The Time We Danced in a Fire Station

I started this morning off right with a croissant and pear juice that tasted thick like liquefied pieces of fruit.

In the morning, our long walk took us to the outskirts of Paris - much different from the rest of the city in that it is more diverse, has higher buildings and frankly is not as nice. It looks like the outskirts of any other city with little hints of Paris. However, we stopped at a park with mural art and Teo said this is the best view of Paris because you can see all the monuments - though it seemed too far away to me.

It was a strange neighborhood and smelled pretty bad. The buildings were also higher than the six-story limit in central Paris, so it didn't have the same quaint appeal. Eventually we strolled down a few residential alleys that were very small and charming with flowers all around.

(An aristocat... kidding)

For lunch, we had brought sandwiches (rustic ham and cheese for me) to eat in a huge park with tall trees and a stone structure in the center. However, The Butte Chaumont Park was hilly and muddy, so I actually slipped and got mud all over my leggings and some on my skirt. It was kind of miserable sitting in the wet grass on a hill, but I guess it's a good thing that one of my worst moments in Paris was just getting a little dirty.

At the end of our walk, I went back to the hotel to change and got dessert at a bakery across from our hotel with a lime green storefront. The tricolore is a tiered chocolate cream dessert (with white, milk and dark chocolate) with a single raspberry on top that gave it so much flavor (I wish there were more framboises).

I had an early dinner at the café in the movie Amelie, which we'd passed by in a previous walk. Two girls came along to Cafe des Deux Moulins - it was really cool because the inside looks exactly like the set of the film, except now there are Amelie posters inside and pesky film fanatics eating.

Eventually we felt awkward because we could tell it was a touristy place - what do you call it, like a cliche faux café like we were on a movie set. The menus were in English, no customers were really French,and we could just tell it wasn't a real French café. On the plus side, they did have frog legs on the menu, which is something I've wanted to try here! With so little time left in the program, I thought I wouldn't get a chance to try them, so I was overjoyed. I ordered them with French onion soup for my dinner - can you tell it's a tourist spot yet?

One person was wearing an LA baseball hat, one person was holding a selfie stick... it was bad for us Parisians. I did enjoy the frog legs - they did indeed taste like chicken as I'd been told. It was super difficult for me to get the meat off them, though, because they were like 70% tiny bones. The onion soup tasted alright, but I could tell it wasn't authentic French because the cheese wasn't as messy and over-the-top as it's supposed to be. The bread was somehow simultaneously chewy and soggy and impossible to cut with a spoon.
Like I said, kind of a fake French café but still decent. Bucket list: check.

Since tonight is the day before Bastille Day, there are "balls" at the fire stations, where the firemen and other public officers raise money for charity apparently by throwing a dance in their station down our street. Literally everyone in the entire neighborhood went from grandparents to kids, from 9 pm to 4 am. We went from like 11 pm to about 2 am and I was exhausted, but it was really fun to see all the French people celebrating their national holiday like our 4th of July.

The line was so long for people to get inside to the courtyard. There were booths for food and drinks, and a concert-like stage with a DJ and colored lights. Almost everyone was speaking French, so we knew it was actually something that local people did. The firemen and officers were working by collecting money and checking bags - it was a really cool cultural experience to see this community dance party with people of all ages.

The Time I Lived the Baguette Life

The baguette life is basically code for the Parisian life, if you ask me. Since yesterday was a free Sunday, I was able to go to the market and get nectarines, an avocado, a baguette and a grilled poulet (chicken) for my excursion. I felt very French because I spoke to everyone in French and got all my goodies like the French people. Next stop for me was Jardin du Luxembourg, like the French. Teo said they all go there on Sunday to relax, and I wanted to be (read: try being) Parisian.

I got other foods from my room, like my fig cheese and cucumbers. Thus, baguette in hand I got in the metro. I got off early to walk a few blocks down Boulevard Saint Michel to the entrance. It's almost like a carnival with the dusty gravel paths through the park, a giant fountain with kids racing boats adorned with national flags, and lots of flowers and trees (even palm trees). Green metal chairs are scattered all over the garden, so I picked one and ate a third of my baguette with cheese and some chicken and cucumber.

