Today was a day of amazing food. I was going to go out with Millie and Logan again for the first part of the day, but i lost them somewhere in between them going to do their laundry, and making out on the Eiffel tower for their anniversary.. Instead, i went and got tickets for a ballet! I am so excited. It took me a while to actually find it. Where the internet said it was, isn't actually where it was. I ended up walking around for a while, and trying to talk to a girl next to a poster for it in french to ask directions, and she looked at me like i was stupid. Not so much because my french is beyond terrible, but because the ballet is at a place called "Opera De Bastille" and the metro nearest it is called.. you guessed it, Bastille. Who'd have guessed though? I know i didn't. Luckily the lady at the ticket office spoke decent English, so i got a good seat! This theater is huge! 3 balconies and i happened to get a seat on the floor. What luck! Yes Sandy- i will take pictures (if I'm allowed) and such just for you! I also visited the Pantheon. It is a work of art in and of itself, but it was built in honor of St. Genevieve, patron saint of France, and Joan of Arc. It has also become the burial place for the "pomp" of France. It houses the corpses of many of the leaders and martyrs of the french revolution, as well as those all the way up until recently, such as Pierre and Marie Currie After that, i went and visited Notre Dame. Honestly not a lot to say about it. Just another giant Gothic style catholic cathedral. It had a giant line into it, which im not sure whether that was because it was free entrance, or because its famous. I wasn't impressed either way, but a good see regardless. I walked past a giant department store on the way back to the metro. Not nearly as big as Harrods was, but still, about 5 floors of stuff. I bought a suitcase to make the trip home easier, and to make sure i wasn't over weight. I went home, dropped that off, and had dinner!
Back on the topic of food. It has been my goal while in France, to never eat the same thing twice. To get a variety of as much french food as i can! I will admit though, i have had crepe's several times. However, they have been different flavors. Today i got a cheese pastry thing while i looked for the ballet. It was good, tasted like a grilled cheese, only the cheese was like.. good, and not.. fake, or American. Very creamy, and where it was on the grill it got all crispy like, and so the cheese extended about 3 inches out from the actual pastry. Yum.
While heading towards the Pantheon, i passed an ice-cream shop. Now, I'm not one for ice-cream, but the sign was in Italian, not french, and said it was a gelato shop, which piqued my interest. BEST-FROZEN-DESSERT-EVER. I am so glad i stopped in there. I'm not entirely sure if it was frozen yogurt, or gelato, but i don't really care. It was paradise. I got a cherry one. It was a plain vanilla base with REAL Cherries and scratch made cherry sauce. It wasn't even blended in at the start. They had pans with the base flavor of ice-cream (yogurt, gelato, whatever. heretofore known as ice-cream) with the topping just piled on top. So when they served it up, they didn't just scoop. They used a thing that almost looked like a pie cutter, and they portioned the base and the topping just right. When they sliced through the ice-cream, it didn't give any resistance, just slid right through, but was still cold and solid. Just perfectly creamy. They had everything from chocolate with chocolate chips, to pineapple and passion fruit. It was.. well.. BEST-FROZEN-DESSERT-EVER. I may break my rule and go back there. It was THAT amazing. The cherries weren't frozen either. They had just the right amount of tooth, but still soft enough to not be more dense than the ice-cream. I am drooling just thinking about it again. Amazing. The funny part was, most of the people in there spoke Italian, not french. nor English. But they were playing a Michael Jackson CD and all singing along, apparently not knowing what they were saying. It was funny, we all sang along and danced. Dance- the universal language.
In France, there are little cafe's just about everywhere. There are a few that have really stood out to me through this trip, and i've been trying to find more like it. I hopped on the metro, picked a random stop, and started walking. Off in the distance, i saw a glowing green restaurant/cafe. One thing i look for when picking a place for dinner is the LACK of words Brasserie (i have no idea what this means) Cafe, Take-Away, and such. This one fit the bill. I also look for places that seem busy, and have families in them. That way, i know i won't be hated for not ordering beer, or wine, as well as not wanting just boring pub-grub. This place was everything i wanted. I walked in, "Bonsoir, un s'il vous plaît" (good evening, one please), and even though i spoke in near perfect french (ha!) they still pulled out an English version of the menu. That actually impressed me. And i was quite glad to have something i could understand. Leons was the place i was at. It is an entire restaurant specializing in mussels! I had no idea when i walked in, but i was actually quite pleased. I like seafood. (are mussels considered seafood?) Anyway, i started with a warm goat cheese salad. It was a salad with a balsamic vinaigrette, with a baguette covered in goat cheese, olive oil, and basil. Its times like this that i am glad i learned how to eat properly. People here give you funny looks if you eat like an American. Anyway, it was very good, very light, and the goat cheese was very creamy. At first i wasn't sure if i wanted it to be on a baguette, as i don't like bread all that much, but it paired very well, and provided a good base to cut the lettuce and such on. It also allowed some absorption of the vinaigrette. These french people are smart when it comes to food. The mussels come out with a side of pomme frittes. (french fries) which i wasn't exactly expecting, and didn't really eat them all, since I'm kind of sick of french fries, whatever country they come from. Anyway- the mussels i got were cooked in a north-France style with bacon and mushrooms and other yummy stuff. They were steamed in the pot they were served in, so none of the flavor was lost. They also brought a basket of french bread to sop up all the yummy. The mussels were amazingly good. There definitely is a difference from fresh mussels, and frozen ones in Utah. One thing i was surprised at is how many there were! It was practically a bucket of mussels! There was tons! Had to be almost 40-50. The meal finished with a cremebrulle. They really mastered the texture here. It was smooth and creamy- nothing like scrambled eggs. The top was hand torched and crispy, and kind of tasted like perfectly burnt marshmallows. I am really glad i found this place!
The french are so good with food- even their cough drops taste good. Try explaining Halls, or cough drops to a french person and they will look at you like your insane, but hold your throat and cough and they will come back with 4 boxes of different stuff. I got the honey and mint ones. Oddly, she warned me not to take more than 6 in a day, and i didn't quite catch why..
Now i just have to figure out if I'm going to Versailles tomorrow, or staying home to catch up on homework..
p.s. The picture is actually the back entrance to the Louvre.. and yes, i look fat. But ya know what? I didn't want to upload any pictures from today, so that's what i get. And.. that's what YOU get!
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