On Sunday, we had a "sortie" (an outing) with some of the girls from the foyer where I live.
This is the city of Paris, with the Seine River running through it. The Bois de Vincennes (bois= woods) is the giant green blob in the southeast. So we went there to have a picnic.
Picnicking. It was cold. And then on Monday, it was hot. And today, it rained. One never knows here.
There were giant letters that spelled out "Parc Floral de Paris" ("The Floral Parc of Paris." Not to be confused with "The Plant Garden" that I visited the other day. They are very precise, these French.)
Almost all of us inside the Vincennes chateau courtyard: Luis (of Argentenian origin,) Elise (Spanish,) Me (American,) Abigail (Spanish,) Lili (Chinese/ French,) Ana (Spanish,) Fatima (Moroccan/ French,) not pictured: Hatjira (Algerian).
Flowers!
Interesting lili pad flowers. Lotus, I think. Loti?
Like a tulip, but not.
I was excited about the flowers, as you can tell.
Check out the interesting variety of hydrangea. The leaves are the same as ours, but the shape of the flowers are more of a hybrid between the shape of an oak leaf hydrangea and the French blue/pink ones we have.
In other news, we had a lovely American couple from Atlanta in the boutique yesterday. The gentleman spoke French because he had studied in Geneva (shocking!!! an American who speaks another language!) It was fun to hang out with some polite, intelligent countrymen who did not put on airs (as opposed to the wretched Chicago couple we had the other week.)
Today, Pauline (fellow intern, you know,) and I were SPIES. It was so fun. We had no one in the boutique, so our boss told us to go up and down the rest of Avenue Montaigne (the street where Ungaro is, which is more or less the fashion capitol of the world,) to see if there were people there. There weren't, as it turns out... the entire street was rather empty. But I pretended like I was a legitiment client and people opened doors for me and said, "Bonjour Madame," and wished me a "bonne journee." Exciting.
In other news, we had a lovely American couple from Atlanta in the boutique yesterday. The gentleman spoke French because he had studied in Geneva (shocking!!! an American who speaks another language!) It was fun to hang out with some polite, intelligent countrymen who did not put on airs (as opposed to the wretched Chicago couple we had the other week.)
Today, Pauline (fellow intern, you know,) and I were SPIES. It was so fun. We had no one in the boutique, so our boss told us to go up and down the rest of Avenue Montaigne (the street where Ungaro is, which is more or less the fashion capitol of the world,) to see if there were people there. There weren't, as it turns out... the entire street was rather empty. But I pretended like I was a legitiment client and people opened doors for me and said, "Bonjour Madame," and wished me a "bonne journee." Exciting.
The lotus are beautiful; the pictures make them look as if they are 10 feet tall. At first, I thought they were some Disneyland like creation.
ReplyDeleteI have seen some hydrangea similar to the ones you pictured.
Did the Atlanta couple have a Cartersville connection?
I didn't learn until after they had left that they were from Atlanta. While they were there, my co-worker told me that they were from Florida (French people assume Americans are from Florida, New York, or Los Angelos,) but when I looked on the bill after they left, it said that they lived in Atlanta. So I don't know. But they were very nice!
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