So, after 5 months in Paris, I am finally home!!!
The last week was AMAZING! After finishing all my work, I got to play with Nikki and just hang out and eat and enjoy Paris. Finally, VACATION!!!
Friday, Nikki and I met for lunch at Erwan's restaurant in the 16th, Zebra Square. Lunch turned into four hours of amazing food and hanging out with le chef. Champagne, foie gras, yummy soft-boiled eggs with mushrooms, shrimp dumplings, and sashimi! Of course, followed by the most AMAZING sundae! I tend to steer clear of strawberry sauce (I am a chocolate girl!), but Erwan's strawberry sauce was to die for! Essentially amazing strawberry jam, cooked down and then mixed with fresh strawberries, topped with vanilla bean ice cream and too much whipped cream... YUM! We were full for the next twelve hours, but it was great! After "lunch", which ended around 6:30, we went to Galeries Lafayette/Zara/H&M to find Nikki some work clothes. Most of the stores close at 8pm so we were a little short on time, but it was so fun. We were too full to do anything else, so we called it an early night. Many more adventures to squeeze in for our last few days!
Saturday started with a trip to Giverny. It's SO gorgeous, even in the rain. We weren't there for very long (you can thank awkward weekend train schedules and a delayed bus for that), but we made the most of it! Back in Paris, of course we SHOPPED! We explored Printemps, the fabulous department store right next to Galeries Lafayette that is MUCH less popular than Galeries because it is not a tourist attraction. Well lit, spacious, with maps for each floor telling you where you could find each designer... genius! We went to Pink Flamingo in the Marais for pizza. We had passed this place so many times before, and were curious because the restaurant includes a gutted VW van that is parked out front and seats 6 people at a cute little table. Chic/edgy pizza, mmm! The pizza was great, and when we were done, we went to Harry's New York Bar to meet Erwan and Geraldine. The walls are covered in American university pennants. The Columbia one is particularly old (brown and brown instead of blue and white!) so we made plans to return to Paris with a new, pretty pennant for them to hang! Around two, we decided to head home. However, due to the HUGE amount of tourists in Paris for Roland Garros (C'mon Nadal!), we spent an hour waiting before finally finding a cab. No worries, we weren't meeting until 2:30 on Sunday!
Sunday, we met Soso in the Marais for lunch, then wandered to shop a little and enjoy my last full day in Paris. I got some awesome headphones and a present for my host mom, and was happy to see Soso one more time. After a very welcome afternoon nap, we went to Café le Baron for dinner and drinks, and had these amazing cocktails called Canon Balls: Champagne, vodka, crème de framboise (raspberry), and crème de fraise (strawberry). SO GOOD! And the food was great, too! It was sad to say goodbye after dinner, but I was definitely ready to come home!
On Monday, I headed to Charles de Gaulle at around 10am. By 11:15 I was in line to check my bags, however they were overweight. While trying to get at least one bag to be under the weight limit, the zipper on one of my bags broke, so I had to have it wrapped in plastic so it could go on the plane! With the crisis averted, I checked in and made it to the gate. The flight was alright, rather long but I got some reading done and watched Julie and Julia, and was so excited to get home! Once I got my bags and got through Customs, I saw my parents and someone I didn't recognize hiding behind a "Welcome Home Jaimie!" sign with balloons... It was JP! Because Monday was Memorial Day, he had driven to MA to meet me at the airport! Once we got home, I found Manuel in the kitchen making homemade macaroni and cheese, and preparing for a huge bbq with the Whalens. What a great welcome home party!!! I was exhausted, so when JP left to drive home, I basically got right in bed. I'm not totally over my jet-lag yet, but I'm working on it!
Thanks for following my France adventures! I hope you had as much fun reading as I had experiencing it!!!
Gros Bisous,
Jaimie
Showing posts with label Champagne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Champagne. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
JP in Paris (Friday-Sunday)
On Friday, JP and I met Soso for lunch by Saint Germain. We wandered the neighborhood, then went to Pierre Hermé to get croissants and macaroons before I took JP on a surprise trip: To the Ménagerie in the Jardin des Plantes! If you know JP and myself, you know that we LOVE zoos (almost as much as aquariums), so it was a great, off the beaten path way to spend an afternoon in Paris in the sun!
