la vie à paris: un petit voyage à bruxelles

{life changing. yes, the waffles.}

I feel really sad and lame right now. It's Saturday night AND the day before Valentine's Day and I'm alone in my room, laying in bed, reviewing Fall '10 Fashion Week show photos. You'd think I'd be out partying in Paris, forgetting my lack of Valentine this year, but no. I blame it on the abnormally freezing temperatures and my just having gotten home from Brussels tonight. Do you buy it? I wouldn't...

Anyway, no need to moan and groan about Valentine's Day on my blog, which is supposed to be an outlet for POSITIVE creative energy.

Brussels was just perfect. Olivia, Cristina and I stayed with Olivia's mother's family in the city at their adorable house that has this amazing view of a white Russian Orthodox church. Olivia's two cousins Charlotte (20) and Constance (22) took turns showing us the city yesterday and today. Charlotte picked us up from the train station in her car (Haven't been in one of those in ages, not counting taxis!) and, after giving us a brief tour of the city, drove us straight to the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the BOZAR Museum.

{mexican animal sculpture at the bozar}

The exhibit was so fabulous!! It contained 26 original works, including paintings and sketches, and a slideshow of photos and excerpts from her diary. Her work is so brutal, yet fascinating and beautiful at the same time. What I really took away from the exhibit is that I want to go to Mexico for spring break next year. Travel bug, much?

{our first bite of a real belgian waffle!}

After the museum, we walked around the city in the freezing cold towards the Grand Place, seeing beautiful old buildings and picking up a hot gaufre (WAFFLE!) along the way. Basically, the best thing I've ever eaten.

{belgian chocolate fountain!}

We also stopped in a chocolate shop to sample authentic Belgian chocolate and dip cookie pieces in a flowing chocolate fountain. After filling up on treats and freezing our butts off, we returned chez Olivia's fam for dinner. Her Mom's cousin Catherine was so sweet and prepared a whole warm meal for us--such a treat when I've been eating my own grocery store food at home every day. After having spoken French all day with Charlotte, we maintained our energy enough to engage in a lovely dinner conversation in French as well. I must say, I am so proud of the three of us! We really did an excellent job speaking and understanding the language yesterday. It was definitely the most French I've used in a day since being out here!

{sampling belgian beer}

We continued speaking French the rest of the night when we went out to a café with Constance after dinner, where we sampled authentic Belgian beer. The girls ordered a raspberry- and cherry-flavored beers, and I tried a blonde Leffe beer. We were so tired by the end of the night from running around, eating and speaking French that the three of us passed out as soon as we closed our eyes.

{view of the magritte museum window and a gaufre-mobile

from the roof of the musical instrument museum}

Today, we slept in a bit, only to wake up to snow and more freezing cold, and ate breakfast at home before heading back out into town. First stop was the Magritte Museum, a new museum dedicated to surrealist artist René Magritte. Another fabulous exhibit! I have really been soaking in the modern art this semester. Good to know that I can expect to return to the states an art know-it-all! Afterwards, we walked to the 9th floor restaurant of the Musical Instrument Museum to check out a stunning view of the city and take some pictures.

{charlotte teaches us the proper way to eat moules}

By that time we had obviously worked up an appetite enough to go to lunch for the girls to try moules frites, or muscles served with a side of fries. Keeping to my Kosher diet, I stuck with a yummy little vegetarian leek quiche and picked at their fries. The place was a no-frills, authentic moules frites restaurant called Chez Leon, where Hillary Clinton apparently ate a few years ago.

{mannequin-pis en costume}

We spent the rest of the day walking around the area surrounding the Grand Place, shopping for chocolate and sneaking a peek of Mannequin- Pis (the famous statue of the little boy peeing into a fountain), who was in fact dressed up in tradition "carnaval" gear for the weekend's festival. We ran into a Bolivian cultural group dancing for the occasion over by the statue! I stopped to admire the neon and multicolored costumes and almost got lost in the crowd doing so. Oops! We ended our mini-adventure naturally by returning to our waffle restaurant to try gaufres à Bruxelles with whipped cream and strawberries, which were lighter and crispier than the gaufres à liege that we ate yesterday. Did I mention I ate a gaufre à liege on the way to the moules frites restaurant as well? Couldn't help myself.

{on top the musical instrument museum}

Well, that was Brussels. Gorgeous city! So European and so delicious! Pictures to go up on Facebook soon, so look out for them.

Also, be sure to check out the Rag & Bone women's and men's Fall '10 collections, which were presented in New York yesterday!! It was the first time R&B showed two separate collections for men and women, and they both receive incredible feedback including being featured on Style.com's homepage today!! So exciting!

Anyway, Valentine's Day tomorrow. NOT looking forward to it, but it should be interesting to see the most romantic city in the world on the most romantic day of the year. Maybe I'll have something nice to tell you all about it, but don't count on it. I'm not usually this bitter, I promise! Again, I'm going to blame the cold.

Bonne nuit tout le monde et Joyeux Saint Valentin!

Paix, Amour et Néon,
Marisa