La Madeleine!

When I was in 10th grade, we had a project in French class to recreate a monument in Paris. I chose La Madeleine only because Madeleine was my French name. So I finally visited it!

 First was Place de la Concorde.

 It's not too far from the Eiffel Tower. This area was very pretty. Close by is the Jardin de Tuileries. I walked by it but I resisted go in. I think I would spend my whole afternoon in there. I'll save that for another day.

 La Madeleine!

 The flowers were so pretty!

 The View from the top of the steps.

 It was very pretty!

Not too far away from La Madeleine was a small cafe that I had lunch at. I really love how all restaurants have menus posted outside so you can get an idea of what you want and how much it was going to be. This place was adorable and reasonable! Its called Aux Délices de Manon. It was so cute!

 I just got a regular ham and cheese sandwich with water. I hate that you have to pay for water. I really liked how it was free in the U.S. 

 And I happen to order the most extravagant bowl of fruit ever. One fruit in there, I didn't even know what it was, but it was amazing. I had to come home and look it up. It was a Peruvian Cherry. And I ate passion fruit and cranberries that weren't dried for the first time! So good!

I can be difficult sometimes

I went to my school today to pay for the rest of my schooling. Only half was paid so far. They guy that works in the front office has seen me come in there many times to get ready for school to start, and since then, i've had problems. Communication problems, class selection problems, money problems, and this problem of always asking stupid questions. He caught on. I was becoming very popular as the girl with problems. The guy at the front office even introduced me to the other women working there like "Oh hey, this is Lindsey Venable". Why am I meeting everyone in the office? No else does. It's because they've all heard of me. I've been thinking that I might need to go up there tomorrow and ask a few more stupid questions before school starts. For real, I need answers about a few things. Nothing is ever crystal clear when I leave that place.

My mission tomorrow is to buy my books for this semester. I don't have a clue what they will cost, but let's hope they're cheap. Probably not though. I would have gone today, but they aren't open on thursdays. I wasn't surprised. Nothing is ever open in this country. Even supermarkets and pharmacies close at random, weird hours. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring. I've been to the Eiffel Tower, but I never explored what is in front of it or across the river. So heres my awesome pictures. 

And having a million pictures of the same thing is boring, so I edited them. Now it's a million pictures that are different!

This area has the best view of the Eiffel Tower with the least amount of people.

Vintage looking Eiffel Tower

 A statue with the Eiffel Tower

 The bridge that I was standing on in the first picture.

 Me and the Eiffel Tower.

 Across the river from the Eiffel Tower. Super nice area.

 Up close Eiffel Tower

The Carrousel! 

 Pink Eiffel Tower!

 Me and the Eiffel Tower again.

 Eiffel Tower from far away

 What the Eiffel Tower looks like when it's sunny...or on mars? I'm not really good at editing photos.

 I like this picture of the Eiffel Tower

 Those famous photos of the Eiffel Tower were taken here.

I've turned into a housewife...

So this blog is turning into a cooking journal! Heres the brownies that I made today! I used the French version of Ovaltine for cocoa powder since that was the only ingredient I didn't have. It actually worked! And it has vitamins! So that means these brownies are healthy right?

But this family has never had brownies before...crazy, I know. I even made my own chocolate chips by melting a chocolate bar. Took forever but worth it.

And yes the weather has been rainy, so that's why I haven't been out and about very much. It's supposed to be nice this weekend though! And Thank God I start school next monday. I'll only be cooking for entertainment on tuesdays from now on instead of being the master chef every day.

So heres all the ingredients minus the chocolate chips that I put in the freezer to speed up the cooling process.

She was super excited to stir.

What it turned into. Looks like brownie mix!

They were AMAZING! Everyone loved them!

Other than that, I dont have anything exciting. Except that the oldest daughter and I had a mission today to learn this dance:

She screamed my name from the other room. I thought something was seriously wrong, but she was only excited that she got the footwork right finally. ohh teenage girls. She's a blast.

I'm never bored here

So Friday was a rainy day here, so I decided I wouldn't leave the house. I spent the morning doing girly things like a pedicure and fixing my hair. Then by 1pm, I found I've run out of things to do. Thanks to pinterest for sparking my interest in cooking, I decided to make dinner! There was turkey in the freezer that I noticed had been in there for 3 months, so I didn't think they had big plans on cooking it. I texted the mom and asked if I could make dinner with it but she never responded...So I made it anyway. With that, I made my own cream of mushroom soup by sauteeing garlic and onion in a pan, then adding in mushrooms. After a few minutes, I added in some water, cream, some cheese, and I dont remember what else. Anything that sounded good. I don't have many spices here to work with. Just ginger, cinnomon, salt, and pepper. So I was beyond excited with I found a vegetable bouillon cube in the very back of the pantry. All that turned out like this:

Then with the turkey, I cut up some potatoes and opened a can of green beans. Honestly, I wanted to eat all my favorite things in one meal and it just happend to be similar to Thanksgiving food.

