A Day Trip to Versailles

On my last full day in Paris, two fellow classmates and myself decided to take a trip and go visit the majestic Chateau de Versailles.

For those of you that don't kn ow where Versailles is located, it is in the "western suburbs outside of central Paris" (Wikipedia).
The palace once housed Louis XIV, Louis XV and Luis XVI and his famous wife Marie Antoinette. Valerie Bajou describes Versailles as, "Versailles is a mirage, a sumptuous and theatrical entertainment. It is also a manifestation of glory and power imposed to great extent by art, luxury and magnificence".
 From walking throughout the palace you can see exactly what Bajou is talking about, you can tell that every inch of the palace was carefully though of because hundreds of year later, even though they have touched up the original work, it still looks amazing.

Even though you don't get to go through the whole palace, you get to see majority of it and what really counts.

Like the grand court, the Hall of Mirrors and the Great Lawn.

The only con of visiting Europe during winter is that everything is under construction, so while we were walking around they were cleaning out the infamous fountains.

 One thing that I didn't get to see, was Marie Antoinette's guest house.

Which in reality is actually a mansion on the ground of Versailles, but now I have a perfect reason to go back to Versailles. 

It's worth the trek to see this beautiful palace.

To see more pictures,

 make sure to check out the Instagram @youngblackventure

Solo Dolo in Paris Part 2

After giving myself my own little tour, I made my way over to the most beautiful fountain I've ever seen. The Fontaine Saint-Michel is where i met my tour guide Anthony, who is a freelance tour guide in Paris who works for Sandemans New Europe. 

Fontaine Saint-Michel

Sandemans offers free tours all over the world, in cities like Amsterdam, Barcelona, Jerusalem and New York.

Once everyone arrived, we headed out to start our journey to discover this beautiful city.

Our first stop was the Prefecture de Police de Paris (Translation: Perfect of Police of Paris) which is where the Paris Police Academy, the embassy, Paris court of law an everything government related. It also use to be the castle where the Kings of Paris use to live.

The police Department is located right in the centre of the city on it's own island.

The next stop we made was the statue of King Henry IV, where we learned her was refereed to as the 'Good King' of France.
We also got to walk across the infamous Love Lock bridge. Surprisingly, they started to put up wood panelling against some of the railings because the weight of all the locks were starting to destroy the infrastructure of the bridge. But it was beautiful to see all the locks on it.

Then we made our way to the most beautiful museum I've seen, The Musee du Louvre. 

Even though I didn't go inside the museum, which I will leave for another trip to Paris, the outside is just as beautiful and majestic.

The attention to detail to every inch of the building is incredible, especially the famous triangle in the centre of the court yard, which is actually the entrance of the museum.

  

The sign of the Louvre meant the end of our wonderful free tour that Sandeman offered, so with my trusty map I headed out to find the the gateway of this wonderful city, the Arc de Triomphe.
The best thing I have to say about Paris, among all the previous great things I've said is that the Public Transit system is very easy to understand, even if you don't understand the simplest of French.

Once I arrived to the Arc de Triomphe, I was trying to find how to get underground to actually get under the Arc, but go lost. But nevertheless, I was able to find a group of girls to take a couple of snaps of pictures for me right in front of it.

To see more pictures,

 make sure to check out the Instagram @youngblackventure

Solo Dolo in Paris Part 1

Finally, I have reached the city of love, and now I know why people fall in love with it.

Since i reached Paris on a Friday night, I decided to take a much needed nap unlike my fellow classmates who decided to go out on the town.

The next morning I had breakfast at our hotel the Alliance Hotel Paris Place d'Italie and decided to look at their brochures where I found a free walking tour that takes you all over the city of Paris. 

So i got dressed, grabbed my umbrella and headed for downtown Paris.

Even though it was raining the whole time i was there and it was still winter, I totally understood why Paris is one of the top travel destinations in Europe.

The first place I decided to go see before my tour was Notre Dame de Paris. 