We saw TONS of animals, from jaguars to camels to orangutans to red pandas! We have tried to see red pandas at all the zoos we've been to, but they have always been hiding or asleep. This time, they were wide awake and in plain sight! I'm sure some of the parents were surprised to see two twenty-somethings so excited about red pandas! Of course, our trip also included a Pierre Hermé pain-au-chocolat break in the Jardin des Plantes labyrinth!
After the zoo, we went to Ile St. Louis to get Berthillon ice cream. We had chocolate, caramel, currant, and fraises de bois, it was SO delicious!
Our next stop: Pont des Arts. Like some other famous bridges around Europe, there is a really sweet (or cheesy) tradition for couples to carve their names or initials on a lock and lock it on to the bridge, then throw the key into the Seine. Of course, JP and I could not resist a moment of mushiness! We counted posts and found the middle of the bridge, and took tons of pictures so that we can find it again later.
After locking the lock and tossing the key, we headed to the Pantheon to go to Han Lim, a Korean restaurant. It was absolutely delicious, though not quite as good as Shanghai Mong in Koreatown in NY, or JP's mom's Korean BBQ! We finished the night by opening the bottle of Champagne that my mom brought me for my 21st birthday. It's such a cool bottle, with pictures of Paris monuments on it. It was great to get to celebrate our "birthdays" together in Paris!
Saturday, we wandered around Paris and enjoyed the sunlight. We rented Velib's, which are bikes stationed around Paris that you can rent using your Metro pass. There are hundreds of stations all over Paris, so you can pick up bikes and drop them off wherever you want. We rode all over the city, and made our way to our final major destination for the trip: the Museum of Magic! We saw a magic show, learned about famous French magicians, and saw all sorts of magic artifacts!
We kept riding around, and then went to the market to get bread, cheese, and salami. We rode bikes from my neighborhood to the neighborhood where we were staying, all the way across Paris! We stopped at Bastille to see the breakdancers (and find out if JP knew any of them!). He recognized a few, and knew people that they dance with, but didn't know any of them personally.
Sunday morning, before JP's flight home, we met Nikki, her boyfriend Mike, and her friend Alli for brunch in the Marais. We stopped into Pylones (and proceeded to leave after getting in trouble for taking pictures!), then checked out of our apartment and got on the train to go to the airport. It was sad saying goodbye to JP after such a great week, but nice to know that I would be seeing him again much sooner than the last time we said goodbye!
And there you have it, my Spring Break!
Gros Bisous,
Jaimie
We saw TONS of animals, from jaguars to camels to orangutans to red pandas! We have tried to see red pandas at all the zoos we've been to, but they have always been hiding or asleep. This time, they were wide awake and in plain sight! I'm sure some of the parents were surprised to see two twenty-somethings so excited about red pandas! Of course, our trip also included a Pierre Hermé pain-au-chocolat break in the Jardin des Plantes labyrinth!
After the zoo, we went to Ile St. Louis to get Berthillon ice cream. We had chocolate, caramel, currant, and fraises de bois, it was SO delicious!
Our next stop: Pont des Arts. Like some other famous bridges around Europe, there is a really sweet (or cheesy) tradition for couples to carve their names or initials on a lock and lock it on to the bridge, then throw the key into the Seine. Of course, JP and I could not resist a moment of mushiness! We counted posts and found the middle of the bridge, and took tons of pictures so that we can find it again later.
After locking the lock and tossing the key, we headed to the Pantheon to go to Han Lim, a Korean restaurant. It was absolutely delicious, though not quite as good as Shanghai Mong in Koreatown in NY, or JP's mom's Korean BBQ! We finished the night by opening the bottle of Champagne that my mom brought me for my 21st birthday. It's such a cool bottle, with pictures of Paris monuments on it. It was great to get to celebrate our "birthdays" together in Paris!
Saturday, we wandered around Paris and enjoyed the sunlight. We rented Velib's, which are bikes stationed around Paris that you can rent using your Metro pass. There are hundreds of stations all over Paris, so you can pick up bikes and drop them off wherever you want. We rode all over the city, and made our way to our final major destination for the trip: the Museum of Magic! We saw a magic show, learned about famous French magicians, and saw all sorts of magic artifacts!