It was looking really good so far. I covered it with foil and put it in the oven for and hour and a half just like this.

While I waiting, I had made snack for the kids for when they came home. The youngest one always comes home a goes straight for the cookies. The last snack she had was 3 cookies, apple sauce, a glass of milk, and basically something equivalent to a twinkie. It's no wonder why she never eats her dinner 2 hours later. She can eat an apple today, so I cut up some of the remaining apples because there's still a ton here. Since France doesn't have peanut butter, I made a different fruit dip by mixing plain yogurt with (organic) nutella. It was amazing!

An hour and a half later, the dinner was ready! And it smelled amazing!

The girls in the house ate it. Simon, the 11 year old boy ate the noodles I prepared with it and picked at the rest. He didn't eat the AWESOME lemon loaf or the apple cobbler I made either. I think he's a little picky.

The mom said I'm the official chef of the house. If I ever wanted to cook anything, I'm welcome. haha Good because sometimes I feel like cooking.

Yesterday was Saturday and I realized that I've seen almost every monument here by myself. I did not have anything planned for the day, so I texted someone I know that lives here. Suzannah went to my high school and is studying aborad in Paris for the year! So lucky to know someone in this city! So, we met up in the Latin Quarter for lunch and just spend the day talking and walking around. Not only can you enjoy company with friends, but you enjoy the city. It is just awesome to walk around this city. This area, Il de la Cite where the Notre Dame is and the Latin Quarter, is my favorite place to go!

Thanks for Suzannah for being my paparazzi!

The best view in town

I visited Sacré-Coeur yesterday! It takes 3 different trains to get there. A long train down to a large train station called Gare Du Nord, then a quick metro ride up one station, and then another metro ride west one station. Honestly, I could have walked from Gare Du Nord, but I wasn't wearing the right shoes for that.

I also wasn't wearing the right shoes for climbing stairs....

This thing was massive. I felt like if I looked up at it, I would fall back and roll down all those stairs I just climbed.

I don't trust people to take pictures of me with my camera, but a girl about my age trusted me to take a picture of her with her iPhone. That's only when I ask someone to take a picture of me.

And that's the view of Paris! I had no idea where anything was because there were too many people in front of the map that points to where the monuments are. All I know is that of all things, you can't see the Eiffel Tower from there.

The lighting outside was just right to make the Sacré-Coeur almost disappear.

Today was a slow day. I woke up this morning wanting to make an apple cobbler because the mom bought a huge box of apples at the grocery store. Not sure why she wanted 20 apples...but when life gives you apples, lets hope you have lemons, sugar, and cinnamon too. So all American apple cobbler was made. Agathe helped me make it. She's a pro at stirring, so I handed her the ingredients to stir up. 

We added some almonds on top! It turned out amazing! There was hardly any left. and Yes, I did finish it off after dinner.

Before Lunch though, the mom's parents came over. They live about an hour away really close to Versailles. They were very nice people! The mother spoke with me a lot in French and in English. The both of us carried on a conversation in half French, half English. She challenged me a little by speaking a lot in French, repeating herself when talking, and explaining things as she's talking, so I honestly learned a lot from her in the small amount of time we got to talk. It was simply because she talked a mile a minute but very clearly. I can make her an apple cobbler any day as long as she comes over and starts talking. She was a lot of fun.

The Heart of Paris

Yesterday was a day of exploring a new area! I decided to go see Notre Dame. I have wanted to see Notre Dame basically since Quasimodo lived there. The Hunchback of Notre Dame CD-ROM game was my favorite to play on the computer when I was like 7! I've wanted to be a gypsy since then. And that goat bowling game was tight.

Anyhow, There was a long line to get inside, but it was moving very fast! While waiting in line, there were many Americans standing around with "free hugs" signs. I really didn't want a hug but ok.

This cathedral is on an island calle Île de la Cité. It's a ver small island in the middle of the Seine River that flows through Paris.  Heres a pretty cool picture of it. You're looking at the back of the Notre Dame.

From the Notre Dame, if you cross the nearest bridge, you make it across an area that I found was the image of Paris. Any previous ideas or thoughts of what Paris would be like is in the area. Its very close to the Latin Quarter which I know I will be spending a lot of my time at. There are so many small streets with shops, restaurants, music. Its close to the College of Sorbonne so there are a lot of people around my age that live and hang out in this area. It was just lovely!

Beside the river, people come here to walk, sit, talk, read, do anything, and I see why. I loved being there!

It was a lot of fun to just walk around on these little streets where no cars ever drive. Theres just people walking.

I found a little cafe to get dinner at. Something cheap but very good! Le Twickenham on Boulevard Saint Germain.