Love you so much Paris, merci beaucoup.
"Vincent Van Gogh. Everyone said to him, 'You can't be a great painter, you only have one ear.' And you know what he said? 'I can't hear you.'"
May 22, 2012
[Flash 10 is required to watch video]
May 21, 2012
There are a lot of things I want to tell you all about right now but I’m still getting over how beautiful place de la concorde looked in the rain (I leave in 24 hours okay) so no emotions just pictures and video and comments
May 14, 2012
May 8, 2012
YOU GUYS
I FORGOT TO PLAY APRIL IN PARIS IN APRIL IN PARIS biggest regret of my life. In other news I made my own quiche today! Fresh epinard and saumon fumé!
May 8, 2012
May 4, 2012
May 4, 2012
“Hey Annie, are you going to do a blog post about our visit?”
Susie & Farel came for a week!!! So casual. I showed them all my favorites (okay 65% of my favorites) (Paris is a really big city okay), and sweet st-denis this is going to be difficult to recount but LETS GO:
Luxembourg Gardens- obvious obvious obvious, if this isn’t on one’s list for Things to Do in Paris Or Else then they are a cyborg alien don’t trust them
Grande Épicerie- this is the gourmet… grocery store? food palace? of Le Bon Marché, which is the oldest department store in the world, the whole world! I guess you could compare Le Grande Épicerie to Whole Foods in that they have grocery food and ready to eat/freshly prepared food, but Whole Foods lacks: mint lamb tartes, its own fromagerie, wine in petite cans (don’t worry Mom took some home in her suitcase), 1960s vintage Dom Perignon, Wine & Orange flavored matzo for passover, its own Macaron bakery, hot chocolate from Café Angelina, etc.
Antiques Market- this Parisian association called SPAM (teehee) organizes little antiques markets every Saturday, where they sell china and paintings and furniture and vintage clothing and french stuff and ooh its perfect
Au Refuge des Fondus- The menu for this resto: Red or White wine? Meat or Cheese fondue? aaaaaand scene! Also it is PACKED inside and the tables are pushed from end to end, so for us ladies to get to the other side of the table, the owners pull out a chair and offer their hand and we climb over the chairs. The walls and ceilings of this little cave have all been signed by people who love it, and we already have plans to do so, no worries. Oh also the wine is served in baby bottles did I mention that?
La Part des Anges- Ooh la laaaa my favorite restaurant. When you age alcohol, air gets in to the barrel and the volume decreases— the missing volume is called the “angel’s share” (part des anges). Went here first with mon oncle (hi do you read my blog? hi today I went to the Instituit du Monde Arabe and thought of you the whole time you would love it), and have since been thrice. Every. single. thing. is. delicious. The menu is written in chalk on boards, so you know it’s legit, and the servers are so nice and the wine is good and not overpriced and ugh the lamb (it’s also a 1.5 minute walk from the apartment).
Trocadero- across the Seine from the Eiffel tower, there is a little park and museum and roundabout on a hill. Cafés line the roundabout and have a perfect view and get to charge 3 euro for an espresso because the view is that delicious. Saw some protesters (“Annabel get a picture with me and the socialists!”- my dad)— so if you need to know where the best views are, just follow the activists!! (don’t though okay)
Maille store- there are two stores: one in Dijon and one in Paris. It’s entirely maille mustard. With mustard samples. And a rainbow of flavored mustards. And mustard accessories. And mustard on tap. These are things I will have in my Dream Home.
Shopping in Le Marais- I personally believe shopping is good everywhere, but yay got earrings I had been dreaming about (thanks mom!).
Chateau Fontainebleau- the younger cooler sister of Versailles. So so so so cool.
There are piles on piles of more things, but if I describe them all then what are we going to talk about when I’m 80?
April 7, 2012
People who tell me about Paris, who were here for a week or here for four years, always talk about it with some small sense of ownership. Not arrogance or superiority, not at all, but definitely some idea of being friends with Paris, of having a lovely time with her and her telling them so. And up until recently I never really felt that. I felt like I was living in Paris, that I knew how to get places and how to buy groceries and how to understand all necessities— but I didn’t feel like I really knew her.
Spring break was two weeks ago and after coming back here, to her, things have shifted. Maybe it’s the almost unbearably beautiful weather, maybe it’s the travel-fatigue, or maybe it’s just time, but I am slowly starting to feel like I know her and that our relationship is something I can own. I feel comfortable here, comfortable enough to allow myself to feel uncomfortable and do things I would have felt nervous to do before (buy running shoes by myself, get lost with a friend, stop by any café, make big cool plans).
I don’t know the point of this post, just to say I have stopped comparing Paris to Manhattan or Huntington or Williamsburg and I’ve started to kind of maybe possibly come to the realization that I buy my groceries in Paris I have an apartment in Paris that I go to school in Paris and that I both go to sleep and wake up in Paris.
April 5, 2012
MADRID MADRID MADRID— March 18th-21st
I learned a lot a lot of spanish in Madrid. My friends who I was traveling with all speak fluent Spanish—it really made me feel more connected to the city (as opposed to the mountain that is Hungarian). Bought alpargatas from one of the oldest alpargatas makers and I had chocolate y porras (just a different kind of churro) at the oldest chocalaterías (San Ginés) and tinto de verano (just a different kind of sangria) from everywhere.
And if I had to choose one museum to live in for the rest of my life and not be allowed outside of, it would not be the Prado, it would be El Museo de arte Thyssen-Bornemisza. Speaking of beautiful private collections of art, I bought my very first painting in Madrid! In Plaza Mayor, from a nice old spaniard. It’s a small acrylic of flowers but let me tell you its the prettiest acrylic of flowers in all of Madrid.
