Food. Always. Mmm.

What have I been up to, you ask? Well. Eating. And drinking! Coffee, mostly. Discovering. Being highly sugared for the most part. Thursday: Cafe Gourmand experience, grocery shopping. Friday: Struggled with my hair for several hours, went to A Cafe Chat Noir (Not... THE one though), wandered around getting the makin's for sandwiches, found another place that had Cafe Gourmand (Called... Cafe Delice here) so I could share the magic with Kendra, went to the Social Club for dancing and was a little disappointed. Saturday: Went to a Parisian Starbucks (5 Euro for a Macchiato?), went to the Hunger Games movie (with french subtitles!) and hung out at Pont Neuf and Pont des Arts for a little bit. Sunday: Confused like crazy by the time change, went for an amazing lunch picnic with Kendra, walked down to Ile Saint Louis for some Bertillon ice cream (As did half of Paris!), hung out with an actor friend and tried a fresh lime juice drink (Holy moses, a wee bit tart) and then Skyped all night! It was a pretty tame last couple days, but my Mom is dropping into Paris in a couple of hours and we're gonna go tourist crazy on this city so... tame-ness was necessary! PHOTOS! Cause that's all anybody REALLY wants :)!

Cafe Gourmand: Little coffee with a selection of the Cafe's desserts. SUBLIME! 

The little tiramisu was so gosh-darn cute I might have struggled to eat it if I didn't have the sweet tooth I do. The little creme brulee was amazing and perfect and mmm...

Cafe! Mmm...

The aftermath. That little black package is a fancy-pants chocolate covered... sorry, "enrobed", almond.

And that was pretty much all I did that day! I hung out at the Cafe (Cafe Royale Exelmans) for a little bit. The waiter seemed a little miffed that I didn't order food. I got super awkward when I walked in because I didn't know how to ask whether I sat myself or waited, and I didn't see anyone. The lady buying cigarettes at the tobacco counter helped me out though. I think she said I was there to eat, maybe that's why the waiter was annoyed. But I originally was thinking of eating, but then I got excited and wanted to jump right to dessert. How do people wait?! Then when I paid the waiter was very nice, and chatted with me a little in English. An older man over heard our chat and was like, "You're from Canada? My daughter is in Quebec!" and so we chatted a little more, both having to stop and clarify what certain words meant every once and a while. Eventually, the waiter (Olivier!) was like, "Why are you talking to my girlfriend!?" which was so cute, and then the man (George!) said that if I was ever in trouble I could just come by the cafe, leave a message with Olivier, and Olivier would deliver it to him (Cause he is there all the time!). Cute little turn of events! Then when I left I walked on down to the Carrefour to do some grocery shopping and pick up more minutes for my phone plan (TERRIBLE idea to get the Carrefour plan over just a standard one, cause the only place I can get minutes is this one store in Paris). Ended up buying this tray of 5 croissants and 5 pain au chocolate's for 2.90 which fed me for a couple days so that was AWESOME!

Kendra and I got all excited when we saw a Cafe called Chat Noir by Hotel De'ville. We walked in and immediately you know it's not the right place cause it's kinda seedy and all they have is coffee. Cheap coffee! Hot coffee! Fast Coffee! But not really... good coffee. So I got a Cafe Creme as per usual, cause I don't know how to order anything else. It was MASSIVE, which was great, except we kind of wanted to leave so I ended up downing it and being sufficiently high on caffeine for the whole evening. As of yet, the creme at Cafe de Flore is still the best I've had.

That evening after exhaustive searching we finally found a cafe with Cafe Gourmand. Around the Marais-ish area we were in the night everywhere was a dinner place that had Cafe Gourmand and you couldn't get JUST dessert cause... it was a restaurant. We got "desole"d out of one restaurant when we ordered. Finally we see this smokey bar/cafe place with Cafe Delice. I asked the waiter what it was and the description was exactly the same as Cafe Gourmand so we went with it. Fun side note, he stood REALLY close to my face. Like... inches. I was leaning back because if I'd leaned forward we would have hit faces. That was an awkward moment. The Cafe Delice came with a definitely-out-of-a-can fruit salad which I was NOT impressed about at all! But the little slice of Opera cake was exciting. This one cost significantly more than the one I had at my local cafe, and I think I would go back to Exelmans before going back to this place. 

