZctIBolNJ-cC1tmhmiuwNIagqNQcXbrZVcpB5tYuOB0HYv3BcgTF2-Jh7oKggm_fF6guhRqHP3k6z4Bq6CokS3mqUMdZUqR1bHgkrPXVeEfWM4RdnqC5YbMyLiSg_/s320/Salon+du+Chocolat+014.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393133713828676450" border="0" /></a>Yes, made of chocolate!
</div>Last night, Tenny, Jen and I met up for dinner with Taylor, her sister Haley and their friend Travis who is visiting for a week. Jen had been wanting to try fondue, and so of course I googled "best fondue in Paris." A few blogs mentioned La Grolle de Montmartre, a traditional Savoyarde restaurant in Montmartre. Savoie is the region of France in the Alps, so literally every dish is a combination of potatoes, cheese and preserved meat. Gotta stay warm, right? It took about 40 minutes of metro travel and walking to get to the restaurant, but luckily it turned out to be totally worth it! The dining room was tiny, with mostly long tables so you eat next to the other customers. Stone walled interior, skis hanging on the walls, kind of dark and super kitschy - perfect! It was obviously run by a husband/wife team and one cook in the back, so of course it was perfectly logical that the couple's two small dogs would be free to roam the dining room and pop their heads up in your lap! The wife was obviously in charge of the joint, and her husband Gerard (tall, lanky, gray-haired man in his late 60s probably) just kind of wandered and talked to people. We were trying to save money (total bill ended up being 15 euros/person!), so we all ordered something (some just salads) and planned to share. Good thing! Two orders of fondue satisfied the six of us along with a couple chicken breasts in white wine sauce, a steak, and a salad. I ordered the salade savoyarde, whose "croutons, ham and cheese" turned out to be three slices of thick crusty bread with ham and cheese melted on top placed on top of a bed of lettuce. Think a salad topped with a croque monsieur minus the bechamel. YUM. The fondue was amazing too, the perfect mix of cheeses and white wine. Everything came with a side of grilled potato chunks. Not to be thwarted by a cheese coma, I convinced everyone to order one dessert to share. After consulting our host, I chose "matafan," advertised as a Savoyarde specialty. Basically it was a wedge of a dense, pudding-like cake made with apples, drizzled with caramel sauce and topped with ice cream. YUM. My comrades, previously moaning about their full stomachs, had to join me in tackling it :) At about 10pm when we were planning to leave, a transvestite guitar player (obviously a friend of the family's) came in and Gerard told us we had to stay and listen. After a rousing rendition of "Aux Champs-Elysees" that had the whole place clapping and singing along, we took a round of pictures with Gerard and Fifi (one of the dogs who he proudly informed us had just had "six babies!" pointing to her stomach). Needless to say, the evening was perfectly summed up by what Gerard told me to translate for everyone (and I didn't even catch the whole thing...): they hope that we see this as a home and that they will always be happy to see us come back! Warm fuzzies :)
Please note that all photos have been edited to be able to see what's in them - the restaurant was very dark and lit by red lanterns :)
<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaODjkkXafo4vMwOhocNBcP778CgieaaKGdUlelIJ6kq1B3jzX0KzSvNP0ImdU14NaBwJLObcDx38PoGiJMUZ8C8We_h1p-6mdLZpY6DDDbKjSsk6cdm4IhyKmlcJDl4au-k2vdFUtDz69/s1600-h/Paris+001.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 258px; height: 194px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaODjkkXafo4vMwOhocNBcP778CgieaaKGdUlelIJ6kq1B3jzX0KzSvNP0ImdU14NaBwJLObcDx38PoGiJMUZ8C8We_h1p-6mdLZpY6DDDbKjSsk6cdm4IhyKmlcJDl4au-k2vdFUtDz69/s320/Paris+001.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393134954448668642" border="0" /></a>Would you like some salad with your cheese and bread?
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXfOvOlcW66OcEt2vSfzXWg-iKKIdx8wV-ecGK8IcJl9ioDJ3AgZS8xWf7BjfudkQnV5TylLQt3T6YMbpekcSy74ctEyfs8p_3oHe8b1GsO0jAouMYVZMi_Z1R_BHiufEmyvkQy7Gs-u6h/s1600-h/Paris+002.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXfOvOlcW66OcEt2vSfzXWg-iKKIdx8wV-ecGK8IcJl9ioDJ3AgZS8xWf7BjfudkQnV5TylLQt3T6YMbpekcSy74ctEyfs8p_3oHe8b1GsO0jAouMYVZMi_Z1R_BHiufEmyvkQy7Gs-u6h/s320/Paris+002.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393134960256638274" border="0" /></a>
I love cheese!
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRAsyQjmWT8-9Th5-gMvqTxy0L73D8NhQz4njTe8WQNN3oa1IymmIQoSzYKXV1k8loaOp8D9QTcWeFQ31iwDKKl8A6eDuBWhKB_8N-Ga8kXvNCztziU8Mog_k19hq7uvEzvPAB8cBabDba/s1600-h/Paris+003.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRAsyQjmWT8-9Th5-gMvqTxy0L73D8NhQz4njTe8WQNN3oa1IymmIQoSzYKXV1k8loaOp8D9QTcWeFQ31iwDKKl8A6eDuBWhKB_8N-Ga8kXvNCztziU8Mog_k19hq7uvEzvPAB8cBabDba/s320/Paris+003.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393134972552763170" border="0" /></a>
Sisters :) Haley and Taylor
<div style="text-align: left;">I'm off on an overnight excursion to Amboise (in the Loire Valley) tomorrow at 7am! We're touring three chateaus in two days, so I'm sure there will be great pictures and stories to follow. Also, I'll have great photos of Gerard and Fifi when I return!
