Manchester [Re]United

Having family on the other side of the world has its perks.  Yes, we do miss them year round, but when we get to see them, it is always special and not a single second is taken for granted. 

After four non-stop days in Paris, my mom and I left for Manchester to visit our family for four days that were quite the opposite- peaceful and relaxing.  Every day was a new adventure, from exploring Chatsworth and Bramall Hall to roaming the lovely gardens of Lyme Park.  We spent the majority of our days outdoors at these different historic parks and buildings, and the majority of our nights on our family’s patio eating delicious home cooked meals.  After six weeks of eating out and being away from family, this was just what the doctor ordered.  It also doesn’t hurt that we had perfect weather- high 70s and sunny.  As my family would say, everything was absolutely gorgeous!

Au Revoir Paris!

My last week in Paris was by far my best week in Paris.  It was exciting, yet hard thinking "this is the last time..." for everything that I did.  I knew I had to take advantage of the short time I had left.  It is hard to believe that five weeks have already flown by.  I was having so much fun learning and exploring, that I did not have time to be sad or upset.  Yes, I left home kicking and screaming, but once I arrived in Paris, I knew this would be the experience of a lifetime.

Monday was our last day with Cara's family before they went back to Tennessee.  Cara, her mom and I had a nice time walking from their hotel to Champs Élysées area to do a little shopping and site seeing along the way.  After parting ways with them, I walked a few more miles around the Concord area in search of something to pick up for lunch.  I found the quinoa salad that I had been craving, and went back to the dorm to get some things done.  Later Monday night, we were invited back to the family from Memphis' Parisian home for appetizers and happy hour.  They invited a few other friends over, so we all sat, ate, drank and talked for a few hours.  The food was lovely, yet again... and there were even more desserts from Gerard Mulot!

After class presentations on Tuesday morning, we had a farewell lunch provided by the school at ESCP.  We spent the rest of our afternoon exploring and walking around Paris, trying to find gifts for our trip liaisons.  This (exploring) has come to be one of our favorite things to do, as there is always something new to see and something new to learn.  I could be in Paris for a year and still not see and do everything.  Oh well, looks like I will just have to come back to Paris sometime soon!

Wednesday was our last day of class and our final exam, and we were all very anxious to spend our last day in Paris the right way.  To us, of course, spending our last day the right way meant stuffing our faces with food from French restaurants.  We had lunch at the coolest, hippest place I have ever been to in my life- Le Water Bar Colette.  I am not sure if it was because Couture Fashion Week was happening in Paris, but everyone at Colette was beautiful and beautifully dressed.  I have really never seen or experienced anything like it.  I'm sure the food was great, but I don't remember eating because I was too busy people watching.  Typical!

Thursday was the most exciting day because my mom finally arrived in Paris!  After checking into the Grand Hotel Saint Michel (cutest boutique hotel ever, we were very happy), we ate and shopped and ate some more.  Lunch was at Le Village, snacks at Ladurée, dinner at L'Avenue and dessert at a cafe near the Eiffel Tower.  Friday morning my mom and I met Cara for breakfast at bread & roses (clearly we liked it enough to go back a second time) before she left for the airport.  After saying goodbye, I took my mom to Le Bon Marché and La Grande Epicerie, where we picked up some cherries to eat in the park.  We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Saint Germain and Saint Michel, and even went to visit Notre Dame.  After being in Paris for five weeks, it was fun showing off the city as if it was "my city."  Since I am so Parisian now.

On the way back to the hotel we picked up a bottle of wine from a wine shop, and cheese, olives and nuts from the local grocery store.  After a full day of walking, it was nice to relax and have happy hour in bed.  Dinner was at Le Georges (the restaurant on top of the Pompidou Centre) because I wanted to take my mom to a restaurant with a view.  We sat next to a sweet Australian couple and ended up talking their ears off for the next four hours...oops.

We woke up early Saturday morning to explore the flea market at Porte de Clignancourt, also known as the Les Puces de Saint-Ouen.  The market is known for their antiques, but also has clothes and food as well.  We spent a few hours wandering around, shopping for a few souvenirs, and taking it all in.  We  headed back into the city to have a snack at Le Water Bar Colette so that mom could see how cool this place was.  After chowing down on a veggie platter and bruschetta, we did more city exploring.  We did a terrible job at managing our time, and before we knew it we had to rush back to the hotel to get ready for our wine tasting dinner.

Surprisingly, we made it to O Chateau in time for our amazing wine tasting and dinner.  I am so glad that my mom got to experience this!  We met the people who did the tasting with us and enjoyed a champagne, three different wines, and a three course meal.  This was probably the highlight of our time together, and a perfect last night in Paris.

Sunday morning we had a little picnic in Luxembourg Gardens for one last hoorah.  We then had to say goodbye to Paris and head to the airport for our flight to Manchester!  It was sad leaving such an amazing place, but I will always look back on this experience and remember what a phenomenal summer I had.  

Au revoir Paris!

Time to be Tourists

Due to this past week being our last full week in Paris, Cara and I finally decided to check a few touristy sites off of our list. After four weeks, it was finally time to use our museum passes and see the history behind the beautiful city of Paris.

Monday night we had yet another phenomenal dinner with more Memphis families that were kind enough to take us out during their trips to Paris.  We had reservations at Georges, which is a funky, modern restaurant on the top of the Pompidou Center. The restaurant is not only known for their food, but for their amazing 300 degree view of the city through their glass walls. We watched the sun set on the city while we ate a delicious meal with friends- what could be better?

