Friday, December 28, 2007

Vacances de Noel: Clermont-Ferrand Day 2

Today I bounced around downtown for two hours. I bought some bus passes and some postcards. I went shopping. When I say shopping, I really mean window-licking. I love Galeries LaFayette. I love the perfume department. So much fun, and so out of my reach. Ah euros. Anyways, if anyone’s interested, my favorite fragrance is Dior J’adore eau de toilette. And if Andy liked cologne, I’d get him LaCoste Essential eau de toilette. Also, French lingerie is disappointing. I am so not a C here…more like a large D. Hmmm. I’m still looking forward to trying some on!

I broke down and had lunch at Quick. It was ok. Tasty but not a lot of food. But still nice. I’m still just really tired of French food. Hopefully I’ll be able to find something more interesting for tomorrow.

I did two museums today. The Musee Bargoin has an archeological museum which highlighted prehistoric artifacts found in the region, and has a textile museum which had an exposition on Syrian textiles. So amazing. I was really glad I went. The second museum was Musee LeCoq, a natural history museum. French natural history museums have a history of scaring the bejeezus out of me thanks to the stuffed animals and other artifacts of fauna. there was also an exposition on insects, which was more historically interesting to me than biologically. Just really neat stuff. Too many stuffed animals still.

I bought some Clermontoise treats today. This city and region is known for dried/conserved fruits and fruits made out of almond paste. I bought chataignes glacees and a brochette of almond paste fruits. Not bad. Sweet but nothing I’d buy again. I still like chocolate.

Tomorrow I plan on hunting down the last two museums and a botanical garden. These sites are not in the city but in two outlying “suburbs” easily reached with my bus passes. I’ll let you know if I survive.

My spoken French is deteriorating. I’m worried.

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