We'll start with the fun. I'm cooking a bunch in order to save money, because I have time, and because I'm in France. To be fair, I'm not really frinding a whole lot of ingredients that I can't find in the good ol' US of A except for more cured meats and a few cheeses, though I can frnakly go get much of that stuff at Dave's Pasta. Perhaps there are other weird ingredients that I'm not even thinking of using, or maybe they're just more ubiquitous.
Anyway.
Below you get to see some Ratatouille, crepes (ok, sadly not pictured but man they are delicious), and a more simple meat/cheese/bread spread that beautifully rounds out our eating habits when I don't want to cook and we don't want to go out. Trying to do some local stuff and next is going to be pate'. Cooking's been big as we're trying to keep eating out to about once/day (or if it's more than once, one of our meals will be a simple baguette sandwich or pita or whatnot). But no complaints--we're eating very well and we've concluded that, more or less, there's no reason that the cosmopolitan parts of the United States don't live up to French cuisine. It's obviously _different_ and that's exciting, but in New York or Boston one can get food that is universally as yummy, excepting the local bakeries. Oh man.
We've hung out by the Seine a bunch, reading and doing work. We followed Xiao/Remi's advice and got our butts out to Oberkampf and the canal--an awesome bar district--and had beers in plastic cups on the water while the sun was out, and when it set, we set out to a few really snazzy bars--hip, artsy. The whole area was jam-packed with beautiful and hip 20-somethings, all quite relaxed and smoking like chimneys. The kind of low-energy gathering at the canal is something Heather and I can't recall really seeing in the States. But it was pretty lovely.
A note about French bars: the beer is expensive and _terrible_. They have some Belgians that make it almost passable, but pretty much universally, the beer is lousy lousy lousy, and costs $10/pint when it's not happy hour. Don't go to France for beer. Whoever came up with the great myth that Euros have good beer and Americans don't is a con-man, a liar, and a bad person trying to make Americans feel bad. (Yes, I've been to Germany and yes, their beer is good but the Americans have a big leg up here, too.) Don't let them get to you, America: you have the best damned beer in the world, period.
(NB: I think the reason Euros think Yank beer sucks is because they tried Budweiser, didn't like it, and gave up. Similarly I think Euros think our food sucks because they ate at a McDonalds and then similarly gave up. Maybe it's a confirmation bias that Americans are unsophisticated barbarians.)
Anyway: giving up beer in France and focusing on wine, which is quite good (Californian and Chilean/Argentinian is very different and just as good, arguably) and _cheap_. In the grocer you can get very good bottles for 3-4Euro. In the bars, a decent glass costs about as much. It's the cheapest glass at that price, but I think they won't tolerate really bad wine here. It's wicked good. It's hard to go wrong. By the way: stick with reds.
We made friends, too! We met two girls (Aussie and Taiwanese) while in Montmarte, whose French was _even worse than mine_. The (chattier) Aussie was really into architecture and we struck up a lively conversation about Brutalism and the Gothic movement. We then trekked up to Sacre Cour, which has one of the better views of the city (it's atop a pretty big hill). Lots of youngsters were hanging around that night; it seemed low on tourists (although peddlers of touristy things were still bummin' around--the smart ones were selling Heineken). A girl just in front of us (down a few steps on the stairs) got surprised for her birthday with a bunch of cakes. We laughed and clapped with them and told her happy birthday, and she thanked us. After a few minutes we got up to leave, but one of the surprisers insisted that we stay for a bit and eat cake with them! 'Twas lovely. Just another example of the Parisians nuking their reputation for being prickly (especially with Americans/foreigners).
Anyway.
Below you get to see some Ratatouille, crepes (ok, sadly not pictured but man they are delicious), and a more simple meat/cheese/bread spread that beautifully rounds out our eating habits when I don't want to cook and we don't want to go out. Trying to do some local stuff and next is going to be pate'. Cooking's been big as we're trying to keep eating out to about once/day (or if it's more than once, one of our meals will be a simple baguette sandwich or pita or whatnot). But no complaints--we're eating very well and we've concluded that, more or less, there's no reason that the cosmopolitan parts of the United States don't live up to French cuisine. It's obviously _different_ and that's exciting, but in New York or Boston one can get food that is universally as yummy, excepting the local bakeries. Oh man.
Ratatouille, Above
Cheese/Meat Spread
We've hung out by the Seine a bunch, reading and doing work. We followed Xiao/Remi's advice and got our butts out to Oberkampf and the canal--an awesome bar district--and had beers in plastic cups on the water while the sun was out, and when it set, we set out to a few really snazzy bars--hip, artsy. The whole area was jam-packed with beautiful and hip 20-somethings, all quite relaxed and smoking like chimneys. The kind of low-energy gathering at the canal is something Heather and I can't recall really seeing in the States. But it was pretty lovely.
A morning at the cafe, with crazy capuccino
2 Panoramics of the Seine near Les Halles
On a canal near Oberkampf/Stalingrad
(NB: I think the reason Euros think Yank beer sucks is because they tried Budweiser, didn't like it, and gave up. Similarly I think Euros think our food sucks because they ate at a McDonalds and then similarly gave up. Maybe it's a confirmation bias that Americans are unsophisticated barbarians.)
Anyway: giving up beer in France and focusing on wine, which is quite good (Californian and Chilean/Argentinian is very different and just as good, arguably) and _cheap_. In the grocer you can get very good bottles for 3-4Euro. In the bars, a decent glass costs about as much. It's the cheapest glass at that price, but I think they won't tolerate really bad wine here. It's wicked good. It's hard to go wrong. By the way: stick with reds.
We made friends, too! We met two girls (Aussie and Taiwanese) while in Montmarte, whose French was _even worse than mine_. The (chattier) Aussie was really into architecture and we struck up a lively conversation about Brutalism and the Gothic movement. We then trekked up to Sacre Cour, which has one of the better views of the city (it's atop a pretty big hill). Lots of youngsters were hanging around that night; it seemed low on tourists (although peddlers of touristy things were still bummin' around--the smart ones were selling Heineken). A girl just in front of us (down a few steps on the stairs) got surprised for her birthday with a bunch of cakes. We laughed and clapped with them and told her happy birthday, and she thanked us. After a few minutes we got up to leave, but one of the surprisers insisted that we stay for a bit and eat cake with them! 'Twas lovely. Just another example of the Parisians nuking their reputation for being prickly (especially with Americans/foreigners).
Paris, at Night, from Montmarte. Yes, it sucks. Deal with it or go look for something better online.
Heather with new friend birthday cake.
Erik with new friend birthday juice and cake.
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