Aaaamsterdam!

I just finished 2 papers, a long chalk post, part of my French homework, and a huuuuuge email about life decisions/academia.

This means I'm reading an entire book, coming up with a B.A. thesis, and finishing the REST of my French homework during my weekend in AMSTERDAM.

SO MUCH TO DO, SO LITTLE TIME!

And, yes, I'm still sort of recovering from being sick.

Tendonitis, cha-cha-cha!

A lot has happened.

I have not blogged.

This silence is partially due to the fact that I have a ton of B.A. work ahead, am writing a photo essay for class, and, oh yes, am sick.

Sickness in Paris? SACRE BLEU! I'd just like to point out that I managed to spend 2 months in Beijing and NOT get sick (well, until the very end... when I was 99% sure that I'd contracted SARS). However, one month of Paris and my body has begun to give out. Yeeesh.

To be more precise, I managed to irritate a tendon in my left foot while I was IN BRUGES (God, that's never going to get old), so I've been limping around Paris like the suave temptress I am. My newly acquired nicknames from the weekend are "hop-along" and "gimpy." On top of that, I started coming down with something in the middle of class today, which seems to consist of a fever, chills, aching muscles, a sore throat, and nonstop hunger. To counter my bodily breakdown, I made a massive vat of napa cabbage/mushroom/spinach/egg soup and am consuming said vat as I type. With any luck, I'll be up and running tomorrow... so I can walk to the center on account of a massive transit strike!

As much as it sounds like Paris is sucking right now, it really isn't. My faith in humanity has been more or less restored in the past few days - I think there is something about being in Paris that brings out the best in people. Rather, something about not being super-stressed out in Chicago that brings out the best in people. I mean, people have been really, really awesome about helping me carry things, finding an English speaking foot doctor, locating a foot/ankle brace, giving me drugs (of the anti-inflammatory kind!), buying me hot chocolate, offering to help me get home... I've only known most of these people for a month, but I'm really touched that I've been offered this much help. That said, I hate being dependent on people (or, rather, feeling dependent), so I guess I've learned that I'm still made of the tough stuff that got me through some really brutal times (e.g. fencing bouts with a bum knee, a messed up ankle, a couple of arm slashes, and 3 hours of sleep).

Time to turn my current verbosity into something more productive... and finish up that photo essay. I might end up posting my essay on this blog - it's been a while since I've written something creative, and I think my final product will best demonstrate how I feel about Paris. Maybe. Perhaps. At least it will have pretty pictures!

xoxo,
D

Mmmm!

I just made a batch of this stuff: http://www.ciao.fr/Tipiak_Meli_Melo_gourmand__1080391

and it is SO DAMN TASTY! Not to mention cheap. I think I have found a new staple food!

Speaking of delicious things, I'm heading to Belgium tomorrow. I still need to figure out how to get to Bruges (and, um, watch "In Bruges"), but I'm looking forward to a weekend of waffles, chocolate, and beer!

xoxo,
D

Things I want to do in Paris!

Before I left for Paris, I asked many of you for Paris-must-do recommendations - thank you! I am so excited to follow your suggestions... though I have to admit that, since there are so many of them, I've been having a lot of trouble keeping things in mind. Which brings me to this post.

Although, I've just spent 2 weeks in Paris, I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of all that the city has to offer. My classes don't start until 1pm, which is fantastic in terms of sleeping in (if I ever slept in) but not-so-great in terms of being able to wander. The fact that I also need to post for class DAILY is also severely cramping my style. I'm going to have to start planning way ahead in order to get everything I want to do into my short time here... which is what this list is for!

Please feel free to leave comments if there is anything else you think I should do and/or if you want to come with!

