Fortunately for us, the location was a 5-10 minute walk from our hostel, which meant that we actually arrived 5 minutes early. We were the first ones there so we got a little extra time to get ready. We signed up for the baking class since I've always wanted to know how French criossants were made. Chef Briony was with us for our class and she was excellent!
We had a mother and daughter (Judith and Rebecca) from Australia and a gentleman (Rob, who worked for MTV in Canada) join us for our session. It was refreshing to talk to other tourists and actually have a conversation about things like SXSW with another English-speaker. There was also a fellow Houstonion in the cooking school who was a chef working in France! I guess you can find Texans anywhere :)
Cook'n with Class offers a nice touch to its customers in that it gives variations of their recipes that would better suit the country where they are from. The flour is different in France than in the US (the milling process is different), so the chefs and Cook'n with Class take that into consideration when they email you the recipes after the class is over.
The morning went by very quickly and before I knew it, it was 12:30 in the afternoon. The class ended with Abhinav and me stuffing ourselves with PLENTY of freshly baked French food and then walking out the door with a bag full of leftovers... I can't even describe how delicious everything was! Freshly baked bread is AMAZING! I'm not sure how much butter I consumed in a span of 30 minutes, but I'm sure it was not a healthy amount, lol.
After our cooking adventure, Abhinav and I headed back to the hostel to look up the nearest "laverie" (aka laundromat). It's been a week since we've washed our clothes and it was definitely time to get some clean clothes before we left France to start the next phase in our Europe backpacking adventure.
On a side note, here's an update on how my packing and clothing decisions are faring on our trip: I'm definitely running out of toothpaste (we only brought 2 travel-size tubes of Colgate Total) and I'm already almost half-way through my bodywash (it was 3 fl. oz.). In addition, we should have packed more shampoo and conditioner... We only bought 6 fl. oz. of each and I'm thinking we should have brought more. Don't forget floss! I forgot that and it's a bit annoying to not have it when you need it... In terms of weight, I'm happy, but I could have done without the huge converter set that I brought with me or the big jar of peanut butter. Those are just added extra weight that you might need if you're traveling to Asia, but definitely not needed if you're going to Europe where you can find cheap, delicious food anywhere and where small converters will do the job. The number of clothes that I packed is perfect for our purposes, so I'm happy with that. In terms of the Northface Terra backpack, it is a bit uncomfortable for me when I'm walking long distances. Now, I'm not sure if that's because I'm not buckling it up correctly, or it's just my back with weird problems... I guess I'll figure that out in another week or two as I continue to make adjustments to the straps to figure out the most comfortable position/setting.
So, back to laundry... We bought some laundry detergent at a local store and then made our way to the laverie. Thankfully, they had some instructions in English, but we still had to pull out the phrasebook to help us set the settings on the machine, which were in French. Each load in the washer costed us 3€, which was pricier than I expected, but I guess it's worth it to not smell bad for the next week :) A load in the dryer only costs .5€ though, so that was nice. After putting our clothes through 2 cycles in the dryer, they still weren't dry. So, we took everything out, went back to the hostel, and then hung everything up on our bed posts, hoping that they would dry in time for our train tomorrow to Brussels.
When you get to the Eiffel Tower, there are four entrances to go up to the various levels, each at the individual legs of the tower. Depending on the day, each entrance indicates whether they have elevator access only, elevator and stairs, or stairs only. We made sure to get into the line with elevator access since we'd done our fair share of climbing stairs at Notre Dame and Arc de Triomphe :) I'm not sure if you can climb the stairs all the way to the summit. I know that some people climbed to the 1st/2nd levels and then took an elevator up to the summit, but I can't be sure of anything else. While we were waiting in line, we looked at the ticket counter sign and saw that the summit was closed for congestion! I was very disappointed when I read that.
Side note: bundle up and bring a JACKET when you visit the Eiffel Tower because it is very cold and windy up on the 2nd floor, and even more so at the summit.
After waiting in line for about 20 minutes, we reached the summit at night, just when all the lights turned on in Paris. The view was fantastic. No wonder the Eiffel Tower is so highly praised. There was a high school group from America at the summit and we overheard them recording a boy ask his girlfriend to the prom from the Eiffel Tower. That was pretty cute. The view from the summit, although we were freezing cold, was amazing and we took plenty of pictures, especially when the Eiffel Tower started sparkling with flashing lights.
By this time, it was 11 o'clock at night and we were exhausted. We took the metro back to the hostel and passed out. On another side note, the metro in Paris is VERY easy to use. Each ticket costs 1.70€ and, if you buy 10 together, it's 12€, so it's an affordable and easy way to travel. The system map is very easy to read and use as well.
So, overall, our last day in Paris was everything that I hoped it would be. It was sparkling, informative, and extremely fun :) Tomorrow, we head to Belgium for one of Abhinav's much-anticipated activities on our trip: beer tasting in Brussels. He'll write about experiences in Belgium soon!
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