</div></div>Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-12830462912080260302009-10-13T19:44:00.002+02:002009-10-13T19:54:25.688+02:00Coup de cheveux francais!Today I took a GIANT leap of faith and decided to get my hair cut! It was definitely necessary (those of you with short hair can attest to the 8-week point where you just start freaking out) but of course there's always apprehension even when your hairstylist speaks your language :)
I found a shiny, nice looking place literally around the corner from school yesterday, and they offer a student discount - 36 euro for a wash, cut and dry (shampooing, coupe, brushing as they call it) which is great compared to other prices I've seen but definitely took it out of the realm of the "cheap haircut."
Because I get a whopping 2 hours for lunch (which in France is not just a privilege, but a dearly held "right" of the entire population), I went to the coiffeurie (hair salon) which was empty besides the two male stylists and sat down with a coiffeur (hair stylist). He was a young man with cornrows so I was a little nervous, but he looked very confident and was friendly so I decided to just go for it. I showed him photos of Victoria Beckham - who I don't really like but I love her hair - and tried my best to explain what I wanted. I did better than I expected, but I still realized that there were noticeable gaps in my vocabulary relating to hair cutting and styling... Anyway long story short, the haircut went great - and <span style="font-style: italic;">fast!</span> only 45 minutes to get out the door - and I got to pamper myself a little :) Also learned how to say lisser (to straighten with a flat iron), fixer (to hairspray) and a few other useful tidbits. Yay for me! I even managed to have what I'm sure sounded to him like a pitifiul conversation, but it's always fun/embarassing to try! Pictures to come soon :)Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-89224752474476574712009-10-11T15:40:00.007+02:002009-10-11T18:53:13.031+02:00Parisian weekend adventuresBetween 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 <span style="font-style: italic;">very</span> white and <span style="font-style: italic;">very </span>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 :)
<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggeDBw_vjxNrocJ4t510KmIz7VdMEBUXjOz5vrErlheijX2oU80w9HDR-VAzEJbwDN1get66JkCAS1fFlY7vhJt9zevyZDLCbs0TFTbuN4W4msyWyPOvq5bYh7LavhptSPrSJE4LVUbf89/s1600-h/Paris+003.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggeDBw_vjxNrocJ4t510KmIz7VdMEBUXjOz5vrErlheijX2oU80w9HDR-VAzEJbwDN1get66JkCAS1fFlY7vhJt9zevyZDLCbs0TFTbuN4W4msyWyPOvq5bYh7LavhptSPrSJE4LVUbf89/s320/Paris+003.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391382840796605186" border="0" /></a>The outside of the mosque compound
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNmQu_TbKhUkFFykYRRTq-HBtvrtJcCuuMe8PredDZGLGINf3Nz8zMvJJEqqKllXdZ6TFrKPcJJVWjhhzU_BmZFlPythdVeD21c5lpo8r_8z5afgBCcaPy3BpkWaqUO8KArrbwo8fWyr9A/s1600-h/Paris+001.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNmQu_TbKhUkFFykYRRTq-HBtvrtJcCuuMe8PredDZGLGINf3Nz8zMvJJEqqKllXdZ6TFrKPcJJVWjhhzU_BmZFlPythdVeD21c5lpo8r_8z5afgBCcaPy3BpkWaqUO8KArrbwo8fWyr9A/s320/Paris+001.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391382850951418658" border="0" /></a>
Tea with friends!
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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!
<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEDlFz6PiF76Ls6_RFQWIL0ug7995nwzrPoVqCCRz-DqleIYc0Tzq75QvvgqTyczNZOAa1tl0gvPUrbLUpZH9FqK2WtzCzq7nU5j-ZwqThsOx4LWDWU0r_wNzrXeX6hydZUE_IeWbmMWXd/s1600-h/Paris+004.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEDlFz6PiF76Ls6_RFQWIL0ug7995nwzrPoVqCCRz-DqleIYc0Tzq75QvvgqTyczNZOAa1tl0gvPUrbLUpZH9FqK2WtzCzq7nU5j-ZwqThsOx4LWDWU0r_wNzrXeX6hydZUE_IeWbmMWXd/s320/Paris+004.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391382858475827186" border="0" /></a>
YUM :)
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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 <span style="font-style: italic;">lot</span> 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 <span style="font-style: italic;">so</span> 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.
