Bubbling up with Helena

My husband and I went to Paris on our honeymoon in December 2019, and we had the best time. We still talk about how it was our favorite trip we’ve every been on together. We also hope to be back to celebrate my 30th birthday in 2022 (when international travel will hopefully be safe again).

The Food

We ended up trying to recreate several of our favorite French dishes that we had while in Paris and had a blast. We ate a lot of butter, crabs, and cheese, but I promise we also ate fruits and vegetables! I have linked all of the recipes we used below!

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• Pain au chocolat – Trader Joe’s has AMAZING frozen croissants. You leave them out to rise overnight and after baking in the morning, they are delightfully buttery and flaky.
• Crêpes – We bought a crêpe pan right before our wedding, and we haven’t had the chance to bring it out very often. We filled the crêpes with mushrooms, onions, and gruyere, and they were DELICIOUS.
• Croque Monsieur – My husband and I both agreed that this was our favorite recipe of the weekend. A croque monsieur is, in essense, a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. The tanginess of the cheese complimented the soft and buttery brioche bread we used so well. While the recipe didn’t say to do this – we topped the sandwiches with more of the bechamel sauce and cheese and put it under the broiler. 10/10 would recommend.
• Coq au vin – I never would have thought to make this if my mom hadn’t suggested it, and I’m glad she did. We used leftover vegetables from the crepes to make this chicken in a mushroom, onion, and wine sauce. It went very nicely with some roasted vegetables and the potatoes below.
• Potatoes au gratin (dauphinois) – These are basically potatoes covered in cheese and cream, so how could these be bad?

The Entertainment

I continued my 113 day French learning streak on Duolingo to review what I learned in high school.

If you know me, you know that I am obsessed with Belle and Beauty and the Beast. I know it is not set in Paris, but we had to watch it anyway.

I also learned recently that my husband had never seen The Hunchback of Notre Dame, so we had to watch that as well. This film lowkey has one of the best scores Alan Menken has written. I cry every time I hear “God Help the Outcasts.” If you haven’t heard it, look it up on Spotify or Apple Music. Trust me.

Of course, we also had to watch Mary Kate and Ashley’s Passport to Paris (streaming on Hulu). All of their travel movies are so ridiculous and fun, and they definitely take me back to elementary school.

The Louvre has some virtual tours that to enjoy until you can visit the museum again in person!

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we can return to Paris in 2022. À bientôt!