Unfortunately, while in Paris, we have had to attend a little thing called class.  Tuesday morning we had presentations in class and after class we had a scheduled visit at the European Commission, which was very intriguing.  Later that night, one of our professors took our entire class to the famous L'As du Fallafel in the Marais to pick up dinner.  We all took our dinner to the Seine to eat, drink wine and watch the sunset by the river.

Wednesday's class period flew by because we all knew we had a five day weekend ahead of us!  We got out of class and decided to treat ourselves to the best vegetable tart and seafood salad at bread & roses.  Once again, another restaurant that I highly recommend (we have yet to eat at a bad restaurant).  After lunch and wondering into a few nearby shops, we went to visit our friends Mona and Nike at the Luvre.  We figured it would be less crowded on a random Wednesday afternoon, but boy were we wrong.  Mona was a lot smaller than I expected... in fact, she's tiny.  Walking through crowds of tourists for hours made us hungry again, so for dinner we found ourselves back in the Marais for some fondue.  I think I ate six loafs of bread and 3 lbs. of cheese...

After eating so much fondue, we decided to wake up Thursday morning and walk a few miles to the Bastille Marche, the outdoor market at Place de Bastille.  We found lots of goodies- butter and sugar crepes, cherries and English peas!  Cara's parents arrived a few hours later so we met them at their hotel and set out for a day full of activities.  Dinner was at Le Square Gardette and was phenomenal, yet again.  When we arrived to the empty restaurant for our 8:00 reservations, we were concerned about our restaurant choice.  Apparently eating at 8:00 in France is equivalent to the 5:30 crowd in the U.S.  By 9:30, as we were getting our second course, the place was full of people.  The vibe of the restaurant and food was eclectic and funky, but made us feel like we were at home in Texas.  It was a great ending to a great day!

Weekend Getaway: Bordeaux

Sometimes you just need a little vacation from your vacation, right?

When we decided to spend our weekends traveling, we knew we wanted to take some time to visit the south of France.  Many places were too far south to travel to for just 48 hours, but then we discovered Bordeaux.  Bordeaux is only a few hours away by train and just so happens to be famous for their wines. Jackpot.  Cara's parents were coming into Paris for a few days, so we thought, why not take a little vacation with them? They arrived on Thursday afternoon, and Friday morning we got on the train and headed to get our wine on.

We arrived in Bordeaux starving, and in need of some good food, per usual, so we got maps from the hotel and walked until we found the city center. On our walk we found cute gardens, tons of cafés, and rows of wonderful shops. With Cara being the foodie that she is, we read about 10 different menus before finally settled on Le Brasserie Bordelaise, an amazing wine bar and restaurant. Luckily, Cara's dad had done some research before the trip and had list of the top sites to see in the city. With the help of our map and talking to some very nice locals, we got to see The Place de la Bourse, the Notre-Dame church, and The Grand Theatre.

After a long day of exploring the city of Bordeaux, we went back to the hotel to freshen up and enjoy a glass of Israeli wine for "Shabbat" with Rabbi Greenstein. Dinner, of course, was one of the few things we actually had planned before coming on the trip. We ate at L' Oiseau Bleu, a fancy little boutique restaurant that presented us with works of art rather than food. Each course was so gorgeous and so delicious, and we would have never guessed what ingredients were in each dish if we hasn't known before hand.

Saturday morning we had some some girl time to drink coffee at a cafe and shop. These massive French sales are really killing us. If you are unfamiliar with these sales, they happen every year at the end of June and go on for a month. Every store has a sale (including all the designers) and most things go from 30% to 70% off. I promise I did not know about these sales when I chose to spend my summer in Paris! Needless to say we each left with a little "souvenir" from Bordeaux. For lunch we grabbed a cheese plate and cold gazpacho from Le Brasserie Bordelaise (yes, it was that good), and made our way to the tourism office for our wine tour!

We spent the rest of our day in the wine country in Saint-Emilion, tasting wines, visiting chateaus, and learning about Bordeaux wines. Rough life, I know. We all surprisingly learned a lot, and it's now safe to say that Cara and I are pretty much wine connoisseurs. We got to see two very different types of chateaus, a small family run vineyard and a large corporate vineyard. Chateau Mauvezin is winery that has been in the family for 400 years. We got to taste their three different blends of red wines, which is what the region specializes in. Chateau Soutard is a large, gorgeous chateau where we tried three more red wines. To our surprise, the wine tour also included a quick tour of the city of Saint-Emilion. We got to visit the largest underground church in Europe, which was carved out of a single stone, and is located underneath part of the city center. Our guide also taught us about Saint Emilion himself and showed us his place of meditation and the catacombs in which he was buried. The whole city is truly amazing because it is built on so much history, and has so much more to offer than just their wine.

Thanks to our food research that we did before the trip, we found the best little brunch spot in the city. We enjoyed our Sunday brunch at Plume Small Kitchen.  This place has such great reviews for a reason. It was a set price for a set meal, so we had a gorgeous feast before our train ride back to Paris. Our plate included yogurt with granola and fruit, a scone, cheese slices, strawberry jam, a lemon poppyseed muffin, a vegetarian scrambled egg sandwich, beans, and more. For anyone traveling to Bordeaux, this little place is very highly recommended, but make sure you have a very empty stomach!

Judging by the food, the wine, and the historical sites, Bordeaux was a huge success!