Birthday fun Pt.1

First of all, before I forget, we think this is one of the best food combinations we've ever come across. It's eggplant, some sort of cheese, and red and yellow bellpeppers. We eat this quite a bit. It's absolutely wonderful, very healthy and really cheap. I am hoping delicious, cheap frozen veggie entrees like this catch on in the US! There is a ratatouille that you can find here too that's awesome!

I wanted to start celebrating a night early(since it was our last weekend in Paris) so we found some yummies at different shops around town and put everything together. We had our main courses, drinks and dessert!! Everything was awesome! As it always in Paris! Seriously, I don't recall having anything I disliked. 

 J had some sauteed noodles, honey chicken and some of my vegetarian rice.

 I forgot to mention the yummy drink and raspberry tart!

I had vegetarian Vietnamese rice and some veggie dumplings :) I really wanted to ask for the recipe of the rice. It didn't have any sauce or spices. Somehow the inherent flavors of the vegetables were used to create a symphony of smell and taste! Quite excellent! I won't be eating greasy fried rice again in the states, that's for sure. lol My strawberry tart was great!


The next day we decided to try for the dinosaur museum once more! This is our view down one of the streets we take quite a bit, which is quite picturesque. We both tried to take pictures and by the time we remembered, the weather and lighting weren't in our favor. We still wanted to take a picture to remember it nonetheless.

Later on, the weather was in our favor. This is an alley off of our street!

The dinosaur museum was open!

We ate nearby at a cafe that seemed promising and did not disappoint! We each had a croque. J had a croque monsieur and I had a croque madame, or the other way around. I don't remember. Mine did have ham, so I gave it to J. I decided when I get back home I will be making these sandwiches for breakfast, lunch or dinner. They are so yummy! They were so good we forgot to take pics. So, here we are instead!

I do believe this picture sums our dinner up quite well! :)


And this concludes part 1! Part 2 coming shortly!

A Game of Ball and the Dinosaur Museum

The park around the corner has many purposes. It's for families to spend time together. It also serves as a dog park. Today, it's a place for the older gentlemen to partake in a game of ball!

It looks like they are using oversized metal marbles. I don't know the name of this game.

By the time we got to the dinosaur museum, it was closed. That didn't stop us from enjoying the surrounding parks and snapping some pictures of the building!

I just love the way this building looks. Just marvelous.

The sky was doing magnificent things. It was as if all of the clouds were being drawn to one point far off in the distance. You can kind of see the straight lines of clouds going from the left of the picture to the right. We both tried to get a good shot. This was the result. Not a great shot but hopefully you get the idea.

Afterwards we ate at a Tex-Mex restaurant. We were both pleasantly surprised at how good the food was.

The restaurant inside was really neat to look at.

Most people are outside!

After we enjoyed our meal, we went home. It's really nice to eat at these restaurants or even just enjoy some coffee outside!

Haircut day!!

I found a salon owned by a lady from California. She also happens to be great at doing hair! I made my appointment with her and couldn't wait to go! J did some sightseeing while I had the best haircut experience of my life. Whoo hoo ;)


These are from the sightseeing. I think this was inside the mall somewhere.

Some time spent at the cafe:

Note that there are quite a few ingredients compared to back home.

A nice outside shot.

The salon was VERY hard to find. I found the address where it was supposed to be, only to be facing the the outside of a shopping mall!  The salon was inside a mall and, not only that, but up a not-so-noticeable-staircase. After going up the stairs it seemed that I was into residential/hotel room areas. I went back down and had to ask for directions. I was going the right way, they said. 
I went back up the stairs, feeling that there was a mistake because when I looked to my left, there was a tiny room(about the size of a closet) that said it was for mailing and to my right there was a door that said gynocology. There was a lady inside the mailing room and she told me that I was going the right way, just to head through the gynocologist's office door and I'd see the salon. I thought that was a weird location for a salon, but I did as she said. After I went through the door, I saw that it simply lead to a hallway where I could then choose to go straight into the doctors office or go right to the salon. I was about 20 minutes late but it didn't matter. My haircut lady was late too! :D


As I'm writing this, I realize that the pictures I took of the interior of the salon have been lost :( It was beautiful! An excellent mix of ornate, old architecture with modern touches. This is the website for the salon: http://polishedhaircare.blogspot.com/p/profile.html This is a picture of the salon: https://picasaweb.google.com/112059210432352396481/Slide02#5502989235561841794
Let me tell you about the salon experience I had!


First off, the music playing was relaxing but not typical salon/massage type music. It was more like soul music! Maybe it was soul, I really have no idea. Before my hairdresser arrived(Nicole, the owner) I was treated to a shampoo and conditioner in a massaging chair! The chairs massage your back. It was great! Then, I got a head massage and oil brushed into my hair, from roots to tips. I was placed under the heat machine thing(can't believe I forgot the name!). Afterwards, I got another wash and condition in the massage chair. Next, I got my head brushed. I don't really know what it's called but the salon person takes two brushes and strokes your scalp vigorously with one brush, then the other, in a clockwise motion, all around your scalp and head. That was the most amazing part of the whole thing!(Besides my haircut :D) Afterwards, my head tingled and I felt rejuvinated. Pretty neat! 


