Dances on the Seine and Walking in the Rain

Saturday morning I headed out nice and early with Sophie and Joanna to go to the enormous flea markets Marché aux Puces and Le Marché Dauphine in the north of town. I didn't know exactly what I was expecting, but what we got was essentially miles upon miles of maze entangled streets filled with vintage clothing, furniture and knick-knack stalls and stores. Not the typical left over, resented merchandise people usually try to sell at flea markets. These were pretty high end, expensive things, probably targeted more to collectors and professional decorators rather than broke college tourists like myself.

   

Though bartering was somewhat of an element, the vintage Prada and Chanel dresses and the antique cigarette cases unfortunately weren't going down quite as much as I needed them to, so I settled with just looking at the beauties.

This is the dress that I instinctively rushed to and scared the store clerk with my excitement in a store that looked like a European princess' dress up closet. Luckily the clerk found me entertaining rather than annoying and humored me by agreeing that yes, it was beautiful, but also, please don't touch.
Right next this shop was an even more torturous one filled with lovely, beautiful, amazingly pretty cookware.

It was full of old heavy wood tables and cutting boards, glossy copper pots, heavy cooking knives, heavy ceramic plates and casserole dishes and the occasional little souris sitting on top of a pot:

After hours of looking at sixteenth century style armchairs, silver cutlery and a hodgepodge of many other things, we made our way back towards Montmartre and stumbled upon a cute little restaurant called Le Cave Cafe run by three delightful french girls who danced around to the restaurant's mixed playlist of The Beach Boys and Johnny Cash in between serving and taking orders.
The food was great and the ambiance was very laid back and casual.

 

 They also had a wall of organic wines on tap, which I thought was pretty awesome. I was also caught off guard to see the cheapness of the drinks, where a glass of wine was about 3 euros max, compared to the at least $10 glasses of wine that I'm used to seeing in New York.

After saying goodbye to Sophie and Joanna as they were going to head back to London, I decided on my way back to the apartment to stop by the Palais Garnier- the Paris Opera house.

Probably my favorite building in Paris, I couldn't get enough of the staircases, balconies and carved molding. I also used to be obsessed with the book, musical and movie of Phantom of the Opera, making the visit even more nostalgic and interesting.

 A cute little tid bit that I learned at the Senate, and then noticed again at the Opera are the old coat hangers.

The top part is much longer than the bottom (it was even more pronounced on the ones in the Senate building). Why is this? For holding top hats of course! So practical. I wish they were still used for that purpose. Maybe they'll make a comeback some day....

In the evening, I went back to the apartment and met Isabelle, her friend Simone and three of her friends. The four of them had gotten into Paris the day before with a travel tour group. We cooked up dinner for the six of us and picnicked in the living room, then headed out to find an area by the Seine where we had heard had dance parties every night. 

Sure enough, we found a big group of people gathered on the other side of the river, playing music and dancing salsa. After wandering around trying to find the best way to cross, we made it over and took a seat by the dancing. It was a lot of fun. Isabelle and I both got asked to dance by Olivier, a suave Frenchman who was, in fact a very good dance partner.

Unfortunately we had gotten there fifteen minutes before it ended, but at least Isabelle and I got the last two dances!

Early Sunday morning I got up and joined K-Rae and her husband Victor to have a coffee and do the week's shopping at their local market.

We had a petite dejeuner menu which came with a choice of hot drink, orange juice and a choice of tartain, croissant or pain au chocolate at a lovely corner cafe called Rocher de Cancale on rue Greneta.

The shopping itself was very nostalgic, reminding me of the days I would go with my grandma to the markets in Madrid when I was little, and when I would go with my mom when we lived in Valencia.

 

 It was so nice to be around fresh produce, meat, fish and bread. Also! I was very excited to see something that I had read about in several cooking magazines and cookbooks:

Yes, those are beets, but not just the usual beets like you find at farmers' markets in the States. These are already boiled beets that you can take home all ready to be peeled and put into any dish. Call me a food geek, but this was a very exciting moment for me.
To continue with my food geekness, after we got back, Isabelle and I went back to the crêpes place we went to the first day (where they make the batter with orange blossom water!). This time I got a crêpes avec un euf to go for something a little more savory. Then, on our walk back, we did a macaron testing tour, where we stopped by Pierre Hermé, Ladurée and Richard. I've established that I prefer Ladurée over Pierre Hermé, but Pierre Hermé over Richard.
To end my last day in Paris, the Viannu family and I went back to the Siene dances, where there was, once again a multitude of salsa dancers. We stayed long enough for me to dance three times and then made it home just before it started to rain. To end the evening we sat down to another great home cooked meal by K-Rae of baked fish with vegetables, bean salad, eggplant spread, and of course, baguettes.
Tomorrow I am leaving for Spain where I'll be for about six weeks between Madrid, Cartagena/Cabo de Palos and possibly Valencia. Internet gets spotty there, so I can't promise when the next time I'll blog will be. 
However, this first episode of this year's summer travels has been lovely. Amazing food, amazing city and by far amazing people. I've gotten a chance to practice my French, and fall in love with the famous city of lights. Quelle chance!

Delicate Delights

As the weather began to cool down I met up again with Sophie and Joanna on Thursday morning to wander around once again. We stopped first at the Pompidou, the modern art museum in the fourth district near Les Halles. It's such a strange building. All the pipes and infrastructure skelaton on the outside, giving it a modern look to reflect the modern art inside.

