Several months ago, my cousin and I went to France! We had a wonderful time. So, with the blogging... I'm just now getting around to writing this out. Actually, I've been writing and then deleting and writing again... So, hopefully, I will finish this blog during my Christmas break!
There were many wonderful things about France! And I think the struggle with writing this blog is that I had so many experiences on this trip compared to many of my other trips. I mean, we were on the go most of the time. We didn't have much of a rest. So, there were so many things I could write, and it might actually take me a few blogs to get it all out. To help me out, I will go back through my photos I posted on Facebook to get my mind going...
One of the things I really love about Paris are the restaurants and cafes that line the streets. They are everywhere! It makes city life more lively, and that people enjoy dining outdoors. My cousin and I went to a few of these.
The very first one we dined in was a crepe restaurant. We had just arrived in Paris from the airport, so we were hungry. Whatever crepe I had was fantastic.
On my cousin's list was an American barbecue place, lol. So, we went there for lunch one afternoon and sat outside. We were also served ICE! And not just a little bit, it was a full glass of ice! (So, in Europe, people don't use ice. Most of the time, if they order a soda at a restaurant, it does come cold, but expect no ice. Except American-themed restaurants, I guess.)
We also had plenty of croissants and coffee at these little street cafes. There was also a cafe, Les Deux Magots, where Hemingway had patroned and its famous for their hot chocolate. It was heavenly.
We also dined in a few of indoor restaurants. One place we went to in Paris, twice, was La Coupole. It's mainly known for its seafood, but they also had a good variety of other dishes on their menu, such as beef tartar and steak. The first time we went there, my cousin and I had raw clams (which I ate), raw oysters (I didn't eat them), cooked mussels, and of course escargot. This restaurant probably had the best escargot of the entire trip (and we had escargot in a few other restaurants around Paris). Also, to satisfy our Asian palettes, we went to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant, and it was alright. We both had beef pho, and the broth was pretty clear, but it wasn't very flavorful.
Another surprising thing was the bakeries at the train stations. France has more of a train culture when it comes to long distance traveling, so their train stations are similar to a small airport. There are food and stores, and confusing signs. On our trip to Normandy, we stopped by a train station bakery, which had wonderful breakfast pizzas, and of course, croissants. Even on our way back to Paris, the Rennes station had a bakery that sold "crookies": cookie dough baked inside a croissant. Why haven't the Americans thought of this???
Other things we ate: salads, ice cream, duck confit leg (it was amazing), the breakfast buffet at the hotel (which was mainly deli meats, cheese, bread with butter, croissants, scrambled eggs, and hot sausage, with coffee, juice, or tea), cheeseburger with "home fries" (not French fries, lol... although I have also seen pomme frites also), creme brulee, ice coffee (although not that great), country pork cheeks with a little salad bar (some random roadside restaurant but one of the better foods we ate), croque monsieur, their Burger King's "ice burger" (it was a pastry stuff with ice cream and Nutella), charcuterie (of course), French onion soup (or they just call it onion soup, haha), this brownie with cookie dough baked into it at one of the museums cafe, Paris cola, Argentine steak (wasn't too bad), eggs and bacon, sushi, Italian food (beef carpaccio, fettuccini with clams, and some of my cousin's gnocci), guacamole on toast, chicken with mash potatoes (meh), this cake with ice cream and chocolate syrup on top, some very sweet Oreo shake from a street vendor (not bad, but it was so filling), fish & chips, and then some bakery items at the airport.
Best things I ate: butter on bread (no joke), croissant, escargot. Seriously, if I can have their croissant, I would eat it everyday. There are French bakeries where I live but it's not the same. Not even close.
Worst thing I ate: We went to the Louvre (the day that some of the city employees went on strike), and because we had started later than planned, my cousin and I grabbed a sandwich at their cafe. Awful. Worst sandwich ever. Don't eat at the Louvre.
Overall, I really like the food in France. The French probably don't eat steaks and escargot every day, but I'm pretty sure they eat bread and butter every day! And maybe it is true, I can actually eat their bread without feeling sick. Maybe it's the way they make it or that we walked a lot (boosting our metabolism). Maybe in an off-shoot blog, I will dive a little bit into French food history and why French food is so good.
The next topic maybe the museums and culture or architecture... I'll have to think about how to write Part 2. Stay tuned!
