Bon mercredi!
The past few days of classes have been so eventful that it has quickly become time for another post...
Yesterday afternoon, we went on our first excursion with our wine's class. We visited a store called Lavinia, right off la place de la Madeleine. It's a wine shop that carries bottles from every region in France, organized by popularity, place of origin and value. We were able to walk through rows of thousands of bottles of wine-- ranging from about 10 euros to upwards of 8,000 euros. As overwhelming as this made the place, it was truly fascinating. We learned what types of glasses are meant to be used for which types of wines and why. For example, a Bordeaux requires a much larger and rounder glass because there are stronger flavors in it that must evolve, while champagne needs a tall and thin flute to allow its bubbles to travel up and down without releasing too much carbonation. There was a section mean to help you pair certain wines with foods,which was also very interesting, and our favorite part-- the testing stations. (No, we did not just like these because we got to drink some wine.)
Taste testing was a very cool process. For 10 euros, we were given a card with that exact value on it. Then, we got to put the card into a machine, put our glass under the wine we wanted to try, and allow it to vend a small amount for us to taste. The options would vary from 0.80 euro to 6.50 euro or even 12.75 euro (just for a taste!), so we could make use of those 10 euros as we pleased. There were reds, whites and roses offered. To buy an entire bottle of one of the lower priced wines we tasted, it would cost anywhere from 60 to 100 euros. The pricier tastes would sell bottles for hundreds of euros at least. It was a really unique opportunity to taste extremely high quality wines that we probably would never have otherwise been exposed to.
Then, today with our fashion class, we visited le musee Cognacq-Jay, which is a very small, little known place, right near our school. The Cognacq's (a couple that lived in the late 1800s and early 1900s) had become millionaires in their lifetime and could bear no children, so they left all of their acquisitions behind to form a museum. Their collections were truly unmatchable, as the museum contains all sorts of paintings, furniture, jewels, and sculptures-- some of which belonged to individuals like Marie Antoinette and Napoleon Bonaparte. The collection includes the oldest Rembrandt and works by Corot, Degas, and Cezanne. Overall, it was really remarkable to see all of this in one place. The other highlight of the trip was when my teacher looked at me and said, "Jenna... you look very French." The man is very unique and has a habit of randomly turning to one of his students and making a completely irrelevant comment, but I was still extraordinarily flattered. (I might also add that he may be the most stylish man I've seen thus far in Paris.)
Later that day, my French class took a short trip to a local boulangerie. The boulanger took us into the back room and answered all of our questions about what goes on in his shop. He spoke extremely fast, so it was hard to understand what he was saying some of the time, but it was all worth the struggle seeing as we got to taste all sorts of freshly baked tarts and pastries. We even got a full demonstration of how to make eclairs. He made it look so easy!
Those are pretty much the events of the week thus far, aside from a small occurrence that Abbey and I experienced in the grocery store. We were buying a few things for dinner, along with a bottle of white wine. The man at the counter routinely asked to check our IDs (the legal age is 18, but clearly we look like we're 12), and when he saw that we were from New York he looked at us with surprise and said... "attendez... vous n'etes pas francaises?" Clearly, we walked the rest of the way back to our apartment with idiotic grins on our faces. There's really nothing greater than feeling like an idiotic American and then being confused with a Parisian, by a Parisian.
Anyway, that's all for now. Leaving for London tomorrow!
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