Eating Snails

I ate snails tonight. It sounds better if I say escargot, I guess, but in the end its the same thing anyway. They were surprisingly good, and surpisingly not very disgusting to eat. At least if you don't think about them when they were alive. They are prepared in a butter and garlic sauce, so thats pretty much what they taste like. If you chew them for awhile there is a definite "earthy" taste as well. You also get a special snail shell holder and tiny fork to pry them out with. The snails that they serve are pretty big. The shells are about the same size as a golf ball and the meat inside is like a big wad of garlicy gum but not that chewy. I had to ask the waiter how to use the special snail tools which was pretty funny. But if I didn't ask, I would have looked stupider trying to figure it out for myself. Earlier in the evening, I was feeling pretty grumpy about the prospect of wandering around to find a restaurant, or ordering room service again so after my meal of escargot, wine, cafe americano and a chocolate mousse all was well again. As you all know I'm usually not that adventurous of an eater so I'm glad everything tasted so good.

The other night I went out to dinner with a girl I work with, her friends that were visiting from Brazil and a couple of her family memebers to a creperie. I've had crepes before, but only the dessert kind, so I tried the dinner version for the first time. They are thicker, and mine had chicken, mushrooms (like I said, French people love mushrooms) and fromage (cheese) in it. It was a lot to eat, but I couldn't pass up a crepe for dessert too. Everything tasted really delicious, but all of that food upset my stomach pretty horribly. I would eat it again though. Hehehe. Maybe just not as much.

Mmmmmm. Crepes.

The street the creperie was on.

Flying Butts.

I got up this morning with the intention of heading straight to the Louvre, but it was such a nice day that I decided to walk around for a bit. I walked around out of my immediate neighborhood, and ended up in another that I liked much better. It helped that there were a few stores of the same kind that you would find in the Lower East Side of New York. (Cool shoes, T-shirts, graffiti books and whatnot.) It was kind of funny to see the French version. Anyway, I wandered around and discovered this giant sculpture outside a really old cathedral, that when I have time I'll look up the name. It wasn't a really famous one I don't think, but I really like old churches of all kinds. They are pretty amazing places. Anyway.

The people from the neighborhood, and a few tourists like me were all sitting around on the steps enjoying the sun.

There were also these kids. The one doing the trick was pretty good. It always cracks me up that when you see kids skating, there is always at least one of them taking a picture. It was also a perfect place to practice, even though it was on the church grounds kind of. No one seemed to mind, and looking closely at the concrete, you could tell that the spot had been used a lot.

The church was pretty big, and I didn't really get a good picture of the whole thing. I like this pic though. You can see the flying buttresses and a pigeon on its way to the top. I studied all this architechture in Mrs. Murphy's class, so it's neat to see in person. It's also hard to imagine that these places ever got built. Everything is really intricate, especially considering the level of technology at the time. I also looked in the basement window, but the picture didn't turn out. It was full of what all church basements are full of - lots of folding chairs, which made me giggle.

I have 4 more pictures to post, but it doesn't seem to be working, and it's late so I think I'll put these up now, and finish the rest tomorrow!

Proof

I like this picture a lot. I was lucky to get it. I was trying to take another long exposure of the cars zooming around the fountain, and happened to catch the couple too.

After work I walked to the Arch de Triumph. So I took a picture of myself in front of it as proof that I was really there. I think I may go back during the day too. The neighborhood that it is in is the most like New York that I have seen so far. It's a big shopping district, but full of regular stores like the Gap, Virgin Megastore and all of those. Some things are the same everywhere.

French movie theater showing all of the American favorites. I wouldn't mind seeing a movie, as long as the French part is in subtitles. I don't think I would enjoy "Pirates des Caribes" very much. I get tired of listening to French that I don't understand as it is!

As seen from a distance. Its strange to me that you can have a pretty modern neighborhood, and then run into really old architechture or monuments like this that have been there for a really long time.

