Les Vacances

Ah yes, it's that time again, school holidays!  I'm becoming quite accustomed to these 2 week breaks every 6 weeks! :)  And I know, you might say, well you don't work or have a set schedule so why does it matter?  While that's mostly true, I still do have a pretty set schedule, especially now that I've started French classes 4 times a week for 2 hours, and I find these 2 weeks breaks amazing!


And I get to do some pretty fun things during them!
After a not so great start to the first week, including a visit to another type of doctor (I'll spare you the details and say I got to practice a whole bunch of French, wait a long time, and decided I will probably call SOS Médecins again next time instead).  But the week quickly recovered with another coking class!

This time, I took one with L'Atelier des Chefs having heard great things and they offer a short 30 minute lunch class for only 17 euros.  My friends Lillian, Michelle, and Michelle's friend visiting from Canada joined me for the class.  We knew the class was going to be in French, but figured we could probably handle it since we all speak decent French, and Michelle's friend is fluent in Quebec French, and would have things to look at since it was cooking.

Well, it was definitely a whirlwind and we cooked everything correctly, but I'm sure there's some finer details that we missed from the chef's 100mph French.  We found it was difficult to keep up because as soon as we started doing one thing he told us, he way already explaining the next step.  Hard enough in your native language, let alone a language you're learning!

But, all in all, it was fun and we got to eat it afterward.  It was a delicious cod with balsamic and honey sauce and polenta with mushrooms.  And I did learn a few things about mushrooms! :)

Next up that day was an event with American Women's Group...hot chocolate at Le Bristol.  Le Bristol is a 5 star hotel where many famous people have stayed in Paris (George Clooney and Matt Damon were there filming only a week ago!), and where scenes of Midnight in Paris were filmed.

After a delicious hot chocolate, complete with complimentary pastries, with some wonderful ladies, we were treated to a private tour of the hotel and the suite where Woody Allen stayed during the filming of Midnight in Paris for 3 months.  {By the way, I promise, a hot chocolate post is coming soon!}  The hotel is newly renovating and everything is very clean and sleek.  The suite was massive and included a lovely large terrace, but I have to say I was a tiny bit underwhelmed after hearing the price was 7000 euros a night.  I felt that our hotel in Venice had more character than this room for a much less price.  I have no doubt the service is impeccable, as even the woman who showed us around was lovely.

After a few days of relaxing, watching the Olympics, and trip planning, I decided it was time to venture out and do something active again.  I met my new friend, Sarah, at the Pixar, 25 years of animation, exhibit.  I love Pixar films, but I wasn't sure what to expect at the exhibit.  It exceeded my expectations and if you ever get a chance to see this exhibit, I highly recommend you do; it is touring around the world!

My pictures don't do this justice, as I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be taking photos or not, but there were so many interesting things to see.  From original basic sketches, to character planning, to clay sculptures of the models, it really was incredible.  I don't think I will ever look at a Pixar movie the same again, after realizing that they really think about everything when planning.  For example, there were pages and pages of sketches of the same character in different colors or with different eye designs to determine which would be best.  I was also impressed at how much time goes into the planning.  We saw sketches dated from 2004 for a movie that came out in 2008!  Definitely one of my favorite exhibits I've seen in Paris!

The first week ended with an American Women's Group bowling night.  We had many laughs and they only misspelled a few of our names this time. The best one was Bobbie becoming Barbie!  The guys all came too--we just failed to capture that in photos!

We rounded out the weekend trying on and picking out costumes for the Versialles ball in June, can't wait!!!

And up next week, a girls trip to Marseille while Nick is in Angola for work!  I love vacation! :)