Monuments & Historic sites

• Arc de Triomphe Success!!: February 28, 2009
  
• Actually take a tour of the Garnier Opera House
• The Catacombes Success!!: March 6, 2009
  
• Spend a day at Versailles Success!!: February 28, 2009
• Spend an afternoon at the Cimetière de Montparnasse (and figure out where Baudelaire and Maupaussant are buried!) Success!!: March 6, 2009
• Visit Victor Hugo's home =) Success!!: March 17, 2009

Museums

• Wander around the LouvreSuccess!!: March 14, 2009
• Spend more time at the Musée D'Orsay
• Musée Picasso
• Musée de l'Erotisme (I still haven't checked out the Museum of Sex back home)
• Musée Rodin (recommended by Jessie)
• Musée Carnavalet Success!!: March 17, 2009
• Museum of Jewish Art and History Success!!: March 15, 2009
• Les Invalides Success!!: March 16, 2009

Shopping

• Check out the really huge produce market in Belleville
• Head to Le Marché des Enfants Rouges
  

Restaurants & Food

• Eat a savory crepe, preferably around the Latin Quarter, where the food seems more plentiful and cheapSuccess!!: Multiple times. Muuultiple times.
• Mint tea, baklava, and Turkish delight at La Grand Mosquée (recommended by Elspeth)
  Success!!: March 1, 2009 (Kind of. Tea and food is yet to happen)
• Eat at the Flora Danica (Ah, narcissism! Also, recommended by Shashi) Success!!: In lieu of spending money I don't have, I took a picture with the restaurant on February 28, 2009
• Cookies, cake, and hot chocolate at Angelina's Tearoom (recommended by Sydney) Success!!: February 5, 2009
• Ice cream at Chez Berthillon
• Marcarons at La Durée (recommended by Elspeth) Success!!: March 16, 2009
• Have tea at Mariage Frères
  Success!!: February 6, 2009

Bars

• The Frog & British Library (recommended by Jessie) Success!!: February 4, 2009 (I might want to check out the other branches of the Frog, though...)
  
• Drink absinthe... somewhere (Els, I can't seem to find the absinthe place you went to online!)
• Culture-Biere (recommended by Kate)
  

Nightlife - ...I found out that most of my desire to go clubbing has died (thank you, sketchy French men). Instead, I spent a LOT of time hunting down awesome beers =)

• Ladies night (Wednesday) at Le Queen
• Ladies night (Friday) at La Loco
• Go aboard Le Batofar
• Take advantage of being an international student to head to Six Seven sans cover
• Head to Rex and enjoy, um, minimalist electronica
• Figure out when Cab is pushing no cover
  

Everything Else

• The Bootlegger - home of lots and lots of beer Success!!: January 22, 2009
• Shakespeare & Company - otherwise known as bookstore porn. Oh boy! Success!!: January 19, 2009
• Snap a shot of the Moulin Rouge... but not pay the exorbitant fees to get inside Success!!: February 27, 2009
• Head to Chinatown for the parade on New Year (January 31) Fail? I was in Amsterdam that weekend... which makes January 31st itself a SUCCESS!!
• Watch a movie in La Pagode (recommended by Elspeth)
  

Whew, this is quite a hefty list! As the list grows/shrinks, I'll be updating this post. Do let me know if it's messing with your feeds...

xoxo,
D

p.s. Because Blogger doesn't really allow you create static pages, I've decided to quasi-mess with the system and kind of test this page as a static one. Check out the link on the right side for easy access to this post =)

The day of the museum death march and other stories

I'm pretty much failing at blogging regularly, largely due to the fact that my professor is crazy and assigns 200-250 pages of reading a night. That said, there is just way too much to do and explore in Paris – even without my professor's crazy amounts of work (and the additional fun of writing a B.A.), I'd probably be in the same boat.. I constantly feel overwhelmed (in a good way!); the downside to this inundation of sense and sound is that I feel like I have no time to process what is going on around me.

Before coming to Paris, I meant to create an experimental-writing-type blog to, well, mimic or ventriloquize Walter Benjamin. By writing like Benjamin, I hoped to parse out my thoughts about childhood/nostalgia/modernity/Paris/urban environments... but, well, I started said blog a few days ago, and the first entry is a poorly written Benjamin biography. With any luck, I'll actually get this second blog off the ground (easily accessible through my profile page; I'll plug it when I have more interesting stuff written. That is, if you feel like you can put up with my Benjamin-obsession and my not-so-lucid writing).

