Monday, May 18
I got to sleep deliciously late today (all my adjectives are about food these days, give a girl a break). Cecile and I got up and moved about the apt some before our "plans" for the day.
I wanted to look for a hotel in Strasbourg -- consulting the ever-helpful Rick Steves. I spent 20 minutes completely unloading my suitcase, thinking I'd left it accidentally in Paris before checking the miniscule front pocket and staring straight at it. It was good to rearrange the bag anyway.
Cecile and I took off together, me to find a restaurant for lunch and her to grab a sandwich and meet a friend at the train station. We didn't actually get out of the apt til about 2p and having had breakfast at 10:30a, I basically stopped the first place I saw. Turned out to be a wanna-be Greek restaurant I think... maybe pan-Euro. Anyway, Cafe Olympia offers quite the extensive menu and in the perfectly gorgeous (gorgeous) weather, the terrace called to me. I sat under their fiery orange awning and had 4-cheese rigatoni. In the U.S., four cheese usually means 4 fairly plain white cheeses. Here, that would be a downright travesty. My four cheeses were a swiss-like cheese, parmesan, ricotta and roquefort (blue cheese)! Oh wow it was yummy.
Afterwards, I decided to walk down to Le Clerc (comparable to Super Walmart in types of items offered, but not really in price - size is pretty darn close) and find the few items that I've been needing. Not the least of which is a weapon against the slight odor of my new hand bag. I finally found a hand bag in Rennes that I really liked (green, not too ostentatious, but spacious) and bought it for the fabulous price of 15 Euros... turns out that they throw in a slightly fishy smell for free? It's utterly weird and I've FeBreezed the crap outta this thing and even tried spritzing body spray from Bath & Body works in it... but this is a stubborn smell. It's not even strong, it's just... determined. So I stopped by the car aisle and bought myself an air freshener shaped/scented like a coconut. (pic) It currently lives inside the new bag and will probably stay there even after I add my stuff to it. Take that, fish smell.
I also picked up a few fruit/veggie smoothie things (pic) so I don't have to feel bad about eating pasta, butter, cheese, bread and meat at each meal, topped off with chocolate desserts. This way I know I'm at least "eating" 4 fruits a day, though I've been big on apples since I've been here.
In France, you have to go expressly to a Pharmacie for anything more than diet pills or sugar free candies that could pass for cough drops, so I made a quick stop at the Pharmacie and just skipped straight to cheating: I showed the nice woman the back of the pill capsule for Advil Cold & Sinus so she could read the ibuprofen+pseudoephedrine ingredients. I now know that's called "Nuprofen Rhume" here and will probably be grateful for the vocab later.
I have noticed that the people here look a lot more Germain/Suisse than the stereotypical French of Paris or even Rennes. No, I do not have pictures, but I have noticed that not only are there more rotund people here, they seem to be the majority. It's a bit disconcerting considering I'll be eating here for a week... (yeah right, like I've been eating healthy in other parts of France?)
I love the houses here... very colorful and each is a bit different. (pics) You can actually see the mountains over the tops of some of the houses, but most of Mulhouse proper is pretty flat and there are buildings blocking the landscape in most places. I'll see if I can get better pics tomorrow.
Check out all the pics on Flickr.
Oh and feel free to leave comments on the blog: no, you don't have to log in. Just add a comment under the option "Name/URL."
I wanted to look for a hotel in Strasbourg -- consulting the ever-helpful Rick Steves. I spent 20 minutes completely unloading my suitcase, thinking I'd left it accidentally in Paris before checking the miniscule front pocket and staring straight at it. It was good to rearrange the bag anyway.
Cecile and I took off together, me to find a restaurant for lunch and her to grab a sandwich and meet a friend at the train station. We didn't actually get out of the apt til about 2p and having had breakfast at 10:30a, I basically stopped the first place I saw. Turned out to be a wanna-be Greek restaurant I think... maybe pan-Euro. Anyway, Cafe Olympia offers quite the extensive menu and in the perfectly gorgeous (gorgeous) weather, the terrace called to me. I sat under their fiery orange awning and had 4-cheese rigatoni. In the U.S., four cheese usually means 4 fairly plain white cheeses. Here, that would be a downright travesty. My four cheeses were a swiss-like cheese, parmesan, ricotta and roquefort (blue cheese)! Oh wow it was yummy.
Afterwards, I decided to walk down to Le Clerc (comparable to Super Walmart in types of items offered, but not really in price - size is pretty darn close) and find the few items that I've been needing. Not the least of which is a weapon against the slight odor of my new hand bag. I finally found a hand bag in Rennes that I really liked (green, not too ostentatious, but spacious) and bought it for the fabulous price of 15 Euros... turns out that they throw in a slightly fishy smell for free? It's utterly weird and I've FeBreezed the crap outta this thing and even tried spritzing body spray from Bath & Body works in it... but this is a stubborn smell. It's not even strong, it's just... determined. So I stopped by the car aisle and bought myself an air freshener shaped/scented like a coconut. (pic) It currently lives inside the new bag and will probably stay there even after I add my stuff to it. Take that, fish smell.
I also picked up a few fruit/veggie smoothie things (pic) so I don't have to feel bad about eating pasta, butter, cheese, bread and meat at each meal, topped off with chocolate desserts. This way I know I'm at least "eating" 4 fruits a day, though I've been big on apples since I've been here.
In France, you have to go expressly to a Pharmacie for anything more than diet pills or sugar free candies that could pass for cough drops, so I made a quick stop at the Pharmacie and just skipped straight to cheating: I showed the nice woman the back of the pill capsule for Advil Cold & Sinus so she could read the ibuprofen+pseudoephedrine ingredients. I now know that's called "Nuprofen Rhume" here and will probably be grateful for the vocab later.
I have noticed that the people here look a lot more Germain/Suisse than the stereotypical French of Paris or even Rennes. No, I do not have pictures, but I have noticed that not only are there more rotund people here, they seem to be the majority. It's a bit disconcerting considering I'll be eating here for a week... (yeah right, like I've been eating healthy in other parts of France?)
I love the houses here... very colorful and each is a bit different. (pics) You can actually see the mountains over the tops of some of the houses, but most of Mulhouse proper is pretty flat and there are buildings blocking the landscape in most places. I'll see if I can get better pics tomorrow.
Check out all the pics on Flickr.
Oh and feel free to leave comments on the blog: no, you don't have to log in. Just add a comment under the option "Name/URL."
posted by Jess at 9:50 AM
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