Cooking Adventures, Versailles, and Giverny!

Sorry for the late blog post! These past days have been busy, but adventurous! Here are some of the things we've been up to!

Cooking!
We are quickly realizing the expensiveness of living in France, and the amount of money it costs to eat out. Though we are given a generous stipend, we all want to save up that money for trips out of the country, clothes, dessert, and other very exciting things. SO. We have decided to start cooking ourselves! Our rooms all have a small kitchen built in, fully equipped with pots, pans, plates, utensils, and the like. Carrefour has been a favorite, and so we stop by the supermarket every few days and buy groceries for lunch and dinner. Usually we cook up some pasta, and some vegetables. We've also done some omelettes and french fries. Nothing too adventurous yet, but we have plenty of time left! Here are pictures from my first cooking expedition!

Spaghetti, rotisserie chicken, sautéed vegetables, peach champagne!

Versailles
On Saturday, we had a free day, so Kirstin, Evan, Evan's friend Matt, Becca, Adaora, and I took the RER and headed out to Versailles! What a beautiful beautiful place! We had such a perfect day - despite the schizophrenic thunderstorm that followed us around and flashed us with minutes of rain at a time. We saw the beautiful palace, including La Gallerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors). The gardens were the best part though, with the fountains and the water shows. After walking around a bit, we rented out boats and rowed out onto the Grand Canal, and got a spectacular view of the palace and gardens. The weather was beautiful then, and we enjoyed a beautiful boat ride. I was lucky to be in the boat with Evan and Matt, so I just sat back, relaxed, and let the men do the rowing. Poor Becca, Adaora, and Kirstin struggled their way through the waters with the heavy paddles...
We ended the day at Versailles with dinner at one of our favorite crêperies - Little Beizgh - with our favorite waitress! After dinner, we even came back and enjoyed peach champagne, games of spoons, bananagrams, and cards. Funtimes. It was one of my favorite days in France so far :)

Chateau de Versailles

Giverny
We spent most of the day at Giverny with the whole group and Masson. Giverny is the town where Monet painted most of his work, so we got to see Monet's house and gardens! It was cool to see the different paintings in real life! Afterwards, we also had time to see the town of Giverny, and the different tourist attractions.

For now, that's all! Classes are going well, and we are continuing our guided visits throughout Paris. Tomorrow we will be visiting Le Quartier Latin!

With love from Paris!

Our Neighbors - Picasso, Champs-Élysées, et Le Louvre!

These past two days we've really gotten to know our neighbors and the quartier that we live in! After dinner last night with Madame Masson and Monsieur Beauclair at the fancy Vagenende, we took a stroll around St. Germain de Pres, and Madame showed us when Picasso lived when he painted the Guernica! C'est très bizarre! His apartment is located just behind our hotel! It is also where Balzac stayed for a while to write his book "Le Chef D'Oeuvre Inconnu".

Today we also walked across the bridge and visited another one of our neighbors - Le Louvre! It was an incredible museum, and while there, Lucille took us to see the three famous women of the Louvre. L'Aphrodite - Venus de Milo, La Victoire de Samothrace, and of course, Mona Lisa - La Jaconde. There were a gabillion people at the Louvre, so taking pictures was hard since people kept walking into them. It was also just very cool to be so close to such important pieces of art in history! Lucille did a wonderful job telling us the history of it all.

Le Louvre 

L'Aphrodite - Venu de Milo

La Victoire de Samothrace

Blurry, but there she is! Mona Lisa! There were just too many people 

Outside the Louvre with Kara!

After a morning spent in the Louvre, we left and took a stroll down Champs-Elysees! We passed by Les Jardins de Tuilleries on the way, and also Place de la Concorde.

Les Jardins de Tuilleries - Le Louvre in the background!

Avenue de Champs Élysées! L'Arc de Triomphe in the background

Even after almost a week in France, it's hard to believe we're in Paris. We are surrounded by all these historical monuments and beautiful sights - it is all so surreal! We only have two weeks left in Paris, and there is still so much to see! Stay posted!

L'Île de la Cité, Notre Dame, Les Jardins de Luxembourg

Another lovely day in Paris, filled with long walks, the best ice-cream in the world, the beautiful Jardin de Luxembourg (Luxembourg Gardens), and yummy food!

The incredible Notre Dame - most visited place in Paris!

We also walked across the bridge L'Archevêché, where there were thousands of locks, all locked to the sides!

After our visit to l'Îles de la Cités, we walked over to Les Jardins de Luxembourg, where there was the beautiful Palace.

We have class tomorrow morning, so we must go do our homework now! Then Thursday we will be heading over to the Louvre, right across the bridge.

À bientôt, mes amis!

A Day in the City!

Update of past two days!

