Sorry guys, it's taken me a while to get around to finishing my post! My pictures from Paris are still on my camera...sad, i know... I promise I'll get them up soon.
Anyway, the next day we rented a car and started our little jouney back to Paris. Along the way we stopped by Saumur, where the largest abbey in France stands. In one of the rooms, there were murals with scenes of the last supper and cruxifiction...oddly enough, the nuns came along and decided to paint themselves in the murals! It's kind of funny seeing a scene with Jesus and his disciples and in the corner of the painting there is a little nun praying. Later on, we decided to go a mushroom museum. Our thoughts of seeing wild mushrooms growing abundatly in the caves were shattered when we saw mushrooms growing out of hundreds of moldy blocks. It was a waste of money to say the least. It's a miracle we made it out there alive with all the mold we breathed in. Definately not coming back.
To add to our little Saumur adventure, we stopped by a restaurant to have some lunch. Shanta and I both ordered fish soup, unfortunetly, it smelled and tasted like rotting fish. We ate it as "politely" as we could. (eg, 1. Eat a spoonful 2. Shove a ton of bread into mouth 3. Drink water 4. Rinse and Repeat) At the end of our meal I ordered a coffee with a side of cream. The server comes around and brings me my coffee and a small bowl of what looks like whip cream. I kept thinking "wow, this is really thick cream!" but I didn't really think anything of it and put a dollop of the stuff in my coffee. Then, Shanta reached over and tasted it, made a face, and exclaimed "Oh my God, it's crème fraîche!" So...for some odd reason, the server gave me SOUR CREAM to go with my coffee. Then, to make things more awkward, we confronted the server about this and asked her if they normally serve their customers sour cream with thier coffee, she replied "yes". Odd? I think so. It didn't help that we could hear snickering in the kitchen. Again, I don't think we'll be going to back to this restaurant or the town.
For the rest of the weekend, we hopped around from to town to town, admiring the great cathedrals and castles. We finally arrived in Paris and ended the weekend trip with a classic french meal, across the street from Shanta and Marc's apartment. It was there that I found my favorite french dish: Pot de Fleur. It's basically a light broth with lots of veggies and meat...okay, I know I'm making it sound bland, but I swear, I don't know what magical ingredients they put in it, but it tastes so good!! I highly recommend it!
As the week went by, I utilized my days with jogging to theTour de Eiffel, sightseeing, and eating. The first thing I did was to get my museum pass and went into the Louvre. OMG I'm standing in THE Louvre! Okay... so I was a little excited to be there. :P Unfortunetly, the excitment didn't last for long. As I made my way around the museum with my trusty map, I realized that I spent the first hour in one section, on one floor. I glanced at my map and realized that there were THREE sections, each one containing FOUR floors! I almost fainted... i kid you not. Each floor is lead by stairs...after stairs...after stairs. I swear my calves doubled in size by the time I stepped out of the museum :P I ended up having to split up the Louvre in two days and I still wasn't able to see everything. I have to say, it was neat to see all the paintings and sculptures listed in my artbooks, but at the same time, there were so many art pieces that eventually everything started looking the same. Seriously, how many paintings of fruit do we really need? :P
Okay, I think I should stop here and continue when I upload my photos. Seeing photos is much more fun that having me ramble, dontcha think? ;)
To add to our little Saumur adventure, we stopped by a restaurant to have some lunch. Shanta and I both ordered fish soup, unfortunetly, it smelled and tasted like rotting fish. We ate it as "politely" as we could. (eg, 1. Eat a spoonful 2. Shove a ton of bread into mouth 3. Drink water 4. Rinse and Repeat) At the end of our meal I ordered a coffee with a side of cream. The server comes around and brings me my coffee and a small bowl of what looks like whip cream. I kept thinking "wow, this is really thick cream!" but I didn't really think anything of it and put a dollop of the stuff in my coffee. Then, Shanta reached over and tasted it, made a face, and exclaimed "Oh my God, it's crème fraîche!" So...for some odd reason, the server gave me SOUR CREAM to go with my coffee. Then, to make things more awkward, we confronted the server about this and asked her if they normally serve their customers sour cream with thier coffee, she replied "yes". Odd? I think so. It didn't help that we could hear snickering in the kitchen. Again, I don't think we'll be going to back to this restaurant or the town.
For the rest of the weekend, we hopped around from to town to town, admiring the great cathedrals and castles. We finally arrived in Paris and ended the weekend trip with a classic french meal, across the street from Shanta and Marc's apartment. It was there that I found my favorite french dish: Pot de Fleur. It's basically a light broth with lots of veggies and meat...okay, I know I'm making it sound bland, but I swear, I don't know what magical ingredients they put in it, but it tastes so good!! I highly recommend it!
As the week went by, I utilized my days with jogging to theTour de Eiffel, sightseeing, and eating. The first thing I did was to get my museum pass and went into the Louvre. OMG I'm standing in THE Louvre! Okay... so I was a little excited to be there. :P Unfortunetly, the excitment didn't last for long. As I made my way around the museum with my trusty map, I realized that I spent the first hour in one section, on one floor. I glanced at my map and realized that there were THREE sections, each one containing FOUR floors! I almost fainted... i kid you not. Each floor is lead by stairs...after stairs...after stairs. I swear my calves doubled in size by the time I stepped out of the museum :P I ended up having to split up the Louvre in two days and I still wasn't able to see everything. I have to say, it was neat to see all the paintings and sculptures listed in my artbooks, but at the same time, there were so many art pieces that eventually everything started looking the same. Seriously, how many paintings of fruit do we really need? :P
Okay, I think I should stop here and continue when I upload my photos. Seeing photos is much more fun that having me ramble, dontcha think? ;)