Every 20-30 minutes I would move locations to a new spot, all around the fountain and even in the wooded area to get different views. Then I would snack on something different as well, sometimes listening to music, sometimes reading "A Moveable Feast" and sometimes just watching everyone.

The senate building is in the garden, so I could hear it chime every 15 minutes and longer on the hour. At one point in my novel, Hemingway talked about walking through Luxembourg Gardens and I was right there! It was a very relaxing morning/afternoon to be there by myself, eating and watching Paris go by.

I lived that baguette life, eating a whole baguette in one day over a period of six hours (I finished it later in my room). I'm not talking about a cheap Subway foot-long or anything - I mean a full fledged arms-length baguette. By myself. One day. I feel like I should be crowned a true Parisian now.

Side note: I saw a magnet the other day that said "I heart Paris" but the "I" was a baguette, the heart was a heart, and Paris was an Eiffel Tower. I thought the heart should be the Louvre, so it would be "I Louvre Paris" ;)

Anyway, after my Luxembourg Sunday Parisian adventure, I stopped off at the Mabillon metro exit to try what Teo calls the best cupcakes in Paris. It's the definition of a hole in the wall - it's a one-person room with a tiny oning. You walk inside and there's no one there - the one-person room is empty except me. Then a woman opened a peep hole like how I imagine 1920s clubs, and saw me and opened a door to bring out a tiny tray with baby cupcakes on it. It felt mysterious.

I chose a little nutella cupcake and it was delicious indeed. Very moist and flavorful with thick whipped frosting and a hazelnut on top. I ate it quickly because it was so small, but while I was riding the metro back, I kept thinking about how good it was in retrospect. It was almost better to think about than actually experience.

Then I was a horribly unhealthy person and went to Berthillon ice cream too. Because what's cake without ice cream? Ugh so unhealthy, but I guess I'll tell myself this is like vacation? It started to rain near Saint Michel and Notre Dame when I was there, but once again I felt like a Parisian because all the tourists fled for cover, but I just walked over and got chocolate ice cream.

It's the best chocolate ice cream ever. Period. So rich and creamy and soft and melty. I just stood along the river eating my heart out; I loved this ice cream and this view. I can't get over either one.

On my way back, there was a guy and girl singing songs from the band Train with guitars in the metro. And they were really good so it made me smile. In the evening, I was going to meet up with Andrea, a girl I know at UCLA who is studying in London but visiting for the weekend. However, she ended up not getting wifi so we weren't able to meet. Instead, I made dinner in the hotel and went to get hot chocolate with two fellow students (one of whom went to Paris Disneyland today) at Le Piquet cafe down the street from us. I relish in sitting in cafes at night, with lights all around and people passing by. Again, very Parisian.

 (On the way back we passed by this giant recycling bin with tons of wine bottles and such outside. WOAH.)

We gathered up a few more students and went to sit by the Inception bridge as we call it (AKA Bir Hakeim bridge), to watch the tower lit up by the river. It's so beautiful, I could watch it forever and daydream.

Today I felt very Parisian, or at least I tried to be. Between my baguette, the garden, the rain, the café and the tower, it was a very casual and authentic day in Paris. I hope this is what it means to be Parisian because I enjoy the baguette life.

The Time We Were Hemingway

I had to miss the class walk on the day I went to London, so yesterday (Saturday) Teo repeated the walk for those of us who missed it. It was nice to be in a smaller group of about 12 students, so we all kept together.
The walk was sort of near Odeon, first to a church that was turned into a meeting club during the French Revolution.

 We walked by the University of Paris, Sorbonne, which Teo said is like the second tier after the doctor and engineering schools. He said the universities are super affordable, less than $400, but everyone has to take a huge merit exam that determines which school you go to. It's funny that in the US, our universities have some of the nicest architecture of the city; here, they just blend in.

 The pantheon is around the corner.

The next stop was the church where Clovis and Pascal are buried. It's called Saint-Étienne-du-Mont; we stopped inside but a mass was going on, so we couldn't venture to the back area. However, this church was actually unique from other churches, as it had gorgeous white spiral staircases in the center that reminded me of bone or shell skeletons.

