Okay okay....I have been a bad blogger this week, but, I have an excuse!! I have unfortunately been under the weather with a really bad cold!! It was beautiful in Paris last week (completely sunny and 65 degrees) and all of my friends were going to parks and picnics every day...but not me! I was doing good to make it to school and 3 hours with the kids. As much as I hated to come back to my apartment for rest....I just had to make myself do it so I could get through the weekend!
I did go out Tuesday for a bit with Ashleigh to Parc Buttes Chaumont. We were only there for an hour and a half or so, but it was so worth it! I discovered things that I almost forgot existed in Paris like sun, grass, blue sky, bugs!, and butterflies!
Friday night I babysat, as I had agreed before I became sick. It was one of those parties where Chloé's friends were coming over for drinks and hors d'oeuvres, and I was to watch Marie-Césare and one of her friends' child for the evening. Fair enough. Except for the fact that the only time she gets to see her mother is on the weekend and she wants that time to be hers! Marie-Césare would have nothing to do with me. She wanted to be under her mother's feet, with her friends, showing off her jewelry and toys to the trendy party-goers. These friends were her co-workers when she was brand manager for Kiehl's, so they were all quite young and funky-very Parisien. Around 11, Chloé realized that there was no hope so she happily sent me home. All I wanted was a Sudafed and my bed so I practically ran out the door.
I wasn't sure how I would feel Saturday morning so I told the girls that I would play it by ear and see how far I could go with their sightseeing, but wouldn't be up for a marathon day like normal. We started off at Place de la Madeleine, a rather posh shopping area with the Église de la Madeleine slapped right in the center. It's huge just like they all are, and the church has been kept up very nicely. It's neo-classical style is reflected beautifully and was designed as a temple to the glory of Napoleon's army.
We marched over to Place Vendôme, which is where Chloé works with Van Cleef and Arpels. Also other high end shops...and the Ritz. Which I can completely understand. It was absolutely beautiful and I can't imagine coming to work here everyday. W.o.w.
Also in the 9th near the Opera was the Musée de Parfum. Being sick it wasn't an ideal thing for me to do, but I was a good sport and went along. We waited for our tour guide for about 5 minutes and joining our group was a Russian mother/daughter duo. You couldn't take pictures, but the tour was very informative and we were so glad we waited for a guide! Without her, the museum would have been a lot less interesting and we wouldn't have been let in on so many little tidbits. Had never really thought that perfume was different from eau de toilette....but it is. The oil content is much higher in perfume which is why its much more expensive. And, did you know that to produce 1 kg of lavender extract for use in perfume you need 200 kg of lavender flowers?! No wonder its so expensive! At the end you were taken to a room where you could smell all of their scents and they explained what was in each of them...of course with the option to buy. The smallest bottle was actually very reasonable and I picked out a couple that I would love to purchase, but with an April holiday on the horizon I figured I should wait! Grabbed lunch at Paul and ate in a nearby park, along with this beautiful macaron...framboise of course. Do you all ever get tired of seeing my delicious French food?
Hopped on the metro towards Bercy to get on the fairly new Voguéo water transit. If you have a Navigo pass like Ashleigh and I you can get on for free! It is like an on-the-water metro. We didn't know where we were going, but we wanted to have a boat ride on the Seine...and it was free....so-why not combine the two?! Perfect! We love doing random things like that.
It was a little overcast, but there were only 4 other people on the boat so it was quite a nice ride. The city of Paris created this line of water transit thinking it would catch on fairly quickly with the locals, but I think it hasn't had as much success as they would have liked. We rode down to practically the suburbs, then got on the actual metro to get back to Paris where we found ourselves near the Île de la Cité for some famous Berthillon ice cream. So famous that even the line on a chilly, rainy day was roughly 20 people long. There were so many flavors!! With flavors like Mirabelle, Nougat au Miel, Cassis, and Groseille...what's a girl to do?! How to choose?!
(After doing that frantic...oh no! I'm next in line! Hurry up! Make a last minute decision...in my head) I finally settled on poire (pear), and pomme verte (green apple). Oh man...my last minute decisions were excellent!
The pomme verte was my favorite, but the pear had chunks of actual pear in it which made it refreshing and delightful. Next time I will choose actual ice cream versus sorbet, just to give it a fair try as well. It was cold and icy with the perfect amount of flavor! No wonder people were waiting in line. Berthillon sells its flavors in bulk to some restaurants around Paris, and one of their main draws for Parisien's is that the don't use any artificial sweeteners, no chemical preservatives, and are derived from natural sources. And pretty decently priced at 3,40 euros for 2 scoops. Berthillon also does such good business during the year, that they are often closed during one of the peak tourist months, August, for vacation. I want to create a business that does so good I can close a whole month out of the year! Can you imagine?
Today we did a couple of firsts....although with me still being slightly sick it wasn't easy...but I hated to miss out on a weekend. You know me....I HATE missing out. Tomorrow we are going out to dinner after work because it's Ashleigh's birthdayyyyyy!!!! Shout out to Ashleigh-Joyeux Anniversaire!
No comments:
Post a Comment