The Little Moments In-Between

We disappeared for a bit for various reasons but are back with a lot to tell you! 

Before I give the details about my final exam for Le Cordon Bleu, which we took on July 23rd, I wanted to share a few of the little things that happen during our weeks that I don’t mention earlier. I have a few photos of random times in Paris that I thought may be fun. :-)

This little gem was taken after my worst practical. Everything went wrong and I got dirtier than ever! Hellooo chocolate and coffee stains! (Also, here's a glimpse into our locker room!)

Jacob and I nabbed a picture of the two of us in a practical room together! This was taken in 2GS (second floor "Grande Salle" or "Big Room") a room that is for cuisine and pastry, so we both spent some time here!

Perhaps some of you have heard of Ponts des Arts? It's a bridge in Paris that is covered in locks. To show eternal love many visitors attach locks to the bridge with the name of a lover and toss the key into the Seine. Since before leaving for Paris Jacob and I knew we were going to attach the locks we brought for our school lockers to the bridge the day after we were done with or final. I wrote "LCB" on the back of mine. An eternal love affair with Le Cordon Bleu.

After a night class one I decided to take a picture of what we got to experience a night. This was taken at 10pm on my way home from class. Isn't it gorgeous? We couldn't believe it took until 10:45 or so for it to finally get dark.

Aren't they cute together?? We tried to give them the best of views. :)

And Now a Break From Our Regularly-Scheduled Programming!

We’ve had a fair amount of posts about Le Cordon Bleu, but almost none about our other experiences in Paris, so I thought I should share a bit.

Our adventures haven’t taken us very far, and certainly not out of France. The first day we hit all of the tourist-y spots on a Hop-On-Hop-Off bus. Since we’ve both been to Paris before we really didn’t have any destinations we absolutely had to go. Once Jacob started class and I had more free time I spent some time shopping for a wedding dress (how could I not shop when in one of the fashion capitals of the world?!) as well as hitting some of the lesser known museums.

Overall my biggest surprise involves…sunglasses. My goodness, if you want to feel like an obvious outsider walk around Paris in sunglasses. So few people do that I’m shocked when I see another person wearing them. That doesn’t stop me one bit as my eyes are fairly sensitive, but it brings a smile to my face just thinking about how odd that is to me. What a weird thing to even notice! :-)

The farthest we’ve gone is an hour outside of Paris. This past Sunday, our normal day off for the week, Jacob and I went to Disneyland Paris (formerly Euro Disney). It consists of two parks, the Magic Kindgom and Walt Disney Studios, as well as a Disney Village and numerous hotels. I was raised on Disney and am obsessed with every last detail of the whole company, so it’s an under exaggeration to say I was excited.

It was great fun and such a nice break, almost as if we had left Europe for a bit. Our favorite ride? Crush’s Coaster, which broke down while we were on it the second time. And we’re talking light’s on- evacuation-break-down. Good fun for us, and I got a few nice videos of the inside of the ride. One video is below (we'll spare you the one of me talking).

A Quick View Inside Crush's Coaster

Besides that, a memorable moment was when triplee (Jacob) stayed true to his AGO pledge name by tripping in front of a girl wearing a ucla sweatshirt while he was wearing a “Fight On!” shirt. He got so many sighs from me. :-)

More posts about our courses to come!

~Sarah

Bonjour, Paris!

Well these have been quite an eventful past couple of days! The stress leading up to yesterday’s travel day was palpable, but we are now finally settled in our new Parisian apartment.

Surprisingly, the worst part of the traveling was not the delay while on the tarmac (Jacob has some VERY entertaining group games on his phone) but the traffic that we experienced right off the bat in France. Even our taxi driver was hitting his wheel as if to say, “Could you please move a little faster?” …Okay, maybe it was without the please.

Even though half the amenities of this tiny apartment are broken or non-existent, and even though we totally forgot bar soap, we know it’ll become cozy enough to us in the next few weeks. I’m not sure I’d go as far as to say we’ll be missing it come the end of our classes, but I can tell it’ll quickly become our Parisian home.

Classes are still the most worrisome part of the trip. Jacob and I are both so scared of not doing well in our respective classes and have come up with small things to keep our hearts steady. I keep looking towards the day when we have a demonstration and practical class on croissants since they are my fiancé’s favorite pastry -- if I come back having forgotten everything but the croissants I’ll still feel okay about the trip. Jacob has a crazy French meal planned (it may or may not include rabbit) for our grandparents after we return. He was picking menu items before we even left! I can't wait to sneak a few bites.

Even after getting a bit worried just sitting here, I looked left out the window and spotted the expected, gorgeous French architecture and realized that I’m in Paris…that’s pretty cool.

~Sarah