Today we had a free day after lecture. Katy and I checked out the Grand Epiçerie, a huge grocery store right down the street from us. It's supposedly where all the well-to-do in Paris shop for their groceries. After being there, I now understand why. It's like a Heinen's store on steroids! But I found some great gift ideas to bring home!
After, the grocery store, Katy and I went shopping in Marais, the Jewish village of Paris. All the stores were quite a bit above our budget, so we did more window-shopping then actual shopping. We stopped in this one store called Sandro, just to get out of the rain for a little while. There were some of the cutest clothes I have ever seen, but also the some of the most expensive. I was admiring a dress when a women working there started talking to me about it. We had a little conversation about the dress in French and then she asked Vous êtes Français? (Are you French?) I wasn't paying close enough attention and thought she had asked if I spoke French. I replied, "un peu" (A little) and she thought that was the cutest thing ever. "You are so cute, I asked are you French and you replied a little. I love it." Haha, I guess you could say I'm becoming a little French.
After shopping, we stopped in a little wine store. Wine is very confusing in France because it's not labeled by the grape that makes it, only by the region it's from. So you must know what wine each region specializes in. The lady working at the wine store helped us understand a bit more. We told her what we like in a wine and she pointed out the best ones that would match our tastes and would be in our price range. Katy and I picked out a couple bottles with her help. We also found out that the French do not drink Bordeaux wine. She said it's too expensive and it's not expensive because of quality, it's expensive because of the name. So you might actually get a lower quality of wine just because it has the Bordeaux name on it... the French prefer a perfectly good glass of red wine from a different region for half the price.
It continued to rain today, but we weren't going to let that stop us from our plans. Carpe Diem! There's not much time left in Paris. We went to eat in Montmartre for dinner. We ate at Chez Plumeau... the restaurant I told you we scoped out in one of my earlier blogs. Our waiter was great and the food was delicious. Plus we were able to sit outside under their covered patio and watch the rain. We weren't cold because they had heat lamps outside... genius!
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| Cheers! |
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| How amazing does this look? Everywhere we eat the meals come out looking like they are on Top Chef! |
