Versailles, Falafel, and Boeuf Bourgignon

Okay, let's see....

Thursday I only had class till 12:15, so afterward I went home, had some food, talked to some people, and then headed to a wine and cheese tasting back at school. It was all pretty good and a really fun time.
Afterwards I had my conversation, where we went to an Indian restaurant/bar and tried to learn a few new things in French. It was a pretty cool place and a nice change from the usual Parisian cafe.

I woke up early the next day to try to see a public Fashion Show in the huge department store in Paris, but unfortunately I had no luck in finding it. However, with a suggestion from my friend Jackie I next went on a search for falafels. Little did I know, but I had actually listed the place I went to in my list of Paris restaurants I wanted to try.

L'As du Falaffel had the BEST falafel I've ever had, with mouth watering falafels, decadent eggplant, an amazing hummus/tahini sauce, cabbage instead of cucumbers (yummy!), and tomatoes. Simply delicious.
After this I went back home, took a quick nap, sent a postcard, and then headed to school again for our trip to Versailles. Although the weather said the day was supposed to be sunny, it was far from being so.
Versailles was huge, but unfortunately only a small part is open to the public. It was pretty intense, with a lot of decor, paintings, the pretty cool hall of mirrors, and such, but I still felt drawn back to the intensity of Chambord. Our tour guide was nice, but unfortunately spent time on insignificant trivia rather than history, so that was a little disappointing.
We then took a walk through the gardens for a bit (which were my favorite part!), but decided we would all come back another day so we could enjoy the beauty with the help of the sun...


Although I wasn't very hungry I joined everyone for dinner, yet as we arrived at the Saint Michel stop it was pouring, so we had to run around in the rain trying to find a place to eat.

The restaurant we chose was spectacular. There are four things I really want to eat here: French Onion soup, Boeuf Bourgignon, the fish in Julie and Julia, and Creme Brulee. Well, except for the fish, all three were available for a relatively cheap prefix price, so almost all of us ordered that.

The French Onion soup wasn't as good as the other place's, but the Boeuf Bourgignon was exceedingly fabulous and the creme brulee was quite good. Success!
After dinner we decided to go home, and although we considered going back out we ended up just staying at the dorms and chilling a bit.

And thus my weekend continues!

Grand Marnier

Sorry for the long delay! The internet here is very slow and it's been difficult to try to get anything done online.

A quick summary:

On Monday I had my first actual sandwich here, tuna with some mayo and lettuce which was quite good. After classes Benny, Lloyd, Emily, and I went shopping, where I almost bought an amazing fo-leather jacket, but refrained. Basically I just walked around and looked at all the fashion. We then hit up the grocery store, where I got some fruit, some pasta, yogurt, some veggies, and some red wine...and that was basically my night!

Tuesday was the day of long classes, so when everything was finally done I came back to the dorms and cooked some yummy pasta and minestrone soup with Emily. It was pretty good despite just randomly putting stuff in. Although I wasn't hungry after all of this I really wanted something sweet, so I took a trip on the tram to a creperie my friend Jackie recommended, where I had an amazing hot crepe with Grand Marnier, which was amazingly delicious and cheap! From now on I am going to try to go there if I need a snack. So yummy.

Today my French teacher canceled my phonetics class so I had more time to explore Paris, which consisted of just going back to Rue Rivoli and looking at the fashion and near Les Halles to get some cheap boots. I couldn't decide what I wanted, however, and thus came back again with nothing. I really need some boots without heels though because this Parisian fashion is killing me. However, I thought I looked quite French today but a shopkeeper asked if I needed help in English, so apparently it is blatantly obvious. Oh well.

It wasn't getting too late, but after awhile the people around Les Halles were starting to look not so nice, and for those of you who don't know, around the forum of Les Halles are dozens upon dozens of sex clubs...or something. So by 5:30/6 it was looking like I really should get out of there.

So I came home after an insanely packed bus ride, heated up some soup and had the other half of a baguette I ordered at lunch today, and now I'm basically just chilling. Sorry...but no pictures lately. Tomorrow I have a wine and cheese tasting, Friday I am going to Versailles, Saturday I might hold a picnic at the Eiffel, and Sunday I am going to the Opera, so there WILL be pictures soon enough, trust me.

I was listening to a French radio station today and heard this song...and was lucky enough to find it. It's absolutely amazing and is the perfect mix of dance music/french amazingness/and cutesy/loveness. =) If I could only tell what they were saying by now...

L'Oeil Du Cyclone - Paris Brune

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSK2fhNpyXM

Au revoir!

