I didn’t set out to do a French day but that’s what happened this weekend. Once I pieced it all together I was quite proud of myself for accidentally being awesome.

My friend, Phil, and I headed first to Seoul’s French Village, Seorae. We had no intention of eating French food, we were there for an American Burger. (See proof here.) But, since we were in the neighborhood, we decided that our dessert could be very French indeed.

We stopped at Hotel Douce (Hotel Sweet). It is pretty damn adorable. Incidentally, Hotel Douce is the bakery for L’ecole Douce (Sweet School-tres adorable) which is a French baking school located around the same area.  Want to try your hand at learning to bake some French delights? Read all about it here.

My eclair was a bit overdone, I must admit, but the cream was divine. The mille-feuille (or Napoleon) had a wonderful cream was well.

Hours: 11a to 9p
Address: Dasom Building, Banpo-dong 90-10, 1st floor, Seocho District
Tel: (02) 595-5705

How adorable? Beaucoup!

Our dessert.

The choux was a bit dry…cream was perfect.

And then we were stuffed and off the the National Museum of Korea where there was one last day for the exhibit: Beyond Impressionism, Masterpieces from the Muse d’Orsay. There were 175 works, the largest amount D’Orsey has ever lent out, from the museum, which was amazing, and the place was popping.  You can read more about it here.

Love that view!

I look so dumb here…it was awkward.

As I couldn’t take pictures I’d like to show you a sample of what we saw.

“The Snake Charmer” 1907 by Henri Rousseau. Most valuable in the collection.

“Woman with a Parasol Turned to the Right” 1886 by Claude Monet. My grandmother had one of the prints in this series hanging in her house for many years. It was so nice to see it in person.

“Portrait of Eugène Boch” 1888 by Vincent van Gogh. I believe this was the only Van Gogh in the collection.

“Plage a Heist” 1891 by Georges Lemmen. One of the examples of pointillism they had.

“London Parliament 1904” by Claude Monet. Someone had to shew away a mother and her children because the mother thought she should get her finger close enough to touch it so her 3 year old daughter could learn all about Impressionism. Some of these mothers are INSANE.

“Danseuse, Position De Quatrième Devant Sur La Jambe Gauche” Edgar Degas

“Madame Charles Max” 1896 by Giovanni Boldini. Portraits are always my favorite part of any museum. These are three of the most gorgeous portraits I’ve ever seen.

“Madame Roger Jourdain (Portrait of Mrs R. J…) ” 1886 by Albert Besnard. In person the dress of this woman glimmers and shines; it’s really stunning.

“Madame Gautreau” 1891 by Gustave Courtois. The story behind this woman is very interesting. You should Google it. 😀

“Closed Eyes” 1890 by Odilon Redon. I found an artist I had never heard of and researched him a bit. He has painted some truly strange and amazing pictures. I’m a new fan!

And after  a long and exhausting fight through 10000000 people and their children –Why? WHY do you bring children to grown up art exhibits, Korea? Let me tell you how much kids like Impressionists. ________(croaking frogs)__________. That much.–we made our way out of the museum and found a cute little gypsy jazz band playing music that sounded straight out of a movie!  You can learn more about them here!

How cute are they?

She was working it.

Continuing through October with lots of different kinds of music.

The magic of Seoul! A wonderful day on accident.