Chocolate, Waffles, Fries, and Beer

I spent Easter weekend in Brussels, Belgium. After dropping off my luggage at the hostel, I ventured back into the main part of the city to see “The Art of the Brick” at the Stock Exchange.

I was totally mesmerized by all of the creations. Some abstract, some realistic, some representations of famous artworks or landmarks. All of it was simply fascinating.

“Create what you see. Create what you feel. Create what you have never seen. Just create.”-Nathan Sawaya

I ventured towards Grand Place to hunt down a famous Belgian waffle. In researching before my trip, I discovered that there are 2 kinds of waffles--Brussels waffles that are rectangular with powdered sugar sprinkled on top and Liege waffles with a less defined but still definitively waffle shape with sugar throughout the middle. Liege waffles are the way to go. The outside has a nice crunch to it while the inside is doughy, sugary bliss. In my search for a place to sit down to enjoy such a treat, I found Maison Dandoy and its terrace. Unfortunately, a guy in his 3rd floor apartment across the street had a rough night and decided my meal time entertainment needed to be him retching out the window. Absolutely disgusting.

Grand Place

I continued going through the shops around the Grand Place before searching for Mannequin Pis, the fountain of a little boy peeing. I couldn’t believe how many people swarmed the gate surrounding the fountain to get a picture of the underwhelming site. Being a good tourist (unlike 90% of the other tourists I encountered in Belgium), I snapped a pic and got out of the throng.

Mannequin Pis

I decided to have a traditional Bruxelles dinner and ate mussels and frites. I’d never had mussels before, but mastered the shells-as-a-fork technique in no time. After dinner I headed to Delirium village for a lambic. I went downstairs to the crowded bar, encountered too many rude people (not even drunk, mind you), gulped down a framboise lambic, and headed back to the hostel.

All around the hostel was a pretty miserable experience and I hope that future hostel trips won’t be as bad. I know--I got what I paid for, but it doesn’t change the fact that everywhere I went in Brussels I encountered people with absolutely no sense of common courtesy or decency.  (And I live in FRANCE, people, so this is seriously an issue if I’m commenting about it.)

Grand Place - Mini Europe

The next morning one of my hostel roommates crashed my party of one and tagged along with me to some attractions further out of town. We went to Mini Europe first, where each of the EU members has displays of its famous landmarks at 1/10 (?) scale. It was pretty cool to see some of the places--especially ones I have no desire to visit in person.

Atomium

After that we went to the Atomium and (rushed, not by my choice) through the exhibits and saw Brussels from the top atom. The tag-along and I parted ways on the metro back into the city where I bought a box of truffles at Godiva and enjoyed more beer at Delirium. I got my train times mixed up and thought I was leaving Brussels around 17h, but in reality I booked a ticket for a train leaving at 21h. Discouraged by the trip in general (crowds, excruciatingly rude people, and the whole vomit-out-the-window-onto-the-street incident), I went back to the hostel and read on my Kindle until it was time to head back to Paris.

moi parle jolie aujourd'hui

A friend of mine, and previous temporary resident of Paris, shared a link to This American Life : Americans In Paris. Surprisingly, it was an episode I hadn't heard before (I went through a pretty drawn out TAL phase during university) and when Ira Glass said David Sedaris was featured, I knew I had to drop everything and listen. I'm glad I did.

Part 1--"Him Talk Pretty Three Days"--is David's view of life in the French capital. David Sedaris is absolutely hilarious. I've loved his books and his previous features on This American Life. Somehow, I'd forgotten that he lived in Paris for a while. Please, go listen to it immediately if you have any curiosity about how I feel about living in Paris. Seriously, it's the truest account of life in Paris that I've come across, and about 85% of it is a dead on explanation of my experiences here.

moi mademoiselle's reflections on life in paris after hearing david sedaris's account

1.  If I smoked, I would most assuredly absolutely dread asking someone for fire on the occasion of my lighter running out of fluid. In fact, hearing David Sedaris detail this scenario is enough to keep me from ever trying a cigarette.

2.  I, too, frequent places where people don't mind my awful and broken French. Tonight, I went to dinner at a place I've been a good six or seven times now (Philippe's, or La Varangue). Philippe speaks English, but I ordered and spoke in French. As he ran my debit card, he asked me (in French) if I had been to the restaurant before; I replied (in French!) saying yes, 5 or 6 times. It really made my day that he realized I'd visited before.

3.  It takes so much less to make me happy in Paris than it does in the States. Honestly. It's a good day when I don't get chastised for my terrible French. It's a good day when I go shopping and find what I need. It's a good day when after struggling with my French the person with whom I'm speaking offers a sympathetic smile and uses Franglish or speaks more slowly. Heck, it's a good day when I can sit down on the metro.

4.  It makes me giggle when people guess at my nationality. I've gotten British (several times), Italian (what?!), and American.

5.  Thankfully, I have no issue eating alone in Paris. In fact, it's an experience I relish. Just me, un verre de vin, my Kindle...parfait. There are other things I won't do alone though...like going to certain travel destinations that pique my adrenaline-junkie interest for fear of getting hurt and having to go to a hospital and speak/gesture/make an idiot of myself in yet another language.

6.  I definitely judge other people doing stupid things and remember all of those instances and it makes me all the more self-conscious about my own behavior and French speaking abilities. Note: it hasn't really changed my behavior all that much.

My Routine

To say I’m behind on blogging is a gross understatement. My apologies to those of you glued to your computer or phone waiting for new posts.

I figured it was about time I do a post about my day-to-day life in Paris since that is what consumes 80% of my life here (and thus, the main reason I don’t get around to blogging as often as I should). To be honest, the routine isn’t much different from when I was living in Houston with a few small exceptions. I wake up in the morning and get ready (albeit in a half-size tub with a handheld shower). I walk to the metro stop close to my apartment and sometimes I’ll pop into the boulangerie on the way for a chausson aux pommes (flaky pastry filled with apple compote) or a croissant. The metro is usually a 20 minute ride and I read my Kindle the whole time, as long as the car isn’t utterly packed with people. I walk 10 minutes to work from the metro station.

I work until noon and usually someone from my department stops by and picks me up to go to lunch at the cantine in the office building. (Per French law, a company with 50+ people must either supply a place for employees to eat or provide lunch vouchers for use in restaurants.) Lunch is usually only 30 minutes long--sorry to disappoint all the American workers thinking we take 2 hour lunches. Fridays I usually eat outside the office, just for a change of pace. If it’s nice outside, lunch is usually an hour just to soak in the rare moments of Parisian sunshine on the Seine.

I leave work between 18h and 19h each day (depending on what time I get into the office), walk back to the metro, and read on the ride home. Once a week my dinner solely consists of a baguette from the boulangerie down the street and a couple glasses of wine...I have no shame in this. If I don’t do that, I head straight home (and up 5 flights of stairs) to change clothes and watch an episode or two of Friends--in English!--before heading back out for dinner at a reasonable hour (19h30 at the earliest). I go back home and tidy up or read or watch Netflix or do any of those while doing laundry as well.

Weekends that I don’t travel mean I sleep in (if the rest of Paris is still sleeping, why should I be awake?!) and run basic errands that I don’t have time to do during the week. I try to visit a museum or exhibit or landmark of some sort, but if the weather is nice I walk two blocks to Place des Vosges and sit on the lawn to read and people-watch.

So really, nothing all that spectacularly different than Houston. I still spend my entire day at work on the computer so the last thing I want to do when I get home is try to focus on blogging or uploading photos...sorry.  I will try to get better, but I’m not making any promises.