Nuit Blanche

So let's see... Yesterday Melanie, Lloyd, Emily and I headed out to Les Marche Puces, a huge marketplace just south of Paris' northern border. We walked around awhile, again seeing how the north of Paris is a lot more...urban...than the rest of Paris. It wasn't as great as I had hoped, but it was interesting.

We then headed back south toward Les Halles Forum, a gigantic shopping mall in the middle of Paris. Before we shopped we stopped at Le Centre Les Halles, a cafe where I had some amazing french onion soup, some okay fish, and a pretty good chocolate mousse, my meal for the day. It was a little amusing because the awning for the cafe kept on expanding and contracting, trying to cover us when there was no sun and trying to pull away when there was...but the sun kept on disappearing. Oh, and one other thing - Paris cafes have heat lamps. It's a miracle.
After lunch we headed down into the mall, which was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. And why was it so crowded? And why were there sales everywhere? Oh! It was the forum's 30th anniversary! Well, let's just say I stayed at the mall while Emily and Lloyd went elsewhere so I could shop around, taking advantage of the sales. In one of the stores there was even a live DJ playing dance music...I was in love with Paris again, haha.

My goal before coming to Paris was to maybe get a pair of jeans, one or two long sleeve shirts, a sweater, and a coat...and I was able to get the first three (no sweater or coat unfortunately) for pretty darn cheap. However, I was shopped out after all of that and, since I didn't fall in love with anything else, I decided I needed to go home and take a nap before the night's activities.

After resting up and doing a bit of reading, we all met up (with Benny this time) at 9:30 to take in Nuit Blanche, a yearly Parisian festival that's supposed to have a lot of modern art and galleries and such from 7pm - 7am. We got to our stop and followed everyone who was heading to the Louvre, and I was amazed with how pretty it all was at night. We spent awhile taking pictures there because everything was so lovely. There weren't any galleries or anything there, but I guess everyone just decided to take the opportunity to explore the beauty.
We then continued to walk around Les Halles, not seeing much, yet we finally saw a church that had a very long line and a Nuit Blanche sign outside of it. Well of course Emily was hungry again, haha, and wanted to eat before getting in line, so we headed to a cafe with some really strange food and we all shared a horrible tasting bottle of red wine (I was again the person to test the wine, but didn't have the heart or ability to tell the waiter it was awful) while a few people got food and dessert (I was still full from lunch).

When we finally exited the cafe the line was gone from the church and we went inside only to see a screen playing a video of the international arrivals gate...we immediately left.

After hearing Notre Dame had some cool things we walked all the way over to there. Again nothing really impressive, but there were cool light structures in each of the alter areas, so since I love lights I thought that was kind of cool. Plus, until last night I had never been at or near Notre Dame either, so that was nice.
By this time we were done. People were drunkenly yelling in the streets, Nuit Blanche was nothing like we expected, and we were cold and wanted to go home. Except, it was so busy that we couldn't get a cab. There I was, only in a blazer and boots with heels, and we started walking home. Approximate distance is about 4 miles.

We got almost 1/5 of the way until we saw a giant disco ball hanging from a crane and hundreds of people walking toward it. I kind of wanted to go see it, but we continued on. Finally we were able to catch a cab (yes, Paris was silly enough not to keep their transportation network running last night. They had one line running, but it would take us nowhere near home, and it was almost 3am).

Thank goodness. It was worth me only having to pay 2.20 euros for a cab instead of walking the remainder 3+ miles. After finally getting home I went straight to bed. Such a long day.

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Today I let myself sleep in and then went to get my daily baguette, walking there and taking the tram back. I didn't get as much bread as usual, unfortunately, and I'm still a little hungry, but I still have to study for a french quiz, so I don't know what I'm going to do. After I got back I took a nap because I was exhausted, and now I've just been reading and studying...and posting.

A bientot!

