Anyway, today was positively delightful. It's been great to see my old roommate again, and Loren has been wonderful, given that we were thrown together. But the conversation flows and we talk for hours, often losing track of time and walking down too many streets, missing metro stops, etc. But we decided it was worth it.
So I'm abandoning my shame over exhibiting overly-touristy behaviors and just going big. We took tons of cute macaron pictures. We circled the Denfert-Rochereau Metro stop like utterly lost Americans--of course, the Catacombs entrance that we were looking for? It was right in front of us.. Oops.
Completely unrelated:
Q: "What did Gatsby say when his car hit Myrtle?"
A: "Oopsy, Daisy."
That one gets me every time. Phew.
Anyway...
Things were beginning to close fast after our failed attempt to take a Catacombs tour. We ended up on the Champs-Élysées, and we had an actual mission: to find this face moisturizer that all the women in Hollywood and haute couture are raving about. It's called Embryolisse--yes, "embryo" as in related to meiosis--and it's very fashionable. We searched Monoprix, and the unhelpful salesperson told us shortly that it was not in the store.
Well, Jamie and Loren were not disappointed in Monoprix. See, much like how designers like, say, Vera Wang design clothing lines for stores like Target (Tar-jay for the bourgeois snobs), Chanel has a makeup line found in Monoprix stores. So Jamie and Loren picked up lots of makeup. I watched, fully imagining all my friends and family gaping and saying, "ARE YOU CRAZY? BUY SOME NOW!"
We ended up near a café named after the Metro 1 stop nearby: George V. Happened to be one of the first metro stops I went to, it just occurred to me. So since I'm not adventurous, I ordered my standard limonade while Jamie and Loren ordered a rosé and a red wine, respectively. Wine here is much stronger, and it also comes in much smaller glasses. Portion is very much in control here. (Because getting rid of the "Supersize" option doesn't mean most of our dishes and drinks are too big for even the size of a stomach. I'm only okay with this for now because I like having food to take home, being in college, but Parisians don't understand the concept of wrapping the rest of your unfinished meal "to go." "To go where?" seems to be the question in their eyes.
After we prioritized our Must-Do's from our To-Do's, we wandered down to a very cute little macaron shop called Laduree. Actually, it was more like a café/parlor. Kind of like a mashup of Georgetown Cupcakes, Baked & Wired, and any of the cute little London tea shops. We sat by the window, watching people strut on by, and we ooh-ed and aah-ed over endless macaron choices.
But not just macarons. They had champagne, hot chocolate, specialty teas, ice cream--it was all covered. I kind of wish we had tiaras to wear, it was so upscale and classy.
I had to take a picture of the menu because one of the tea options was "The Othello"--the Shakespeare play we are currently discussing in class.
Here is my hot chocolate and whipped cream. Excuse me: thick, syrupy hot chocolate that felt like silk in my mouth topped with dense Chantilly cream. Très délicieux.
I only have a picture of my macarons, but I'll give you the rundown:
My macarons: pineapple (top left), cherry blossom (top right), chocolate banana (bottom left), black currant (bottom right)
And if I recall correctly...
Jamie's macarons: salted caramel, Tahitian vanilla, chocolate coconut, lemon
Loren's macarons: salted caramel, pistachio, chocolate coconut, rose petal
Favorites: chocolate banana (me), Tahitian vanilla (Jamie--she was actually speechless from the deliciousness), rose petal or salted caramel (Loren)
The two mature ladies got champagne. And we all toasted to good company and great times--me with my little teacup, them with their sophisticated champagne flutes.
I'm not one to gush, but these are lovely ladies--and not in the Les Misérables song "Lovely Ladies" sense. What's a better term? Classy dames. We're some classy dames.
Proof:
Let's see the pictures. First up, the lovely Loren...
Now the jocund Jamie...
Et finalement, um, me. Captivating Katie? No, we need a k-word... Hm... How about the keen Katherine? There, now we have some sophistication. (And you can see why the game Scattegories feels virtually impossible when the letter "K" is used.)
I know I already made my "Three Musketeers" pun on Facebook and other corners of the Internet, but I had to shorten the title to "Maca-teers." It sounds much better when the syllable lengths match.
And tomorrow, we will become quatre. Matt is joining me at the Louvre to destroy at knowing all about Baroque Art, and we're meeting Jamie and Loren at the Catacombs--now that we can actually find them...
Votre santé, mes chers liseurs!
Oh, but I'll leave you with a strawberry dog couple:
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