For dinner today, I had an old favorite. Roasted chicken and french fries. This meal will remind me of Peru for the rest of my life probably, since it was one of the things I ate the most of while I was there. There was no palta on the menu, or I would have added that too. I decided that from now on, whenever I visit another country (assuming that I do) I'm going to have this meal at least once. It was pretty good, but not as good as the pollo con papas fritas. While I was looking at the menu, I kept wondering why everything came with fries. Then it occurred to me that maybe they call them French Fries for a reason. Hehehehe. Not my smartest moment thats for sure.
Im off Saturday and Sunday, so I'll be able to take some pictures during the day which will be nice for a change.

Some Happenings

So, today I ate some cheese that tasted like a moldy basement. I believe that it was goat cheese, and that isn't something that I ever need to eat again. I can't imagine putting that in my mouth and thinking "This is really good!" I have however, begun to get over my texture issues with mushrooms, since pretty much everything I have eaten so far has had some type of mushroom in it. So if nothing else, I can eat those now, even if I can't stomach the moldy basement cheese. The cheese came from a Camper party at the store. We have been having a "Press Event" for the fall collection, and for the new line of Camper Kids shoes. At the end of the event, there was a small party for the employees, which was nice. Luckily, there is a girl in the store who speaks very good english, as well as many other languages who has been translating for me. But it is pretty strange to be at a party where everyone is speaking another language. I figure that if I listen enough, eventually I'll be able to pick up on French. It's also funny that every time I met someone, it had to be explained that I don't speak French, and am training to work in the NY store. Although I can't say it in French, I understand when it is being said about me.
At lunch I went to the post office today, and discovered that French post offices are pretty much the same as the American ones, but a little nicer. When I walked in, there was a guy yelling at the top of his lungs in what seemed to me to be frustration. Which I've seen at the post office in Brooklyn a lot. I have no idea what he was mad about, it went on for about 5 minutes. Everyone was pretty much ignoring him. When I got to the counter, I gave the clerk what has become my trademark phrase "Je suis américain." and so that part was easy. The hard part was figuring out where to put my mail, and which box was the correct one. There was no drop box inside the post office, only on the outside, so I did have to ask a French business man where exactly I should drop my envelope. He laughed at me, but at least I figured it out.
I walked to the Louvre before work (I didn't go in obviously) but the grounds around it are beautiful. Lots of grass, trees and gardens. All very well manicured. Lots of tourists too so I blended in. I'll leave you with a picture of the view from the table where I had a sandwich at lunch.

Night

Taken around the corner from my Hotel. Paris is certainly a beautiful city.

Stuff I've Seen

I like seeing famous landmarks in person! I didnt realize they had such fancy lighting on the Eiffel Tower. There were strobe lights all over it going off for about a half hour and it took awhile to get a good picture cause I had to use a longer shutter speed. Seeing it made it more real that I was in Paris for some reason.

I flew out of the Newark airport. Its much nicer than JFK or LaGuardia. Everthing is still pretty new and the people that work there are nice. This is my plane to Paris. It was pretty fancy. Everyone had their own TV screen with 250 movies plus TV shows and games to play in it. I was concentrating on sleeping though, so I didnt really make use of it. The seats also had outlets for you to plug your computer in. I've never been on a plane that nice before.

This is the inside of the train I took to Paris from the airport. I made sure to sit in the seat next to to the map so I could keep an eye on where I was headed without looking too conspicuous.

French people like graffiti too. This was the view for most of the train trip. Funny how it looks a lot like New York. Except in French of course. It seems that they take it pretty seriously over here. There were a lot of perfectly executed graffiti tags.

I like all of the tiny cars that you see in places besides the US. This was my favorite of the day. Its not the best picture, but you get the idea.

This is the river Seine at night. Famous river. When I think of Paris, most of what I think of is stuff that I've read in books, as opposed to New York or Italy, which I think of mostly in terms of movies and TV shows.