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOqlFd12lwiASU7VR9MHTNZLc741Ep70Efb6rOmw0I2tUhOAw-3YFTXagD5HPQqHeYcPMfPtzpxPjD_O2Fdx2p10lm3lrdSJU7fOg_r_E-CZKVhzuJnDD25-GVGBfanBeuUAriAvUB8iFc/s1600-h/Paris+019.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOqlFd12lwiASU7VR9MHTNZLc741Ep70Efb6rOmw0I2tUhOAw-3YFTXagD5HPQqHeYcPMfPtzpxPjD_O2Fdx2p10lm3lrdSJU7fOg_r_E-CZKVhzuJnDD25-GVGBfanBeuUAriAvUB8iFc/s320/Paris+019.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391382870100749298" border="0" /></a>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTBGbCLAWeI-GqnZOUjvGb4eZLkcbN2Fs6H9Jbr28WWCTPzqM-539ItAlnEF2NkYz_Sh0kXbCLAwsNKEdY9kB8tCTrjIk7HocMv9H572X3zgb9xQHZsT_hUoVxtVbRrzhYy0s7Fd8sKOxE/s1600-h/Paris+026.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTBGbCLAWeI-GqnZOUjvGb4eZLkcbN2Fs6H9Jbr28WWCTPzqM-539ItAlnEF2NkYz_Sh0kXbCLAwsNKEdY9kB8tCTrjIk7HocMv9H572X3zgb9xQHZsT_hUoVxtVbRrzhYy0s7Fd8sKOxE/s320/Paris+026.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391382877440138850" border="0" /></a>Maddie meets an oyster
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgx9PuWxkbaVyc4FRR-tliQs90fHDlLQbF1vWhAzXkcobUw2EoOPny6u2DJyrJ54rwJNnK5fehojwuwSXSAQ7ZxYOAyTSPO8wGAFckmI0IJCFSEz-qrDQotqX7hVI8r3ZiXOPUCSacXMul/s1600-h/Paris+027.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgx9PuWxkbaVyc4FRR-tliQs90fHDlLQbF1vWhAzXkcobUw2EoOPny6u2DJyrJ54rwJNnK5fehojwuwSXSAQ7ZxYOAyTSPO8wGAFckmI0IJCFSEz-qrDQotqX7hVI8r3ZiXOPUCSacXMul/s320/Paris+027.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391385704414647330" border="0" /></a>Sacre Coeur</div><div style="text-align: center;">
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOD1E-Sl_7kd0C8BVBait6SmmGMxjfw6QERSEg2i1-djdUm_w3a_7YoRhIS2rbh0UgEELaV9W5-HmkEYvINELaeLqp1ViEIC5L-S7tR_vJfQ1Yo7AmedBmtM7Msc7-eowK_Px8WJh-zDR5/s1600-h/Paris+031.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOD1E-Sl_7kd0C8BVBait6SmmGMxjfw6QERSEg2i1-djdUm_w3a_7YoRhIS2rbh0UgEELaV9W5-HmkEYvINELaeLqp1ViEIC5L-S7tR_vJfQ1Yo7AmedBmtM7Msc7-eowK_Px8WJh-zDR5/s320/Paris+031.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391385696476037106" border="0" /></a>
The view from Sacre Coeur
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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!
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW5iFQK-rMwAvd5wCiYpmDPQNPSBWXnGxl1fZFvSkik-i_ry9JDDeSSZ6gxNFy733zl6NgHnjo1Q2osIrOOfatG0flhxuBt1QWRGgYecu3dHRODi6IHRsca8E_xc0H6rioxFGpwlJUL5oV/s1600-h/Paris+001.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW5iFQK-rMwAvd5wCiYpmDPQNPSBWXnGxl1fZFvSkik-i_ry9JDDeSSZ6gxNFy733zl6NgHnjo1Q2osIrOOfatG0flhxuBt1QWRGgYecu3dHRODi6IHRsca8E_xc0H6rioxFGpwlJUL5oV/s320/Paris+001.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391385675240378594" border="0" /></a>
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.
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgemhyphenhyphenPho1teb0Ogu4kJcUjZgIuHGY17uow2r6PjYxYJr7kK0lkf1t22mz2jZllhJzMCbGDyoWTC_l7K6vXOrMd0nAjBKrnrC3ObNK1Udvuc1v7JeOI0m3cYMbYHhPtqWKp0ONh82c2jmM-/s1600-h/Paris+005.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgemhyphenhyphenPho1teb0Ogu4kJcUjZgIuHGY17uow2r6PjYxYJr7kK0lkf1t22mz2jZllhJzMCbGDyoWTC_l7K6vXOrMd0nAjBKrnrC3ObNK1Udvuc1v7JeOI0m3cYMbYHhPtqWKp0ONh82c2jmM-/s320/Paris+005.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391385684224033986" border="0" /></a>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHa8LyMYnwIeuH_vzebblqg_enkPuPkTZGG4HEf5F4UaqjrsNJRcgOFtIQaVAih33rN9Bs8XhFNwr0pRh1JcOU7A25IIAhxS0JzSUN8ZHtUNNrWC7F4hzOjEWpLA-QCrHNpOic7saUl2bq/s1600-h/Paris+002.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHa8LyMYnwIeuH_vzebblqg_enkPuPkTZGG4HEf5F4UaqjrsNJRcgOFtIQaVAih33rN9Bs8XhFNwr0pRh1JcOU7A25IIAhxS0JzSUN8ZHtUNNrWC7F4hzOjEWpLA-QCrHNpOic7saUl2bq/s320/Paris+002.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391385675649740626" border="0" /></a>
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 xoxoAnnemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-33626996709352222612009-10-08T22:28:00.003+02:002009-10-08T22:42:00.451+02:00I love my jazz club!Tonight was one of the most fun nights I've had here, and it was literally right downstairs! At 9pm Tenny and I walked downstairs to the cafe - which took all of 30 seconds - grabbed a glass of wine and nestled ourselves at a small table in a prime location to see the stage. I had a glass of "vin rouge" because it was 1 euro cheaper than red wines with an actual name. What the heck, it does the trick right?