Anyway, I'm going to attempt to summarize my past week in pictures!

Last week, my friend and I went to L'as du Fallafel.
Located in Marais, L'as du Fallafel is Lenny Kravitz's favorite falafel place. The first time I went, I wasn't all that hungry; besides, I thought that French falafel probably couldn't stack up to some good ol' New York falafel. Boy, was I wrong! The falafel from L'as du Fallafel is way different than the falafel I'm used to – the falafel themselves are made of more finely ground ingredients, and the sandwich version of the falafel is filled with fried eggplant and lightly pickled cabbage – and is absolutely delightful! I think, perhaps, because I have an unhealthy love of eggplant. I went back to Marais on Tuesday morning in an attempt to buy 8 euro boots (would have worked too, if not for my huge calves. Four years of fencing make it pretty impossible to buy well-fitted boots), and ended up with this:
The Maccabee beer sold at the restaurant is also absolutely DELICIOUS. According to wikipedia, Maccabee is also sold in the States. You have no idea how happy this makes me.

On Wednesday, we headed over to a pub... so that I could complete my homework assignment. Yes, that's right. For French this Tuesday, I have to give a presentation on a bar and, uh, what could be more French than a British pub? Righto. I missed (and still miss) beer. We ended up at the Frog in Bercy Village, a lovely little (ok, not so little) establishment that was once a wine cellar. The Frog is actually a chain of pubs located around France, and each branch of the Frog chain has a different character (largely due to the different locales and architecture of each branch):

I think that I'll be making a trip out to a different bar every Wednesday... except for this Wednesday, when I'll need to be huddled in my room, reading and preparing for a class presentation-thing. I'd also like to add that Bercy Village is so very, very charming. Things seem a bit overpriced and touristy, but given how quaint and adorable the area is, I'm pretty sure I'll be spending a lot more time in Bercy Village. Besides, happy hour makes the impact a wee bit lighter on the wallet!

Thursday afternoon involved some school-sponsored drinking, otherwise known as the “cheese and wine reception.” Reception my ass. We were basically fed some AMAZING cheese and some very, very yummy wine. Rather, we nibbled on cheese and drank about 5 glasses of wine each. I finished off some of my friend's glasses because, well, you just can't let good wine go to waste!
I walked out of the tasting with a few new cheesy favorites. My favorite of the afternoon was the Corsica cheese, which is apparently called Fleur du Maquis (or Brindamour or Brin d'Amour. I spent a lot of time figuring this out). During the course of writing this entry, I have also discovered the existence of an online cheese encyclopedia. Again, indescribable happiness!

Thursday night involved another night at Mix. We missed the midnight no cover deadline by 2 seconds (we were the first people who had to pay the stupid cover. Ugh. This means I'll be eating hella ramen for a while), but despite the unexpected need to pay (girls shouldn't have to pay for anything at a club!), we had fun. Granted, a bunch of skeevy European men tried to hit on me (see previous post) and I had to, uh, resort to giving one a fake name so I could get him to stop talking to me. Anyway, I need to figure out when/where other international students or ladies nights take place...

After getting back from the club at 4am, I woke up at 8 because I just couldn't sleep. My professor decided to take us to the Musée Maillol AND the Pompidou today, resulting in a 7 hour museum death march. I love museums but really, really hate going to more than one museum a day AND feeling rushed about it – I think that the point of museums is to observe and contemplate, which really doesn't happen when you're being herded from one room to the next/your feet are KILLING you.