I would advise you not to go inside, not to say that it isn't beautiful, but the line ups are really long, and next thing you know you spent the whole day waiting in line. 

But standing right in front of it does do it's justice.

Notre dame de Paris

To see more pictures,

 make sure to check out the Instagram @youngblackventure

Roaming Reims

Our last stop before Paris was Reims.

Just like how Beaune is in the Burgundy regions and they have the largest wineries, Reims is in the Champagne region of France. 

Reims is a small city that holds a lot of history.

Out of all the Cathedral's I've visted in Europe I have to sat the Notre Dame in Reims was one of my favourite.
The architecture and the attention to detail was amazing.

Another historical landmark in Reims is the La Potre de Mars, whcih is the widest arch in the Roman World.

And of course you know I couldn't go all the way to the Champagne region and not taste any champagne.
So We headed to Taittinger to learn about their strong history of wine and champagne making, and we also go to go down to their sellar where they have champagne bottles dated back to the 1700's.

To see more pictures,

 make sure to check out the Instagram @youngblackventure

Mustering Through Dijon

Another city we stopped at, on our way to Paris is the City of Dijon.

The first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word Dijon, is Dijon Mustard, and that's exactly where I was. the beautiful City of Dijon, is the motherland of delicious Dijon Mustard, they eat it with everything, you can even get little packets of it at burger joints in the city.

In Dijon, you'll see these little owls on the ground, make sure you follow them. Their the symbol of the city, and they act like your own personal tour guide. They all have numbers on them, and if you follow them they'll bring you to all the tourist attractions in the city. The Owls will end you off at the Dijon Cathedral, where if you strike the owl with your left hand it will lead to good luck.

Minus the bad weather, Dijon is a beautiful vibrant city, and If you ever get a chance to go make sure to check out one of the many Dijon Mustard stores, to bring back home as a souvenir.

To see more pictures,

 make sure to check out the Instagram @youngblackventure

Discovering Beautiful Beaune

So it's getting close to the end of out trip, and where making our way to Paris where most of us take our flight back home.

On our road trip to Paris, on of the stops we make is the City of Beaune. Beaune is the wine capital of Burgundy, so for all my wine lover, you should take a trip down here, and it's also a very cute little town.

Since we arrived on a Sunday, like most of Europe most things were closed, and we were only staying one night, so we decided to take a walk and discover this small little town.

While in Beaune we stayed at Hostellerie de Brentonniere, which is a barn turned into a hotel, it's very cute.

"The largest wineries in Burgundy"

If you ever find yourself in Beaune and you need somewhere to eat, make sure you check out Le Carnot. It's a Brasserie, which is like a bar/pub, where you can get great food at reasonable price, and just as great desserts. Also, since Beaune isn't far from the city of Dijon, you can get a lot of Dijon Mustard, which is why I recommend the burger, trust me you'll thank me later.

To see more pictures,

 make sure to check out the Instagram @youngblackventure

A Taste Like Home

So the other day I was carving a burger, or something that reminded me of North America, Being in Europe for so long has exposed me to so much different types of food, but sometimes you just want something that your familiar with and reminds you of home.

So I set out looking for a nice burger joint or a shawarma shop.

While walking around Strasbourg, I found this cute little burger joint, that didn't blend into the rustic European look of the rest of the block. 

It was light blue with English speaking words and cartoons in the window. So I walked into 231 East Street, a cute little restaurant with Archie comic pictures all over with cute little catch phrases that were in English and reminded me of New York City.

To say 231 East Street was delicious would be an understatement, It was the best burger I've ever had. They even had Cherry Coca- Cola, which isn't available in Canada anymore, so my meal was pretty bomb.

If your ever in France make sure you head to 231 East Street if your looking for a good ole fashion style burger, there a little on the expensive side, but it's worth it, and plus it;s good to help small businesses. 