Blois, Chambord, evil foie gras, and decadent chocolate

Bonjour! So today was a really long day. Our entire Civ English group piled on a bus a little after 8 towards Blois. My favorite part of Blois was the outdoor staircase, but I guess I also liked how each wing came from a different part of history and thus were completely different in style. Afterwards we went to dinner at l'Orangerie. The entree was one of the most disgusting things I've ever eaten. Everyone's face was priceless as we dipped into a salad with some soft sausage thing covered in a thin/crunchy outside. I almost finished it, but couldn't take it all in. It was horrifying. We later found out it was foie gras wrapped in a carrot...it was revolting.
The plate, however, was much better. It was rabbit with some vegetables. Not bad. A little too fatty for my taste, but that might just be rabbit in general. It had some interesting spices on it...oh, and the potatoes were lovely as usual. And of course there was bread and red wine (which I also used to get through the foie gras). Dessert was fantastic, with some hollow sugar-like cookies, a little bit of peach or apricot ice cream, and a small chocolate cake thingy that had a chocolate cookie like shell and melted chocolate and cream inside, all on top of more cream. Simply decadent. Add a small coffee and I think it may have made up for the awful foie gras.
We then drove to Chambord, which was simply amazing. We had audioguides, but I think they were completely inefficient because they spoke for more than 5 or 10 minutes per room and honestly we only had about an hour, so they didn't do much for me. Plus, they didn't have guides for a lot of the rooms, and actually a lot of the rooms were empty for no known reason.
Emily and I just basically explored and took a lot of pictures and went a little silly with it all. Finally, with a long bus ride home, I settled down for the day (tomorrow will be a busy day so I don't really feel like going out), and now I'm doing a bit of reading and such. A demain!

Peach Beer

Let's see...pictures right now are minimal because my camera is out of batteries again and I think I need to start being more careful with how many pics I am taking...

Anyways. Class again yesterday. My presentation went well and my professor even said to me that I did a very good job. Yay! I think he likes me, which is awesome. For lunch I made myself a small sandwich out of leftover bread, brie, and salami.

After class I tried to make my way to the same place I got the delicious bread, but unfortunately it wasn't open yet, so I got some not-so-great bread for my dinner. Other than reading for class, that's basically what I did last night.

Today, however, I only had one class, so after grabbing lunch with people (a pretty yummy nutella crepe) I walked to the Bastille to look at some shops. I passed through the pretty amazing Bercy Park on my way.
I got turned around a lot down there. The street I heard had a lot of shops wasn't great at all, and when I finally found some cheap fashion that I loved, I found out all the places I was going to where shops for smaller vendors (big vendors selling multiple pieces of the same outfit to their clients). So although I saw one or two things I was willing to buy, I wasn't able to buy them. Oh well.
(My camera turned off at this point.)

I bought a baguette near the Bastille that was actually pretty good and then took the metro and RER home (both stations were crazy busy and crazy big inside), ate, and then left again for my conversation meeting. However, when I was one stop away from school I realized I left the cinema tickets for my conversation assistant back in my room, so I had to take the RER back (which got stalled), run back to my dorm, run back, and take the RER back. I thought my meeting was at 7:00 and I arrived at like 7:01...but then I found out it wasn't until 7:15. Haha.

Benny and I were the other two to show up at the meeting, so we joined my conversation assitant Juliette at a bar where I had a petit demi-peach beer while we tried to learn some more French.

After about an hour we retired for the night...and now bed time because we have a field trip to Blois and Chateau Chambord from 8am-8pm tomorrow!

the magical baguette

School yesterday was horrific, with one class from 9:45-12:15, another from 2:45-3:45, and yet another from 4:00-4:30. I participated yet again in civ class...I think two days in a row is a record for me. After my first class we all walked down to a different cafe, where people got some food that really tempted me...but I wanted to wait to eat what I had already bought the previous days instead of spending more money.

French class was crazy again, and the amount of participation we are required to do is quite painful. Oh well. That just means by the time I come home I will probably be able to speak French, haha. After class we had yet another French class, this time a phonetics class.

Finally, after classes Lloyd, Benny and I took the RER back and met with Emily to go grocery shopping. We walked awhile to an amazing grocery store where I bought some spreadable meat, crab, and cheese, along with some potato/ham/mayonnaise salad, all to go along with my baguette for the next few weeks. Unfortunately, I tried to get a red pepper and some bananas, but after waiting in line I learned I had to get a label for them, so I didn't end up getting them.
I figure I will try the meats/baguettes/cheeses now while it is warm enough to get a fresh baguette every day or so, yet in a few weeks once it starts getting colder I will finally stock up on some things to cook so I can just cook once I get home from school.

We next went to a bakery, where I purchased a baguette and a pain chocolate. The pain chocolate wasn't as good as the one I got near my school, but the baguette was pure bliss. Luckily I bought one because although I had tried to save my last one, baguettes really only last for one day. This baguette was so soft and delicious and just downright marvelous!

We next hit a wine store, where I didn't get anything since I bought a Rose the other day. Fortunately I bought a corkscrew at the grocery store though. I wanted to get a wine glass, but I figured if I'm going to purchase one I might as well get a really unique one at some cool store in the future, so I held off on that too.

