Paris, je t'aime

Let me just preface by saying that I have an enormous brioche praline in my kitchen. That's entirely irrelevant, I just like to brag. Anyways.

My spring break started out early--mom, Lauren, and my grandparents arrived the wednesday before my actual break and stayed for about a week in my apartment (Valerie and Edouard had gone to the country house with the rest of the family). We had a good time pretending to be French, doing our shopping at the markets and the cheese store (and the Franprix--less romantic but still good), and navigating the bus and metro like your average, jaded Parisians. Well, not really with the last part, but you know. Actually I think we walked my grandparents' legs right off, not to mention I don't think they ever really recovered from the jetlag. But that didn't stop mom, Lauren and I from doing all the fun touristy things and a lot of the fun non-touristy ones. We saw enough of a service at St. Gervais to realize that easter mass in French would be a horrible mistake, then ended up outside Sacre Coeur where they appeared to be doing the stations of the cross outside on the steps. There were some paramedics there as well--I personally had forgotten about the station where Jesus gets taken away on a stretcher by a bunch of French people, but hey, I haven't been to church in years so can you blame me?

We did a lot of break-taking in cafes and a lot of eating. I somehow managed to go to both Laduree and Angelina's in the same day, which aside from being completely disgusting on my part was also magnificent. I've concluded (very predictably) that Angelina's hot chocolate is far superior to that of Laduree, no matter what you're looking for in your chocolatey beverage. Because quite frankly the hot chocolate Laduree is obviously trying to be the hot chocolate at Angelina's, it's just not doing a very good job. This also means that I had two macaroons and a montblanc (well, I shared the montblanc technically) in the same day. Also simultaneously disgusting and fantastic. We ate some delicious vietnamese food by my house and on Ave. de Choisy, where I almost died of happiness when I found ube (purple sweet potatoes) in one of the many asian grocery stores there. I wouldn't know what to do with it if I had any, but the fact that its there makes me a happy filipino. I made everyone try my new favorite cheese (beaufort), and we bought the most beautiful rocotta at the Edgar Quinet market on Saturday (along with some 10 euro shoes--what else is there in life?) We did Notre Dame and had ice cream on the Ile St. Louis, frolicked in the Montparnasse cemetary, lolled around in the jardin des Plantes, etc. etc.

We also spent a day in Giverny at Monet's garden (his house is there too, all pastel-colored and adorable, but you can't really remember it once you've been through the garden as well). I'm not sure if I was impressed or slightly disappointed to find that the world of Monet really was as hazy and magically wispy as it is in his paintings. He wasn't making it up or suffering from clouded corneas, it really looks like that. Every picture you take, even if you're like me and normally can't take a good picture to save your life, looks like a painting. There aren't really words to describe it--it's more or less a magical fairy land with slow-sweeping little streams and this perfect golden light coming from everywhere, and more kinds of flowers than I knew existed, growing in neat little beds. The day we went was gorgeous without a cloud in the sky, but I think even a nasty day couldn't manage to make the place look any less beautiful. I highly recommend it to everyone.

After my family left last thursday I spent a few days in Paris by myself--host family was still away and friends hadn't yet returned from their respective vacations around Europe. I mostly did homework (read as: I mostly did a very small amount of homework and watched an obscene amount of The Tudors online. That show is awful, but is full of pretty people and fun historical inaccuracy.) But now Valerie and the copines are back in Paris, which is nice except for the fact that we all do actually have a ton of work to do. We have about a month left of school (including exams and everything), and that is fairly terrifying. I don't leave to come home until the beginning of July, but it's still crazy.