Sunday

What a day! After waking up at 5am due to jetlag, I fell back asleep at 7am, and woke up around 10:30am. Kirstin and I had a small breakfast in our room (note: I have apparently become lactose intolerant! Cereal this morning did not sit well in my tummy...), and then we went to the organic market with Becca and Sarah. Was funtimes! I bought a peach.
We headed back and rested a bit before meeting the group for our tour of the city. Lucille, our wonderful, lovely tour guide joins us and we take the Paris metro over to Trocadéro, where we see the Eiffel Tower! It was a beautiful day, but very very hot. Did you know that 6 thousand people visit the Eiffel Tower each day?! There were tons of people. Then we headed on a boat tour along the Seine, and saw many large sites - Le Louvre Museum, Le Palais Royal, Assemblée Nationale, Notre Dame, and others. We were all very sunburnt though by the end. After the boat cruise, we went to the first level of the Eiffel Tower and had dinner at the prestigious 58 Tour Eiffel! It was an incredible three-course meal, fully paired with a bottle of red wine, a bottle of white wine, and a glass of champagne (side note: peach champagne is absolutely delicious!). Our appetizer was foie-gras de canard (liver), and then the main course was un filet de pintade rôti. For desert, we had la craquant chocolat (chocolate mousse), with a real gold leaf on top! (?!?!) Masson assured us that there wouldn't be any chemicals in it though, so we ate it. After dinner, we took a tour around the first floor of the Eiffel Tower, before splitting up. A few of us climbed to the second floor, and then we got in line for the elevator to the very top! After hours of wait, we finally made it! It was incredible, and while waiting, the lights also lit up on the tower, and we could see all of Paris. It was spectacular. Finally we made it back to Pont Neuf around 12:30am, and we spent some time sitting by the Seine, before heading back inside into the hotel. What a day!

La Tour Eiffel!

Gold leaf on my chocolate mousse?!

View from the Eiffel Tower - you can see l'Arc de Triomphe there in the distance!

Monday


Class begins! We have class from 9-12:30pm on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. We split up into two groups, and have literature and stylistique classes. Monsieur Boyer, the professor of our literature class, talks very very quickly, but he seems very educated. When we asked him to write something on the board, we also couldn't read his hand-writing. But it's ok! We're all going to study together!
After class, a few of us head to Café Buci for some lunch, and then headed to l'Orange to buy our phones and SIM cards. After, we head to Monoprix! The french version of Target. We bought a few things, and then headed to Carrefour for some groceries and wine!
This afternoon, we also had our class visit to Le Marais - the Jewish quarter. We walk lots and lots, all over the whole quartier. We saw lots of beautiful places, including La Place des Vosges - a lovely park where people lounge around and read and hang around. After the 2 hour tour, we say goodbye to Lucille - our lovely tour guide, and we head back into the Marais to find dinner. After dinner, we took a giant walk all the way past Hotel de Ville, past Notre Dame, le Quartier Latin, and all the way back to our hotel! Our feet were super sore by the end. So we ended the night with some wine and cheese!

La Place des Vosges

L'Hotel de Ville

Being French

It's crazy all the things we get to do here! We look out the window, and we are on the Seine, looking out at Notre Dame, and feeling the breeze of the fall Paris air. Everything is so beautiful, and I am so lucky to be on this trip! We have also been speaking French all day (even texting in French!) - though we do make it a rule to stop the French after 11:30pm...But everything is wonderful so far, and I am so blessed to have this opportunity.

I'm sure there'll be more adventures to come, so stay posted! À demain!

Nous avons arrivé!!

We have arrived!! France is beeaauutiful!

After a long four-hour wait in Logan, we were finally on the plane to Paris, Charles-de-Gaulle. There were 18 of us traveling from Logan, and 3 more who were meeting us in Paris. Everyone is super friendly and awesome! The plane ride wasn't too bad - just 6 hours. I had planned to continue working on my planner book (I still have to draw in the lines for each day!), but unfortunately, as I was working, my pen exploded on me. Not good. The two people next to me were both sleeping though, so I just wiped off my hands with paper and hand sanitizer. Yikes!

We arrive in Paris around 8am, and it is beautiful, clear, and sunny. Professor Masson meets us, and we  head off on a bus towards our hotel, La Citadine. The drive was beautiful, and we passed by many big sites - Le Centre Pompidou, Notre Dame, La Seine, La Bastille...and then we arrive. Right by the river, La Citadine is a very big, modern, apartment/hotel. We are living in doubles, and the room has two single beds, a bathroom, and a mini kitchen. It's super cute!

After some downtime to relax and take showers, the rest of the day was spent in a marathon of a meeting with Masson, before we all split up in groups to eat dinner and walk around. Paris is beautiful! It is bustling with people, music is playing in the streets, people are all eating outside restaurants and cafes, and boats are cruising down the Seine. We are all very jetlagged and exhausted, so we didn't do too much walking around after dinner. But it's okay, because it's only the first night of many. So for now, goodnight Paris!

New Country, New Blog

Hello!

If you came here from Moroccan Musings, thanks for migrating over! If not, well hello anyway! After two months in Morocco, I came home to bug-free bathrooms, yummy food, and non French-speaking people. It's good to be home! I had an incredible time in Morocco, and I am so thankful for that experience. Through all the ups and downs, I'd like to say I learnt a lot and have grown from it.

Now, after almost three weeks, I'm about to head out again! This time to France!
I'll be spending three weeks in Paris before moving down to Aix-en-Provence for the rest of the semester. Packing has once again been put off until the very end, so I have yet to begin. I am stumped though at how I am going to fit all my clothes - for summer, fall, and winter - all my school supplies, and all the other random stuff I need to have with me at all times - into one 23kg bag. And I am no good at packing....

But while in France, I will be keeping this blog and posting about the different Parisienne adventures I'll have there, so stay posted! Here we go! T - 4 days!