Anyway, we were in for a <span style="font-style: italic;">fantastic</span> surprise because we thought we were going to see a jazz quartet doing a lot of oldies but instead were greeted with a group of about 10 twentysomething French men and women who did covers of famous American songs - in French! They said they were called the "Tis tics" but I can't find them on Google... Anyway, the emcee started out each song by reading the lyrics of an English song translated directly into French. The audience then had to yell out the name of the song as soon as we could figure it out. When we had guessed it, a combination of the singers and musicians would come out and sing a hilarious version of it (sometimes a different tempo and feel, always with ridiculous choreography). We're talking Hotel California, Wannabe (by the Spice Girls), It's Raining Men (Il pleut les hommes!), Billy Jean, Hello (Bonjour!), Mr. Sandman, and a couple of others. I had a smile on my face the whole set, and that's not just because of the wine :) Oh, and one of the guys was really really hot. Really.Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-49933116117173967782009-10-08T16:58:00.005+02:002009-10-08T19:42:20.392+02:00Settling into the routineAnother week of classes has come and gone (I don't count Fridays because I don't have class!), and I'm feeling a strange mix of emotions - like I've lived here forever/just got here and have no idea what's going on/realized that I only have 3 more weekends in Paris/realized that I'm about one-sixth done with my time here. The fact that I'm going to be gone for so many weekends I think will speed up the passage of time a <span style="font-style: italic;">lot</span>, especially because I leave for most of the trips on a Thursday or Friday. Upcoming this month are a trip to Amboise and the Loire Valley with my program next weekend, then a free weekend, then JULIA MILLER comes to visit the last weekend in October. I die a little from excitement when I think about that last one :)
I'm really enjoying my classes, minus the fact that I have to wake up at 7am on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 9am language class (that lasts 3 HOURS). Mondays and Tuesdays I've been going to Cafe Ducet to get a mocha from the one man in this city who seems to understand what they are; I need the caffeine badly before my 4-hour afternoon classes! Tuesdays especially - I have class from 9-12 AND 2-6 so I'm dragging even with an espresso... He recognizes me now and last time I went we chatted a little about what I was doing here and where I'm from ("Near San Francisco? I have a friend who lives there!"). I very much look forward to sitting at the bar with a friend sipping coffee for an hour, because no one gives you dirty looks or impatiently brings you your check. After an hour, you have to <span style="font-style: italic;">ask</span> to pay! I need to find out his name or something so I can legitimately say that I know him - and I'm going to get him a box of chocolates when I leave because he's the only reason I'm going to pass my classes!
My fashion class is absolutely hilarious - the teacher, first of all, is a very flamboyant and skinny Frenchman who wears very tight and fashionable clothes and spends a lot of time on his hair. But he is so friendly and funny and obviously very passionate and knowledgeable not only about clothing but about the history and art behind what he's lecturing about. The girls in my class, however, have yet to show such brain power... the other day we were learning about the origin of women's underwear (late 1500s, courtesy of Catherine diMedici) and had been anchored firmly in the Renaissance for the past 3 hours of lecture, and one of my classmates raised her hand and asked, "Wait, so, when did French women start wearing lingerie? Like, La Perla? Because France is so famous for it and all?" Wait. Really? The teacher looked very confused for a while and then managed to answer, "Uh, well, that was in the 1950s after World War II..." Apparently there is a common misconception that Marie Antoinette was wearing lacy bras and panties underneath her iron and leather paniers... now we know.
Sunday night we went out to Parisian sushi, which was a lot of fun. The crazy fancy roll thing must be very American, because most "cuisine japonais" restaurants just have sashimi, simple maki rolls with just tuna, salmon, or cucumber, and yakitori (grilled meat skewers). We tried a little bit of everything, and it was quite delicious! It was a very nice change from bread and cheese, and I'll definitely be going back :)
Last night I went to go shopping and then see The Informant at a movie theater, which was also a very cool experience. We had won the tickets in a contest with our program, so we saved 7 euro on admission :) The movie was VO - "version originale" - which means it was not dubbed but just had French subtitles. I basically ignored the bottom foot of the screen and it was just like being at home! It was fun sometimes to compare the English and French though, because a lot <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO5BpT2YVISjwgRNjIAr8o2T6H99fF3BmJwklnY8mr4DpTnOiSYSMGrWLw-6XPLdn2BdwoGpQvXJMmcpKKSCQiPgle3xRIEUKjYwPPse54xneV4-5HdO52AkUjTkkL9Cg9bpEnw10n-Wlg/s1600-h/Paris+007.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO5BpT2YVISjwgRNjIAr8o2T6H99fF3BmJwklnY8mr4DpTnOiSYSMGrWLw-6XPLdn2BdwoGpQvXJMmcpKKSCQiPgle3xRIEUKjYwPPse54xneV4-5HdO52AkUjTkkL9Cg9bpEnw10n-Wlg/s320/Paris+007.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5390282657705677746" border="0" /></a>was lost in translation, or maybe French speech doesn't follow exactly the same patterns usually and it would have been awkward to translate word for word. Anyway, the movie was great and I highly recommend it. And I love Matt Damon, even with an extra 30 pounds... Afterwards we went to get dinner crepes from a place our friends rave about. Mine had sliced ham, olives, grilled mushrooms and lettuce and it felt rather nutritious and was definitely delicious! And only 4.50 euros :) P.S. please ignore my hair and shiny-ness, we'd gotten caught in a surprise thunderstorm...
