Paris

Thursday, February 3, 2011 11:15

I’m currently sitting in the airport in Paris waiting for our flight. Yesterday, after everyone woke up we finally had our last lunch at Le Cercle, where I got my croque madame. It was SO amazing. Such a great sandwich...Then Rachel and I headed to some souvenir shops because she still needed to shop. On the way I got my last crepe, with nutella and banana and it was incredible!!! Then we just walked around, went in shops, it was beautiful out, very cold but sunny! It was a great last day. We went to the most adorable bookstore called Shakespeare and Co. and it was so cute with little spiny passageways covered with old books. We ended up meeting up with Amanda, Sarah, and Sophie and then eventually headed back to the hotel.

For our farewell dinner, we ate at Val de Grace and Thomas gave us a demonstration of how to make mousse. For dinner, first we had a pastry thing that was goat cheese with honey wrapped in pastry stuff and salad. Surprisingly, I ate the salad but did not eat the pastry thing, I gave that away. Then for dinner we had beef bourginion which was INCREDIBLE. It was the best thing I’ve eaten, and the bread was SO GOOD. Then they gave us platters of cheese, that I didn’t eat obviously. Then, for dessert we had chocolate mousse which was actually the greatest thing I’ve ever eaten in my life. It was such a great fun last meal. At about 10:40, Rachel insisted that we go back to Shakespeare and Co. (that closed at 11) because she needed to buy an old book. So we sped walked there and they were closing right as we got there, but they let her run in and grab one. Then we went back and packed, then this morning boarded the bus! Now we are all chilling waiting at the airport for our flight to take off.

Overall, despite the few fallbacks and few mishaps, the trip was amazing. Paris is by far the best city I’ve ever visited, and I love the architecture one sees as they are just walking down the street. I love the small cafes that are every other shop, and just in general it is such an incredible city. I will definitely miss walking around and casually running into the Notre Dame, the Pantheon, or the Seine river!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011, 10:50 am

So yesterday, we woke up and met at the PAA and had our final presentations and shared our journals with the group. Everyone had really really good pictures, I was very impressed! Then we had the rest of the day free. I went shopping with Amanda, Gabi, and Maggie. I finallyyy ate a baguette on the street!!! Don’t worry, I took pics. I kind of just tagged along on their shopping because I really can’t buy things (no space). Then when we got back we finally made an outing to Marais to get falafel! We went to a very well known place called Chez Hannah. It was SO GOOD. We got fries and plates of falafel and it was the best falafel I’ve had since Israel, by far!

After dinner, we went back to the girl’s flat and bought some bottles of wine and drank that and had some snacks. It was a lot of fun! I’m going to miss the group!

Today is our last day in Paris, I obviously woke up wicked early and so I’m kind of just chilling waiting here for others to wake up. The only things on my to do list are to have one last croque madame and then have one last crepe . Then tonight we have our goodbye dinner!

Sunday, January 30, 2011 11:05 pm

So, last night we did not get falafel, instead we went to Casa Valentino again, fav restaurant of the trip...I got pasta with eggplant, mozzarella, and basil, it was SO good. After dinner we went back to Des Violins Dingue (the bar we went to on my birthday) and so that was fun. Then this morning we got up and Maggie, Gabi and I went to breakfast. I got an omelette...yes I ate my first omelette ever, with ham and cheese.

Then, we came back to the hotel and then all went to the Henri Cartier Gallery to see a photo exhibit. It was interesting...I forget the artists name...but he took pictures in Africa that showed like racial differences and urban life and stuff, so I thought it was interesting. After that, I really wanted to go to Notre Dame and Yulyia came with me. So I finally saw that, I checked off my last sight seeing place that I wanted to go on my list! Then we souvenir shopped around, then came back to the hotel.

For dinner, we went to a place called Le Refuge de Fondue, and it was a place we had all heard about where its a small hole in the wall where you can only order beef or cheese fondue and to get to your seats you have to climb over the tables...and they serve you beer in baby bottles. I know...so weird!!! It was so much fun though! We were sitting next to these older French guys who talked to us a lot (its really long tables so everyone is next to random people from all over the place). They ended up buying us champagne which was fun. It was a very fun atmosphere with everyones names who had been there written on the walls and just loud and everyone mingling. A very good night!!

Saturday, January 29, 2011, 1:00 am

I have so much to update on!! On Thursday morning we woke up early and took the metro, to another metro, to the train, to Reims, Champagne. It was a beautiful town, but when we got there it was frigid outside, by far the coldest weather we’ve experienced so far in Paris (which we are very lucky for because it has been very mild for us!). We walked around and a tourguide showed us the town. We saw a big church that I took tons of pictures of. The Reims Cathedrale. But it was SO cold and we were SO tired (went to bed at like 2 and woke up at 6!!!) So it was kind of painful just being out in the cold. Then we visited the Pommery Caves and saw the caves where the champagne is stored. They have over 25 millions bottles there!!! We had a tasting after and the champagne was very good. Then we broke for lunch and then met up with the rest of our group and went to Charles de Cazanove Champange house. We went into the storage area and saw where they produced the champagne and then tasted 3 different kinds. One was sweet, one was vintage, and then one was like regular? They were really good though! Since we had so much Champagne, everyone was a bit tipsy so the walk back to the train wasn’t too bad. We got on the train and left of Epernay.

