thursday, may 24: madeleine, galeries lafayette, and our host family

Today Melissa and I basically did the Madeleine walk, but unofficially since we have already finished our walks. I didn't have my camera on me so I only have a couple cell phone pictures for this one.

First we went to the Madeleine, a neoclassical church commissioned by Napoleon and named for Mary Magdalene. Inside it was kind of weird because there was a man playing jazz saxophone. But nonetheless is was very beautiful. Outside the church there was a flower market and we loved smelling the flowers, it makes a great distraction from all the cigarette smoke.
We went just down the street to Laduree and I ordered a Madeleine, which is basically a little cake shaped like a shell. They are very french but really nothing special. I also got a vanilla macaron which was divine. I have found that the people at Laduree are much nicer than the people at Pierre Herme.

Next we walked down the street and into a little Polish church named Notre Dame de l'assomption. I liked it because there weren't any tourists in there, just a cute little nun saying a prayer. It felt like an actual church rather than a landmark.

Next we went on a hunt for the Fragonard perfume museum. There was a huge perfume shop when we went in, and the museum was upstairs.I didn't know what to expect, but it was really tiny and didn't have much to see. There were some examples of the machinery used in perfume making, as well as some old bottles of perfume, and some rococo style paintings of women doing their makeup/ putting on perfume. There were no labels or information so I really had no idea what we were looking at. There was also a game where you could sniff little sample bottles and try to match it with a picture of what it was. I think we won but there was no answer key so I have no way of knowing.

different ingredients used to make perfume.

These are the most popular scents used in French perfumes: rose, jasmine, violet, mimosa, orange blossom, not sure what genet (called broom in english) or tuberose are.

Afterwards we did a little shopping in the Galaries Lafeyette, the classiest place to shop ever. Melissa and I were interested in seeing the designer wedding dresses so we went up to that floor which shared a space with the souvenirs and bookstore. The wedding dresses were not too impressive but I wandered over to the books and found a French toast cookbook for only 6 or 7 euros and had to get it. (Side note: french toast in France is called pain perdu, or lost bread, and as far as I can see is a fairly common food. I have seen it in a few bakeries and in Starbucks.) It will be interesting trying to cook with it and not only having to translate everything from French but also converting everything from the metric system. Oh but it will be so worth it.

That night our host parents took Chloe and I out to dinner at a cafe near the Eiffel Tower. Chloe and I both got Salmon skewers and they were absolutely delicious. Afterwards they drove us around Paris at sunset and showed us all their favorite spots. It was interesting to see where all the landmarks were in relation to each other because I was so used to taking the metro everywhere that I didn't realize how close everything really was. It was also funny because they thought they were giving us an insider's tour but we had already been pretty much everywhere. It was still really fun though! Here is a picture of us with our adorable host parents. They were so kind to us. Pretend I don't look weird in the picture.

xoxo Heather