We were supposed to go out to Le Queen tonight (hooray for gay clubs!), but due to extreme fatigue (otherwise known as I don't sleep. Like, ever), I ended up staying in. Besides, we just found out that La Loco doesn't charge ladies a cover fee on Friday nights; I guess we'll pop over to Queen during one of their ladies nights to save on cash. Tomorrow will involve some sort of fun deal after a full day of reading, writing, and shopping. Again, Paris, you are awesome!

xoxo,
D

Eurotrashy

I promise an actual post in the near future, though I'm getting the feeling that I might have to back-populate given the massive amount of pictures I've taken. I meant for this blog to be a near-daily chronicle, but as it turns out, blog-able things tend to happen in sporadic spurts.

One thing I will say: European men are SO, SO, SO forward. A quick glance or, well, a pretty obvious attempt to ignore them is a green light in their eyes. Whether a 30-year-old men trying to, uh, take me on a tour of cité/have dinner with me/invite to me his home in Marseilles... or a skeevy, skeevy law student asking for my number (he asked for my facebook after I told him I didn't have a phone. Then I gave him a fake name)... well, I bet I'll have some interesting stories by the time I get back to the states. Perhaps my professor summed it up best:

"I was wandering through the arcades and took a wrong turn into some small alley. This guy came up to me - I couldn't tell if he was asking me if I wanted a husband or if I wanted hashish."

I can sleep when I'm dead!

Today I went to Montmartre. And it was amazing.

But first, let me back this story up.

As it turns out, my ability to run on little-to-no sleep is pretty darn useful when it comes to making time to explore other countries. After a kind of ridiculous night involving one normal bottle of wine, one economy-sized bottle of wine, pudding glasses, and Club Mix (otherwise known as "Jackie is incredibly popular among French men"), I got back to my room at about 4:30am.

At 10:00am, I woke up to the heavy beats of terrible Euro-techno.

My next door neighbor must have brought a subwoofer to Cité - I have no idea how else his music gets that LOUD. Unfortunately, I don't really know how to tell him to turn it down, given that my grasp of French is pretty poor. I'm thinking of launching my own aural assault to counter his music, but we'll see how that goes.

But despite the lack of sleep, Montmartre was AMAZING from the moment we stepped out of the metro. I wish I had a picture of this, but I bought a ridiculously long ham/egg/tomato baguette/sandwich for 3 euro. Granted, the sandwich didn't sit too well with the many, many steps we climbed to get to the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur:

However, a wonderful surprise was waiting at the top of the stairs:

I'm 99% sure that those funny little tiled things are SPACE INVADERS, which fills me with so very much glee! A little to the left of the space invaders was Sacre-Coeur itself:
And on the steps of Sacre-Coeur was a HUGE crowd listening to a very talented singer/guitarist play Beatles songs. No joke, this guy was good:

We wandered around Montmartre and saw artists in action:
And lots of charming shops:
We attempted to find the Moulin Rouge afterwards, but ended up doing some heavy-duty shopping instead. Montmartre, it turns out, is filled with small shops that offer more-than-reasonable prices. For instance, one of my friends bought a pair of boots for 15 euro, while another bought a pair of boots (that look almost identical to my $60 Chinese Laundry boots) for 20 euro. Hours of shopping - and not wanting to wander the red light district in the dark - made us abandon the Moulin Rouge quest for now, but believe me, we will be firmly planted in front of the Moulin Rouge within the month!

For dinner, we headed over to Chinatown. And, let me tell you, Chinatown is HUGE and rife with HUGE supermarkets! Ah, it reminds me of home =) I had an epic amount of pho tonight at this little restaurant:
And have been chilling out in my building - swathed in fleece and comfort - since coming back home. The only thing I regret is not buying a bottle of wine for tonight, but given yesterday night's activities, I suppose it's a good thing that my liver is getting a break!

With that, I'm finally going to bed. Bonne nuit!

xoxo,
Danica

A little taste of home

Today, the sales - les soldes - began. There are two huge sales in Paris: one in the summer (not too helpful) and one in the winter (SCORE!). Seeing as I am in desperate need of sweaters and a pair of normal walking shoes, I think I'll be hitting up some stores in the very, very near future.