 

 Continuing on our walk we passed by the famous Paris Plages: man made beaches they set up along the Seine so that Parisians have a chance to enjoy the luxury of sunbathing on sand while being away from the actual coast. It's pretty torturous though in my opinion, since you can't actually go swimming after you've laid out there for a while... Maybe that's just me though. Still, it's a nice place to lounge around.

 Since walking entices hunger, we soon wandered into a Patisserie that housed, yes, if you've read my blog posts from last summer you've guessed it: Macarons! Lots of them!

 They even had them in combination with another of my favorite things:

 But we didn't stop there... Sophie had a new treat in mind. Eclairs. Not just any eclairs. Top knoch, high end, extremely fancy eclairs. Now, I've always loved the traditional chocolate on top, cream in the middle, but these were something else.

Ranging from dark chocolate and speculoos, to lemon cream and pecan pie, it's no surprise that these eclairs have become a new fancy fad in the pastry world. And of course the tasted exactly like they looked. Beautiful, light, sweet.

 They even had baguette ones!
 After much debate we finally narrowed down three to try. Passion fruit with raspberry, salted caramel and strawberry with pistachio.

After that overload of goodness, I eventually made it back to the apartment where Isabelle and I decided to venture out and do some sightseeing. We tried to go to the catacombs, but got there right at 4 as they were closing the doors. But no matter! We went to the museum of Orsay instead! 
The setup of the museum is really amazing. It's in an old train station, and has it's exhibition of statues running down the length of it. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but saw quite a bit of impressionist paintings, including some of my favorite Rodin, Monet and Renoir works.

Since being bitten by the museum bug, Friday started with an excursion to the Orangerie, a museum in the Tuileries Gardens. More of a gallery, the Orangerie houses impressionist and post-impressioinist paintings, putting it pretty high on my list of favorites. What completely won me over are its two oval, white, sky-lit chambers with a massive Monet waterlilys painting stretching across each of the rooms' four walls. Again, no pictures were allowed, but it was really breathtaking.
At two, Isabelle and I met up with K-Rae and a group of her students (she works with and teaches in a program for study abroad students here in Paris) at the Palais du Luxembourg, the palace once lived in by Marie de Médicis which now houses the Paris Senate. K-Rae had organized a tour for her students and I luckily got to tag along.
The first room we went in was the Salon du livre d'or, where the only remaining original moldings, paintings, wall panels, etc, from when the Palace was Marie de Médicis living quarters have been assembled.The ceiling displayed a scene of Marie being offered a bundle of arrows, a sign of peace in times of war. Surrounding the portrait are eight female oracles.

Along the top of the wall there are paintings of putti, winged babies who die before they are baptized and are in limbo. I would love to know what the painter was thinking when painting some of them-

And naturally, the room had a great view of the jardins du luxembourg.

On our way to the second floor, we were held back by a large crate delivery that was being unloaded at the foot of the stairs. After many guesses on what it could be, low and behold Napoleon's throne was taken out of the large wooden box and carried right past us. Apparently it had been on exhibition in a museum and was returning to its rightful place in the salle de conference.

The rest of the tour was great. We got a full history of the senate chamber while sitting in the seats of the very senate members. I just happened to take a seat where two honored members had once sat (indicated by gold medallions), one of which was Victor Schoelcher, the man responsible for abolishing slavery in France in 1848.

Salle de conference

Napoleon's Throne in its'  rightful spot in the salle de conference

The Senate library-My favorite room

Once the tour was over we headed home, put our feet up and took a nap. Or almost took a nap. Before we could fall asleep fully Caroline came over again with her friend Brenda and the four of us went to dinner, followed by a walk around Les Halles.

A relaxing but great way to end the hot, busy day.

Sucre, Citron and Weasley Twins

Bon Jour! After finishing my first year living in New York I am traveling around once again. First stop: Paris!
I arrived Monday in the late afternoon, and made my way to the Vianu apartment, the friends of family friends who I'll be staying with for the week. After having a beautiful homemade meal by mother of the house K-Rae, she, her daughter Isabelle (who is my age and going to NYU with me next year!) and I went for an evening stroll along the Seine. We then returned home where I collapsed from jet lag exhaustion.
Yesterday morning, or rather, afternoon, Isabelle and I waited around for the thunder storms to pass before heading out with her friend Caroline to explore Le Marais and the Latin Quarter.
We passed by Notre Dame

 And strolled around the Luxenberg gardens.

We then stopped for crêpes in the Latin Quarter. I don't know why I was surprised that they actually used orange blossom water in the batter- I should have assumed they would know how to do it right! Anyways, it was delicious. Sucre et citron- sugar and lemon. My favorite. 
 

 After filling our bellies, we sat down to rest at a nearby cafe, where we were served drinks by a waiter who was very much the French equivalent of Fred and George from Harry Potter. He was quite entertaining, especially his little dance moves while collecting the payment.

Today I woke up and headed to meet my friend Sophie (adopted older sister from New Zealand, living in London who I visited last summer and happens to be visiting Paris this week as well), her mother, Joanna and her friend Lucy. We spent the day walking around Pigalle and Montmartre, stopping at the Sacre Coeur and then having the menu dejeuner at a small restaurant. Of course, the food was delicious. I started with artichoke carpaccio, followed by a main course of seared cod with tomato sauce and vegetables, finished with a cafe macchiato. Yum yum yum.