Today I barely made it through class and stumbled home to sleep for a bit. But although it would be easy to have spent the rest of the day in bed, I feel like napping in Paris is a sin because there's so much that I should be doing! I dragged myself downstairs and woke up on the pleasant 5-minute walk to Luxembourg Gardens. After strolling around the grounds and the outside of the Palais de Luxembourg (a government building judging by the police guard at every gate) a bit, I made my way to the Musee de Luxembourg. I had seen huge posters advertising a Tiffany glass exhibit there (the first exclusively Tiffany exhibition in Europe?) and wanted to feel somewhat intellectual and independent, so I bought a ticket. I asked for a student ticket, which technically they don't give to non-EU citizens, but the lady gave it to me with a scowl. Yesss saved 2 euros!
<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNgk3fFu-kJAcED2ySr6cu0WmoDHuCvmGTgsPilLUL8uZao-cIjfNqkge_kdlF21E-YvQwMR6XeeSLJJR_Ofa5pXaf8vqwqmkiHBf7xQ7YMNqA3kAuG0aY04crPihDW2XcsdhsP7MEAloJ/s1600-h/Paris+011.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNgk3fFu-kJAcED2ySr6cu0WmoDHuCvmGTgsPilLUL8uZao-cIjfNqkge_kdlF21E-YvQwMR6XeeSLJJR_Ofa5pXaf8vqwqmkiHBf7xQ7YMNqA3kAuG0aY04crPihDW2XcsdhsP7MEAloJ/s320/Paris+011.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5390284843204730578" border="0" /></a>Fun water features of the Jardin de Luxembourg
</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4IE_WvKSPrUqJ8GJR_sl6kqik8rnK6cyEKVfLCz-sO16CROjicHBisw064YDXK-Uy9iZ8u3_jzKUATFKZ1uejUz-rxtFPdzB7mgzD4UXb3hLQFNOf5R3qXG7eyOcj8bB-lIJt-No8Hpsj/s1600-h/Paris+010.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4IE_WvKSPrUqJ8GJR_sl6kqik8rnK6cyEKVfLCz-sO16CROjicHBisw064YDXK-Uy9iZ8u3_jzKUATFKZ1uejUz-rxtFPdzB7mgzD4UXb3hLQFNOf5R3qXG7eyOcj8bB-lIJt-No8Hpsj/s320/Paris+010.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5390284835398144178" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdrn3uMSxxYC2m57RZ6FwVS02L969EDuO6Nru0nj9uh4vQwx1WPSQ0SWpOGceCtiJ2j63X1GtVfW9yosWBjt0tc3yte2sjb0i2GTvNmBAld_w9CQe-lOmvVM8xUqaB3IdwEl0FT1_jwE0p/s1600-h/Paris+008.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdrn3uMSxxYC2m57RZ6FwVS02L969EDuO6Nru0nj9uh4vQwx1WPSQ0SWpOGceCtiJ2j63X1GtVfW9yosWBjt0tc3yte2sjb0i2GTvNmBAld_w9CQe-lOmvVM8xUqaB3IdwEl0FT1_jwE0p/s320/Paris+008.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5390284819451802642" border="0" /></a>
<div style="text-align: center;">The Palais du Luxembourg
</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjytDykpxTN5F5ZXRaR5btdi5l9LjLH4RkOmHk_CVKY7gCsI-2TYqsE77rnuvGr_fu2ghIStKHIj8If6mcmSzyCAcxGkYe92FSkretgmQGh8GtK-A3rVL-I-hKL28VyEL6sSVeyxoSKcxjG/s1600-h/Paris+009.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjytDykpxTN5F5ZXRaR5btdi5l9LjLH4RkOmHk_CVKY7gCsI-2TYqsE77rnuvGr_fu2ghIStKHIj8If6mcmSzyCAcxGkYe92FSkretgmQGh8GtK-A3rVL-I-hKL28VyEL6sSVeyxoSKcxjG/s320/Paris+009.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5390284827338026354" border="0" /></a>The exhibit was fairly small but absolutely beautiful. Louis Comfort Tiffany's company operated in the early 1900s and made all kinds of glass from stained glass windows to lamps to vases and everything in between. He was influenced a lot by nature and by the Orient, so the colors and shapes are what make his work so special (the techniques were pretty typical of the time period). I'm very very drawn to color, and so was not disappointed with the collection! I felt rather accomplished reading all the informative plaques and information about the history of the company in French and understanding about 90% of it! It's also the first time I've gone to a museum by myself so I felt very artsy and sophisticated. The only downside was that we couldn't take pictures!! I was really disappointed because A. it would have made me feel like the money was more worth it and B. I wanted to put up pictures so everyone else could see it! Guess you'll have to buy a ticket...
After the museum I picked up some groceries (which is still a fun experience for me because literally <span style="font-style: italic;">everything</span> in the store is somehow different from what we have) and dropped by the friendly neighborhood boulangerie. Apparently most boulangeries get bread dough delivered from distributers nowadays and so don't really have a hand in the creation of the bread. However, when a sign says "<span style="font-style: italic;">artisan </span>boulangerie" it means they make it on the premises. This artisan is literally 3 doors down from me and has amazing stuff for slightly more expensive than the others. He's a youngish chubby guy with a head of crazy dark curls who greets you with a "bonjour mademoiselle!" ten times more enthusiastic and genuine than I hear elsewhere. He often makes things with a twist, including pear-filled mini pastries which I sampled and loved. Expensive habit though, so I'll have to stick to the necessary whole wheat loaf ("pain complet") for sandwiches if I want to keep visiting!
