A Lackluster St.Patrick's Day

View from the roof of Galleries Lafayette. What's that in the background?

Both Thursday and Friday were 75, sunny, and gorgeous. I spent a decent amount of time each day at one of my favorite spots in the city- on the roof of Galleries Lafayette. They've turned the roof of this department store into a terrace reminiscent of the top deck of a cruise ships with its turf, lounge chairs, and sun. Since it's 8 stories tall, you get a beautiful rooftop view of the city. The best part? It's relatively tourist-free, so I can read and soak up the sun in silence. I even got a tan!

Notre Dame de Reims

Saturday was, unfortunately, not the best St.Patrick's day for us. We had to get up at 7am to take a train to Reims (pronounced rHanz) to look at a church and a statue all day. Outside. In the 40 degree weather. Of course, we were expecting it to be warm like the previous days, so none of us were prepared for this. Additionally, my seasonal allergies are starting to kick in, so I got 2 hours of sleep the night before. You know the 2-hours-of-sleep look doesn't work on you when your professor flat-out asks you if you're hungover. We spent a few hours at Cathedrale Notre Dame de Reims continuing our discussion on Gothic architecture from the previous week. After the three freezing hours outside were over, we had some time for lunch so we set-out on a French Onion Soup hunt. We got lucky and found some at one of the first restaurants we looked at- it was marvelous and warmed us right up :)

Our professors told us that we then had free time until 3:45 and that it was optional but "highly encouraged" that we go with them to a museum at 2pm. You're going to "highly encourage" a bunch of college kids, whom you plucked out of the city on St.Patrick's Day, to go to a museum instead of explore the city where champagne comes from? Riiiiiight. Needless to say, we opted out of the museum and instead went on a tour of the Taittinger champagne caves. Despite my better judgment, I hauled my sick and exhausted self down into the damp, freezing caves. The tour was pretty boring but the glass of champagne at the end was fantastic.

Saturday night after we returned, we found the Irish pubs in town and headed to them for St.Patrick's Day festivities. 30 minutes was about all my sick and sober self could take of my belligerently drunk surroundings, so I headed home for a much-needed solid night's worth of sleep

Affectueusement,
Katie

P.S. want an embarrassing story?  On Thursday night, we had homemade crêpes for dessert, and Geoffroy had 5. I went to go say, "Man, and I thought I loved to eat!" The French word for someone who loves to eat is gourmand, so I said gourmandise to make it feminine. Turns out, gourmand is both masc/fem, so I actually told my host family, "Man, and I thought I was a tasty little treat!"