April 5, 2012
BUDAPEST March 22nd-25th
Wow this was a while ago la la la. After Madrid was Budapest with a good friend who is also studying abroad!! There is so much to do in Budapest and our days were packed. Did the baths (its so relaxing) (I love steam rooms), biked around the city, went to their huge market hall, had lángos and goulash and cabbage and cookies, saw a ballet at the Opera house for the equivalent of $3.50, saw Europe’s largest Synagogue (after all the JESUS! JESUS! JESUS! of Europe it was just so satisfying and lovely to see such a huge and ornate temple), stayed in an old huge mansion, went to a ruin bar, found out Marzipan is my long lost love, got a walking tour of some of the coolest sites, rode on the second oldest underground subway system, and generally loved the entire city. The fact that the exchange rate was so good didn’t hurt either. We got there in the middle of a Spring Festival (they apparently have a lot of festivals, but this one was one of the better ones)— so there were tons of market stalls selling treats and treasures. Overall a wonderful experience, but I have to say it was nice coming back to Paris and french and feeling like I knew exactly where I was.
March 20, 2012
Free macaron day in Paris and I’m in Madrid!!!
La vida es dura. Fui a la Museo del Jamón hoy y their gift shop es delicioso.
March 11, 2012
SONO INNAMORATO DI MILANO. Went to Milan this weekend and it was just amazing for these reasons:
1) The train there goes through the french countryside, then the alps and then italian countryside
2) the first night we went to dinner at this small restaurant and the owner showed me how to eat my lamb chops (“do you know Queen Elizabeth?” translated his friend, and when I said yes, the owner motioned that even she uses her hands—not a knife and fork—to eat), how to eat my vegetables (“Per favore” he said, and reached over to add a delicious glob of olive oil to the grilled peppers and eggplant and zucchini), that italian politics are complicated, that he loves Paris and used to have a restaurant on St-Germain, and and and so many other perfect details
3) Lake Como is only an hour away from Milan
4) Lake Como exists
5) Appertivi— around 6:30-10:30, where bars offer huge buffets of tapas and delicious food for free as long as you buy a drink
6) Pinacotea di Brera, just room after room of gorgeous italian art (The Kiss! The Marriage of the Virgin!! And an amazing Carvaggio which was introduced with “This painting was started after the artist, Michelangelo Merisi di Carvaggio, had just killed a man”.. classic Carvaggio)
7) GELATO.. where we went they gave you a choice of either melted white, milk or dark chocolate to first put in the cone, and then two flavors. I got pistachio and their special flavor, some chocolate-nut-angel-heaven mix. Ate them in a square on a marble bench in front of a huge church in the sunlight and ooh la la this is my life
8) The italian language is so beautiful!!! I just love how it sounds, its like the language itself has life in it and every letter gets pronounced and every syllable gets looked after and its just fun and I actually want to learn it après français
9) Milan is not only huge on fashion (did you know there is a D&G bar? Armani caffè? Armani spa?) but it is the business capital of Italy! And even the Milanese businessmen would get gelato after work and guys imagine a world in which gelato is like a casual mid afternoon treat
10) The Duomo… I think its the third largest cathedral in Europe and its the most largest in my heart because it was like if the Notre Dame and the Sacre Coeur had a very gothic baby
11) It’s not really a tourist destination and so everything just felt lived in and comfortable and calm and quiet in the best possible way
12) there are more reasons but sono stanco!
March 5, 2012
Chatting on the interweb with my french friend
Moi: bonjour!
FF: Bonjour haha
FF: do you know coucou to say hello?
Moi: no!! coucou?
FF: it means hi
FF: ONLY FOR FRIENDS !!!!!!!!!!!!
February 26, 2012
London London London London London. This is all so crazy. Got there at 5:45 AM Thursday. Okay: Borough Market, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, 10 Downing Street, St. James Park, Buckingham Palace, Traflagar Square, National Gallery (the Turners!!!!), Camden Market (so much just so much), Oxford Street, Marks & Spencer’s (Percy Pigs, guys. Percy Pigs.) The Queen’s Walk, Borough Market again, The Queen’s Walk again, The Globe Theater, Tate Modern (who is Do Ho Suh and why is his brain so cool), Millenium Bridge, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Victoria & Albert Museum (the sculptures!!!!!), Hyde Park (delicious), Kensington Palace, The Orangery (orange scones with CLOTTED CREAM aka clotted dream, tea sandwiches with the little crusts cut off, petit chocolate pastries, Lady Grey tea), Singing in the Rain (Palace Theater!! We were up REAL high but it made it even more magical), Traflagar Square/Big Ben/London Eye etc. in the moonlight, Portobello Market, Kensington (so many casually parked Aston Martins/Bentleys), Hyde Park encore (its just massively lovely), Took A Bus All By Myself To Harrods, Harrod’s “Luxury Gifts” room, Harrods “Egyptian Staircase” (they had an opera singer at the side of the stairs?), Harrod’s in general, Apple Market, getting a real live delicious English Breakfast, sharing Ben’s Cookies, taking refuge in the British Museum (Rosetta Stone???????? Real Life???) from the London Rain, Abbey Road, and then riding through the Chunnel and French countryside back to Paris on Sunday evening.
February 25, 2012
Classic mixup
I don’t know why I thought “fromage frais” meant “plain yogurt you should buy a fourpack!” because according to the internet it is a “cross between sour cream and cream cheese”.
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Madrid
(by david.bank )
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The streets of Madrid ( Series)
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Te extraño, Madrid ♥
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