Tuesday, January 24, 2012

CBTL Contata Self-Serve Espresso Maker: A Mini-Review


(Russell writing...)  A little mini-review on a self-purchased Xmas present now that we've had it a couple weeks.

After our trip to Paris at the beginning of the month, and after days of getting a tasty espresso fix at local cafes, I decided to make the transition back to the states a little easier by getting the CBTL Contata single-serve coffee system.  The big advantage this apparently has over single-serve systems like the Keurig is that it can do espresso, coffee, and tea, and it bests the Kraft Tassimo because its espressos are "real" rather than simulated since the Tassimo doesn't use enough pressure (only 3.5 bars compared to the 15-18 typical for espressos) to make true espresso.

CBTL is a relatively new thing in the states and only has limited distribution for the time being (can be found online, at Coffee Bean & Trea Leaf stores, or Bed Bath and Beyond).  It's based on the evidently popular Caffitaly brewing system that can be found throughout Europe.

All that said, here's my bottom line assessment after a few weeks of use.  The machine seems well and sturdily built, as well as decently user friendly.  CBTL customer service has been a tad disappointing (as I've had some user questions and they've only responded to about 40% of them).  The system's espressos are great, which is actually the biggest selling point since it's hard to find a machine that can match them for anywhere near the same price point.  The coffees and teas on the other hand are mostly a big disappointment and very watered down.

Do I recommend?  Well, maybe.  If you like espresso, it's worth looking at.  Basically on par with Nespresso for less $$!  If you're a coffee/tea person only, get a Keurig (although apparently they have widespread reliability issues).  If you want it all so to speak, and don't mind "simulated espresso" (and I'm not convinced that I don't), get a Tassimo.

Incidentally, here are my favorite beverages thus far (*all CBTL espresso/coffee capsules are 100% Arabica):

  • Italian Espresso: dark, intense, rich, and fairly smooth (least bitter of the espressos).  definitely my favorite of all.  the machine is worth having in my opinion for this capsule alone.  
  • Continental Espresso: slightly lighter espresso, but still smooth overall
  • Premium Espresso: I was expecting to like this one the best, but it actually seemed quite bitter with an odd aftertaste in comparison to the other two
  • Viennesse Coffee: Relatively rich bodied and smooth, but still a bit watery at the preprogrammed 8oz pulls for coffee (I've since adjusted the coffee setting to just over 6 oz...a little bit disappointing that I even have to do that, but oh well)
  • Tropical Passion Tea: actually an extremely tasty tea that I have to say I'm a fan of.  however, the teas in general suffer from having loose tea particles that get pushed through during the brew process.  the word is that CBTL may be redesigning the capsules to improve this issue.  i hope so
UPDATE: So, as I mentioned in the review, we haven't been overly impressed with our Contata.  The CBTL espressos are bitter and the coffee thin in my opinion, and after a year of use I stand by that.  As a matter of fact, Katie and I did a bit of research on the Nespresso systems, the new Keurig Rivo, as well as simple Moka Pots to see if those might be suitable replacements (even did a few visits to Williams Sonoma to do a hands-on taste test with Nespresso and the new Starbucks Verismo, the latter of which we were unimpressed by).  

However, before we went and dropped another large amount of money on a whole new single-serve system, I figured I should try at least to see if some of the other Caffitaly capsules you can buy overseas might make the Contata worth keeping around.   I had tried before to find an e-tailer who would ship to us with no success, but perhaps this time I would have more luck.  

As it happens, the Julius Meinl company now delivers straight to the US, so I bought up a sampler of their Mocca Forte, Decaf, Espresso Symphony, Cafe Crema Melody, and Tango Intense Espresso capsules.  I have tried every one of them over the past week, and here's my final diagnosis.  The Contata has redeemed itself!  CBTL continues to disappoint me with their offering (although I haven't tried their new Carnivale, etc., capsules), but I found every one of the Meinl capsules I purchased to be vastly superior!  

One issue remains in that none of the Meinl capsules I bought are intended to be used for a full 6-8 oz cup of drip-style coffee, and all of the CBTL coffee capsules come out thin.  My remedy for this is now to use the Meinl capsules as the foundation for making Americanos.  A wonderful solve, and you get quite an engaging, smooth yet bold cup from some of the stronger Meinl capsules like the Tango (which packs quite a punch in an espresso shot).  

So there you have it.  My contention with the Contata has been with the limited CBTL capsule selection in the US rather than with the Caffitaly system itself.  Now having tried the Meinl capsules, my opinion has improved immensely!  The downside of course is that this raises the cost per capsule since you have to buy them from overseas.  Oh well.  

My next goal is to somehow track down the elusive Cagliari Superoro capsule, which apparently has a reputation for being the best espresso by far on the Caffitaly system.  I'll give another update once I find it :)

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Day 3 OR Those Might be the Best Crepes I've Ever Had


We were up and moving again!  We slept in a little but I think we needed it.  The time difference and walking were beginning to get to us.  We began our day with shopping at the Bon Marche.  This is one of the most beautiful department stores I have ever been in and with it being just 2 blocks south of our apartment, we HAD to go in for a peek.

