despite how crummy my last monday was, my last tuesday was muuuch better [if you can't tell from that picture up there].
besides the fact that i wore the absolutely wrong outfit for the day.
i don't mean that fashion-wise, i mean i walked around all dang day in the hot sun in a long maxi dress that was draggin' all over the city. we've got ourselves an indian summer goin' on over here. and by that, i mean it's october and it's still 80 degrees. so yeah, the gods must be crazy.
anyways, onto more important things.
the day started off with french 457, where i kinda was zoned out the whole time. after, me, tiff, sam, and annie decided to do a paris walk.
background on paris walks: paris walks is one of my classes where we have assigned walks we're supposed to do around paris, and in the book, there's places we should go to and look at. it's basically a tour guide type of class. or a b-s type of class. so yeah, my kind of class.
we took the metro out to the area and found out when we got there that we actually went to the endpoint first. whoops? so we decided to do it backwards [that's what she said! oh my gosh.], which was definitely interesting, but we managed to pull it off.
we started off on saint germain des prés at this church and laid down for a little bit. and by laid down, i mean i got all excited because there were these pigeons really close by. i don't know why, but in france, the pigeons will walk right by you. maybe it's like those squirrels that'll come up to you because they're used to people? probably. anyways, here's a video.
[obviously i really enjoy myself some pigeon. even though i always have the urge to kick them.]
then we wandered through the streets skeptically [because we weren't positive if we were going the right way] and ended up finding saint sulpice, which is this gorgeous church with a really big fountain in front of it. that this cute chinese girl was playing with her puppy in and i was totally drooling all over the place. i wanted that puppy.
it just so happened that pierre hermes was right across the street from us AND it was on the list of places to visit. eating for an assignment? yesss pleeease. pierre hermé is a place that specializes in making pastries and more importantly [not that pastries are not close to my heart], macarons. also, it's blair waldorf from gossip girl's favorite macaron place. so yeah, i'm basically blair waldorf. whoever wants to be serena with me is welcome to. but i get chuck.
surprisingly, even though i've been here for about a month, this was my first time trying a macaron. pathetic? i concur. but it was my first ever, so i didn't want to get them at some bogus little patisserie. not that any of the patisserie's here are actually bogus, because they are, in fact, french. don't know where i'm going with this one...
there were so many flavors, i could hardly decide [also, the only thing keeping me from buying all those other pastries was that this place was considered a designer pastry shop, so they were all about a thousand dollars each, give or take a few hundies.] which flavors [yes, plural. i for sure was not going to get just one. do you know who i am? i need variety.] to get, but i decided on chocolate, olive oil [because it's a classic macaron flavor that everyone says you have to try], and crème brûlée because i was madly craving myself some caramel and didn't see any there, so i settled on the next best thing.
first off, i am now a serious fan of these bad boys. they kinda remind me of brownies [because of the texture] and they have this creme on the inside. i would like to meet the person who invented these bad boys. and maybe make a few bad boys with them, if you know what i mean. macarons. what did you think i meant? sicko.
by the way ["yeah, JOHN bytheway." oh my gosh, i miss my daddy.], chocolate was by far my favorite. crème brûlée was good, not great. it didn't rock my socks or anything. and olive oil, did in fact, taste like olive oil, but who likes eating olive oil? pretty sure i'd choose chocolate over it any day. but still, bravo pierre, bravo. i was told that ladurée was still better though, so i guess i have to try that to compare. darn my crappy life.
as the walk was close to ending, we stopped by piolâne, the supposed most famous boulangerie in paris. it was sad though, our host mom told us that the husband and wife that started it died in an accident, and now their daughter runs it. oh, an accident, huh? yeah, i'd cause an accident too to get my hands on some of that heaven bread. if you can't tell, i loved the place. i just got un petit pain [a roll], which was hearty and delicious. and they even gave me a little shortbread cookie for free. and didn't laugh at me when i tried to pay them with four euros when it really only cost about ninety centimes. whoops?
after the walk was over, me and annie ran down to the l'institut catholique for french 201. first off, that class just makes me feel like i don't know anything. i learned that tomber dans les pommes does not mean to have a heart attack, it means to faint. me and annie couldn't stop laughing, seriously. hopefully i'll get better. even though i still haven't done my french hw for tomorrow. nice job michelle, nice job.
then, after class, i met up with tiff and we went home for dinner with madame percin. we have dinner with her three nights a week, and we kinda always dread them because they always last a couple hours and the whole time, she just talks at us in french, going on and on about all these things that we have no idea about, and we just nod and say "oui" to. it can be very frustrating at times. it's also a stressful to have dinner with her because you want to just relax and eat, but the whole time, you have to be on your game and listening/translating in your head what she is saying because she'll ask you questions and expect you to answer her [i know, the nerve of some people today. i'm kidding].
dinner that night was raw hamburger [again. i know, i wanted to cry too.] and carmelized onions, which i was happy about because i love those. and some cold carrot soup, which was absolutely disgusting. it's hard, because it's not your home, so it's awkward telling her what you like and don't like to eat because you feel like you're a guest, but at the same time, you're paying her pretty well and it's not fair to you that you don't feel comfortable in your own home. hopefully it will get a little better. she does mean well, so it's not like you can get mad at her. but it's just awkward. and the cultures are different, so she's used to talking a lot about every single little detail that you don't care about/understand/like.
it'll get better, i know. time does numbers on these kinds of situations. time, and effort on both parts. i'm trying to learn to be more humble and accepting of her culture that she's invited us into [slash i'm paying her for], and hopefully with time, she'll be more accepting of my culture. she did mention that she wanted to cook us an all-american meal the next night of hamburgers and s'mores [it's the funniest thing. she's totally fascinated by s'mores. like, she brings them up all the time and asks questions about them and everything. apparently she had them once while she lived in new york and just loved them.].
well, off to bed. i'll just have to do my french hw in between classes tomorrow or something. and by do french hw, i mean eat bread and pastries. same diff. bonne nuit!
michelle. obbbbviously you havent been to a walmart where there are pigeons scouring the parking lots basically climbing up your legs. but i enjoyed the video nonetheless :) also. blake and i both thought that the girl in the stripes up there was you. then we realized your muuuuch prettier than that so i couldnt be :)
ReplyDeleteI will be Serena!
ReplyDeleteOoooohhhhhh the macaroons!!!! Yuuummmmm. Like so yum. But I thought laduree was overrated. Just sayin. Girl, you're killin me with the food porn. But I love you!!! <3 M
ReplyDelete