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.