The Tour de France Without A Bike: Le Salon D'Agriculture

So I've started to enjoy the rhythm I have been putting my blogs up at. Every threeish days seem good. Unfortunately my Monday-Wednesday, are not nearly exciting as my Thursdays-Sundays. Regardless hopefully this post will me more exciting, with better stories and PICTURES!

Thursday's are dreadful. So much class, so much reading. I started with my Paris class in the morning and then from 2-5 had my literature class. I think the highlight of my lit class is counting down the minutes till it is over- and the cute old woman that teaches it and wears accessories that match her sweaters. After class I went home and did my homework for Friday. I then had a great dinner of plain noodles (my favorite) with my host tango host mom. After dinner I ventured over to the Bastille and met a bunch of people from my group and we all saw Shutter Island. It was a good movie, and it was cool to have the French subtitles at the bottom of the screen. I definitely learned some new words and had a good time with some really big movie buffs. After the movie it was already late so we all headed home our separate ways.

Friday was another long day of classes. I had theater in the morning from 12:00-1:30 and then phonetics from 2-5. I like phonetics but it gets so embarrassing at times. My French accent really is awful. After lots of class I took a metro ride over to see Alexa and Berg! They came in on Wednesday and unfortunately I didn't get to spend a lot of time with them because of my long Thursday and Friday class schedule. I met them in the 11eme and we walked around a got nutella crepes. After walking for a little while and catching up we ended up at the street I live off of and I walked home from there. It was great to see them, just sucked that I was so busy during the day.

So after I got home I got ready for the night. The U of I people were going to celebrate our own unofficial party. Who would've thought that being abroad would actually semi make me miss the overratedness of unofficial St Patricks Day.

We went over to Massina, a dorm some of the people on the program live in, and blasted music and just had fun. We were kicked of the dorm at midnight (Happy birthday Julie!) and was heading over to a bar called Truskell. Once on the metro, I realized it was already almost one and I didn't want to take a cab home, so I just decided to go home and get a good nights sleep.

On Saturday it was Julies birthday (as I mentioned early). Due to unfortunate circumstances her phone was broken so I couldn't get a hold of her in the morning. I knew that we were meeting at Angelinas at two, so I had the whole morning to do nothing before that. I used that time to spend some quality time with my slingbox. If anyone wants to discuss Survivor, The Office, Lost or Modern Family, I am totally caught up!! At two I headed to the first to Rue de Rivioli to go to a really beautiful cute restaurant/tea/pastry shop called Angelinas.

It was really nice, and I had heard such great things about it. I will definitely be returning with my family. I got some orange sorbet, shared ridiculously chocolaty hot chocolate with Julie, and caught to try four different types of macaroons (not the kind you're thinking of during passover). It was me, Julie, her friend Jocelyn from home studying in Sevilla, and her friend Emily from home studying in London at lunch. We talked for about two hours then went to go cite see. We went to Notre Dame. The line was so long to get in we snuck in through the exit door and Jocelyn got to see the church. After that we went to a cool scarf shop full of cool jewelry. Everyone got some earrings except for me haha.

After shopping we walked back over to Julies apartment. We debated about where to go to dinner for a while. During that time Amanda and Genna Katz (who was visiting from Florence) came back home too. Caroline also met us at their apartment and was able to meet my home friends. We went to dinner at this little restaurant about a block away from Julie and Amanda's apartment. The waiter was a little nuts. Whenever we wouldn't pay attention to him he would make a Donald duck noise to get us to look at him. Then he totally had a crush on Genna Katz and gave her a pitcher of water only for her. I had chicken and rice for dinner, it was good and definitely not as adventurous as Genna and Amanda's escargot. Dinner was fun and after dinner we all went back to their apartment. We all got ready and decided to go to the same bar I attempted to go to the night before.

We all entered the metro together but somehow leaving the metro wasn't so easy. Caroline, Julie, and I ended up in the bar (which had a ton of potential) and everyone else got lost. After trying to find them for a half hour me and Julie just went home. I had a great day celebrating her birthday with her and was so happy that we got to be together!

So Saturday during the day Lauren texted me asking if I wanted to go to the Salon d'Agriculture tomorrow. Not having any idea what that was I instantly said yes. This is where Sunday's adventure starts. At around 12:30 I met Lauren, her friend visiting, Amy, her roommate Erica, and some other friends from her program at the metro. We took the metro to the 15eme and started our adventure at the Agriculture Fair. This was one of the coolest things I have done so far in Paris. It is this fair that comes once every year for like a week and a half or so (this year it was Feb 27- Mar 7) and showcases different aspects of agriculture from all over France, and all over the world. It takes place at this huge venue that consists of seven pavilions. After we got in at the awesome student discount rate, we started our adventure. We started in the Pavilion called Regions of France.

This was a two story building that had all these booths set up from different regions of France. At each booth they were selling different things. We got to sample free cheese, bread, jam, olive oil, wine, champagne, and many more things that the French have to offer. I think my most ridiculous sample of the day was when I tried roasted Duck and Foi Gras (Lauren can vouch that this really did happen!).

I wasn't a big fan of either but at least I can say I tried it!! After a lot of walking that pavilion we decided it was time to go somewhere new. We went over to pavilion three which was different foods of the entire world. This one would've been a lot cooler if there were free samples. We just walked around and saw what the countries had to offer. It was kinda of like a grown up Epcot center. The next pavilion we went to had cows, sheep, and pigs in it!! After petting the cows and awing over the baby pigs we went to the last pavilion of the day. This one had dogs, cats, horses, and even a donkey in it. There was a cute fake dog show going on and people brought all sorts of pets. After this pavilion we realized it was 6:30 already and we were all so exhausted.

We took the metro back to Lauren's and I made some plain noodles. We hung out around there together for a while and then I came back home because I was so excited to write this blog and show tell everyone about the Agriculture Fair. It definitely felt a little but like Champaign-Urbana in the middle of Paris, but it was still so worth it. I hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Pictures From the Fair:
(1)Lining up our free wine samples

(2)Bread being made fresh

(3)South of France Area

(4) Normandie Area

(5) Fountain of Carmel we were just suppose
to stick our fingers under to try it.
Their only rule was you can't use the same
finger twice! (6) Bread that was shaped like challah...very deceiving