Back in Paris: Visitors, Round 2

Already I'm finding myself catching up to the present and I'm wicked excited for that.

This past weekend, along with the departure of Sarah, Mark Andrew, Pat and Quinton to the States, came with the arrival of Irene et al., Lauren and Karen (one of Lauren's classmates from Oxford).

On Friday evening, I cooked dinner for Lauren and Karen, the course-list of which included:
Apératifs
Salmon carpaccio
Baked pasta with a pseudo-cheesy red sauce
Sweetened carrots
Salad (mâche, comme toujours !)
Cheese: emmental, comté, chèvre
Chocolat pudding with liégeois
Pain au chocolat and chocolat chaud

With the above menu, I think it becomes obvious why we did not feel like moving after that.

Saturday was my big tourist day with them. I met Lauren and Karen at the Sacré Coeur, after which we sat at a brasserie by the artist's square. We then headed off for some gelato and returned to the square to take a look at the different works on display for selling. Next, we attempted to go to Ste. Chapelle; with confusion as to whether or not we were supposed to pay to get in, we chose to walk along the Seine before ultimately deciding to take a river tour of the "Stars (i.e., monuments and notable sites) of Paris". With the sun slowly setting over Paris, we headed over to the Louvre where Karen got her photos taken with Lauren and the Pyramids. Close by, we headed over to the first English bookstore established on the European continent (got my English copy of HP7, as the French version was too expensive) and then later stumbled upon a street that included an Italian restaurant, two Japanese restaurants (one of them which had sushi), a piano bar, a jazz bar, and a movie theatre nearby. Naturally, we ate at the sushi restaurant and ended the evening with an American movie, Last Chance for Love.

On Sunday, I went to Church and made a quick stop at the grocery store, before meeting up with Lauren for lunch before she had to leave to go back to Grenoble. After a weekend full of activity, it was great to just sit down at a café with her and talk. Yet, the activity resumed as, after she left and I return to my apartment, I got a message to see a movie with Trevor, Tanya, and Camille (and when we got there, Pamela, too). When we got to the theatre, we were greeted with the exciting news that the price would be only 3,50 €/ticket/movie (instead of 10+ €) until the 25th. After watching La Fille du RER, Trevor and I headed back to the apartment, where we then met up with Irene. The three of us then climbed the stairs of the Arc de Triomphe and surveyed Paris at night, before returning back home. For dinner, Trevor cooked rice and beans, definitely feeding us more than was absolutely necessary.

On Monday, Irene left Paris to go back to Madrid, and I met up with Trevor after work. Unexpectedly, we watched a French movie (LOL) and I watched a quickly-spoken but rather hilarious French movie (Coco), while Trevor's second movie was in English.

Yesterday (Tuesday), Debra (my off-campus advisor from Albion) came to visit Paris, my programme and, by extension, me. I met up with Debra and Trevor back at BU and, together, made our way back to Argentine, where we had dinner at the brasserie right next door to our apartment. Following dinner, we met with our host family and impressively kept up an English-dominant conversation for over an hour. We capped off the night with, of course, pains au chocolat and chocolat chaud. Get ready Albion... I'm bringing this back with me!

Back in Paris: Visitors, Round 1

Once again, my continued apologies for not getting all of my photos up by this point, as well as still writing about what seems like ages ago.

After having pseudo-settled back into Paris from my spring break, I woke up on Sunday morning and got over to Mass and the grocery store. Following this, I went with Trevor to attempt to find his sister, who had come to visit Paris (and Trevor, of course), as this was now her spring break week. Out of what seemed like sheer luck, we found them (or they found us?), and by 'them/they' I'm referring to Sarah and her boyfriend, Mark Andrew. Yeah, that didn't get confusing in the least. :-P

Entouk, we walked around Paris showing them around and trying to figure something out to do. (I think we are all just relieved that they finally made it into Paris.) However, with the sun still shining brightly over Paris (though to them our weather still warranted a layer or two more than us), we definitely still had to profiter du soleil, and aimed to go to the Catacombs. Unfortunately, we got there five or ten minutes later; fortunately, after three tries, they were finally able to see the Catacombs. I should also mention that Pat (Sarah's teaching mentor) and Quinton (Pat's son) were in Paris, as well. With the Catacombs not to be visited on Sunday, we made our way to the Jardin du Luxembourg, before heading back to their hostel. After a quick brasserie stop, we met up with them again to go to Argentine and have dinner with our host family, followed, of course, by pains au chocolat with chocolat chaud.

Monday, the first day of our internships (for which I will focus on in a different blog entry) finally arrived. After the end of our internships, we met up with Sarah, Mark Andrew, Pat, Quinton and Jill and eventually found ourselves in the Studio de l’Ermitage (thanks, Trevor, for having blogged about this already). Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day and naturally I wore an unnatural amount of green. May I also say that I knew I wore to much when I realised that I had exceeded what I believe to be the legal limit of green. In any case, no one said anything about it, but the looks were priceless enough. Wednesday came around and Trevor and I were lucky once again to find Sarah and Mark Andrew. We went looking for Pat and Quinton at the Louvre and had dinner near Châtelet. I would like to mention that the mousse au chocolat at the restaurant was by far my least favourite of all that I've tried in Paris. Indeed, it may have been the cause of some bizarre sentiments towards it, as both Mark Andrew and I both seemed to have gotten sick. Unfortunately, this carried over to Thursday and for the first time, I did not help myself to more chocolate when it came time to dessert that evening (my body also seemed to react negatively to the cheese, as well). [To clarify, Sarah, Mark Andrew, Trevor and I had our weekly meal with our host family on Thursday.] For all who may be reading this right now and may be worried for some reason or another, don't worry! I've been back to my old chocolate and cheese eating ways. :) Thursday also marked Irene (art history major from BU)'s visit to Paris.