The next morning after our Foray into the Social Club (dance club with a good reputation), we got ourselves some classic Starbucks beverages. About the Social Club: It was a retro music night 60's through 90's. It probably would have been super fun if we were french and/or hammered. We were so excited for the 90's DJ to come on and when he finally did he basically was playing his iTune's playlist of french 90's lyric-less electronica. Which was awful. So we left after about two minute with no hesitation. Luckily, we went by this crepe guy who Kendra goes to all the time who operates 24/7 and he gave us ours for free and then some! Kendra gave him a 10 euro bill, and then he gave her 10 euro and some change back and gave her a wink! AWESOME! Anyways, Starbucks! It tasted exactly the same, if not less coffee-y (maybe I'm used to getting double-shots...). But the barista-man (what IS the male name for barista? Is there one?) was so nice, and excited about my name, that I did't even care that it cost basically double what it does back home. Actually, I did care. But... what do you do after they've started making it?!

Kendra got a legit opera cake to cross off her Paris bucket list. 

We then went to the Hunger Games and I cried like a little baby. It was really good! French cinema's are weird though, cause the screen was so far away from the audience with this carpeted area in between the front row and the screen but... no one... sat on it.... so WHY?! Also, the screen was smalled than what I'm used to and kind of concave. Very different to look at when there is nothing on the screen but once the movie started I noticed none of these things. Also, I got kettle corn popcorn. And after eating like three handfuls, I almost felt full. Which is CRAZY cause I can usually absentmindedly down a whole regular popcorn myself at a theatre. I'm finally developing normal eating habits! Or maybe it's because my body can recognise that this popcorn here is actually FOOD.

The next day we did a Sunday picnic at Trocadero. Brie, pesto, tomato, lettuce baguette sandwiches and almond stuffed olives and oranges and these two delightful pastries that I forgot to photograph cause... well... you know the story. One was basically a little vanilla cake (I could have sworn it said something about "pomme" by it... hmm...) and the other was a raisin-y cinnamon-y wheel thing with custard in it. Om nom nom! The Boulanger said, "Bien Dimanche!" which I didn't realise was a greeting so I said, "Oui!" to which he laughed at me. Good thing he wasn't insulted! 

There was a crazy line-up for Bertillon ice cream on Ile Saint Louis, but that was to be expected. I wasn't quite prepared for how long the crazy line-up then took. It was like an hour! For ice cream! But it was damn good ice cream. Even if it hadn't ending up being amazing, I would have pretended it was because of that wait. I panicked when I ordered, and I was so worried I'd get conflicting flavors so I just got two scoops of chocolate with raspberry creme chantilly on top -- AMAZING! The Chantilly cream was good as it was, but then there was ice cream under it! Which I tried to savor, but it was so good I basically gobbled it. Kendra got coconut and pear with her raspberry cream. She thought it through a little better than me for a unique experience. I contemplated salted caramel and amaretto praline and others, but I was so worried something would clash with my chantilly! Anyways, disaster averted.

Afterwards I bolted back to Trocadero for drinks with my new friend Michel. When we finally found a cafe that was not crazy expensive we sat down and the girl beside me had this very refreshing kind of lemonade-looking drink so I asked for the same. It came out as a glass of fresh lime juice with a side of water and some sugar. I guess the idea is you ix it yourself, but I was so worried I'd do it wrong that I was tentative with both additives. I ended up adding all of both because OH MAN that stuff was tart! Very refreshing! But... I don't know if I'd go for as huge of a glass next time!

Anyways, that is all! I must get ready to meet my mommy at the airport! WEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

A bientot! Bisous!