another good weekend..

so dinner was AMAZING. went to this place called "le hangar"-- i wordreferenced.com-ed it and it means "the shed"... appropriate because it's a french country food restaurant. SO good. and hearty. i had roasted duck with creamy mashed potatoes and a house salad. the bread they brought out beforehand came with an amazing black olive spread... and of course the bread was freshly made. "pain artisinal" as they call it. for dessert we ordered a plate of cheese and a raspberry cream parfait. delish. 

one of the coolest things about this place was its location. in the marais near the pompidou center, it stands at the end of an "impasse"(dead end street) that i couldn't even find on the map... a cobble stone walkway for pedestrians only. very quaint. 

the duck i ordered is a nod to my father--the last time we came to paris he tried duck for the first time and fell in love with it. he ordered "le canard" practically every meal after that and every time i eat it i'm reminded of that wonderful family trip :)

corns. anyway. 

today we were reeeeeally touristy and took a bus tour of paris! anja had never been here before and it's a really great way to see the city. one of the sights i hadn't seen before was the grand obelisk... and i never knew exactly what the hotel de ville was before (it's like a city hall or something? or the mayor lives there?)

we then had a quick lunch and headed strait for the picasso museum. sooooo wonderful. i'd never been to a museum that focused on only one artist, and it really shows you how broad his style was--from his bizarre cubist sculptures to more classically influenced paintings... even some impressionism and pointalism. what i really enjoyed was that they had a lot of his "studies" for famous paintings in the permanent collection. they had many for "les demoiselles d'avignon"... it really shows you the thought process he used to come up with the shapes of the distorted women in that painting. very cool.

then we went to a creperie near the museum... i had apples with caramel in mine. sooo good. the apples were warm and soft like an apple pie. unfortunately, we had to head back to my dorm because anja had to catch her train back to germany :( it was great seeing her this weekend.. hopefully we wont go another 4 years without seeing each other! 

very glad that midterm week is over. but sad that i'm already half way through... this is zooooooming by. can't believe it. 

must catch up on some shut eye. the work week begins...