I hear babies cry....WAH!

Yesterday BU took us to the wine museum of Paris, which is in this big, ancient cellar. It was pretty neat, we each sat down in front of 5 wine glasses and then listened to the woman talk about oenology and the history of the place. Then, of course, we got to smell things and taste things and then (finally) we got to taste the wine. Here's what we tried:

a 2007 Chablis -- I found this too acidic and tangy to finish.
a 2004 Burgundy (ROTY) -- this was much more to my liking and tasted strongly of pears
a 2005 Pouliac -- Probably my favorite, once the cheese came out. Red wine without cheese is just not the same.
a 2001 Beaune -- Not a fan. Too acidic for a red, in my opinion.
a Galliac sparkling wine -- DELISH.




After the wine tasting, we got to walk through this museum, which was kind of creepy because there were wax figures hidden in little alcoves and around corners. So we went through it pretty quickly and then came home.

Sam and I decided that we wanted to get a nice dinner, as we'd been eating Fondation food all week, so we found a place in le Marais (in the 3eme arrondissement) called Page 35, which was great. It was a cozy yet really modern restaurant that doubled as an art gallery, so the walls were covered with a series of photos.

I ordered the boeuf bourgignon with house fries and Sam got a parmesean chicken dish. Mine was phenomenal, even with the few bits of mushroom I spotted, and the French Fries were incredible! Sam's dish was also superb, although the roasted potatoes almost stole the show, they were so delicious. For dessert, I got a fabulous creme brulee and Sam got some ice cream.

Then we headed over to the 6eme to meet Gerakd, Trevor and Mark Anthony at Hippocampus for some jazz. When we got there, Gerald the only person sitting inside, and a trumpet player and pianist were jamming in the middle of the room. We sat down, ordered some drinks and waited for Trevor, Mark Anthony, and all the customers that had crowded the place last weekend to arrive. Well, Trevor and Mark Anthony finally showed up, but no one else did. We had the entire place to ourselves! The musicians were talking to us and once they found out we were American, they decided to give us a lesson in French standards. It was awesome. A woman vocalist/clarinetist showed up and an old guy with a banjo played a few songs before he headed out.

When the band said goodnight around 23h30, the singer/trumpet player came over and gave us a free CD, which of course, being nerds, we (and by we I totally mean Sam. Not about the being nerdy bit, but about getting it autographed. She's clearly the one with the guts.) got it autographed! So now we have this sweet Parisian jazz CD with a "To Samantha..." and some indecipherable scribbles. So awesome!

Il était une fois un vigneron qui avait 7 filles...

Today my literature class had a field trip to the galleries and passageways of Paris. Unfortunately, as soon as we headed out, it started snowing. Luckily it didn't stick around very long, but it was pretty chilly. However, it was incredibly interesting and some of them were absolutely gorgeous. You really could see how people would have been drawn to them (and to commercialism!) in the 1800s.



I bought an interesting Cabernet Sauvignon today for about 3€. For the price, it tasted pretty excellent, but what really was interesting was the label/marketing idea. The company, "Les 7 Soeurs", apparently makes seven different types of wine, which are each named after the supposed seven daughters of the winemaker. For example, the Cabernet Sauvignon I bought was named Madeleine, who apparently is "generous" and "well-balanced", two adjectives that I assume are supposed to describe the wine as well, although I don't really know how one would judge that. I'm really terrible at degustering. Guess it's a good thing I'm going to a wine museum on Friday!

In case you haven't noticed from my entries, I've been on a crazy jazz kick. Thanks to this sweet website, ruckus.com, I have legally (what?! craziness!) downloaded approximately a million wonderful songs and have compiled a "Paris" playlist of piano solos, Gershwin medleys and old French artists. Did you know that "My Way" and "Beyond the Sea", made popular by Frank Sinatra and Bobby Darin, respectively, were both originally French songs? I highly recommend downloading "Comme d'habitude" ("My Way") par Claude Francois. C'est vachement mieux en francais! Je l'adore!

My day/night was pretty excellent.

I went into BU for a practice run of a presentation Marion and I are doing for our literature class on an excerpt from a Zola book. We totally owned it. We are super good at literary analysis. The professor was very impressed.

Then the sun was out, so Marion and I decided to go back to Montmartre to try to get some decent pictures of the sunset for our presentation (the last time we went, it was cloudy and gross). It was fun, Montmartre is one of my favorite areas of Paris so far. We got some great pictures, listened to some street musicians, bought a crepe and then got some hot chocolate in a little cafe on our way down.

Came back to La Fondation for dinner with Sam and Gerald, and then Sam and I headed out to the 6eme arrondissement where we met some friends for some jazz at this tiny club called Hippocampus. It was incredible. Piano, clarinet and washboard. The music was phenomenal (especially when Papy Cravatte started playing his washboard tie!) and the people were really friendly. Next weekend is Golden Oldies night, so we're totally going back.