Wham, Bam, Thank you, Ma'am

Last two days in Paris. I have a lot of running around with the family to do before I return to my native land. Mom and Alice have been here since Sunday; Dad and Bea arrived on Tuesday. It's nice to have my family over here, even if my place is way too small to comfortably accommodate five people. But I'm super-glad they're here. We haven't taken a vacation in awhile, and after four months alone, it's refreshing to have so many people I care about around, even if it means I (or someone else) has to do dishes every two hours. I also got to watch my father and sisters devour half a jar of Nutella in about 20 minutes. Which was truly breath-taking.

Christmas was pretty awesome. We had a great dinner at Café du Commerce, which is one of my favorite restaurants in Paris. I've eaten there at least once each time I've visited. The only downside was that they were out of crème brûlée when it came time order dessert (and I think the waiter was slightly mocking me when I tried to clarify what he was saying). I'd been looking forward to a Café du Commerce crème brûlée since I got here, so you can imagine I was a tad disappointed. But dinner itself was delicious. We took Chloe out with us, and it didn't seem like the experience was too painful—always a positive.

The All-Consuming Addiction

If I could only eat one more thing for the rest of my life, it would be macarons from Laduree. I went and got a box of eight on Friday. Having just eaten the last one a moment ago, I am already fighting the urge to go buy more.

Behind

So behind on blogging. After Eugene left the onslaught of final projects began. As soon as things settle down a bit, I'll sit down and write another really long obnoxious post offset with way more pictures than anyone cares to see. And that's a promise (aren't you just so damn lucky).

The Verdict

I'm sure you all very much care about my adventures in macaron-land. It's really exciting, I swear.

So today, I went to Pierre Hermé (I can now cross one thing off my list) to see how their macarons compared to Laduree's. Laduree is an old company, known for selling the best macarons in Paris. Pierre Hermé is a much more recent development. He's built his reputation on making macarons in non-traditional flavors, such a matcha tea.

I must say, I'm slightly disappointed. I found their range of flavors to be interesting, and the store itself (I visited the less-crowded one off of Vaugirard instead of the more popular one off rue Bonaparte in St. Germain) was really gorgeous. I bought six in total. So far I've eaten 3, two of them being a rose and a café—flavors in these two were much more intense that their counterparts at Laduree, which isn't necessarily a good or bad thing. 3 remain, so we'll see if they can convince me. I think my biggest problem with them is that there's just too much filling–it's a little overwhelming.

Things to do Before I Go

1. Pierre Hermé
2. A l'Etoile d'Or
3. Breizh Café
4. Visit Père Lachaise
5. Visit the Porte de Vanves flea market one more time
6. Visit the Richard Lenoir market for the first time
7. Laduree one more time by myself
8. Take a long walk in the Luxembourg Gardens with my camera
9. Tribeca one more time
10. Visit the Caroline Lisfranc store

I have about 27 days before I fly back to the States—let's see if that's enough time to get through the list and not fail this semester (though I'm not convinced that would be a bad thing at this point).

Eugene came to visit me this weekend—definitely the most fun I've had in awhile. And I finally got to try a Monaco (which is basically just cherry syrup mixed in with beer). Consequentially, when I return home, I will make sure that there is always a bottle of cherry syrup in my fridge, as this drink was too good not to have whenever I want.

I have about 500 photos from Barcelona I still need to go through, but have no fear, they'll be up soon, along with a riveting run-down of the trip. For now, I'll just tell you one thing about our weekend in Catalonia: there was a lot of throw-up (none of it was ours).