I actually have a little bit of homework (shocking!) for the weekend so I'm going to work on that a little and catch up on TV shows before heading to the cafe for a glass of wine and jazz! Love to you all <3Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-47689434164632601592009-10-04T13:06:00.003+02:002009-10-04T13:22:34.303+02:00La nuit blanche = major letdownWell last night was a bust. Jen, Tenny and I ventured out at about 10pm and were greeted by hordes of Parisians and tourists in the streets. Some foolish people tried to drive around the city and ended up in perpetual gridlock because people stopped obeying traffic signals! What we didn't realize was that the exhibits were actually <span style="font-style: italic;">inside</span> Notre Dame and other buildings, and even the flow of people into Luxembourg Gardens was being controlled through only one of the numerous entrances. The result was lines of hundreds of people in front of each entrance, and there was no hope of getting in if you didn't want to wait for at least an hour. What the heck? If this night was supposed to make art accessible to the whole city and be a great celebration, it failed miserably because 90% of people were just milling around the streets smoking. I literally felt sick for the rest of the night - I probably ended up smoking half a pack from the air that I breathed in during that few hours! Anyway, the three of us were completely underwhelmed and frustrated and ended up going home at midnight after walking around the entire city in search of <span style="font-style: italic;">something</span> to see. No luck.
On a completely different note, I wanted to share photos of my walk through Luxembourg Gardens on Saturday. It was SO beautiful and almost every chair and bench was occupied. Little kids were out in droves, playing around the lake and on the lawns - and French kids are so incredibly cute! I think I freaked a couple parents out when I tried to surreptitiously take pictures of them :P There was also a breast cancer walk going on, which we noticed because of the bright pink shirts of the participants! However, in true Parisian style, they weren't just walking but "nordic walking" with ski poles. Don't ask me why.
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQCnPzk4XuRb3G_LRImmXkySGBVeurkeyrcecSZzAsRVRrZEk60et5Okz6gS3fWmWUnx8SRKLQPeU-ij6sAtq9H8XP__i_TgK_V2ttGSjdbZZZnY3sdp1dVVrjLJNeUNaXpoU4fOXrg_r1/s1600-h/Paris+021.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQCnPzk4XuRb3G_LRImmXkySGBVeurkeyrcecSZzAsRVRrZEk60et5Okz6gS3fWmWUnx8SRKLQPeU-ij6sAtq9H8XP__i_TgK_V2ttGSjdbZZZnY3sdp1dVVrjLJNeUNaXpoU4fOXrg_r1/s320/Paris+021.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388703423115210514" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDGq3nXBM0OpFHQ-g0yKMcbd83VyQi24l720Ok9CabESnQ-zWaNFOVnbDS2yZcPtoXRuxVy_xnIhQuGoXNN9DWzPZAPAImz7UfBd720tLwxh3eJnL3yqhE9qPQTaOeqnGpfNJcUuLjrPJY/s1600-h/Paris+020.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDGq3nXBM0OpFHQ-g0yKMcbd83VyQi24l720Ok9CabESnQ-zWaNFOVnbDS2yZcPtoXRuxVy_xnIhQuGoXNN9DWzPZAPAImz7UfBd720tLwxh3eJnL3yqhE9qPQTaOeqnGpfNJcUuLjrPJY/s320/Paris+020.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388703420420635586" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY8axSD9S50eT_StrtgBpXpdCZ6iiGBj-zOrua45lzgQqrrnArUy9Qw0EXyz0HgyscNqux45QcdssaOrAPbGoRH1Tdq7CCeCR0TV81F3hB47SNGy09HNmi2Fbs0eInGdgzy1ocmnNeMqY7/s1600-h/Paris+019.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY8axSD9S50eT_StrtgBpXpdCZ6iiGBj-zOrua45lzgQqrrnArUy9Qw0EXyz0HgyscNqux45QcdssaOrAPbGoRH1Tdq7CCeCR0TV81F3hB47SNGy09HNmi2Fbs0eInGdgzy1ocmnNeMqY7/s320/Paris+019.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388703408948143538" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2xB7Un84orZf3wHTun8oEEhgytNQyaSCA7prIGIv4EVyYDX2Q2sqMFt_XDrKyK5yVCgh1yM6B0QdyJp5kLheNP4B0-A0eFX8jL3QEjXxS-OB2KYyv5nXaDWvEthnnftMimASNmWpWeVPX/s1600-h/Paris+018.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2xB7Un84orZf3wHTun8oEEhgytNQyaSCA7prIGIv4EVyYDX2Q2sqMFt_XDrKyK5yVCgh1yM6B0QdyJp5kLheNP4B0-A0eFX8jL3QEjXxS-OB2KYyv5nXaDWvEthnnftMimASNmWpWeVPX/s320/Paris+018.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388703402272412082" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuOayFICnQJLtMacFsmQCgTTq5R5A3nw9Ia6oKN8F6QdoNbwe_PN5Jpud3rpGsLlfiV4etUyJtl1UC3pG1g-vnqJx9MFE312c0KpFvs3PQuo1G74WhkJZVgDVycHXBZGSHbNHaxu7J0K51/s1600-h/Paris+017.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuOayFICnQJLtMacFsmQCgTTq5R5A3nw9Ia6oKN8F6QdoNbwe_PN5Jpud3rpGsLlfiV4etUyJtl1UC3pG1g-vnqJx9MFE312c0KpFvs3PQuo1G74WhkJZVgDVycHXBZGSHbNHaxu7J0K51/s320/Paris+017.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388703392016329218" border="0" /></a>
