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Baguettes, Croissants, and Crepes. That’s what my diet mostly consisted of during this last week.  

During October break I met up with my friend Maya, who is studying at Saint Andrews University, in Paris. Last year in high school when we decided we would both be studying abroad in Europe, we said we should meet up in France. Luckily, we found out that we both had a fall break during the same week and the trip was planned.  

The first night we got there we decided to walk from our hostel to the Eiffel Tower-a two-hour walk. On the way we got dinner and ate our first baguette of many. All the bread I ate in Paris was amazing. The bread was so fresh, crispy on the outside, but soft, fluffy, and moist on the inside. The bread in Florence does not compare to the bread in Paris. I am still surprised that something as simple as bread could be so flavorful and addictive.

The second day we headed out into the city and visited the Louvre. Although very crowded and very overwhelming, I loved seeing all the famous renaissance paintings, and Greek and Roman antiquities. We stopped at the museum’s cafe for tea and coffee, and by the time we got out it was too late for lunch but too early for dinner, so we decided to picnic in the park by the Eiffel tower. 

We stopped at a grocery store and picked up pasta salad, fruit, wine, and of course another baguette.  

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This was my cheapest meal in Paris, and one of my favorites. We sat right in front of the Eiffel tour, ate our late lunch/early dinner, and caught up on what has been going on during the past two months. The pasta salad and fruit tasted fresh, but the highlight of this meal was still the baguette.

The next day we visited the Musèe d’Orsay and saw all the paintings of my favorite impressionist artists, Monet and Renoir. 

While we were there, we decided to go the museum’s restaurant because we were starving but were not ready to leave the museum. I knew this meal would be overpriced because it was a museum, and I expected the food to be terrible quality, but I was pleasantly surprised. 

This was the most beautiful restaurant I had ever been to. There was a large wide-open space for the dining room with one wall covered in gold paneled windows overlooking the city. The ceiling was decorated in gold and white details with different brightly painted frescoes in the middle. 

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The service at the restaurant was excellent as well. All the servers we interacted with had no problem answering our questions on the elaborate French dishes. Looking at the menu we were overwhelmed by the amount of options that were available, but soon were able to narrow our choices when looking at the two vegetarian options. In Paris it was much harder to find vegetarian food, much more difficult than in Florence, but we managed to find delicious options. 

We both decided to order cocotte de céréales et légumineuses à la crème de coco, légumes en fins copeaux. Translated, this was a dish of creamy cereals and legumes with coconut cream and vegetables in fine chips. Reading this I had a vague idea of what the meal was going to be like, but I was still a little nervous. 

When the meal arrived it looked, and smelled delicious. The creamy cereals were different kinds of grain and rice, and they were smothered in a buttery, coconut sauce. Mixed into the grains were different kinds of beans and mushrooms, and layered on top were different sliced vegetables, pickled red onion, and leafs of spinach with some kind of caper and bits of cauliflower on the top. 

The warmth and creaminess of the rice at the bottom paired nicely with the cold crispiness of the vegetables. The coconut in the cream covering the rice was subtle, but added a sweetness to the dish which was balanced by the saltiness of the capers and red onion. The dish gave a cozy, warm, comforting smell from the sweetness of the cream. This was a very rich dish, you could tell that butter is a very important ingredient in French cuisine. The meal was delicious, service amazing, and scenery very decadent, but the food was very overpriced. Maybe it was because I am a college student used to spending no more than ten euros on a meal, but I did not think this plate should have been 17 euros.  

Because it was our last night in Paris together, we decided that we would go out for a fancy, authentic French meal that night for dinner, which meant that we were spending a lot on food this day. Maya asked one of her friends from school, who lives in Paris, what restaurant she would recommend, and we chose from that list. 

We decided to go to Pied de Cochon. This was in the city center, but not by any of the major tourist attractions. This restaurant is famous for its pig’s feet dish, but unfortunately Maya and I are both pescatarian. Luckily for us there was a wide range of seafood options on the menu! 

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We arrived at the restaurant at the perfect time, not too early that we could only order drinks, but right before everyone came in for dinner, so we were able to easily get a table. Our waiter was very hospitable, he offered us the English menu, and even gave us a free sample of a fancy meat spread to put on our bread. I cannot remember what it was called, but it looked like strawberry cream cheese. Because Maya and I only eat fish as a meat we could not eat the spread he gave us, but we were so grateful that he would offer it to us so we mixed it up in the bowl to make it look like we ate it. 

When ordering I originally wanted to get the Scottish Salmon roast, which was covered in butter with vegetables surrounding it, but I found out that all the seafood was soaked in a garlic sauce for preparation. Unfortunately, I have a garlic allergy, so when I told my waiter that he went to the kitchen to find out what I could eat. Luckily the customer service at this restaurant is amazing, and they made me my own special dish as a replacement.  

I had no idea what I was going to get, I thought it was going to be a piece of salmon, just not prepared in the butter sauce, but I ended up getting scallops with roasted vegetables around it, and a pot of butter sauce on the side.The scallops were tasted like they were already soaked in butter, so I didn’t use the sauce. I could easily cut through them, and the sweet savory taste filled my mouth. The vegetables were a little over cooked and almost mushy, but still had so much flavor.  

As I looked around the restaurant, I saw the huge platters of food everyone was eating. They must have spent an absurd amount of money on their food, but hey they were on vacation in Paris! It made me wish I could justify splurging on a huge meal, but the twenty euros that I spend that night was already too much for me. I really enjoyed my experience at this restaurant, the service was very professional, I had never been to a restaurant this fancy before.

To finish off our last night in Paris we decided we would go see the Eiffel tower light up, which happens at the top of every hour. The area we visited to see the tower light up was probably the most touristy area we went to, but they had crepe stands. It was perfect, the last thing I ate in Paris was a chocolate crepe while watching the Eiffel tower sparkle, and everyone applaud. Looking back on my experience it sounds unreal. At this time last year, I would have never thought I would be in Paris or trying these different kinds of food.  

If I ever go back to Paris, I want to try even more types of food, and maybe splurge a little bit more. I enjoyed what I ate, but it was difficult to find delicious food and an authentic restaurant on a college student budget.