The class before our tour.
Today was our first day back from our long weekend, and it started off great. Our first stop of the day was to Pavillon Le Notre. This is a restaurant that is located in a trendy neighborhood adjacent to Champs-Elysées as well as the Presidential Palace.

LeNotre
Upon entering Le Notre, the main thing that seems to greet you is how warm and inviting the decor is. Our group was given a tour of the facility and we were impressed. What intrigued us most of all was the classes that they offer to not just professional cooks, but also to anyone who enjoys and wants to learn about food preparation. After the tour was finished, we were encouraged to walk around. Some of the students even found things that they were interested in purchasing.

Classroom at LaNotre

After Le Notre, we started on our first student site visit to the magnificent Place de la Concorde. The students did a great job in presenting their site. They regaled us with tales about the bloody impact of its past.

Fountain at Place de la Concorde

The last stop of our day was to Musee D’Orsay. It was a walking distance away from Place de la Concorde this presentation too was well presented and provided great insight on their tour.

Musee D’Orsay

Bonjour!  

J

This Morning my Roommate and I went to the local Market. We noticed we ran out of of groceries so we decided to go pick up a couple of items to last us for the rest of the week. What i like about this particular market is that you can get things for a reasonable price. We pick up items such as juice, water, chicken, pasta, tomato sauce,cheese, rice, and of course A Baguette. We also bought detergent so that we can do our laundry when we get back to the hotel.

After the Market i decided to go to the Patissier located just down the block from the hotel. I went to get a plain croissant. I love their croissants because it is very fresh, the dough was flaky and buttery just the way i like it. Overall i had a great morning.

Greetings City Tech,

It is Monday morning. We have been here a good week and it feels like, well…….an immense amount of time. Every image is new to us and full of information. Absorbing the culture, the sounds of the language, the aromas and flavors of the foods.  My goodness, it is a week filling the senses. There are few moments that go unnoticed and the sun is bright until the night, our explorations just keep on going. We are smiling still.

I am posting some images for you to see. Enjoy. Prof. Hoffman

Olga giving a tour at Pere La Chaise Cemetery. She is standing next to Chopin’s tomb.

3 lovely City Tech students in the lobby of the Hotel Movenpick as we wait for the rest of the class.t is a very lovely property in the surrounding area of Neuilly.

Artisanal Cat Treats

A café with cats. There are now 2 in Paris. You can have lunch, tea or dinner with a cat on your lap.

A few of us sampled some of the vegan “cheese” cakes and ice “creams” from Vegan Folie’s in the 5th. The ice creams are cashew milk based with agave syrup and nice flavors. The cheesecakes came in 3 flavors, lemon, caramel and orange blossom. They are tofu based and were a very nice rendition but we preferred the products from the art of Vegetarian class at Tech better. We will keep exploring.

Today was yet another day off from our long week of touring the city of which we were all grateful for. A handful of our group have taken on adventures outside of France to Spain and Belgium. However, the remainder of us decided to stay in our hotel area and rest.

To start of my morning, a few us took a five minute walk over to the “marché” walking distance to our hotel that Professor Hoffman informed us from the first weekend here. The marché de Vanves, offers a wide selection of fresh produce: butchery, delicatessen, poultry, fish, fruits and vegetable, Asian catering, floral decorations, Women apparel, leather goods, fashion accessories and so much more.

Eggs, bakery, and pastry goods

Fish vendor

Meat vendor

Roasted chicken and eggs vendor

Musical entertainment

A women enjoying outdoor seating with her dog, who is seated comfortably on a blanket next to her.

The thrifting section of the marché.

Activities available for children who visit the marché.

A woman making more of her special handmade jewelry. They go for 15€ and up.

Bags, jewelry, women’s apparel for sell

A small crowd gathers as this vendor demonstrating a mandoline slicer.

Entrance to Marché de Vanves…

As a culinary/hospitality student, I am thankful to experience, what is similar to green markets in New York City in Vanves, France. I prefer the markets here, than in New York City because it is a lot more eventful, with the entertainment, promotions, the prices are fairly better for the quality of goods and the service.

After a week of classes, we were allow to explore Paris or wherever our adventurous minds take us. This morning, me and 13 of my classmates decided to explore the Palace of Versailles. The Palace of Versailles and its gardens form one of the most famous world heritages in France and stands out as the finest and most completely achievement of French art in the 17th Century.

Starting in the Royal Courtyard, making our own way around the different parts of the Palace and cross through the gardens and groves to visit the two Palaces of Trianon and Marie-Antoinette’s Estate. We saw statues, paintings, furnitures, water fountains, gardens, groves and beautiful architectures.

What a wonderful day in Versailles!

We were waiting our train to Versailles.

The entrance to the Estate of Versailles.

Two of the many rooms in the palace.

Diana Room-Former Louis XIV’s billiard room and ballroom. Decoration made of Campan, Rance and Carrara marbles.

Some of the Water Fountains in the garden

Marie-Antoinette’s Estate

Once a Marriott Hotel in Paris France was bought and refurbished by a Switzerland company and named it Mövenpick Hotel Paris Neuilly. As a class, we had the opportunity to tour the new Mövenpick Hotel. This hotel is located in between the business district and tourist district of Paris. This affords them the opportunity to have both business and tourist clients, but 70% of their clienteles are business related customers.

