Tuesday, May 02, 2006

it was a cold and dreary weekend...

well, most of it. we did see some sun yesterday late afternoon. But I'm jumping ahead. Let's start with Sat, when, after the usual late start, I quietly stepped outside into St Denis to be out of the way when Ana's in-laws came in. I figured for one, I'd be in the way, as they'd go through all the social greetings, settling in, catching up... and for two, I suck at social group happenings. So rather than be uncomfortable and sit there trying to nod and smile, I'd keep myself busy with the Basilica of St Denis. (btw, I'm going to try and link to wikipedia articles of the place I visit from now on, so I don't have to fill in too many cultural bits...)


Basilica St Denis
(You can click on the pic at left to see more. I'm upgrading my blog ;) ) It is only a 10 minutes walk from where I'm staying, and for 6EUR I gained access to the necropolis and crypt, which house the tombs of several kings and other nobles of France. You can tell the most important ones have full statues of the royalty praying. Lesser nobles are depicted just lying down on top of slabs, pets at their feet, or weapons in hand for some men. Other cool things were the stained glass windows. of the two big round ones, one had the zodiac wheel on it. And the crypt, where they seemed to either still be digging, or they left it intentionally hole-y. When I walked back outside, I finally figured out what was the fenced construction area in front, in the middle of the street. A camera crew and ppl with mics were explaining about a new discovery of bones that somebody was going to donate money to investigate. I peeked through and saw partially uncovered skeletons. Neat :)

Since that took only an hour, I started walking about, trying to find a nearby park I had seen on a map. It was getting damn cold (first day I busted out the scarf and my one heavy sweater, and a turtle neck...) so after a couple of failed attempts at finding the place I walked back.

The evening was a pleasant dinner with the whole family, who spoke a couple of words of English. Coupled with my couple of words in French, we managed to have some conversation. After a while it reverted to all French, which I paid attention to a little but it got to be too much for my brain to process. :P


Eiffel tower at night
Sunday I dared go out. With Irina, my walking companion, we tried the Chateau de Vincennes, which was a disappointment. It's under construction, so the inside is closed. For 7EUR you can enter just the chapel. Which, we figured, was not worth it. I took a couple of quick shots in the rain, but we ran back to the metro soon after, to find an museum we could dry ourselves in.

Next stop was the Rodin Museum. Now, this is the kinda place I'd buy and make my home if I had an insane amount of money. Smack in the middle of Paris, it's a gorgeous huge house, with beautiful gardens, half in the symmetrical french style, but half it's a little forest with tall trees and a spot to tan... *sigh* so pretty. Even in the rain and cold I was happy. Now I just gotta work on those billions, and figure out where to relocate the museum so the world doesn't kill me. :P

After a stop at a cafe to recharge energy and the stomach, the sun finally made an appearance. Refreshed, we walked toward the Eiffel Tower, passing through Les Invalides, but not paying to go in. I already saw a cool exhibit of arms and armor in Madrid, I could leave this one for another occasion. By the time we made it past the Eiffel tower and to the Esplanade (a hill/park/building in front from where you get a better view of the tower) we figured it was actually still a good idea to get the Bateaux-Mouches, the "fly-boats", that for 8EUR tour the Seine for an hour, pointing out spots along the way. Irina suggested it'd be best at night, so we hung out at a McDonalds 'til 9:30. The tour was cold (this weekend was chilly!) but very nice. I even managed to get better pics of the Eiffel tower than when I was on land!! And the weirdest thing: a miniature version of the Statue of Liberty from NY...

I made it home mad late, around midnight, so next morning I missed the in-laws leaving early, and woke up right as Ana and Nico were having lunch. We spent the day at home, playing cards and planning a week of gastronomic exploits... tonight we made frog legs and snails (I cooked!!), tomorrow it's crepes, and wed and thu it's my turn with some italian cuisine with risotto allo zafferano (rice with saffron) and some of my famous lasagna!


Frog legs
On the frog legs and escargot: they bought frozen stuff at the supermarket, and we made them ourselves. the snails were pre-sauced, so they just had to go into the oven to roast... they do taste much like mussels, which I love... it's my second time trying them. The first time I couldn't get over thinking they were slimy things... this time I enjoyed them, much like I would enjoy calamari... The frog legs were kinda like chicken wings. Well, less meat. A bit of a crab meat taste. Very slight. But overall yummy. We didn't make them properly I think, but still enjoyed the whole lot. :) yey for my hosts giving in to my crazy french stereotypes cravings! (French ppl have them maybe once a yr... not as a regular thing. lol)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We are sad :(

Anonymous said...

Machest bitte viele Photos von Deutschland für mich. Ich möchte dort einmal gehen.

(Please take many pictures of Germany for me. I want to go there sometime.)

tschüß

CnEY?! said...

Ooooh piccies~ =3

There are some really amazing photos in there...makes me consider how truly breathtaking some of those locations must be in the first-person.

battlegirl said...

another one of them anonymous comments. quite funny, i have to admit. someone get credit for this one!