A short-ish post for a small adventure:

I think my entire class has completely abandoned any hope of finishing our nightly readings. I mean, if I wanted to sit and read 200 pages a night in my room, I could have just stayed in Chicago, right? In order to see more of Paris AND attempt to do work, I decided to scope out neat study spaces; this afternoon, I wanted to check out the Pompidou's public reference library to see if it was an acceptable reading space. However, my stomach - rather, our stomachs = got the best of us and we ended up searching for food.

And we found... McDonald's!

The inside was actually ridiculously chic - the McDonald's that I have seen in Paris look kind of like Apple stores (i.e. huge glass windows and sparkly white insides). I absolutely LOVE figuring out what's on the "dollar menu" at McD's around the world. For instance, in the Philippines, McD's features 8 peso (or was it 64? I forget the conversion rate from 4 years ago) garlic rice, as well as hard-shell ube and cheese ice cream. In China, there were these awesome taro-filled pie sticks. It appears that the French 0.95 euro menu is kind of sparse:
However, there is an ENTIRE DESSERT MENU:
I ordered the thing on the bottom row, second from the right. It turned out to be an apple/pear/chocolate crumble, and although it was probably oozing chemicals (oh McD's), it was absolutely delicious:
My sister finally posted her pictures, so I'm going to retroactively post at some point so I can put up pretty pictures of Paris on New Year's Eve! Until then, I'm going to experiment to see if I can pull photos from my sister's Picasa account (apparently, I can!)...

...here's lookin' at you, kid =)
xoxo (from the Paris metro),
D

SNOW!

Another cool thing about Paris: it's impossible to have a bad day. I had a really long and tiring day yesterday - further complicated by a commute from hell - but the sheer number of small triumphs that kept popping up made it, well, kind of awesome.

Why yesterday could have been a bad day:
Normally, I don't have class until 1pm, but because yesterday was our first day of class, my day began at 9AM. Afraid of being late for the first day of classes (especially since I had no idea *where* classes were - my dorm and the Paris center are in 2 different districts), I didn't really sleep the night before. Then I kind of forgot to eat breakfast; as most of you may know, a hungry Danica is a very grumpy Danica. We had a general meet-and-greet set for noon, at which I thought we were going to be fed (nope). Also, this is my reading for the first week of school (not counting the books sitting on my shelf):


As you can see, my packet is a hefty little sucker. Note that there are 2 photocopied pages per A4 page and that each page is double-sided. I thought it was a week and half's worth of reading... then realized that, no, we're getting another packet for next week. When we left to head back to the dorm - that is, during rush hour - there was some massive train delay on the RER. I was absolutely wiped and famished by the time I got back... and found out that my Microsoft Office had crashed.

All the small - and not so small - things that made yesterday awesome:
Although we weren't exactly *fed* during the welcome reception, we were given some delicious gallete du roi (I think I spelled that correctly? Wiki has some info on king cake). It was pretty much the equivalent of eating a flaky stick of butter filled with almond paste.

Also, I am SO EXCITED for class! My first class this quarter, "Art, Revolution, and Urban Life in Paris, Moscow, and St. Petersburg," has a TON of Benjamin-related reading. As some of you may know, I have an unhealthy obsession with Walter Benjamin; my B.A. is, in fact, on Benjamin's work. I get to read lots of stuff I love for both my class AND my B.A. One of our assignments is to wander the Paris arcades; expect a lot of cool photos in the near future!

I have a working lamp - apparently, my frantic bulb waving worked!

And, of course, Paris is beautiful in the snow:

Yeah, I was too lazy to step outside. It was cold. But you can see my reflection!

With all the snow around, I just needed to find something warm to drink. So I ventured to the first floor vending machine and got a delightful little cup of cappuccino:
Nothing beats feeling like it's Christmas... when it's January =)

So I guess that was a post about little joys and finding happiness where you least expect it. Yeah, yeah, that was a little corny, but Paris has rekindled my faith in fairy tales and magic.

xoxo,
D

Today, I climbed the Eiffel Tower. Tomorrow, my legs will hurt.