I'm going to take a book out there tomorrow morning, I want to take advantage of it while the weather still isn't that bad!Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5143279442270752104.post-81431891007313317982009-10-03T20:30:00.004+02:002009-10-03T21:17:29.786+02:00The adventure continues<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTznoKRCeIHFaIglbooOPMBVg8oYuGj3zuP_Di3v_9h3zejDD4YL3Q82K8ryyQSNJog5mGOaw6bgyYUsN5mezvTQoE-xGGpB6S7dowz1ar2fb0ydOiu1UoBtr5kVj8HCvmYstjTBaaCu_L/s1600-h/Paris+007+copy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 134px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTznoKRCeIHFaIglbooOPMBVg8oYuGj3zuP_Di3v_9h3zejDD4YL3Q82K8ryyQSNJog5mGOaw6bgyYUsN5mezvTQoE-xGGpB6S7dowz1ar2fb0ydOiu1UoBtr5kVj8HCvmYstjTBaaCu_L/s200/Paris+007+copy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388454951556463090" border="0" /></a>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTS3OP4Yhp0Vm-7fij07HNddGdVVjtjgTpHVYt5FdSWj1VRE18UCaqwkw6H50CL_8MsWyfVSpTcQ7Sy12Xh5uWH5Ev4RbCMg53VrOYALtqEs1C-itljrRPCoHykI9nCVuBUNnOHOmVNCvY/s1600-h/Paris+009.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTS3OP4Yhp0Vm-7fij07HNddGdVVjtjgTpHVYt5FdSWj1VRE18UCaqwkw6H50CL_8MsWyfVSpTcQ7Sy12Xh5uWH5Ev4RbCMg53VrOYALtqEs1C-itljrRPCoHykI9nCVuBUNnOHOmVNCvY/s200/Paris+009.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388454295796275330" border="0" /></a>It's the end of my first full week here, and I'm thoroughly impressed with the range of things I've managed to squeeze in! My classes (supposedly the reason I'm here... but we all know it's the pastries...) went very well and I think they're going to be a lot of fun. The first day of French was a bit overwhelming, but I'm learning very quickly how to keep up with the natural rhythm of my teacher's speech - she doesn't slow it down for students! My electives are going to be a lot of fun and I'll probably retain more because they're in English. I'll get to watch about 10 French movies in my film class, and my fashion class is taking quite a few excursions around the city to museums and centers of fashion. I'm starting to figure out my routine for my week - when to wake up, how to eat, when I'll splurge on coffee, etc. If you don't plan, you can end up spending 20 euros on food and drinks for the day, no sweat! I have a 2-hour lunch break between classes on Tuesday which lines up with my friend Taylor's, so we have a standing date :)
Of my adventures the last week, the most notable have been champagne, pretzels and girl talk under the Eiffel Tower on Monday night, dinner with Chelsea Temple (from Starfire) who's also studying here on Tuesday night, another fantastic lunch at Fizz on Wednesday with the girls and trying to navigate the Parisian university bookstore, and finally getting down to Cafe Universel for drinks and live jazz! Whew :)
I learned an expensive lesson at the Cafe - Tenny and I ordered cocktails for (gulp) 10 euros each and they turned out to be AWFUL. Like, undrinkable. Mine tasted suspiciously of cough syrup and had about the same consistency. Luckily our friend liked them for some reason and bought us some wine. Much better. The jazz was GREAT though, it was "jazz caraibe" or caribbean jazz with a singer, piano and bongos. The singer was a young African woman who sang in English and French and had the richest, most luxurious voice and had a lot of fun on the small stage. I will most definitely be checking out the acts more often now!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIvyK3Ng1ZC5xsADDgNfANWMc4fOex4SGKGnhpFwY-4yaNv4QzcR1VssnsvjQtZJYIPArkNZPZtzUeNBIxrRZL54tZB5hX1OBFoIWC-gguftdGOn0CDWL11aqWYcNElnwlw0ts9W2RzSMy/s1600-h/Paris+002+copy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIvyK3Ng1ZC5xsADDgNfANWMc4fOex4SGKGnhpFwY-4yaNv4QzcR1VssnsvjQtZJYIPArkNZPZtzUeNBIxrRZL54tZB5hX1OBFoIWC-gguftdGOn0CDWL11aqWYcNElnwlw0ts9W2RzSMy/s200/Paris+002+copy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388452652920542306" border="0" /></a>