Since we were near Hemingway's house by now, Teo told us that he used to walk down this street and drink and write in the cafés nearby. All 12 of us sat down in one of the cafés (Le Contrescarpe) and a third-party unaffiliated with UCLA (definitely not Teo) bought us all small beers so we could be like Hemingway. 

(Too bad I don't care for beer, so another student finished mine. It was a cool experience so now I can say I drank where Hemingway did.) 

We continued down Rue de Mouffe as the locals say, where all the stores were open for the market for lunch. This is where our walk ended, but several of us stayed around to look at the bakeries and jarred goods and cheese shops and seafood. I got a sandwich jambon from a popular bakery, which was amazing on very chewy and tough bread (but not stale, of course) with a good helping of mayo. 

The desserts looked so perfect and glazed, but I wasn't hungry enough for one. I was experimental, though, and tried some bits of fried dough with powdered sugar, which I thought would be like funnel cake but were more dense and crispy than chewy and soft. I didn't finish them - I didn't like the bland taste nor thick texture.

 In the afternoon, after a little resting time, I went to Pierre Herme to try their macarons - two of them, Jasmine and Chocolate/Passion Fruit, to be exact. Laduree and Pierre Herme are the best macarons in Paris, so you have to have a taste-off to see which you like better. 

The verdict: Pierre Herme! Though I liked Laduree's tea flavored macaron, the textures were better at Pierre Herme. They were slightly chewy with more quantity of creamy filling. The chocolate/passion fruit was my favorite of all (read: about five places) I tried in Paris - a little sour but rich and sweet too, like other fruit/chocolate combos you can get in the US.

 Tonight was our class's formal dinner, so we all went to a restaurant near the Seine by Notre Dame at 7:30. Walking from the metro to the restaurant was a gorgeous scene - the light an hour before sunset was golden. The beams that reflected off the river were blinding as we all walked in our semi-formal attire to fit into a 40-person room.

 After the entree of salad, we got our pre-ordered plat between vegetarian, fish and duck. The duck comes in a huge pot of four servings, bathed in a tasty prune sauce. There were chunks of plum skins and duck skins in the broth, oozing flavor. It was so tender and went well with the great, soft (almost soggy) French fries.

 It was hot in the room with 40 people and no air conditioning, but I still enjoyed the meal. I talked with two girls about how there are so many different personas of Paris when we hear the name. You can think of the Paris that's stated under the designer labels, or the Hemingway idyllic Paris, or the more city-like cosmopolitan Paris that we live in. The connotations when someone says "Paris" are so varied, but I want to understand them all. But I digress.

The chocolate tart dessert came with like a melted vanilla ice cream - some people thought it was too much chocolate but there is no such thing. We ended dinner with the story of how Teo met his wife, to conclude a wonderful night in the city.

The Time I (Finally) Tried Snails

Before class, I got up early to go to 81 Rue de L'Universite "Rue de Loo" where Julia Child lived. I wanted to just take a little look, and I caught a morning glimpse of the metro commute as I rode there over the elevated tracks.
It's a very simple building, not in a really bustling area, with just a few random cafes nearby. However, it is right down the street from the Assemblee Nationale bearing French flags and all. It's cheesy, but I tried to imagine her walking down these streets and first falling in love with Paris.

Today we went as a class to Pere Lachaise Cemetery - the most expensive neighborhood in Paris. Teo said a plot of land for a grave is millions of euros. It was a huge labyrinth of cobblestones and little monuments of many famous people, including Sarah Bernhardt, Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde and Gertrude Stein.

 As we went along each grave, we would put a pink rose on the tombs of the people we talked about. Teo had brought the bouquet and we took turns putting roses down - mine was on Sarah Bernhardt's.

 Even the cemetery itself was pretty, though they the idea of graves kind of creeps me out. It was similar to a park with fallen leaves, as we passed by a row with tombs from the Holocaust. Down the row there were many sad metal statues of drooping turquoise bodies like skin and bones. It's sad to see remnants of that period in Europe, in the place it occurred.

