Cuisinez! and Monet

The past couple of days in review:

Went to classes per usual and did homework – not so exciting, even in Paris. Tuesday afternoon Abbey, Nick and I attempted to do a little sightseeing but the combination of a closed exhibit and rainy weather severely limited our outing. Friday morning we had our second architecture visit looking at 17th and 18th century architecture, I believe (I should probably figure that out for sure shouldn’t I?). We saw a couple of Hôtel Particuliers that were quite pretty (well their façades at least) and also the inside of two churches. I suggest reading the first part of my friend Abbey's blog for more details about the architecture tour, she does a pretty excelent job describing not only what we saw, but also our somewhat nutty professor! Look for her name under the list of my friends' blogs on the left of this page.

After the walking tour I headed straight to the Louvre to meet up with my host mom, her friend and her friend’s husband to go to a cooking exposition. They basically had all of these booths set up demonstrating different products (blenders, whipped cream canisters and peelers to name a few) and foods/ drinks such as whisky, flavored dulce de leche and juices. There were also cooking demonstrations by chefs, some of whom are seen often on French cooking channels. To my Albuquerque readers – it kind of felt like a giant “Now We’re Cooking,” but with more food samples = heaven for Devon! I did some taste testing, including a raspberry milkshake (the idea seemed quite foreign to most of the people watching they kept asking about the ingredients and if you could just put them all in the blender at once), Tropicana juice “smoothies” (I love how the French pronounce the word smoothie – the concept of blending different fruits together for juice also seemed to be a difficult idea to grasp), whiskey (a ten-year and a sixteen-year – I liked the sixteen-year old better), apple liqueur (delicious! I bought a mini bottle) and crème de cassis (also bought a mini bottle so I could make a homemade kir or two!). Overall it was quite a fabulous and delicious afternoon, but I was quite exhausted by the time we headed home.

Today (Saturday) I went to Giverny to see Claude Monet’s home and gardens as well as the American Art Museum. I had to get up early to take the metro to the St. Lazare train station and from there I took a 45-minute train ride to Rouen. Giverny is just the next town over across the river and I took a special bus the rest of the way. The American Art Museum’s collection was rather “petit” but there was a wall with four paintings on it, of which I absolutely loved them all. I bought a postcard of one of the paintings before heading over to Monet’s house. His house was very pretty and decorated mostly with Asian items and had brightly colored walls. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take photos. The gardens were gorgeous despite this being the last weekend they’re open until April! Wild flowers were everywhere and the streams and ponds with water lilies were fabulously picturesque. I felt as if I was standing in the middle of one of his paintings – which I guess I basically was. After Monet’s gardens I decided to splurge for lunch and ate at a hotel restaurant down the street. I had a gallette with Roquefort cheese and walnuts, a boule of cidre (glass of cider) and a lemon sugar crepe. It was all delicious!! There was a dog at the next table over that resembled Whisky quite a bit and seemed very ready to come over and play with me, but sadly his owner wouldn’t let him, despite his barking and wining to do so when I smiled at him. His owner did however make a special trip out to the car after ordering his food just to get the doggy’s bowl, jar of food and cheese. The wife then mixed the cheese with food before giving it to the dog who seemed less than interested. She should have let him play with me! After lunch I wandered down the street a little more, enjoying the tiny, picturesque French town in all of its autumnal glory before taking the bus back to the train station.

Three of my four midterms are next week and then my friend Emily is coming to visit for the weekend Thursday evening, so I’m dedicating tomorrow to making study guides for my exams! Perhaps you will get a post if something interesting happens between then and now, but most likely there will be one either while Emily is here, or shortly after her departure.

Click on the title of the post for pictures of Giverny!