Who ever guessed I would be sipping hot chocolate in July? Not me. I packed about six pairs of shorts as well as several t-shirts and sandals for this trip. I only brought one jacket and thank goodness I did. Today has been chilly and rainy. I was happy for the small jacket and will probably end up buying another one if we don't get any sunshine soon. It is summer! I left fiery forest fires for cold wind gusts. Crazy. Public restrooms are scarce in Paris. You have to buy something at a restaurant to have the right to their restroom or pay for the public toilet in the middle of the sidewalk (it is covered in a dome-like thing). It is not a fun feeling to be lost in the city of Paris and unable to find a bathroom. Today, one teacher Elizabeth, in our group, had to use the bathroom. Since it was an emergency and we couldn't find a public restroom close by, we all stopped at a little café to let her use the bathroom while we ordered some hot chocolate to warm us up.
It was so fun to see how the hot chocolate actually arrived: it came as pure chocolate in the bottom of a glass. There was a packet of sugar as well as a cookie on the side. The server then brought us a pitcher of boiling milk. We were able to mix up our own hot cocoa and add the quantities of sugar and milk to our liking. It was such a fun experience to be in charge of my
chocolat chaud. The French really are focused on the presentation of things. The little details matter.
Before taking off for our journey today, the four of us French teachers arrived at the grocery store at 8:55am. It doesn't open until 9:00am. So much for 24 hour service that we see in the states. People were all lined up by the store front. Many of them brought their own rolling grocery basket. This is a good idea because regular plastic grocery bags cost three cents each--plus, many of them had to walk or take the metro to get to the grocery store. My favorite thing was walking down all the aisles of yogurt and cheese. Mmmmm!!!
I bought some licorice and mint flavored yogurt that I am going to try out tomorrow. I can't wait. My colleagues thought I was pretty weird to want to try this flavor. I love black licorice and I remembered liking this brand of yogurt from my last trip to France in 2009 so pourquoi pas? Gourmet yogurt here is just such a treat and there are many kinds that I would not be able to find back home! Might as well try them out.
Paris is a pretty cool city. It is not designed in a grid-system like Salt Lake City, but rather like a snail. All of the sectioned off areas have their interesting things to offer and you can visit them by walking in a swirly shape, kind of like taking the yellow-brick road. Today we visited the 16th
arrondissement (neighborhood or district of Paris). Tourists do not usually come in this area because it is filled with residences and not many typical tourist sites. It was calm and relaxing to stroll past old lampposts and well-kept gardens.
Here is an example of a really cool lamppost that we saw on our excursion.
And just look at the amazing architecture for this door that we found, also on this behind-the-scenes walk.
Here is a picture of my French teacher friends that are having this experience with me. There are so many great places to take a picture of the Eiffel Tower in this city and this is one.
Hey - that sounds like the weather here in Erfurt. It rains a lot and then the sun comes out and it is hot and humid.
ReplyDeleteMy first and only day in Paris I could not find a bathroom for like an hour. We finally discovered a McDonald's and used the bathroom there. Then after right after that we walked by one of those covered column, dome-covered things that you described in your blog post. We examined it closely and discovered it was a bathroom. I never had to use it but someone said that there is a timer on it and that the door automatically opens after a certain amount of time. Is that true? Or maybe whoever told us that was just trying to scare us out of using it? I would be afraid that the door opens right when you are using the toilet. Or is there a lock on the door and you can spend as much time as you need in there? Are they clean? I used a similar one in southern Germany by a lake and it automatically cleaned after I used it.
Anyways, the chocolat chaud looks really yummy! I love your pictures. Beautiful!
That's a great story, Brittany! I am pretty sure that the timer part is a myth, though. I have used them and there is a lock, plus you have to push a button to get the door to open. That would be scary if they randomly opened up into the streets, though. So I take it that Germany has more public restrooms to be found than France? I have seen two extremes of bathrooms here: many are very dirty, out of soap and toilet paper. I have also seen some pretty chic ones with dim lighting and music playing. It is just a gamble.
ReplyDeleteI know--I wish you were here so that we could have a chocolat chaud together!
Oh that's good to know that the timer on those one French bathrooms is just a myth.
ReplyDeleteI've only been to France (Paris) once. So I don't know if I can really compare the number of German public restrooms to French ones. There are definitely more public restrooms in the US than in Germany.
The city where we live in Germany (which is a bit bigger than SLC) has about 5 public bathrooms in the downtown area that I am aware of. (The one at the main train station costs 70 cents, the one at the cathedral costs 50 cents, the one at the mall costs 30 cents, the one at McDonalds is free, and there is another one by the bank that I haven't had to use yet.) Then there are restrooms at restaurants, but you have to sit down and order something before you can use the restroom.