Once again we were over our heads and our wallets’ capacity!  Big name brands and some we’d never even heard of- five floors of beautiful French style.  We browsed for several hours and the only thing that was tried on was a coat by Russell.  I will have to say, I am a lucky girl to have a husband who will browse a store with me, engage in conversation about the merchandise and never utter a complaint.  We looked at everything imaginable in beautifully cased and styled displays *sigh. 
This is some awesome chocolate/macaroon store we found
(NOT at Bon Marche).  Can't remember when during the day we went to it!

From there we trotted over to the Bon Marche grocery store.  It’s at least 2 stories!  We didn’t browse for long because we quickly remembered that it was 1pm and we hadn’t had a bite to eat yet!  The market was crowded with people picking up their lunches so we did a quick walk through to check out all of the counters.  For a mental picture (we didn’t take pictures here for fear of looking too much like tourists) it’s like Whole Foods meets the farmer’s market multiplied by 1000.  There are pastry counters, cheese counters, prepared food counters, meet counters and the list goes on.  Rows and rows of crackers, jams, cereals, dry beans and a big tasting station for Veuve Clicquot in case you weren’t sure if you’d actually like it and to make it accessible if you just need to grab a bottle (for those not familiar, it’s a very expensive Champaign…not Dom Pergnion expensive, but still pricey).  We left with some French savory pastries and headed home to have a quiet lunch and do a little recuperating and day planning.

Sadly, we didn’t love the pastries but I had plenty of leftover pizza for us to enjoy from the day before.  We took a few minutes to re-group, we now had internet connection thanks to a friendly neighbor who gave us his access information.  We planned the rest of our day and laid our heads down for a little nap.  Oops!  We overslept- I told you jet lag was catching up with us!

We were revived and headed out to see more sights!  First stop- Paris Museum Passes.


It was now time to buy museum passes.  We'd heard of this great Paris Museum Pass but we weren't really sure where to find it and since we didn't have ready access to the internet.  The Paris Museum Pass we later would find was possibly the best thing that happened to us on the entire trip.  You pay one price and have access to almost every museum/history attraction in the Paris area.  Not only does this mean you're saving money, you get to skip ahead in lines (kind of like those jerks at Disney who don't have to wait for Thunder Mountain...or whatever its called).  Our first stop was Sainte Chapelle but the guard at the front apparently decided to close the church early that day.  In Paris, you open when you're ready and you close when you're ready.  It does not matter what your sign says.

Sainte Chapelle would have to wait but we found a place called the Concierge, which was an old military building (?), with a short line for tickets and we thought we'd give it a try. Score!  We found the Paris Museum passes!  Russell used his charm and French skills to keep the woman behind the counter patient and helpful (the guy before us got yelled at for not knowing how to use the credit card swiper) and we were off to prepare for our evening.

On our way to Notre Dame we thought it would be fun to stop at this very highly ranked creperie called Little Breizh off of Saint Germaine.  We actually found it pretty easily down a narrow street with seemingly cute restaurants only to be turned away because their lunchtime service was over and they would be closed until dinner…figures.  We would definitely be going back for dessert later!  We walked around the corner for a little espresso pick me up.  For those of you who know me, I’m not much of a coffee or caffeine consumer but when in Paris, you must do like a Parisian! 

Off to Notre Dame…

Notre Dame is breathtaking!  I can’t even fathom the effort it took to create such a place.  I think it was completed over 100s of years?  My father in law gave us a great architectural lesson before we left but I can’t remember all of the facts!

We waited in a very short line where these very rude girls cut in front of us.  They were loudly chatty and tried to wear their hats into the church.  While Notre Dame is filled with tourists, Russell and I were at times appalled by how casual some people were in the chapel.  Even still, we did not let this ruin our experience (although I shushed the rude girls a couple of times…oops; fortunately they were shushed at by the Notre Dame "staff" as well).  We sat quietly and took in our surroundings.  It was moving to think about how many people had been there before us, and how many prayers had been said in that chapel.

For dinner we decided to go out to the small island to a bistro we'd read about that had live jazz during dinner so off we went to find it!  We had a much easier time finding this one and guess what....they were closed til February!  Of course, why wouldn't they be?!

Russell’s sister, Elizabeth, had recommended a restaurant called L’Escure.  I think her exact words were “Go eat at Lescure…and order the duck confit.  Do it!” So, we did…or at least we thought we would.  We walked on over (this was a long walk) wandered around a little looking for the right street, found it in the back corner tucked away…and it was closed.  Surprised?  The good news is that it was only closed until the next day!  The even better news is that we moved our trip to the Louvre to that day and the restaurant is so close!

