Stephanie in the City of Lights: Parc Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Salut!
So continuing a very busy and very fun weekend, last night I had a sleepover with my friend Victoria, who was very excited to be watching the semifinals of Danse avec les stars. I don't really watch Dancing with the Stars when I'm in America, but I know a bit about it thanks to my mother, and it was interesting to see the French version. It was also a lot of fun to be at Victoria's home; her mother cooked us a delicious dinner--salad with spinach, grapefruit, corn, tomatoes, and avocado, and stir-fry with rice--and we had a nice, relaxing t.v. and conversation kind of evening. And in the morning, we watched Dirty Dancing, which is also one of Victoria's absolute favorite movies! Although she had never seen it in English before (she couldn't find her French copy), so that was interesting, because there are a few little differences.... Anyway, then we had another delicious meal courtesy of her mother, who cooked this really good potato dish with au gratin in the name, but I didn't catch the rest of it. But it involved finely sliced potatoes baked with lots of butter, cream, salt, pepper, and a delicious crust of gruyère (cheese) on the top. Mmmm!!!
And in the afternoon, we ventured (in her mother's car--my first time in a car since being here!) about an hour out of Paris, to the north, to the town of Ermenonville where le parc Jean-Jacques Rousseau is located. Some of you may be familiar with Rousseau, my least favorite French philosopher. (Okay, he was actually Swiss, but he spent most of his life and career here, and is generally considered with the school of French Enlightenment philosophy. And he is apparently inevitable at Bard...) But the park was really beautiful! It's in the English style, which means that instead of a very formal, organized garden like the ones at most of the chateaux I've visited here, it's more like a park in the U.S.: open space, natural landscaping, you can walk on the grass...! It was cool to see more of the countryside around France (we really were in the country; it's amazing how quickly Paris and the suburbs end) and another place I've never been before! But Victoria and her mother have been there many times, so I had a sort of insider's perspective, or something. At least, they knew a very good pâtisserie nearby, where we bought some delicious treats at the end of our journey! And the weather was fairly obliging again, too: it was a bit cooler than yesterday, but we still had a lot of very nice, rather warm sunshine, which we definitely took advantage of! All around, it was a very lovely day!