Tuesday, September 13, 2011

J'aime Paris

Oh how I love Paris! We flew into Paris on Thursday at 11am and took the tram to our hotel, which was between the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower in the Trocodero district - beautiful! We immediately went to a quintessential Parisian cafe and ate pate, poulet and pomme fritte (roasted chicken and french fries) and drank a glass of cote du rhone. Of course, after that we went to a pastisserie (bakery) and got an almond/chocolate croissant accompanied with an espresso.

We walked around a bit and enjoyed the incredible architecture and noticed how much more "European" Paris felt than London. It's simply gorgeous. After we explored for a bit we got ready and walked to a cafe by the Eiffel tower where we had $15 martinis and watched the sunset. After more walking we stumbled upon the most romantic French restaurant....the lighting was perfect and the ambiance was like a scene from a movie. We ordered incredible trout, lamb, a decanted bottle of wine....all followed by a cheese plate that was out of this world. Ohhh Paris.

The next day we had quiche and cafe au lait for breakfast and then walked the entire city for about 7 hours. At one point we thought we were at Notre Dame and after spending 20 minutes inside, we realized it was not, in fact, Notre Dame. Woops. We ended up going to Notre Dame and it was incredible (and free), the Louvre, walked through parks, the Pompadou, and walked back to our hotel via the Champ de Elysse (famous long tree lined street) and ate Nutella filled crepes along the way.

The last day we went to another pastisserie (of course) and took the train to the Montmarte district (which I loved) where Monet, Picasso, Toulousse-Lautrec, Dali and all the wonderful artists all hung out back in the day. There we went to an incredible church on the hill (that a Parisian waitress in Danville recommended) and went to the Moulin Rouge (yay). That night we walked back to the tower and watched as the lights sparkled above... then had another incredible dinner (although a bit too rich) and called it a night.

Unlike London, we had incredible weather in Paris - it was partly cloudy but about 80 degrees and humid.

Clearly, we LOVED the food and ultimately concluded that Paris truly is the city of love and lights.

Next stop = Basel, Switzerland......to be continued! xoxoxo



1 comment:

  1. Ooooo la la! Sounds magical! I love Paris, such a wonderful city. Tim and I have a picture in front of the same beautiful church on the hill in Montmarte. xoxo Enjoy!

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