To see more pictures,

 make sure to check out the Instagram @youngblackventure

Best In Town

Today we got to go to the best restaurant in Strasbourg, France. According to Trip Advisor, La Vignette is #1 out of 1,078 in Strasbourg. Luckily for us La Vignette is only a 20-30 minute walk from the Chateau.

I can now see why La Vignette is rated #1 in the city, it's a beautiful quaint restaurant, where you felt like you were at your grandmothers house.

We started our dinner with a Cream of Mushroom Soup with Croutons in it. I have to say that it was the best Cream of Mushrrom soup I've had, it was so smooth and flavourful.

The Soup was then followed by our main dish, Salmon with diced veggies and red rice with a creamy sauce. I've never has red rice before, but I have to say it will not be my last time, it has so much flavour and it's a whole rice grain so it reminds me of whole grain brown rice. with the salmon and the cream, it was a great combination.

 And for dessert we had Creme Caramel, which isn't my favourite, but it tasted good regardless.
If you ever come to Strasbourg, France you have to go to La Vignette.

To see more pictures,

 make sure to check out the Instagram @youngblackventure

The Transition of Studying Abroad

If you have kids I highly recommend that you allow then to study or just travel abroad.

Even if its for a week, trust me when I tell you it will be the best memory and life experience they will ever have.

They will learn so much about the countries that they visit and also learn a lot about themselves.

Being on this study abroad trip has taught me so much about myself, and discovering the different countries we've traveled to has open my eyes to how people in different countries live and how their way of life is different then the regular North American.

So far I've been to France, Germany and England, and it's cool to see how people react and conduct themselves in public. For example I never realized how loud North Americans were until getting on public transportation in France and seeing how everyone sits quietly on the bus talking to their friend if they are talking, in a quiet in-door type of voice, while us North Americans have a loud almost yelling type of voice. 

Another thing your child will learn while they study abroad is how to live without having their security blanket (parents/family) with them. Since your not working and only spending, you have to learn how to budget your money properly, the last thing you want is to be flat broke before it's time to get back home.

Also, because your living on your own, that means you have to cook, do your own laundry, and grocery shopping, pretty much EVERYTHING your parents (if you were living at home) do but now all by yourself. Which in the end will benefit you more in the end.

Another reason you should allow your child to study or travel abroad is after they get into real adulthood, they may never get the chance to travel like this again. Now at the point in your life where you don't really have bills to pay and you can save all your money to travel before it starts to go to paying for bills and rent.

Alsatian Classic

For a Travel, Food and Community blog, I sure talk a lot about Travel and Community, so it's about time I start talking about Food. 

Being that i'm staying in the Alsatian region of France, means I've came across a lot of their local Traditional food.

One in particular is their famous Tarte Flambée.

Traditional Tarte Flambée

Tarte Flambée is bread dough rolled out really thin, (or you can buy it from a local store) covered in Fromage Blanc (white cheese) which is like a cream cheese consistency, followed by sliced onions and shredded cheese on top of everything and then place it in a wood fire for 1-2 mins.

You place the Tarte Flambée in a wood stove instead of a conventional oven because the aroma of the wood burning will go into the dough to give it a unique flavour.

This is their traditional way of making Tarte Flambée. You can add anything you want to the dough and make your own type of Tarte Flambée.

We even made a dessert Tarte Flambée, made with the same dough, but with a different Fromage Blanc that wasn't as salty as the original one, it was a bit sweeter. Then we placed apple slices all over the dough, and once it was done baking which takes 1-2 mins we sprinkled cinnamon over it. 

Dessert Tarte Flambée with Apple slices

I've eaten 3 different traditional Tarte Flambée's (including these) from 3 different restaurant/ people who have made them, and I have to say that all of the tasted different. Not one of them tasted like the last and that's the thing I love about France, you can go to 4 different restaurants and have the same thing but get 4 different experiences and taste with the food.

If you every come to the Alsatian Region of France make sure you order a traditional Tarte Flambée at whichever restaurant you go to, you won't regret it.

To see more pictures,

 make sure to check out the Instagram @youngblackventure