One thing I forgot to mention about my room (and dorm in general): it smells funny. Like, it really, really smells funny. Luckily, my aunt gave me a ton of perfume samples – her friend owns a perfume store – and I accidentally brought some with me to Paris. It seems a happy accident that the perfume I brought over… was Paris Hilton’s Heiress. So, yes, my room now smells like it has been doused in Paris Hilton. I’m not entirely sure if that’s a good or a bad thing.

Today, I once again attempted to get a SIM card. Being the silly American I am, I forgot that lots of stores aren’t open on Sundays… including the phone store. My bad. Third time’s the charm, oui?

Quick aside: there are condom machines in the Paris metro station. I think it’s a pretty fantastic idea… though the fact that they also sell female condoms is really damn impressive. Contraceptives, feminine hygiene products, and JELLY BEANS were available for purchase in the Dublin airport’s women’s bathroom. I failed to snap a picture in Dublin, but so, so totally succeeded in Paris:

My afternoon was filled with a LOT of walking. We attempted to roam around the Paris Opéra, but found out that the auditorium was closed on account of rehearsal. Boo. We did, however, take a few cool pictures:

Did you know that the Paris Opéra contains 17 stories of awesome? Seven of the stories are underground, which means that the Phantom of the Opera has some pretty sweet digs.

Afterwards, we dropped by the Fragonard (perfume) Museum. I think my new side-research-obsession will be perfume – I am absolutely fascinated by how oils, essences, etc. are distilled! I didn’t take any pictures inside the museum, but here are a few fun facts I learned on the tour:

• Perfume contains the highest percentage of essence/aromatic compounds. I forget the exact percentage, but I think it’s around 40%

• Eau de Toilette is composed of about 15% aromatic compounds

• Cologne is composed of about 5% aromatic compounds

• Perfumers have some seriously intense – but sweet – jobs. Apparently, there are only 2 places in the world where you can learn the art of the perfumer, and both are extremely selective and extremely difficult to graduate from. As a perfumer, you cannot eat spicy foods or drink alcohol for 20 years, lest you mess up your nose. The upside is that you can’t work for more than 2 hours a day; perhaps if you did, your olfactory senses would be absolutely SHOT.

I attempted to resist their pitch at the end, but upon realizing that I don’t actually own any real perfume, gave in and bought a small bottle of “Belle de Nuit.” The fragrance mostly smells like a flower that only blooms at night; the name of the flower and the place it is found, however, has completely slipped my mind. All I know is that it smells pretty awesome.

Afterwards, we had a nice, long walk along the Seine:

Then we climbed up the Eiffel Tower. I’m impressed that I didn’t fall and kill myself:
There was a cafe in the Eiffel Tower... and it sold Eiffel Tower lollipops!
As we were leaving, the tower started to light up:
My legs feel fine now, but I’m pretty sure that I’ll feel the burn tomorrow morning. After I stopped fencing, my quads have turned to jelly. Yeeesh.

Tomorrow, I finally begin classes! I’m excited, though a wee bit confused. Our schedule is pretty effing confusing; I get the feeling that whoever compiled it is not a native English speaker.

And with that, I’m going to stop wasting time. I’m just reveling in the fact that I actually have time to spare – no job and no extracurrics means that I have more time on my hands than I have ever, ever had before! Then again, I should be putting this extra time towards planning weekend excursions… and, uh, writing my B.A. Whoooops.

xoxo,
D

Everything in Paris is eat-able

Paris is an adventure and a half when you don’t speak French. This afternoon, I spent about 10 minutes attempting to communicate the fact that my desk lamp bulb has burned out (I brought my burned out bulb to the front desk and made frantic unhappy motions with it)… and now I’m back in my room, sitting in the semi-dark, afraid that my lamp will never, ever, ever work! Oh well. It could be worse, oui?

