Musee de L'Orangerie

Sunday, after the Chocolate Museum, Lauren and I went to the Musee de L'Orangerie. Unfortunately, taking any pictures is strictly forbidden, so I didn't get any pictures of Monet's wonderful water lilies to take with me. But it was still really cool. They had Renoir and Picasso and Cezanne as well as Monet. I think that may be one of my favorite museums yet. Although I did really like the Musee D'Orsay. But if I couldn't get picture inside, I at least got one of me in front of the Museum!

Palais du Luxembourg

There's a really big and pretty park in the area where my schools and Central's office are, called Jardin du Luxembourg. I've been walking by it a lot, but I keep forgetting to take pictures! It wasn't sunny today like it has been for the past couple weeks, but the water fountain froze and is really pretty. The big building is the Palais du Luxembourg and I think the Senate meets in there now. I'll take more pictures once it gets warmer and things start blooming.

Chocolate Museum!

Sunday, February 12th, I went to a chocolate museum with a few girls from the program. It was called Choco-Story: Le Musee Gourmand du Chocolat. It was super cool! At the end, we saw a demonstration where they showed us how they get filling in chocolate shapes! Afterwards I bought a bag of chocolate/caramel chocolate disks which are delicious! The museum took us through the history of chocolate, but I'll let the pictures tell the story.

The front desk was giving out free samples of chocolate... We're all smiling with our mouths shut because we had chocolate in our mouths :)

Mayan Cocoa Goddess

The thingamabob they used to crush cocoa beans with, there's a fun story about it in the picture below

I really hope you can read this because I find this terribly funny

This is also funny and reminds me a little bit of the priest in the movie Chocolate.

ROCK CANDY!

For some reason, the museum thought it would be a good idea to do little leggo scenes depicting different stories they talked about

"If you are not well and have not slept, chocolate will revive you"

Some old fashion hot chocolate cups

This was my favorite

Lots of fun chocolate molds: see the pig!?

SANTA

I just love this old chocolate add.

BAM! Chocolate DOES NOT cause cavities!

This is the room the demonstration was in

Cooking Class!

  So last Thursday night (February 9) the Central Group went to learn to cook! The  place we went to was called Tours de Cuisine. It was more like us renting a big kitchen to cook in with a few real cooks wandering around and helping us when we needed it. We also didn't have to clean anything! People would just come around after we were done with something and take it to the back to wash! That was pretty cool! Different people made different things and we all ate some of everything afterwards. Plus we got to wear these real snazzy aprons!

 My partner and I made these chocolate-filled cream puff type things called Choux, as well as these cute little cups with white cheese and veggies. We also made the main meal dish which was turkey wrapped in bacon stuffed with a stuffing that was chestnut based. I already forgot what the word was in french though... The turkey/bacon things were served over mashed potatoes we made. The weirdest thing for me was how we made the potatoes: all we added was olive oil and salt!! No butter or milk or anything like that! They were still really good, but they weren't the usual Iowan mashed taters I'm used to. I hope I can get a hold of those recipes! 

Some peeps

The cooking area (before we started cooking)

My cooking partner and some weirdos behind us

Me with the turkey/bacon and potato deliciousness

Me putting the batter for the cream puff things on a tray