We kept riding around, and then went to the market to get bread, cheese, and salami. We rode bikes from my neighborhood to the neighborhood where we were staying, all the way across Paris! We stopped at Bastille to see the breakdancers (and find out if JP knew any of them!). He recognized a few, and knew people that they dance with, but didn't know any of them personally.
Sunday morning, before JP's flight home, we met Nikki, her boyfriend Mike, and her friend Alli for brunch in the Marais. We stopped into Pylones (and proceeded to leave after getting in trouble for taking pictures!), then checked out of our apartment and got on the train to go to the airport. It was sad saying goodbye to JP after such a great week, but nice to know that I would be seeing him again much sooner than the last time we said goodbye!
And there you have it, my Spring Break!
Gros Bisous,
Jaimie
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Reims
Yesterday, we spent the day in Reims, which is about 2 hours northeast of Paris. We started by visiting the cathedral, which was built in the 13th century. The cathedral, as well as the churches that stood on the same plot before it was built, was the location of a vast majority of the coronation ceremonies held for French kings. We learned the history of the region, extending all the way back to Clovis, who united the Franks, the Gauls, and a portion of the Germanic tribes in the region under one king. He also introduced Christianity to the Franks.
The cathedral is absolutely gorgeous, with huge statues and stained-glass windows. Some of the statues were damaged during WWI, when many bombs were dropped on Reims, but amazingly the arches in the Cathedral kept it from falling down. In the 18th century, during the Siècle de Lumière, many of the stained-glass windows were removed because, while gorgeous, they did not let enough light into the church. However, the front rose windows and the stained-glass windows created by Marc Chagall in the 1970s are still there.
After the cathedral and a warm lunch (it was FREEZING in Reims yesterday!), we went to Pommery to visit the caves and taste champagne. Although "cave" technically translates to cellar, the champagne at Pommery is truly kept in caves! We were 30m underground, surrounded by 20,000,000 bottles of champagne of various sizes and in various stages of fermentation. It was so cool to learn about the history of the brand. Mme Louise Pommery created Brüt Champagne in 1874. Brüt only has 10g of sugar per liter, where as earlier champagnes had as much as 100g per liter!!! There is even a bottle of champagne from the first bottling of brüt in 1874 kept in the caves at Pommery. However, as we learned, Champagne does not improve with age like wine does. More than 3-5 years after it is purchased, it starts to degrade, so that bottle would probably not taste so good!
The names of cities on the wall represent markets that Mme Pommery expanded into as she developed the house of Pommery after her husband's death.
Back in Paris, Katie and I had dinner and watched Sex and the City until we met up with Lily, Becca, and Juan at a fun Sangria bar near Odéon. Today, Lily and I are visiting the Catacombs!!! Hopefully I won't get scared...
Gros Bisous,
Jaimie
The cathedral is absolutely gorgeous, with huge statues and stained-glass windows. Some of the statues were damaged during WWI, when many bombs were dropped on Reims, but amazingly the arches in the Cathedral kept it from falling down. In the 18th century, during the Siècle de Lumière, many of the stained-glass windows were removed because, while gorgeous, they did not let enough light into the church. However, the front rose windows and the stained-glass windows created by Marc Chagall in the 1970s are still there.
After the cathedral and a warm lunch (it was FREEZING in Reims yesterday!), we went to Pommery to visit the caves and taste champagne. Although "cave" technically translates to cellar, the champagne at Pommery is truly kept in caves! We were 30m underground, surrounded by 20,000,000 bottles of champagne of various sizes and in various stages of fermentation. It was so cool to learn about the history of the brand. Mme Louise Pommery created Brüt Champagne in 1874. Brüt only has 10g of sugar per liter, where as earlier champagnes had as much as 100g per liter!!! There is even a bottle of champagne from the first bottling of brüt in 1874 kept in the caves at Pommery. However, as we learned, Champagne does not improve with age like wine does. More than 3-5 years after it is purchased, it starts to degrade, so that bottle would probably not taste so good!
The names of cities on the wall represent markets that Mme Pommery expanded into as she developed the house of Pommery after her husband's death.
Back in Paris, Katie and I had dinner and watched Sex and the City until we met up with Lily, Becca, and Juan at a fun Sangria bar near Odéon. Today, Lily and I are visiting the Catacombs!!! Hopefully I won't get scared...
Gros Bisous,
Jaimie
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