During our tour we visited different levels of accommodations and conference rooms. They also have an outdoor dinning area that offers the only barbeque in Paris. As an added bonus we learned that one of the French students that is studying abroad at The New York City College of Technology with this program is employed in this hotel. This opens up a new avenue of employment for us hospitality students seeking employment.

Starting our tour at the Movenpick Hotel. This awning was replaced to go along with the new design concepts that the Movenpick had for this hotel.

The lobby and the front desk.

This is a self-service market where items selected will be added to the guest’s final bill.

The 58 Bar & Lounge area were food and drinks are served.

The Movenpick offers over 70 varieties of Champagnes.

This is an example of a small conference room. The hotel also offers refreshments or meals depending on the client’s needs.

We all gathered at the front of the hotel at 8:15 to make our way to the Montparnasse Tower. The tower a 210m structure stood impressively above us as we exited at Montparnasse metro station.

Montparnasse Tower

Panoramic Skydeck at Montparnasse Tower Where you go to fall in love with Paris!

After we toured the Montparnasse Tower a group of us, Me, Brianna, Ayesha, and Samantha went to eat lunch at  Il Giardino on Rue Sadi Carnot. With time to spare we all waited to make our way toward Pere Lachaise.

Pere Lachaise  also known as the Lively City of the Dead was a beautiful cemetery. Unlike New York where a cemetery is often a morbid, sad place Pere Lachaise was very peaceful and serene. It is a place where people can go to celebrate the lives of the people buried there not mourn their death. When our tour of Pere Lachaise came to a close and I was assured I wouldn’t want to walk uphill to Oscar Wilde’s grave( but determined to go back!), me, Adriana, Maggie, and Samantha went to see the Louvre. Set on going to Tati we decided to walk there from the Louvre.

Already, tired from our tour we made it to the Passerelle de Solferino a beautiful spot on the Seine where we took in the passing boats and rested before we headed home. These moments in Paris when we get to just sit and enjoy the city are the best.

Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

-Oscar Wilde

Lunch at Il Giardino

Johnathan at the entrance of Pere Lachaise

Kim introduced us to the neighborhood surrounding Pere Lachaise

The Louvre

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel

Relaxing on the river Seine watching the city go by.

First day of walking tour projects … outside the hotel ready to leave to the first tour site.  

the Hotel D’ Ville Site

Next stop… Notre Dame.

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having fun with classmates..

Seven Hotel tour

Heading back to the hotel, racing to see who gets to the hotel first.. GROUP A

ending the day eating out with Prof. Hoffman

Today has been a very successful day.  Our day started at 10 AM with Adriana, Ayesha, and Max walking tour, Hotel De Ville. Then at 11 with a short walking distance from Hotel De Ville, we met at Notre Dame where Marilyn, Eliana and Sara presented their walking tour. This project was fun because I learned about other sites and the history of each site. From the end of their tour, we had a break until 1:45PM where we would meet the class Prof. Hoffman and Prof. Lorenzini. During that break the group I stuck too (Adriana, Sam, Ayesha, Holly, Tamar and Augustina), went to eat to L’As du Fallafel. The area was cool, reminded me of Soho. I liked it and want to go back there to shop. From there we took the train to the Seven Hotel. I saw the most amazing decorations and themes at the hotel. Never have I seen a room where each room is a theme. It was interesting that also gave me some ideas. On our way back to the hotel Mayra suggested talking another route back to the hotel, where we competed with Group A with my group (Adriana, Sam, Kim, Mayra, and Holly) who would get to the hotel first. So guess who won? We did! That was too fun! Lastly, we ended up going out with Prof. Hoffman to eat Crepes. That was the cherry top to my ice cream. I had an amazing day today.

THIS IS HOW WE FEEL AFTER A LONG DAY IN PARIS….

Bonne soirée mes amis!

Today was a very productive day. After returning from the Marché d’Intérêt Nationale de Rungis, I am pretty sure everyone took a really good nap; I sure did! Today’s afternoon was dedicated to explore around our tour cites with our teams. My team and I prepared a tour to show the Musée d’Orsay & its neighborhood. Before getting to our destination, we got lost for a good hour! We walked all over the 7th Arr. just to find out that the Musée d’Orsay was just a few steps away haha. After our long walk we went for a snack at Le Royal Orsay. As we made our way to the metro we walked by the Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor and it was so beautiful. My team and I bought locks and locked our hearts on the pont de Solférino.  Overall it was a great day to get lost in Paris.

Pont Alexandre III

Passerelle Léopold -Sèdar-Senghor

Musée d’Orsay

Pont de Solférino

Ya Yun, Me and Tamar

Today we visited the biggest fresh product market in the world: RUNGIS! It has 5 major buildings which carry:

• Fish
• Meat
• Dairy products
• Fruits and vegetables
• Flowers

It was a very informative tour.

Fish market.

Fruits and vegetables market.

Swordfish.

Fresh cut flowers.

Scallops in their shell.

TAIWSP group picture in front of the Flower Pavilion.

French Lobster.