Category Archives: Travel

Paris!

The first 24 hours in Paris have been a dream. This city is magical and too beautiful for words. I’ve wanted to come here for so long, I still can’t believe I’m actually here. We live in the St. John’s Paris Campus on rue de Sèvres in the 6e arrondissement, surrounded by patisseries and brasseries.

Our first dinner out was in a brasserie called L’Horizon. We ordered two onion soups, a steak in a pepper sauce and a bottle of Rose. Everything was fantastic and relatively inexpensive.

For today’s lunch we decided to buy some groceries and eat at home.

Charcuterie, tomatoes and cheese are from the Carrefour market (unfortunately La Maison du Fromage was closed for lunch). The bread and macarons are courtesy of the Malo boulangerie, two blocks down from our dorm.


So far Malo is my favorite place. Their bread and croissants are the best. And, the salesladies are very nice and patiently put up with my bad French…

Tonight, we’re going to see the Tower!

Bon Voyage!

The day is finally here. A day I’ve been waiting for for years - at midnight tonight, God willing, I will be taking off in a plane to Paris, France. To say I’m excited would be an understatement.
I will be away for one month and will also visit Dublin for a weekend. I will try to blog from there as much as possible and keep you guys updated on all the croissants, baguettes, vins et fromage I will be consuming.


Au revoir, mes amis!

Poutine @ La Banquise, Montreal

Hello. I hope you all had a lovely New Year’s celebration : )

Montreal turned out pretty fun. It’s a beautiful city and a great city to eat in. One thing I noticed about all the places we went out to eat is the service. The staff tends to be friendly and helpful, but to finally get the food in front of you takes forever! I don’t know if it is only so as compared to New York, or perhaps we kept choosing the wrong restaurants, but either way, patience is a virtue when it comes to eating in Montreal. However, in most cases, the long wait was quickly forgotten because the food was delicious.

Prior to setting out on this little journey I asked around to find out what foods I should try during my stay in Montreal. Everyone unanimously recommended a dish called poutine, which I’ve never heard of before. Poutine is dish consisting of a mound of French fries, topped with cheese and gravy and often meat or other ingredients. This sounded weird to me at first but hey, it had to be famous for a reason.

Some brief research revealed that the best place to eat poutine in Montreal is La Banquise on Rue Rachel est and that’s where we set out.

La Banquise offers over 20 variations of poutine, some with chicken, beef, sausage, bacon and/or vegetables. I ordered the Poutine Danse.

The Poutine Danse is a poutine with chicken, bacon, white onions, cheese and a peppercorn gravy. When this beauty was first presented for me to tackle, I must admit I was intimidated. Firstly, despite its rustic and messy look, it was a masterpiece that I did not want to ruin. But my hunger and curiosity got the best of me. Secondly, I simply did not know how to tackle it, as it was quite a tall dish. Eventually I got the hang of it ; )

This poutine blew my mind. What a genius creation. Who knew fries, cheese and gravy, of all things, make such a perfect marriage?

Well…the Quebecois apparently.