We arrived in Epernay all exhausted and ready for dinner. We got to our new hotel, Hotel Des Berceaux (where the rooms where huge and had no bugs!!). Then we had a gourmet dinner at the hotel. We had a few options, I didn’t like any of the entrees, so Amanda told me to get scallops and then she would eat them. So I got scallops with a small salad and I tasted a scallop!! I didn’t like it though. I ate the lettuce though...everyone else ate my scallops because apparently they were the most incredible scallops anyone had every had. Then for my main course I got boeuf bourguignon and it came with mashed potatoes and it was incredible. It was cooked in the best sauce I’ve ever tasted in my life. I ate SO much bread because the sauce was too good to not dip in. Then for dessert I got this chocolate lava type cake and it was incredible. I took SO MANY pictures of this meal, I’ll put them on my picasa later when I put my pictures on my computer. Then a bunch of us went and tried to find a store to buy some wine so we could have some in the hotel. We ended up finding this adorable like champagne store that had a bar/cafe and the owner and friends were sitting at the bar and they gave us each a shot to taste of this like sweet liquor that I thought was really good. Then they gave us this ice cream thats like made of biscuits and it was light pink and SO good but we couldn’t describe the flavoring because it doesn’t really exist in english...Then they gave us some pink champagne as well! All for free because the owner was sitting there giving it to us. So that was fun/funny. Then we bought some wine and went back to the hotel and just hung out.

The next morning we woke up and went to breakfast at the hotel which was delicious!!! We had croissants, cereal, and they had these things that looked like muffins kind of but tasted like donuts and were very sweet and delicious. Then we left and went to the Andre Bergere Champagne House on Avenue De Champagne, so we passed so many champagne houses which was really cool. Then we had another champagne tasting at 11 am. We tried three different ones which were really good, but being STUFFED still from dinner last night and from the breakfast it was kind of hard to drink (and the fact that it was so early in the morning). Then we had some free time before heading to the train. I wanted to find souvenirs and really didn’t want to eat so I shopped around and I bought a really cute circle scarf for only 5 euros! It’s so warm!! Then I bought some gifts and then we headed back to the train station.

After a nice nap on the train, we arrived in Paris and then got our new rooms at the hotel and me and Maggie have two beds now!! We didn’t have much time because we were going to a final fashion show that was at a night club. We were all very excited but that faded fast...the night club was dirty and gross and it was REALLY disorganized. The designer is Hindi Mahdi and after waiting forever it started 45 mins after it was supposed to, and we were pushed like into the corner so could barely see, it finally started. The clothes were very trashy and didn’t really tell a story or go together at all, the music was awful, and the show was very distasteful and it lasted WAY too long. So as soon as it ended up peaced out of there and went to a restaurant called La Bastide, which was relatively nice. It was by far one of the nicest meals we’ve had. I got for my appatizer (which they call entrees here) cassolette de ravioles du royan a la creme de basilic (small raviolis of rovan with basil cream). It was SO delicious!!!!!! Then for my plat I had brochette de boeuf marinee aux herbes de Provence avec pommes Grenailles sautees au romarin, et jus auz aromates (beef skewer marinated in provencal herbs, new potatoes with rosemary and juice with aromatic herbs). The beef was pretty good as well, I liked the one from Eperney better though.

Saturday, January 29, 2011 5:25 pm

By the time we got back it was very late, around midnight and we were exhausted!! So we just went to bed. This morning we woke up and then ate breakfast at the hotel, then Maggie, Gabi, Yulyia and I went shopping! We wanted to go on Montparnesse because we heard it was a good rue of shops but after the Galleries Lafayette we ended up taking the metro back towards Saint Sulpice area instead. We ate lunch at Le Bizuth again and it was really good and very cute. I got a new Longchamp bag! A big one, tote bag size. Then a few other gifts. Not much else to update on...I think we’re getting falafel tonight!

Thursday, January 27, 2011 12:30 am

Okay, so today we just ended up chilling, we had lunch at Au Petit Swisse, a cute cafe nearby. I had a croque proventale or something and its ham and cheese with peppers and onions. It was really good!! Then we just showered, worked on journals, etc. It was a very chill day. Then at 5 we met and went to Dany Atrache’s fashion show. We got to dress the female models. When we got there at first we just stood around a lot and kind of just watched the models. They were SO TALL and SOOO SKINNY. I’ve never seen anything like it in person. Their legs were literally twigs. Then we finally saw the dresses and they were SO gorgeous. Like the most beautiful dresses I’ve ever seen. I didn’t have my camera with me, so I don’t have pictures which sucks. But if I see them online I’ll post the link later. Then we each got assigned a model and some dresses for them and obviously I was assigned to the model with the finale dress, which was a HUGE wedding dress with a giant train...my model was SO nice though. Her name was Iris and she’s from Sweden. As soon as she switched from the first dress to the second dress (the second dress being the giant wedding dress), as soon as this other assistant came over to help me zip it and then the zipper broke! Mid fashion show!! It was SO hectic. All of these people were running around furiously trying to resew it and then finally literally right as the guy put in the last stitch she was pushed onto the runway and had to walk down the runway in this GIANT wedding dress that was like dragging around and when she came back she was telling me she thought it was going to get stuck mid walk because the dress was so wide and the aisle was so narrow. It was seriously SO cool and the gowns were SO gorgeous. I’m SO GLAD we had to opportunity to go dress the models. I also thought they would be really stuck up and mean but they were SO nice!

Then after the show, I went back to Casa Valentino with Maggie, Gabi, Sam, and Lyndsey. I had the same salad pizza again which was SO good and the waiter remembered from last time that I wanted it without tomatoes which was cute.

Currently, we’re furiously trying to pack everything and then we have to move out of the hotel before going to Champagne in the morning. I don’t know how I’m ever gonna pack everything to go home, it’s gonna be such a disaster!