After our three hour cemetery excursion, I was starving. We stopped in one of the first cafés we saw near Gambette with an orange awning. A common practice here seems to be having a price for a combo meal of a entree and plat OR plat and dessert. Here it was 14 euros for my lamb and tiramisu framboise (raspberry).

 Though it was more expensive than a typical lunch for me, I was impressed that we could get a French meal of lamb and dessert for about $15. I really loved the sweet lamb sauce and almonds for texture. The tiramisu was less impressive - though the cream was good, it didn't flow well with the coffee cake parts but was too separated for my liking. We also had some trouble with the waiter because he didn't speak English and some members in my group were picky with orders.

In the afternoon I had some free time, so I went window shopping in the touristy areas near the Louvre. Sorry to my inner Parisian, but I wanted to see the souvenirs. I didn't take too long, though, because I met one of my friends from UCLA for dinner. Alfie is doing another travel study program that goes to four cities and she just got to Paris. We met near Cluny at Le Bistro Du Perigord, which a girl from my program recommended. 

We ordered that combo option with three courses. My entree was (finally) escargot, something that I knew I definitely wanted to try in Paris but have been procrastinating for no particular reason. I wasn't sure where to go or when to get it to make it special. My fellow student had recommended it, so I knew this was the trusted place. Alfie and I actually ran into her there with her friends, which is how it goes - we find places and share them and go back and have favorites. 

 The escargot actually was really delicious as long as you don't think about it! It tastes like seafood, like little chewy scallops or something. And they're just covered in garlic and oil and maybe a pesto-like sauce? It's salty and chewy, like a good delicacy. You use that little eyelash curler thing to hold the shell, while a two-pronged baby fork takes the little piece of meat out.

This was a rumpsteak with an amazing cream-like sauce and soft vegetables - dare I say ratatouille? It's fun to order in France because even with translated menus, you never really know what you're going to get because they're Google translated and often a little wrong. You see "steak" and "vegetables" but have no idea how it's prepared. Before cutting into that thick slab of meat, I was scared it would be rare like the French do things, but it was just right.

This was my dessert. A sort of caramelized apple kalua coffee ice cream pastry God knows what (thanks Google translated menu). The little pastry shells were so flaky and crumbly, and inside was a huge ball of ice cream and those wonderful apples. A little fruit/vegetable/thing garnish was placed on top, which tasted like a cross between an orange and cherry tomato. The sauce around and on top was a fabulous caramel coffee - a great combination when mixed all together. 

I would completely recommend this place - the waiters here were so attentive and refilled our water like five times. Très bien. 

Maybe on this blog it looks like I'm eating out a lot, and I certainly am more this week than prior weeks because time is winding down. However, when I don't post pictures of my meals, I either had a two euro pastry for breakfast or I made something simple (pasta, likely) in my room. It's not always extravagant, but there are those days like today where we spent 2.5 hours on a real three course French meal done right. And I'm not even scared to take the metro by myself anymore!

The Time of my Cheese Dessert

On Wednesdays, we go to the market. I got some baby cucumbers, strawberries, a ham bread for breakfast, and a leather purse for myself as a souvenir. One of the stall workers at the market, upon hearing my English, asked where I was from ("England or America?"), then proceeded to say "California or Texas?" I thought it was a stereotype that foreigners group U.S. regions together, but apparently not so much.

 Today was our last formal lecture, during which we talked about the French revolution, reminding me of our trip to Versailles. After my chicken crepe for lunch (I have to eat more of them while I have the chance before I leave soon), we embarked on our walk. We passed by a modern art museum and a park with lots of street art.

 The tour also took us outside the oldest private residence (house) in Paris - that of Nicholas Flamel. Like in Harry Potter.

We walked down many streets, like the rue de Montergeuil, which had many cafes and shops. Our walk ended outside of a gothic church called St. Eustache. I feel like I've seen so many beautiful churches on this trip, and this was no different.  

It was enormous inside, with huge towers holding up the ceiling. I think this was the highest ceiling thus far, I genuinely felt like I was in a giant's church. So impressive.

Since it was drizzly and cloudy today (my favorite weather in Paris), I sat in a cafe with two girls for a bit to soak up the atmosphere and watch the city go by. I had a cafe creme and they had chocolat with whipped cream. I kid you not, their drinks were three inches of hot chocolate and four inches of whipped cream with a straw. It's bliss to sit under a red cafe awning in wicker chairs and watch the grey rain in the streets. 

