Le Restaurant Vagenende

Every Thursday night my French class has a mandatory outing to practice speaking French in a more natural setting. We've been split into groups of four, led by an "assistant"--a native French student or 20-something. My assistant is named Albane, and she has a degree in costume-making and is currently studying theory of theatre. She is very cute and very French.

Yesterday evening my whole French class (only about 12 people), along with two assistants and our teacher,  went to a fancy French restaurant. It was the culmination of a week of studying about food. Le Restaurant Vagenende is in St. Germain des Pres, the same ritzy neighborhood that my mom and I stayed in three weeks ago.The restaurant was built in the 20s, so it has a pretty cool inside.

Now--I enjoy eating food, but it is not really something I seek out. I don't come to France just to eat. Thus, I don't really spend my money on food. And I certainly would not have paid the prices that this restaurant charged (luckily the program paid for this meal!)

But I have to admit--there is something to be said for real fancy French food! I ordered a soupe gratinee a l'oignon for "entree." I was expecting a little bowl of soup, not a HUGE bowl filled with bread and cheese AND soup.  Then for "plat" I had "fricasse poulet" avec quelque chose. It wasn't that great because it had weird dark meat chicken, which I don't like too much. But the white meat parts were good.

But the dessert was beyond words. Adjectives fail me. It was "Isles Flottant," which means "floating islands." All it was was fluffy egg whites floating on English cream with caramel on top. C'etait DELICIEUX. It was like eating really tasty cotton candy.

So the meal was very tasty. The problem is, since it was a real French meal, it went on and on and on. I kept hinting to my French teacher that I had to leave my dorm at 6:00 a.m. then next morning for my excursion (more on that later!), but she wouldn't let me leave! Thus, I didn't get home until 11:30, so I got only 5 hours of sleep last night. Those darn French...