Day Two: Evening
Here we go, are you
ready? Before our boat trip, we have a traditional French dinner.
That's right. Traditional. French. That means, I, intrepid
traveler, tried the all too fame escargo! I ate snails.
So here's the dish
on snails. It's fresh garlic, butter, and snail, cooked inside the
shell. You get a shell clamps and a pick to pull the meat out of the
shell with. The meal itself, well.
Fresh garlic is
green. Bright green like green peas. The butter is melted and will
remain liquid. The snail is, of course brown. It is not an
appetizing looking meal at all. In fact, it looks downright
disgusting. But I am a brave, brave explorer of foreign tastes,
willing to try any food once. After figuring out how to get the
little bugger out of the shell, I nibbled, cautiously.
It is still snail
after all.
I tasted, I
determined, I decided.
Eh. Not so bad.
Like claims, but less tasty. About the same texture though, and
takes to be honest. Kind of chewy, made of meat, tastes like sea
food. Tastes decent, but not my favorite meal in the world. Not
really all that gross to eat, though it's still gross to look at.
Escargo, by the way, is an appetizer. The main course was salmon on
a bed of mixed vegetables covered in a white sauce.
This is the best
salmon I have ever had in my entire existence, and I not only
approve, I rejoice. It was, no doubt, the sauce. The sauce made it
phenomenal. Some sort of hollandaise, I think, though I'm not
certain one hundred percent.
Desert was a rich
chocolate cake with a chocolate cream in the middle, and with
raspberry sauce on top. It was sweet, flavorful and not too much of
either flavor.
From here, we had
our boat trip. This was a beautiful ferry ride around the Seine
river where we say Paris by night. At light, the city it lit up, the
monument all illuminated. It's a beautiful city at night, awe
inspiring.
The ride was
beautiful, and fun. Teenagers and young adults sit on the edge of
river to wave to the boat riders, though some of the more crass ones
will moon you. We shared a boat with a class of American teens.
Under each bridge, and there were many, a shout went up. It pretty
much had infected the entire boat around the middle, though at the
end of the hour long boat ride, we did give up. We got to see the
Eiffel tower at night and it's light show. It's every night on the
hours, a sparkling Eiffel tower, lights sparkling all over an already
lit beauty.
At night, you can
see beautiful statues by the bridges, and you see the most lovely
thing.
There are bridges
that seem to have flecks of gold woven into them. These are lock
bridge. Here, you take a lock and attached it to the bridge with
your girlfriend or boyfriend. Then you throw the key into the river,
and you'll love each other forever. At night, the lights make it
seem like someone wove golden shapes into the bridges support.
It's a touching,
and very European tradition. They do the same in Amsterdam, and in
other European cities. It's not uncommon to have names or dates on
the lock, scratched in or carved there professionally. It's all very
romantic, and makes the bridges very beautiful.
I went to bed that
night very excited for the next day, which was, I admit, the whole
reason I had planned on coming to Paris. The third day, would be
Versailles, the Versailles, and then, then the Louvre.
I couldn't wait.
One Final Byte:
Paris by night is a must see event.
No comments:
Post a Comment