Hello friends!
I’m having a little bit of a hiccup with my video editing program, but hopefully I’ll have everything figured out by the weekend! I have so many videos to share!!
In the meantime, here’s my very first photo post, yay! I’ll be posting many types of media here, from phone pics, to DSLR pics, to videos, to written stories. Variety is the spice of life, no?
Hope you enjoy this collage of phone pics from my first week in Paris! Click the photo for more details!
My parents hung out at the airport for as long as they could before I had to go through security, how cute!
NY -> PARIS here we go!
After many hours of layover and avoiding expensive airport food, I was very relieved to get this free airplane meal. Honestly, it wasn’t bad!
After x hours of sleep, I woke up to this beauty! I’m guessing I’m somewhere across the Atlantic here…
Well, not this particular street. But this is the street that I first encountered while exiting the subway and needless to say, I was very taken aback by the gorgeous architecture!
‘Nuf said. This photo is from my very first day exploring Paris!
aka Lyon Train Station. These are the super high speed trains that’ll take you anywhere!
What a beautiful sight for my first day in Paris. Hello Seine River!
Seriously, doesn’t this just make more sense?
ISN’T THIS SO COOL? It’s a little hard to see (and hard to understand if you don’t speak French haha) but this is a public restroom that automatically sanitizes itself after each use. Granted, everything is wet when you step inside, but at least you know it’s clean! AND IT’S FREE!
I visited the Eiffel Tower during my first weekend in Paris, great way to spend a Friday night! This was at about 10pm when the sun just started to set 🙂
Have you ever seen something so beautiful that you actually tear up? This is what happened to me when I saw the Eiffel Tower in person
Really though
As time passed, the view kept getting better :’)
Met cool people (hi Julie, hi Jasmine) – we’ve very excited for our trip to Chateau de Chantilly (Chantilly Castle!)
Historical info: This castle belonged to King Henry of Orleans, who happened to be really into art and horses. He even had a castle built for his horses, just because he could!
Can’t get enough French architecture!
I actually recognized a lot of the painters from my years of art history classes, which made the moment even more special. Hard to believe that one person could own so many paintings by famous artists!
I can’t recall the painter off the top of my head, but this was found on the ceiling of one of the rooms in the Musée Conde. Amazing!
Yes, windows. Stained glass windows.
There was a whole room of portraits in the Château de Chantilly and this one stood out to me. That dog is so cute!!
This portrait also stood out to me in Chantilly. Apparently, this is a portrait of a boy. Isn’t this fabulous?
One of my favorite Romantic painters, Antoine Watteau in Chantilly. So surreal to see one of his paintings in real life… ahhh!!!
This was another surreal moment for me. I remember specifically using a photo of this painting for a presentation in my AP European History (I remember because I photoshopped my friend’s face onto it) and I was so surprised to find the actual painting in the castle!!
Chantilly Gardens. The gardens were so green and serene!
This little scene was found in a hidden corner of the garden… my friends and I had a little photoshoot here for obvious reasons. Those pictures will have their own post!
After half a day at Chantilly, my friends and I decided to go Paris thrifting in hopes of finding dresses for our ballet show in a few weeks. I found the perfect one!
After a long day of exploring, we took our dinner break at a little crêpe shop in the Marais neighborhood. The owner (I’m assuming) was very very kind and he actually helped me out with one of my projects! Remember this face, you’ll see him again in one of my future posts… perhaps at the very end of my trip! 😉
On Sunday, 21 June 2015, Fête de la Musique took place all over France! This all day festival was created to celebrate music and it’s glory – people are permitted to perform their music anywhere at anytime on this day! My friends and I decided to walk to the Latin Quarter (tourist area with really great food) on this day and we encountered a lot of interesting musicians. This particular band was one of the most memorable – I have footage to post soon!
While wandering the Latin Quarter area, we encountered this random window with little mice!
Yes, this is a water fountain for filling your bottles, and yes it was good water!
Famous gelato shop that we visited in the Latin Quarter. They’re known for shaping the gelato into roses! Photos to come in a future food post! 🙂
I don’t remember what this building is called… but isn’t it beautiful?
I actually didn’t get to go inside… but I will soon!
People write the names of their lovers on these locks and then attach them to this fence. Romance!
The neighborhood of Marais had a big fishing industry, so some streets had these little sink areas to wash off the fish for the market. I’ve actually noticed a lot of these little sinks all over Paris, pretty neat!
On Monday, 22 June 2015, I took a cooking class at Le Cave à Vincent with my program. Half of us made dinner, while the other half made dessert. I was on the dessert side, and I made lemon tarte and chocolate mousse. All the directions were in French so it was somewhat stressful to figure everything out and not mess up, but so worth it in the end!
Beautifying the bébé!
I’ve never made a fancy dessert like this before, so this is a pretty big deal!
Le Cave à Vincent had a nice display of wine bottles!
This is the tasty dinner that my program-mates made: pesto croissants with smoked salmon, tomato pastry puffs, and olive tapenade. IT WAS SO GOOD
Did you know that you can make whipped cream by whisking eggs really fast and adding sugar??? This chocolate mousse was pretty bomb, even moreso because I made it 🙂
So France has this frozen foods store called Picard and this is the interior. It’s literally all freezers. I’ve tried their microwave food and it’s actually pretty good and inexpensive! I’m so impressed!
I was checking out the shops around my school one day when I came across this gem. French clothing stores seem to really love English words on shirts… this one made me laugh
I was browsing through a bookstore the other day and came across the Hunger Games series in French!
After a somewhat catastrophic attempt to hand-wash my clothes, I eventually rage quitted and put them in the machine to wash. This is my makeshift clothesline thing… the metal rack is actually broken in many places and the rods are rusty, so I just wove my clothesline (pink-green thing) through it. I dig this photo!