Soon, I went with a group to the Rodin museum and garden (wow, I initially spelled that "gardin" and had no idea why it was underlined red - French is rubbing off). The metro was insanely jam-packed. At first we thought it was because it was rush hour from work around 5 p.m., but we've travelled at this time before and it wasn't so crowded. In retrospect, maybe it was because of the rain. Anyway, the metros were packed with people like sardines. People would flood out of the doors, leaving no time for us to get on before the doors close. One time, someone got their foot stuck in the automatic doors as they slammed shut, and people had to pry the doors open so his foot wouldn't be like ripped off when the metro took off. Scary. 

The Rodin Museum is under construction, so we could only access the garden and one exhibit for a reduced price. I really enjoyed the garden view, which reminded me of the Vaux le Vicomte architecture because it was yellow and palace-like with a lovely rose garden and cone-shaped tree hedges. It's also seen in "Midnight in Paris."

 We weren't sure whether these were like original sculptures or casts or what, because why would they put "fakes" in a museum but why would they put originals outside? I think we deduced later that they were casts, but like some of the first original casts perhaps. Not sure still, because we thought some of these sculptures are also in other museums and such.

The inside exhibition was not as gorgeous as the garden, but still cool to witness how Rodin created rough edges to see that artist's hand and how he morphed the body. I liked him more after seeing this museum to get a better look at his style. 

After the museum, I rejoined the two girls from the cafe for dinner. I really wanted to try a restaurant with a green awning around the corner from our hotel, called L'Alchimie. Teo had originally recommended it, but then others from our program went and apparently a girl cried because it was so good. We went in with high expectations, though I tried to lower mine so I wouldn't be disappointed.
The menu, first of all, was oddly translated and poetic, like one item that said "with crystallized shallots crushed by blue (bruise) of former days."

This was a special dinner for us, with three courses. I decided to order things I've never had before and we all three got all different things so we could try each other's. For the entree, I had carpaccio of beef in the pesto crumble of parmesan cheese. I was a little nervous to try raw meat, but their dish made it very manageable. I pretended it was like thin ham, and it was so flavorful - covered in oil and garlic and pesto. It was just soaked with that flavor. I also tried the other girl's foie gras and the other's asparagus soup (which was the best - essentially cream and asparagus, reminding me of broccoli and cheddar soup).

 For the plat, I ordered pig's rib with assortment of vegetables. I don't even like pork that much, but this was just so good and hot. In fact, it came out so hot and fresh that by the time I was done, the meat had cooked itself to be dry (but for the majority of my meal, it was perfectly juicy). In the photo below, the vegetables are hidden by a "meadow" as one girl said of herbs, but vegetables lie underneath. I can't even explain the flavor. None of us had even tasted this flavor in our lives. It was like a butter acidic maybe citrus bitter taste that these carrots, zucchini and shallots had been marinating in for so long. They fell apart they were so soft. One girl said it was like a part of her brain was lighting up from tasting this completely new nameless flavor. The best part was the sauce (again, unlike anything I've had) and what I believe are mashed potatoes under the herbs. It was a smooth ball of light yellow, and when I first tasted it, I thought it was pure butter. It tasted like pure butter, in a good way. Wonderful!

 For dessert, I felt that I needed to try a fromage plate while in Paris so I did. It was a brie, a goat cheese and some other type of sharp cheese. While their flavors were very good, especially on the warm rolls they came with, by the end of the meal I felt I needed something sweet to finish it off. So, I was kind of unsatisfied by the whole palette of the meal because I had two meats and cheese - all savory and salty. However, it was my fault for ordering this way. I chose dish by dish instead of a full balanced meal. The two girls got strawberries with cream and basil jelly, and an assortment of sorbets. The mango sorbet had real junks of mango and was very refreshing. The girl with the strawberry basil almost cried because it was good. I liked both their desserts, too, because of their simplicity and light sweetness.

It was a good French meal treat. More expensive than normal of course, but we needed to go here before we left.