We arrived back at the dorms around 7pm, and I finished up working on my Machiavelli presentation (I had started during my long break at lunch). I had a minimal amount of French homework, which was amazing, and then met for awhile with two other classmates of mine who were also presenting with me.

Although I had eaten most of the baguette on the way home from the bakery, I had a bit more with some salami and brie, and some with the potato/ham/mayonnaise mix....which wasn't as good as I had hoped, but hey - it was cheap and pretty good. I had a glass or two of wine while trying to upload this blog...but failing since the internet at the dorms is so slow (I think I will post and upload pictures at school from now on since it is much faster). And that was my night!

(I don't have pictures yet of what I bought but I will try to remember to upload them tonight.)

following Amelie's footsteps

I tried to post this yesterday but my internet was way too slow... So Emily, Lloyd and I met up to go to class Monday morning, taking the RER to school a bit early before preparing for class. Civilization classes are 2.5 hours a day. Luckily we get a break in the middle or else I’d fall asleep. Not that it’s not interesting, but I am still jet-lagged and on a crazy sleep schedule so I’m really tired in the mornings. Class went well and I even participated, yet the professor still randomly calls on people so I’m a little apprehensive about that.

Having about an hour and a bit for lunch, a few of us go to one of the local cafes to grab a bite to eat. I’m trying to save money and my stomach for my dinners, so I go a cheaper route and simply buy a pain chocolate et almonde, bread with chocolate in the center and almonds on top (simply decadent).
Next was my first French class and boy was it insane. All the teacher does is speak and French, and somehow two or three people in the class immediately learn how to recognize words and respond, and that stresses me out every single time. We learn so much that by half-way through I am aching to leave class and clear my head and unfocus, but that isn’t allowed apparently. So French class continues. Yes, it’s interesting, but I feel we don’t get enough support in understanding everything and everything is just thrown at us. Spanish 20200 wasn’t even close to being this difficult and intense.

After getting our computers hooked up to the school’s internet and computer, and after failing to find these specific French dictionaries, Lloyd, Benny and I head back to the Cite to meet up with Emily to start on the day’s adventure. Today’s destination: Montmartre. Yes, the very spot where Amelie was filmed. What’s strange was that I was just thinking about visiting here a few days ago, and now all of a sudden Emily really wanted to go there. Huzzah!

Well, it’s good Emily and I didn’t go alone. We got off at the Gare du Nord station and everything was crazy. The melting pot had arrived at this very station and people were en mass, filling every inch of the station and pushing and shoving their way around. Once we finally got above ground and out of the station, we realized that the outside wasn’t much better. The area…was unique. Lots of different vendors, lots of different people, some not so great looking people…a chaotic mess.
Yet once we walk a bit further on the area gets amazing. We walk for awhile towards Sacre Couer and then realize what we have to do: walk hundreds and hundreds of stairs. So we do. Once we get up I’m kind of forced to buy some water to cool myself down. And once we get up we’re met with one of the most amazing views I’ve ever seen. I already know you don’t get such an amazing AND free view at the Eiffel Tower!

After looking out for a bit we head into Sacre Couer itself, which didn’t allow photos. There were probably a dozen alters and thousands of candles lit up around the aisle, along with a very beautiful painting above the main alter. Outside of Sacre Couer, on the side, where some cool looking small castle-esque builings, but unfortunately no one seemed to want to explore that area. Oh well. We sat on the steps in front of Sacre Couer for awhile, listening to a young French singer attempting to sing some American music.
Looking out at Paris and at all of these pathways and steps up to here, I am reminded of Amelie. And even though we haven’t really seen many places in the movie I actually remember, it is at this moment, with thoughts of that amazing movie, with good company, and with a great landscape that I finally feel a small attachment and love for Paris. It isn’t what I expected, but it’s something, and it’s a pretty good feeling.
After a while we get up (although again I maybe wish we would have stayed for the sunset) and start on down. We walk for a good long while, passing by some pretty cool streets and stores. After a while we realize we’re about ¾ of the way to the Seine, so we figure we might as well walk to the river and take the RER from there.
On our way we passed Place de la Concorde...which was also pretty amazing!



After walking for about as long as I did the day before, we decided to sit down at the restaurant Le Bizuth on Bd St. Germain. We all order a ‘veal stew,’ basically veal and pasta for only 10 euros, and we all share a bottle of wine. The amount of food for such a cheap price was ridiculous! The veal was a little dry, but overall it was good, and the entire experience was pretty awesome. After dinner we finally headed back home. Unfortunately, it was already 10pm and I still had about 2 hours of homework…which is why I had to write the blog this late! More updates to come when my internet runs faster...and when I don't have to get to class!