I’m finding that a large part of why Paris is so darn exciting is because anything – and I mean anything – I do counts as an accomplishment. For instance, semi-successfully asking for change for a 50 euro bill? Accomplishment! Figuring out where and how SIM cards work for an unlocked phone (and finding out that you need your passport handy to buy the damn things. So, yeah, I still need to buy a SIM card)? Accomplishment! Of course, the stuff I’m doing in Paris would count as really, really mundane back home – I’m essentially completing one or two small tasks a day and feeling extremely, extremely proud when something (more or less) works out.

Yesterday, I moved into my dorm. I’m being housed at Maison du Cambodge at the Cité Universitaire… and apparently don’t have a picture of my building! I’ll probably roam around the Cité tomorrow to get a better sense of the, um, sheer size of the darn thing – the Cité offers 5,600 beds in 40 residences(!!!). My room is pretty simple, but has two really terrible design flaws.

Design flaw #1: Curtains over the radiator. This makes turning up the heat at night a bitch. Also, I’m afraid that my curtains will start smelling like, well, burning:

Design flaw #2: STUPID SHOWER DESIGN. As the photo below illustrates, I don’t quite have a shower stall. Instead, I have a drain in the middle of my bathroom and a shower head that SPRAYS EVERYTHING IN THE BATHROOM when I turn it on. Because it sprays everything, I have to be 100% sure that, yes, I really do want to take a shower – once the water is on, your cold, naked body is either scalded or further frozen by the showerhead’s unnaturally strong spray:

Additionally, a good amount of water leaked out of my bathroom and into my room. This made me unhappy… but, again, things could be worse. At least I have a shower, right?

By the by, I’m pulling all of these photos from my Picasa album (Jason, if you’re reading this, the mac uploader is pretty effing sweet): http://picasaweb.google.com/Danica.Tiu . I’m taking pictures like mad, so my Picasa album will house a small selection of the bajillion photos I will no doubt take while I am here. Apparently, I have something like 1,000 photos from two months in Beijing; who knows what 3 months of frolicking in Europe will bring?

Today, I had two adventures. This morning/early afternoon, I dropped by an organic produce market about a mile or two away from where I live. It’s about 10 minutes away by train, so I’ll probably take the train to it from now on (i.e. FRESH ingredients!). I found out about the market – and about a lot of other produce markets – from this blog: http://chocolateandzucchini.com . Something tells me that I’ll be heavily relying on said blog to aide me in my Parisian cooking adventures! Oddly enough, the organic produce was way cheaper at the market than at any of the stores I’ve dropped by. I mean, I paid 4€ for 4 pounds of apples and clementines! Goodness, I’m going to get so happy and fat over the course of the next three months. Here are a few pictures of the market:



And a picture of a delicious, delicious Clementine:

After the organic produce market, we wandered around some side streets and found, among other things, a honey store and a seafood market:

My camera died in the middle of our next excursion, but I spent the evening wandering around the Latin Quarter/Notre Dame. We actually ended up at the Notre Dame towards the tail end of Saturday evening mass, so we heard a lot of the singing and organ playing surrounding Communion. How amazing would it be to regularly go to church at the NOTRE DAME?

Afterwards, we ate dinner at a cute Italian place that played a lot of American music and had gelato at Amorino. Kate, if you’re reading this, thanks so much for the Amorino suggestion! If you order gelato on a cone, Amorino crafts your icy treat into a gelato flower!

Wow, that was a long entry. I get the (sad) feeling that once class starts, my adventures will get shorter… For those of you starting school again, I hope you've all gotten back to your respective schools safely!

xoxo,
D

Bonne année!

Happy New Year! Short post - we've done a lot of stuff (and a LOT of walking) but, being the lazy bum I am, I let my sister take all the photos. This means that the photos of New Year's Eve at the Champs-Elysées (NYC wins at awesomest NYE, I'm afraid), the Musée de l'Orangerie, and the Centre Pompidou are all trapped on my sister's camera.

That'll teach me to be lazy.