Thanksgiving, Chez George and other Images of Paris

Not your typical Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving time, I think for everyone in our program, was a difficult time to be abroad. For most of us, it was the first time we had not been with our families for the holiday making us all realize how much we missed home. Thankfully (no pun intended), our program hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for us at Chez François, a very nice French restaurant that looks out onto the Seine. While the dinner was far from traditional, it was absolutely delicious!

 Le Potage de Poitrine (Pumpkin Soup) with a Soufflé du Canard Confit (a slice of Duck Confit Soufflé)

La Dinde avec un sauce des cranberries, les champignons, et un purée des patates douces (Turkey with a cranberry sauce served with a side of sautéed mushrooms and mashed sweet potatoes)

New York Cheesecake (translation: New York Cheesecake) 

Needless to say I was not thrilled - I was missing mom's apple and pumpkin pies 

Post Thanksgiving Dinner a bunch of us decided to go to a staple in our going-out book: Chez George.

Chez George is truely a French wine bar establishment - a place where young french people gather to share bottles of wine and dance the night away in the low-ceilinged "cave" downstairs. The bar (which has a much calmer upstairs environment) dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. During WWII the cave downstairs was home to many Jews who were in hiding during the Nazi occupancy of Paris. To pay homage to this about every hour Hava Naglia is played, and is truly a favorite of everyone in the bar. Other songs include selections from the Beatles, Edith Piaf, and other great classic songs. 

Some people dancing the night away in the cave 

one of the bartenders loves Paloma! 

This creepy flower man comes every night. He loves Clara (a french friend we have made because of Chez George) and gives her a flower when ever she is there. He has started giving me one too - not sure why but it is weird. haha!

Denney and our friend Sana dancing with one of the free flowers we received 

Cooking Class

One of the things that was on my Paris bucket list was to take a cooking class. Well it finally happened Friday night at this adorable place in Hotel de Ville. On the menu for the night was Fricassée de Volaille au cidre et pommes caramélisées (caramelized apples and chicken with a creamy mushroom and onion sauce). A really fun experience was made all the more fun after we started talking to Bill, the only man in our class of 12 (the rest were young girls). After telling us that he used to be a professor at Rutger's and is now retired and staying indefinitely in Paris he asked where we all went to school. When he got to me and I responded with Richmond his eyes lit up! He too was a Spider! And was very excited to learn that there were two other girls in the class that night who are from UR as well. Its funny how small the world is.

Me with Bill, Jaclyn and Lisa - Spider reppin' in Paris!

Paris Revisted

The weekend after Thanksgiving my friend Kelly and her parents came to Paris. Planning to meet at Musée D'Orsay, I arrived a little early so I decided to walk around the area a bit and take some photos. During my walk I stumbled upon the hotel I stayed in during my first visit to Paris as well as the mini-mart next door where we used to go everyday for snacks.

A men's clothing store I thought my dad would love (due to the fun-colored corduroys)

The Rue de Bac area 

Our hotel!

Switzerland

Interlaken

Interlaken, which means between the lakes, is situated about 2.5 hours from Geneva and 1.5 hours from Zurich. A very small town that is known for its skiing, classic chalet style houses and beautiful views of the Alps, Interlaken is definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited.

Balmer's Hostel

Lobby of Bamer's

Some views of Interlaken and area surrounding Balmer's

Train station where we caught the train to where we started our hike.

Waterfall

An old Swiss man who helped us find our way to the hiking trail - too bad none of us spoke German

Someone loves their gnomes...

Looking down onto the little village

drainage system that pulls the water from the Alps - very delicious and safe drinking water!

Our Hike

Swiss Alps chillin'

We were sitting a cafe after our hike drinking some coffees and sampling the local beer when all of a sudden this lone cow came walking down the street. Clearly in distress, it tried to enter the sporting goods store across the street via the automatic doors when one of the employees tried to chase it out with some ski poles. Even more frazzled at this point he started moo-ing at his reflection in the window.  Poor guy was really lost. He was very sweet though, we got to pet him. After causing a traffic jam one of the local men started to lead him away. We asked the people working at the cafe if this was normal and their response was No. We all felt pretty special being able to experience the cow sighting!

Zurich

On Saturday of my trip I took a bus to Zurich because I thought it would be cool to see what a Swiss city looked like. Zurich reminded me a lot of Amsterdam and Copenhagen because of the canals that run through the city as well as the architecture. A very posh city where if a store front wasn't a bank it was a chocolate shop, Zurich was a very cool place to visit. 

Christmas Market in Zurich

Gingerbread!

The Lake at Zurich

The largest clock face on a church (St. Peter's Zurich)

The Singing Christmas Tree - a boy's choir was performing

On Sunday morning before getting our bus to the airport Alex and I decided to rent a "fun car" to drive around Interlaken and down to Interlaken Ost to see the lake. Part go-kart part golf cart the fun car was fun to drive through the streets of the Swiss Alps

Lake Interlaken Ost - this picture does not do it justice - the water was Caribbean blue