Italian and French

I returned to Italian class this morning, after having missed week and a half due to the chicken pox.  It was was great and I got to review pronouns: direct, indirect, and combined.  Now, unfortunately, I will go another week and a half without class because of school holidays.  We actually get a week off from the language school, ourselves, while the boys get a week and a half off from their school.  This is all because of the All Saints holidays (or les vacances de la Toussaint as it says on the French school calendar).  Pfff!  Forget Halloween!  I'll bet many American kids would gladly trade in one night of trick-or-treating for over a week of school vacation.

After class, I went to Ladurée!  It was as beautiful and as tasty as I imagined.  And it wasn't too crowded, either.  I went with Léa, another French au pair, who was just as excited as I was about macarons (and who coached me on my French pronunciation).  Here are some photos of our expedition:

On the corner in a rather posh section of town. 

 Beautiful window displays, full of macarons.

 My beautiful bag and box of eight macarons which, I am a bit embarrassed to say, cost €14.  Think of it as a continuation of yesterday's celebration.  That's how I'm thinking of it.

From left to right: blood orange, licorice, marshmallow almond, hazelnut, coffee, raspberry  and pistachio   You may notice that there are only seven.  That's because I had already eaten the rose petal macaron.  It was so good.  It really smelled like a fresh flower (and might have tasted like one, too, for all I know).  Actually, I ate one bite of it.  Then a gypsy man came up to me asking for money or something for the little girl asleep in his arms (do they drug those children?  They are always sleeping, the poor things...) and I was so taken aback that I shoved the rose petal macaron into his hand.  I have never given anything to people begging on the street.  I don't know what came over me, or if he even appreciated the cookie.  Anyway, that's why it's not in the picture.

Raspberry!  I ate this one next because it had become a bit crushed on the journey home. I think there were crushed raspberries inside.  That's how good it was.

These were the only ones left at the end of my rampage.  To be honest, I ate the coffee macaron after I took the picture.  I reasoned with myself that I could eat four and still have half left.  And technically I'd only eaten three...right?!

The rest of the day, the parts we weren't working, we spent with Emi's mom and her mom's friends.  We had some coffee together around mid-day, then went out for drinks in the evening.  Now I'm off to bed because tomorrow morning we have to take the boys to school.  Good night!