Morning Train/Night Train(s)

For those of you who missed it, there was another post on Friday so make sure you check it out! I hope everyone had a great Halloween and had lots of fun. This weekend was pretty much the best weekend so far, minus some small mishaps. On Friday, I helped Julien with homework and then we watched a movie. After lunch, Alexia, Julien and I made sugar cookies and decorated them into pumpkins. They turned out amazingly well and it was fun being able to make them with the kids. At three, Baptiste’s mom came and picked us up so we went to their house where the kids dressed up and then we played Monopoly. After Monopoly, Celine (the mom) had crêpes made for us so we got to eat those, as well as the cookies we made. We quickly went home to get ready for trick or treating and then the kids went trick or treating for about 45 minutes. Halloween is a sad, sad thing in France. We only saw three other kids and out of the first ten houses we went to, I think only four had candy. At the end, the candy was shared so I got all the leftover candy that couldn’t be distributed equally. And they got one chocolate bar each; that was it for chocolate. I actually felt sorry for them, but they were still happy.

On Saturday, I spent some time with Julien until lunch. After lunch, the family and I went to the Salon du Chocolat! It took forever to find a parking spot, and then the line-up was huge so we had to wait for a while. But once we got in there, it was chocolate wonderland! There were stands with every well-known chocolate imaginable. I first saw M&M’s, and then Lindt (my second favourite!), so I knew it would be good. There were some people carving chocolate so they’d give out the shavings and then there was a sample on almost every table. I kept eating the chocolate until I felt sick. And you know that feeling where you put something in your mouth thinking it won’t be that great but once you put it in your mouth, it gives you a sensational melting feeling? That’s what happened every time I tried a chocolate. It was the best of the best. There was even a stand for my favourite Palmer’s cocoa butter; I was so surprised! There were so many people though so it was hard to get anywhere and we went home pretty soon after coming (sadly for me; I would have stayed forever).

On Sunday, I left the house really early (7:20) to catch the train to go to the Musée D’Orsay. I thought it was supposed to open at 9 because that’s what it said on the internet but it didn’t end up opening until 9:30. Luckily I did come early though because by 9:30, there was a huge lineup. When I finally got in, I spent the next 45 minutes looking at all the paintings and I loved it! The Louvre was boring compared to this. Every time I walked into a different room, at least one thing caught my eye whereas in the Louvre, it seemed like everything I looked at was exactly the same. All of the things that I looked at were Impressionism paintings, drawings, sculptures, etc. so there was a wide variety of stuff. Unfortunately after 45 minutes, I had to leave so I could go to church but I definitely want to go back again. I went to Hillsong yet again which was fun and then Helena called me to meet up. We met at the Catacombes but the lineup was way too long so we just went to the Jardin du Luxembourg instead, which was gorgeous; much better than the Jardin des Tuileries. Helena and I started to get hungry so we found a little restaurant called Crêpes à Gogo. We thought it would be suiting to have a crêpe for the main course and a crêpe for the dessert cause you can’t go to Crêpes à Gogo and not take advantage of all the crêpes they offer. It was really delicious and worth all the money that we spent. After we were finished eating, we took the train back home. The train that we were on went directly to Rambouillet so I got off in Versailles and while I was waiting for the next train, I didn’t feel too well. Let’s just say I got sick twice on the way home and it was the worst feeling ever. Once I got back home, I went straight to bed and fell asleep at nine, only to wake up again at seven for school.

I feel fine today; I’m thinking it might have been the Crêpes à Gogo, unfortunately. People were surprised when all I was wearing was a T-shirt but all I had to say was “Oh, I’m from Canada” (in French, of course), and they understood. And today, they were decorating the streets for Christmas in Rambouillet, so I’m getting really excited! The kids still have school off until Friday this week so I’m not exactly sure what I’ll be doing but hopefully it’ll be as good as last week. Three more days until it’s been 2 months that I’ve been here (meaning 8 months left!). I hope everyone has a great week! Love always

Morning Train – Sheena Easton Night Train – Oscar Peterson