Last night we decided to venture out to an Indian restaurant nearby called the Bollywood Lounge. The inside was really fun, a lot of bright colors and a huge TV screen playing Bollywood music videos. Buuttt the food was kind of awful. Minus the chicken tikka masala and rice, which were just average, it was pretty much inedible for me. Luckily we got a glass of champagne and rose out of the deal, but it was a big disappointment. Not to be dettered, our group vowed to try France's version of sushi next week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Today, Jen (a fellow UCSD student!) and I decided to check out a giant antiques and ham (yes, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6werO1K-iwEtxBv5JwOy2eSf9zTtYaxB0uX-ulA0k15w15-t4n4tNXLsE0B5BfO4z2WaVaEDLpFTOhF_EN_jEDgMGG68u6KyhAh9qP__3YaFJQd3CvAMVHf3XPOVK-CBz-sjDNCOMiHg4/s1600-h/Paris+008.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6werO1K-iwEtxBv5JwOy2eSf9zTtYaxB0uX-ulA0k15w15-t4n4tNXLsE0B5BfO4z2WaVaEDLpFTOhF_EN_jEDgMGG68u6KyhAh9qP__3YaFJQd3CvAMVHf3XPOVK-CBz-sjDNCOMiHg4/s200/Paris+008.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388454279893619698" border="0" /></a>ham) market in a suburb of Paris. After riding the metro out there, we couldn't find it. Somehow, we lost a giant market. Our wanderings took us to what we thought was it, but turned out to be a huge weekly flea and food market mostly populated by Muslim immigrants. It was absolutely insane - everything was so close together, people were everywhere and not polite, and vendors were screaming at the top of their lungs. The fabric sellers were stunning though! Jen and I lasted about 15 minutes before bursting breathless away from the crowd and making a hasty retreat. We're not quite up to that level of market yet! We decided instead to make a pilgrimage to a couple of famous dessert places we'd heard of - Patisserie de Reves (Pastry shop of dreams!) and Christian Constant, the best hot chocolate in Paris. Patisserie de Reves truly was a dream, very very chic and impossible to choose a treat (see pictures of the display below). We finally settled on splitting a "St. Honore," <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifz8k-FXyT2UFbo4BazAjVgww-WeVKO26mwfrQZCa41jdwp4wiSFkf-sr849pI1JFf2zWeCa_MP2-JV0Kc-lcgAUHWWE42IEQbG_NdLONvjwxfSp8BO17lHUf_dnmoLvdRN2FH6noQcxJo/s1600-h/Paris+014.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifz8k-FXyT2UFbo4BazAjVgww-WeVKO26mwfrQZCa41jdwp4wiSFkf-sr849pI1JFf2zWeCa_MP2-JV0Kc-lcgAUHWWE42IEQbG_NdLONvjwxfSp8BO17lHUf_dnmoLvdRN2FH6noQcxJo/s200/Paris+014.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388452665451291218" border="0" /></a>which is an elaborate assembly of cream-filled pastry shapes and whipped cream (see cross section). The packaging itself was spectacular (cute pink box, ribbon, napkins, and forks in a beautiful bag), and the dessert did not disappoint either! We justified our next excursion by walking <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieYWA2ru4JI5ojmVgRaZYB3BbU20IOtU3NVGjFOi5sQR7gh0tQDdoM685q5VtMgYRFEqaO7lUFb_6LUxswokEAoOOPV87_EKjBGSS7dIlUVCZPeWOBAGjv9vwRMxNd6PzRHnYj5FmERS-F/s1600-h/Paris+011.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieYWA2ru4JI5ojmVgRaZYB3BbU20IOtU3NVGjFOi5sQR7gh0tQDdoM685q5VtMgYRFEqaO7lUFb_6LUxswokEAoOOPV87_EKjBGSS7dIlUVCZPeWOBAGjv9vwRMxNd6PzRHnYj5FmERS-F/s200/Paris+011.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388454291351073138" border="0" /></a>there, which seems to be a common theme lately :) In a cruel twist of fate, Christian Constant turned out to be right next to my school and very very tempting in its assortment of mini desserts, patisseries, and chocolate. Next door is their cafe, where Jen and I ordered pots of hot chocolate. I'm not kidding when I say that I had to surrender to this concoction (which has only happened once or twice before). When we poured it into our cups, I realized that "chocolat chaud" literally meant "chocolate at a high temperature." One sip and I knew I'd met my match. To give you a <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN3T3f-nS1CQPXfFq_W15b23snDoSwxED8-_6BYGxs-DgRWAFbehLPcwquJZeRv6ndB5Y9uenKOecHWF5KIzSHQhJOwvG2rglP8p01uh204gM22aQqTcggySTFiJZPAx-JvMkuyAFsgzwu/s1600-h/Paris+016.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN3T3f-nS1CQPXfFq_W15b23snDoSwxED8-_6BYGxs-DgRWAFbehLPcwquJZeRv6ndB5Y9uenKOecHWF5KIzSHQhJOwvG2rglP8p01uh204gM22aQqTcggySTFiJZPAx-JvMkuyAFsgzwu/s200/Paris+016.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5388452657844341714" border="0" /></a>picture, we dipped little cookies in the drinks and the chocolate stayed coating the cookie. I drank a cup of FONDUE. It was impossible for us to finish two orders - next time we'll have to share. Unreal.
Tonight is La Nuit Blanche (the white night) where Paris celebrates contemporary art and music with an all night party around the city. Public gardens and museums have special exhibits free to the public and it's open from 7pm to dawn. I have a feeling I won't make it that long, but we'll strike out at about 10pm and give it a shot :) Sending LOVE to all - I'm so lucky to have friends and family like you <3Annemariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08044775090880524173noreply@blogger.com0