Hello world! Ok, so last entry's format worked for me. So, overview, photos, story time.
Last couple days consisted of... essentially the title of this post. I did laundry, ate my first eclaire, went to Trocadero to be artsy, ate a lot of bread. I wandered around the Louvre/Les Halles area, into also the St. Germain Des Pres area. I didn't really have an intention, had some plan when I started but it really felt like a wandering day (+23, what?). I had an amazing lunch at a random cafe, bought some Zara flats, wandered around Galeries Lafayette feeling poor, giggled with my boulanger, had an epic dinner. Today, I got up super early (8 am...) with the intentioned of getting some deals at some flea markets. I couldn't find the advertised flea markets so I headed to montmartre for some Sympa shopping therapy. Got a crazy deal on some legit french lingerie and hosiery, headed to Les Halles, got bored cause stuff was normal prices, headed home, cooked an epic dinner! PICTURES!
This is my kitchen slash laundry room. That is my leopard print catsuit drying. Along with some unmentionables.
At the Trocadero gardens I managed to attract some silly boy attention. A guy saw me attempting some gesture drawing so he asked (in... french) for me to draw him. I did my best, he feigned being impressed and ... wanting to continue the conversation, asked if he could draw me. I think he thought I would decline and then we would flirt. But I said sure, and handed him my sketch pad. He then got stuck trying to draw me for a good fifteen, twenty, minutes. His mob of gangsta friends crowded around laughing and making run of him, but he kept at it. He let me keep the drawing after, but I'm pretty sure the memory of him saying, "tres compliqué!" every couple minutes or so is my favorite part.
Place de la Concorde!
Jardin des Tuileries! OMG GREEN! FLOWERS!
Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel!
Louvre Pyramids plus a very cool looking me =)
A wall of daffodils by the metro. Some sort of fundraiser?
Canada!!!! And random running guy. He was hoofing it.
La Seine! From another bridge with lovey-dovey locks on it. What a beautiful day!
Giant baguette sandwich (Cheesy!) and giant cafe creme. I still can't quite figure out how to elegantly eat half a baguette.
Moelleux Chocolat. Or as the waitress tried to describe it to me as, 'wet cake'. Butterscotch syrup-y deliciousness and a hazelnut (or something) gelato. Inside the cake was still steamy.
Inside Galeries Lafayette -- a DEPARTMENT STORE!! Ridiculously gorgeous. But the clothes and stuff were crazy expensive. Think, Holt Renfrew.
Stumbled upon this church/playground? I tried to figure out where this was but I can't spend that much time on Google street view.
Prune Flan? I think? delicious pastry goodness from my favorite boulanger!
Creamy cheesy onion soup with lots of bread mmm...
You're probably thinking... what the heck is that? WELL! I went to Sympa in Montmartre (super discounts on sample sale stuff, kind of? Inexpensive stuff, fun to sift through piles of clothes... anyways! This is the packaging for the tights I got there. Each little box denotes the color of the pair of tights, and it's designed in this way that it's pretty much a puzzle game just to get the tights out. It was such a fun little surprise when I opened the big box that all the little boxes came in. Plus, this plethora of hosiery was only 8 euro. For eight pairs of tights that are usually... 10 euro each!
Rainbow of tights!
Cooking exploration. I bought a crappy piece of meat (beef shank) and tried to make something delicious out of it with other ingredients I impulse bought. It was a combo of oso buco (ish), cabbage stew and... something Moroccan. The soup it ended up making was delicious. The meat? Still terrible.
I didn't have anything big enough to put everything in so I spread it out over a bunch of cooking methods... I combined everything in the little pot in the toaster oven for a little portion of everything with the piece of meat and the rest ended up becoming a soup.
Last night I ended up going out for drinks with some of the people I met at the apero/casting for St. Patrick's Day. We walked right by the Pantheon when leaving the bars -- crazy! I am very, very, sleepy today so this blog isn't very inspired. Pictures are the most exciting part anyways, right? BUT I must tell you about my boulanger. So, I got really self conscious at the boulangerie across the street from me because I made a fool of myself trying to speak french there earlier in my trip. Plus, everyone in my building was saying it wasn't as good as other ones. I went down a couple more blocks to another boulangerie the other day to check it out. The girl who is always there is younger than a lot of boulangers I've seen. The first time she was explaining prices she said them in french and english. She now says them in french, waits till I figure it out and hand her the money, counts it, and congratulates me on getting it right. It's practically a high five, and I am always very proud. I tried an eclaire there the other day and she wrapped it up for me all pretty-like, then, seeing my expression of excitement, grabbed me a bag and stuffed it with napkins. I laughed and said, "Oui!" in a way that actually communicated, "Yes, I am going to need those." She giggled and raised her eyebrows at me as she handed the bag over. I made an excited noise, there was more giggling, we said our au revoir's and a bientot's and now we are buddies. I love her. I went to the closer boulanger yesterday because her place was closed, and it felt like cheating. Those guys were nicer than the first couple times I'd been there, and the man congratulated me on my much-improved french. People who bake bread are so nice! Celiacs miss out on cute people. Anyways, I made some rice pudding and now I'm going to spend this rainy sunday curled up in my bed with a coffee, some pudding, and Sex and the City in my cozy pj's.
Bisous!
Ps. I gave a thousand million bisous last night. I felt so authentic.
Pps. It is actually raining Calgary-style over here right now. It's a little scary.
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