When we first arrived in Paris, we were given a sheet of paper with 5 different options of things to do: a cooking class, a bike tour, a river tour, tickets to the Degas Nude exhibit, or something else that I can't remember. My number one choice was the cooking class, which I was picked to do! I was so excited. We got to the place where the lessons would be and got on our aprons to begin cooking!
On one side, girls were making a chocolate filling as well as the puff balls which they would be put in. I can't remember what they were called, but I'll try to find the recipe and edit this later with that info. On my side of the table, we made croissants with our homemade nutella in the middle, as well as the crust for some chocolate and orange tarts.
Molly mixing the stuff for our "nutella"
We started out making the nutella for the croissants. We didn't actually hand make the croissant bread which made me kinda sad, but I guess its ok since we made something equivalent to nutella which I have been addicted to since I arrived here.
The homemade "nutella"
Our Croissants!
Next we started making the crust for the tarts, which we did hand make! it was awesome, but let me say trying to read a recipe in French when you don't understand enough everyday terms in the language was difficult at times!
Tart crust
Making the filling for the tarts
The girls next to us made the filling for the tarts, which was some sort of chocolate and oranges. There were a few left over so I got to pour one of the last couple tarts! Mmmm
The finished tarts!
OH! I almost forgot, the girls on the other side of the table also made these chocolate cake/brownie things with a caramel sauce to dip it in, and or drizzle on them. They were delicious, even if the chocolate was a little too dark for my tastes!
All the yummy delicious treats!!
I was really glad I got this option instead of one of the others, since most of the other options would be fairly easy and pretty inexpensive to do on my own compared to taking a french cooking class. Those can be extremely expensive! It was a very fun and exciting experience!
Ok. So first of all, before I begin my story, you must push play in this super nifty youtube video i have up here. Go ahead. Push play. I'll wait.
.... Seriously. I'm waiting. Perfect. Now I can begin :)
Lately it has been very nice in Paris. We're talking sun shining,birds singing, 50+ degrees which is so much warmer than when we got here to 21 degrees tops. I mean last night when I was walking back to my dorm from the bar, the birds were singing. At 2:30 am. And it wasn't that cold! So so nice. The other day, when my petite sœur and I were wandering around, we came across a magic show outside, and a clown making balloon animals and stuff! It was awesome. We stopped and enjoyed the sights for a little bit. It was so wonderful.
Anyways, so like I was raving, its been so nice lately that I decided on Friday after my phonetics class to go wandering around since I assumed CEA was closed. I found out later it was open for two extra hours that day, but i digress. I started wandering around getting closer to the Bastille area, when I remembered the Lover's Bridge was supposed to be somewhere near there. So then my mission became: find the lovers bridge even if I don't have a padlock to put on it myself. I wandered around for about 20 minutes before I found it, along the way seeing a few swans in Le Seine, in which people were feeding them. It was super cute.
And it was so warm! It must have been around 55. I was in these super beautiful tights, knee high boots, a black skirt, red shirt, black blazer, and of course my longer black pea coat and a grey scarf. I ended up taking off the scarf and unbuttoning my coat because I got so hot walking around.
So then I find the bridge, and can I just say, it is GORGEOUS!I fell in love with it. All the beautiful, colorful, hopeful couples who have come here and followed the tradition of placing a lock that either has your name + your lovers name, or a lock with a ribbon attached with your name + your lovers name on the chain links of the fence, then tossing the key into the river. They do this for eternal love! Awww! It made me wish I had someone to write on the lock. Hmm. Maybe I should just place a lock with mine and Ian Harding's name on it? No? I could do Chris Pine instead, or Ryan Gossling, or Chris Hemsworth.... I mean I could be ok with any of those men I think.... ;)
Anyways. Like I said, I definitely fell in love with the bridge. It was kinda magical in its own special way. I would definitely hang out there all the time when its nice. Just sit next to the bridge and people watch. The couples were all so cute too, I loved it! Now, you may be wondering why I had you play that song on youtube, besides the fact that its awesome and beautiful. Its called Pretend (Reprise) by Lights, and it came on over my headphones while I was arriving at the beautiful bridge, and it just felt so perfect. The moment was.... perfect. The song felt like it fit so perfectly for the setting, and it was so beautiful and made a beautiful sight even more lovely. So go ahead, soak in the music as you look at the sights and imagine the sun shining warmly on your back as you take in the sights. Maybe you'll feel a little bit of what I felt with that music playing and seeing so many couples add locks to the bridge, or maybe you wont. Regardless, it was still a wonderful afternoon.
So. Of course the day after my birthday I get sick. I'm feeling super awful, super congested and with a sinus headache coming on. Which of course means I end up staying in bed as late as possible and just throwing on a long sweatshirt and leggings+boots to go to class. Normal class, a bit overwhelming especially since my brain is particularly sluggish.
But then after class, as I go to one of the main buildings at Cité U to get out some cash and look for the post office, a guy comes up and starts talking to me! This is the first time it has happened since I have been here. He just out of the blue comes up and starts talking to me. He was super nice and forced me to speak French, which was kinda cool. But he spoke English well enough that if I didnt know something in French he could understand when I said it in English. We talked for probably 15 minutes before I had to go. He also pointed out the post office plus another one near there that had better operating hours, so helpful! The bad thing was I was so paranoid the entire time we were talking that my nose was dripping and making my face all disgusting like. Of course I cant just go wipe my nose in the middle of a conversation and look even more disgusting.... So instead the entire time I just kept thinking "please, dont drip!! please please dont be dripping nose!!"
Since la poste was not yet open, I decided to head back to my dorm cause I was feeling pretty crappy. As I was walking back to the dorm a guy was running in the same area, then all the sudden he stopped and turned around and started talking to me! It was a much shorter conversation, and mostly spoken in English but I threw in French whenever I could. He asked me if I go running and I said yes, so he asked if we could go running together sometime. He said he had to stop and talk to me because he thought I had a very nice smile, though I didn't even realize I had smiled at him. Long story short he ended up giving me his e-mail address. I think I'll email him tomorrow since once I got back to my room, and got over the shock of the fact that sick Brittney, who hadn't showered and had no makeup except whatever didn't get wiped off with my Clean and Clear makeup wipes = sexy Brittney to these French men, I ended up sleeping for 3 hours then forced myself to wake up and do French homework since I have my first test tomorrow. Le sigh. But of course I spent more time talking to Sarabear and Nathan than I did studying... but c'est la vie!
Well, I certainly hope that this damn cold goes away by the weekend so I can see who else I can meet!
