Cook’n with class: Market and French Dessert Classes
James’ company is partnered closely with the Cook’n with class cooking school in Montmartre, so he decided to check out a couple of their popular classes. Looks like SO much fun!

For the market class, the chef takes the group around to all the little food stores (fromagerie, boucherie, epicerie, etc) in the area and gives a quick explanation. While they’re going to these shops, the group (with suggestions from the chef) decide what they want to cook and pick up all the ingredients.

une fromagerie

une boucherie

une poissonnerie

started with scallops, salad, and an orange vinaigrette

main course: steak with buttery mash potatoes and a fancy sauce

cheese course!

chocolate soufflé for dessert

The dessert class is more structured and everyone makes the same set of desserts. Lucky for me, James brought a ton of food home. So good!!

tarte citron, moelleux au chocolat, white chocolate mousse, financier aux cerises (my favorite!), and crême brulée (not pictured)

Bike About Tours
James also took a three-hour bike tour around Paris. The weather, once again, wasn’t super nice, but he still had a fantastic time. Definitely a great way to see the city!

Seine River Cruise
This is one of my all-time favorite things to do in Paris. You can do it during the day, but it’s so much better at night. There are quite a few companies that all have about the same tour, but we choose to go with the Vedettes du Pont Neuf because they were offering a discount on tickets ordered online.

Chateau de Versailles
They had a special on tickets into the Chateau and the gardens (2 for 1!), so we decided to go, even though we knew the gardens wouldn’t be in bloom. Turns out you can get in the gardens for free, so I think we might come back again in the summer.

This is my third time out to Versailles, but the first time I’ve made it out to the Grand and Petit Trianon and the Queen’s Hamlet. The Trianons are okay, basically mini-castles that they used when they needed to get away from the giant one. But the Queen’s Hamlet, so cute! It honestly feels like Disney set the whole thing up instead of Marie Antoinette. Its where she would go to play “peasant life” and it couldn’t be more quaint.

The Queen’s Hamlet also includes a working farm and vineyard that would supply the castle’s kitchen (and is still functioning today!).

Sainte Chapelle
Small, and usually quite expensive (free first Sunday of the month during the winter!), but wow, those stained-glass windows are gorgeous!

Notre Dame Towers
Another free thing to do on the first Sunday of the month in the winter, and definitely worth it, is to climb the towers of Notre Dame. I’ve been up in quite a few monuments in Paris, and I would say this has been my favorite. The views are amazing, and you’re still close enough to the ground to make out the details of monuments/buildings/etc. Plus you get some tête-à-tête time with the gargoyles.

Whew! We joked that we were playing tourist for the week, and really, I loved it! Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in work and paper-writing that I almost forget we live in such a beautiful city. We still try to go somewhere new at least once a week, but with the tourist season starting up, James’ work is really busy.

Looking forward to friends and family coming soon!

The tour company they used is called Bike About Tours and I want to give’em a big ol’ shout out because my parents and Jennee simply had an amazing time! It was a 3 1/2 hour bike ride all through the cities back streets and my fam came back knowing more about the city than I do! They saw sooooo much like the city’s oldest wall, the city’s oldest shop, the most expensive restaurant, and all the main tourist thangs etc etc etc. They also met other people in their small group from Boston and Ireland I believe. The tour guide was a native English speaker and super nice. And all of this was only like 30€ each! Great way for anyone to start their time off in Paris and a lot more entertaining and interactive than a stupid boat tour or a bus tour (and you aren’t flying your tourist flag quite so high). I think I’m gonna do it!

the Fam on their Bike Tour

But then it all hit the fan… After my fam finished the bike tour, my sister just got super sick. And when Jennee gets sick, she gets SICK like no other. I mean I am the one that usually gets sick but with the sniffles but my sister rarely does but it just has the worst timing ever. So my parents started freaking out and I had to be all like calm down, it’s ok, just bring her to the school and the teachers here will help you.

So from then on it was Mme Lucie and her amazingness to the rescue! She is the student coordinator for the CIEE: Paris program here and she has all her bases covered. She immediately took us to a pharmacy right down the street. And you should know that the pharmacy here is so much better than those in the States. You can go in, describe your symptoms, and the pharmacist can be like ok you need this and that or like no you need to go to the doctor. And the meds here are soooooo cheap it’s amazing! So Jennee got a pack of pills that she just had to put under her tongue three times a day. THANKS LUCIE!

The only picture I have of Lucie... me forcing her to drink a Dr. Pepper

Obviously after that huge ordeal, I took them home and Jennee slept for the rest of the afternoon. Goodness was I worried. I didn’t want her to remember Paris as the place where she spent her whole spring break with a stomach bug.

Then later that night my parents came over to my apartment to meet my host parents, Edith and Philippe!! It was so much fun

My Parents and Mes Parents Français