Loire Valley Failure

Last Friday a bunch of us from CEA wanted went to a Lebanese restaurant for lunch. We ate outside in the street and it was nice to have some tubouli and hummus! I was starting to have withdrawals due to how much I was eating earlier this summer. The meal was topped off by some baklava. Yum. After, we took the metro to the Galleries Lafayette shopping mall. It was not a very pleasant Parisian place to shop. It seemed like an Orange Park mall of Paris. This was near the famous Café de Fleur, where Belle Epoque artists used to frequent. We got their famous hot chocolate. It was SO GOOD. We haven't made it to Angelina's yet, but after this I don't know of we need to.

That night we went to ô chateau, my teachers wine bar. All of the people who work there are really nice and get to know you. They tell you everything about the glass of wine you choose and the prices are very reasonable. We ended up staying until close, and the group of us who was there went to a secret underground bar called The Ballroom. It was funny to be there with my teacher. When we got home, Joanna set her alarm for us to wake up at 6, because the bus for the Loire Valley left at 7:30 and the stop was really far away. Our roommates we already asleep so we figured they had set their alarms too. Well, no one in our apartment woke up until 9. Joanna's phone volume was not up loud enough so none of us heard the alarm. I kick myself for not setting mine. After being really upset for missing the bus and being told there was no way we could meet the group, we finally cut our losses and planned the rest of the weekend.

One of my roommates, Myrah has researched an authentic Columbian restaurant in Paris. She moved to the U.S. two years ago from Columbia to go to College in DC. She says it is impossible to find cooking like she has at home in Columbia in the US. We went for dinner and it was delicious. We had no idea what anything was, so Myrah ordered for us. We ordered this whole platter with empandas, some sort of beef, types of potatoes, and lot of different plantain type things. The best part of the meal was the juice that Colombians drink. It is fruit blended in different flavors and ice so it is thick like a smoothie! Myrah picked her favorite "Lulo" flavor. Lulo is a type of fruit in Columbia. It was great to finally have a smoothie type drink. It was really refreshing. We have found that all the French cafés generally have the same menus. I never realized this before in our other visits. I have eaten so many French salads that it is nice to find some ethnic restaurants here.

Paris Plage

Lulo

Sunday, we went to check out the "Paris Plages." They were set up along the Seine for the second part of the summer so that people who can't afford to go on vacation to the beach can still have a beach experience. I don't know how they get all that sand down there! We got some food at a stand and a beer, and we ate it in the sand. It was all really cheap for once. It felt so good to feel the sun. It has rained so much! We walked up and down the beach from start to finish. They had really cool chairs and bean bad looking things set up in some areas. They also had a kids beach playground type area with a sandcastle building station, mist areas, fuss ball tables, clowns giving away balloons and book rental places. We stopped and got some ice cream and it was so good. I got green tea and macaroon flavored. We read for a little bit on the beach.
After we went home and met our friends for dinner who had been at the Loire Valley on Saturday and Sunday. They said that it had been really nice so get out of the city for a night. That was the part I was really jealous of. They also said the goat cheese farm was cool and the river cruise, but other than that it had been castle overload.