Expecting the unexpected (Paris edition)

Hi there!

So admittedly I’ve been meaning to blog for the past couple of nights now, but somehow I always lose track of time or simply forget. Lately it seems like things are busier here than before, but I think that’s because our memoir defenses are in 2 weeks and everyone’s trying to get their research together. So far, I have a topic and a plan. The research is getting there (this blog post is my distraction tonight).

So this weekend was quite eventful and entertaining. Saturday was International Pillow Fight Day, which meant there was a 30 minute flash mob pillow fight in front of Gare Saint Lazare in Paris on Saturday afternoon. It was one of the best things I’ve seen here. When typically Parisians are put together, well-dressed and all that, Saturday afternoon people got into the fight. There were feathers everywhere, children on shoulders whacking from above, screaming, all of it. It was awesome. I personally didn’t participate (I went to document the madness) because I didn’t want to get whacked in the face with glasses, but Laura had an opportunity to get into it and she came out winded but laughing. 

The flash mob fight

We then met our friend Emily to go bakery hunting – towards the beginning of the semester I made a list of all the patisseries I want to visit in Paris (with help from my program director and a coworker), and Laura has been helping me through this list. I’ll get into this list more when I dedicate a whole post to food (I promise it will happen soon). Anyways, that afternoon we went to a cupcake store (disappointing, but really cute), bubble tea (Emily had never had it before) and Pierre Hermé, which might actually have better macarons than Ladurée. So for the most part, a very successful afternoon.

Laura's cupcake

Pierre Herme

Then yesterday it was absolutely beautiful in Paris. While most of my friends at home have been enjoying warm weather already, Paris has had an abnormally long winter that (I’m hoping) ended on Saturday. It was so nice to see plenty of people lounging outside, whether by the Seine or on the steps of Sacre Coeur. I spent a bit of the afternoon in Montmartre with a friend visiting from University of Nottingham, who didn’t actually know about Sacre Coeur (and she knows about all the churches in Europe). The line to visit the basilica wasn’t that long, so we went in and looked around – to my knowledge, it’s the only church in Paris that doesn’t allow you to take pictures inside. Nevertheless, it was still very cool to see finally and to spend a day outside of my room.

I think I’ve sufficiently distracted myself now, so I should get back to my research. Hopefully my food blog post will be posted this week!

Dana