I was sad because I wasn't able to print my picture out of the haircut I wanted. I looked down at the various haircut/hairstyle magazines/books and right off the bat, I knew my haircut picture was in the first one. I picked it up, and sure enough, near the back, was the exact picture I tried printing out before! YAY!!! Then, Nicole arrived and cut my hair! Pictures are below, in different outfits, doing my hair in different ways :) I went for an asymmetrical cut. The right side of my head has shorter hair than the left side. My bangs also curve around my right eyebrow and then slant across my face, getting longer. I can't ever get them to work the way Nicole did but you can kind of see what I'm talking about in the second picture.

No hair straightener.

I can't say enough wonderful things about Nicole! She is nice and cool, talented. Her salon is awesome and her staff know what they are doing! I will definitely see her again, next time I'm in Paris, no matter how far down the line that may be! :D TOTALLY worth it!

We paid a visit to Cezanne & Cirque du Soleil

On the way to the salon last night, we passed by a museum exhibiting some of Cezanne's works! So we decided to stop by. We also saw alot of these giant Christmas trees on the street. They really enliven the streets!

Seeing these in person was really neat. I learned about them in class but to see them up close was a great opportunity! Some of them are small, like the drawings and others are very large, like the paintings! The portrait drawing was about 6 - 8 inches tall. There was a painting that I couldn't get a picture of that was the size of a door to a house!

After the museum we went to go see Cirque du Soleil! It ended up being a show we already saw but it was pretty neat getting to see it in Paris. Cirque kind of has it's own island out here! We sat incredibly close to the stage. At one point, a performer was sitting on the stairs next to me waiting for his cue. Luckily, it was dark and he was waiting to undo some rigging after the performance on stage was over! No spotlights next to me!! There's no photography once the show starts, so all I have are two pictures. 


The first picture is of the thick plastic sidewalk they put together for us because it was raining. The sidewalk is normally sand and dirt. That's no fun to walk through after/during the rain! I thought this was a very considerate idea on someone's part!

The next picture is of the stage before the show. I really liked the chandelier! In front of us, the stage is two rows away. To the left of us, it was two chairs away! I've never been so close to a performance before.

After this, we called it a night. I'd say the day was pretty enjoyable! :D

Something unexpected but beautiful nonetheless

I want to get my haircut really badly. It's getting too long and I can't stand it! So, we tried calling a salon that someone recommended but the phone number didn't work. So! we decided to just walk there and make an appointment for later in the week! Of course, we took some pictures along the way ;)

This is a shot of the subway stairs. Usually, they have printed words that you start reading at the bottom of the stairs and continue reading on your way up. They tell a story. These stairs had no such printing, so some locals decided to add their own story to the stairs!

On our walk, we came across this beautifully paved walkway! Upon stepping foot on this sidewalk I felt that something was different but I couldn't make out what it was. After a few seconds of admiring the general area's zen like state, I came upon the realization that the sidewalk was paved! It's MUCH easier to walk on this than the cobblestones we've become accustomed to! I decided to take a picture

Shortly after enjoying the sidewalk's smoothness, we came across this beauty! This fountain is so serene. There really are no words I can say to convey the feelings of goodness I received from simply beholding this art! I wish this picture was better quality for you guys! The water made beautiful music.

Next, we saw these cool lights. The effect they have reminds me of those old oil lamp sculpture things. They usually have a lady in the center and  vertical fishing line creates a "cage" around her. Oil travels down the lines. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Google "dripping oil venus lamp" and you should get pics of what I'm talking about. Anyway, these light fixtures had movement like that. You can see brighter spots of light within the ropes of lights. Those brighter spots resemble water droplets.

Eventually we found the address of the salon, only to find that the salon no longer exists or moved. The salons around had just closed for the evening.(It was around 8 pm.) So, with our mission not quite complete but with nothing to do, we decided to head back home. 

We came across a small church that seemed to be calling to us. We ended up going inside, following a crowd of people. After everyone settled into their seats or standing spots, a prayer was said and then singing commenced. It was incredibly private feeling and I didn't want to disturb anyone's peace from the light from my camera as I took pictures. I managed to snap just these few shots. No worries, I don't have a flash! 

I had no view as it was standing room only(and I'm a shorty!). The experience was magical though! I just closed my eyes and listened to the French words rising up and all around, filling the room. It was the most beautiful singing I'd ever heard. I got goosebumps! I even felt compelled to sing and though I didn't know the words, I could make up my own!  Afterwards, when everyone left(about 20 minutes later), while discussing the experience, J brought up that he thought the singing was the best he'd ever heard. I was surprised but mentioned that I'd had the same thought! 

We still have no idea what we walked into. Choir practice? This visit into the church was quite wonderful to experience and it wouldn't have happened if the salon was there or the rest around the area were open! Quite unexpected but awesome! I'm very grateful! I'll have to do some more research and see if I can find a salon at a later date! I hope to update you guys soon! 'Bye!