Le Parc de Seaux and une soirée de salsa

The morning began with a jaunt about the neighborhood. I had read that the marché des enfants rouges was having a little fête today and tomorrow, so I walked over and sure enough, there were dégustations galore. There was a boulangère, a fromagère, a boucherie and a caviste. Pretty much everything you'd expect from France but all right outside my favorite market and all handing out free samples.

After helping myself to some Tomme that couldn't have been more delicious or expensive (38 EUR the kilogram! yikes!), some gormet saucisson sec and a bit of wine, I bought a chocolate covered palmier from an adorable man who assured me that I wouldn't get fat from the monstrosity of a pastry he handed me for a mere 1,50 EUR. I don't know what this man was thinking; the thing does not have any indication of being good for you. Picture warm, buttery pastry dough, covered in sugar, and covered in chocolate. It was pure deliciousness and the perfect petit dejeuner.

I walked through the quartier a little bit before grabbing a hot baguette for the road on my way to the Parc de Seaux. Seaux is a sub-urb of Paris (a banlieue) that is built around a very gorgeous chateau and even more gorgeous gardens. This was the chateau built immediately before Versailles, and the gardens do not dissapoint. The Chateau is in "zone 3," so the regular metro pass doesn't cover the trip - luckily SLC payed for our aller-retours.


After arriving at the chateau, we walked around inside the gorgeous 18th century building. I felt like a real princess -- everything was lined in gold. The view from the chateau was even more impressive. The french doors on the first floor opened up to a view of an enormous series of gardens "à la française."


The nice thing about the chateau is that it is not only a museum and historical monument, it is a public parc. Ironically, many things that were originally built for the aristocrats are now public establishments for the rich and poor alike. Anyway, the residents of Seaux were out and about on the grounds playing sports, having picnics and walking their dogs.


After a jaunt about the gardens, Natalie, Tanya and I stopped at a café for some chocolat chaud and a nice view of the gardens. It's been beautiful out lately and today was no different.

I returned home and got ready for a night at Pachanga, the salsa club I had heard about. I was kind of sceptacle, but the entry fees were not very expensive (only 8 EUR) and came with a drink, so I figured I could just enjoy a beverage if worst came to worst.

I did not just enjoy my beverage.

When I got there, they were having a lesson and I jumped right in. I was really excited to see so many people out and about. It was kind of hard to understand everything the teacher was saying since the steps are obviously called different things in French, but I just did my best watching and following the guys.

Everything was going great until the lesson finished and someone asked me to dance. He started dancing and it was completely different than anything I'd ever seen before. I tried to ask in my best French, "What is that you're doing?"

Apparently, most people in Paris dance a type of salsa that is rarely danced in LA. They call it "cuban salsa" here (go figure that speaking the language was not going to be my only problem for the evening). I asked the man next to me what they call the type of salsa that the teacher was just teaching, and he told me that they call it "puerto rican salsa" here. Apparently, they only teach the kind of salsa that I do on Friday nights. I got in the habbit of introducing myself as, "Hi! I'm Emily and I only dance puerto rican salsa."

Luckily there were some guys there who also danced puerto rican and were happy to dance with me. I did try cuban a couple of times, and it was ok -- I'm just stubborn I guess. I like to know what I'm doing before I do it.

All in all, I'm very satisfied with my evening at Pachanga. It's a real nice place even if you don't like dancing. There are lots of tables and the food looked really good (one of the few places that serves mexican food in Paris). You can get a full meal for 22 EUR and the meals that include drinks start at 27 EUR. The drinks are a bit pricey on their own (8-10 EUR) but you get one (or two) included with an entry fee of 8 (or 14) EUR.

The music was good, the people were nice (espeically the staff), and I am really starting to feel like I've found my crowd in Paris.

Total Damages:
1 palmier dipped in chocolate: 1,50 EUR
1 baguette: ,90 EUR
bottle of faux-rangina: ,81 EUR
entry, dance lesson, and drink (the first place I've seen that serves margaritas) to Pachanga: 8 EUR