We were beginning to get into a routine- spend an hour researching restaurants, make a choice, walk for awhile, get a little lost, restaurant closed, flail around until we settle on another choice….wash, rinse, repeat.

Instead of walking, because the hungry monster was out in full force, we decided to catch a cab back to the cute little street with the creperie.  Earlier in the day, the restaurants looked cute and their menus looked reasonable.  We used our trip advisor app to find the most highly ranked only to find that most had very mixed reviews.  After lots of discussion, pacing through the streets and both of us getting slightly annoyed with the other for not being able to make a decision we settled on a place called LePetit Chalet.  

The second we walked in we knew we had made a bad decision.  It smelled, it was a little too dark and we were led down the back stairs to a little room with tables crammed in.  It was dirtier and the smell more amplified.  Feeling defeated before the dinner even began, we were too afraid to offend anyone to leave so we stayed.  We settled on a half bottle of wine and cheese fondue thinking it would be a fun experience and something not likely to be poorly prepared.   I’m thinking that our waiter wasn’t keen on us splitting a single serving plate so he took the liberty of ordering us fondue for two which he didn’t tell us until the bill came…tourist trap?  Yes. Oh well, at least there would be crepes afterward.


Just two doors down, heaven in the form of a creperie was found.  The waitress/hostess/possibly the owner greeted us sweetly with a warm smile and happily seated us for dessert.  We had a nice little people watching window view and started our dessert off with a bottle of Brittany Cider.  Brittany is the region where crepes began (at least I think) and it is customary to drink cider with your crepes.  We ordered something yummy with ice cream and caramel and maybe chocolate or maybe apples (I can’t remember) and had a leisurely dessert. We weren’t rushed in and out and the waitress was patient with our attempts to speak French while considerately inviting us to speak English if we’d like.  What a gem of a restaurant.  We loved it here!

Friday, January 6, 2012

Paris Day 2 OR We're Not That Tourist-y


We awoke to screaming legs and another rainy day...no worries though, neither of these things kept us from having a good time!  We began our morning with the hunt for internet access on our walk to the Christmas market at the Champs-Elyeeses.  We noticed along the way many cute bistros and shops that we didn't see on Sunday a) because we had WiFi tunnel vision and b) because when shops and restaurants are closed (which many were the day before) they pull down gates and garage type doors so you don't see them.

We, of course, didn't choose a direct route and took a walk through the Tuilleries gardens.  Even in the winter the gardens are beautiful with leafless trees and drizzle.  I can only imagine their glory in the spring and summer!

Upon arriving at the Christmas market, we split a ham and cheese crepe and a nutella and banana crepe because we were STARVING! We then discovered hot wine, which is sort of a cross between sangria and cider.  Yummy!  The Christmas market looked beautiful from afar- tiny white wooden buildings, twinkle lights, garland, sweet smells and people milling about.  Unfortunately, it did not have the handmade goods I was hoping for.  It was pretty much a repetition of about 6 shops filled with Chinese goods over and over down the street, interspersed with the occasional creperie or cheese shop.  Oh well, it was fun to walk through!

hot wine!

sausages and kraut on a HUGE skillet

The fromage (cheese) hut. These have a, shall we say, notable smell



Our next stop was the Champs-Elysees, which is a very grand boulevard the extends out from Le Jardin des Tuileries with many LARGE shops- everything from Gap to Louis Vuitton.  The stores are huge and packed with people from all over the world.  To get into Louis Vuitton, people waited in a line outside for their turn at a peak of the merchandise that most wouldn’t be buying anyway.  I found this waiting in line to go shopping a bit silly, especially since we soon found another Louis Vuitton a couple of streets over and then several around town.  The silliest line I saw crept up on me- suddenly I smelled a familiar smell that I could not put my finger on at first.  It wasn’t a bad smell but it didn’t elicit positive memories really. It smelled like walking past Jr. High lockers. Then I saw it- Abercrombie and Fitch.  Now, I’m not knocking A&F, I’ve worn plenty of their clothes in my day (before I graduated high school).  I’m just thinking that for the level of stores on this street this is an odd one to have a line.

Overall, I found the Champs-Elysees to be a little overwhelming and very tourist-y.  I felt like we would be ripped off no matter where we went, and of course we were.  Our first rip off came when we went to the Change center to exchange our currency from dollars to euros.  We have heard many times that a Change center in the city will give you a better exchange rate than those at the airport (although maybe slightly worse than select ATMs) so we thought surely we'd be ok.  Looking back, we now realize that you should only go to a Change center that has their exchange rates posted by the window.  The attendant first attempted to exchange our money at a .70 to $1.00 and we told him no way.  We ended up settling for .73 Euros to $1.00 but we knew the exchange rate was .77.  That translated to us losing about $40 in the exchange process...boo!  (*NOTE by Russell: after going back to the airport at the end of trip, I noticed that the Change Center exchange rate there includes a whopping 6.5% commission fee. Yikes)

Next, we were starving, ticked about losing money unnecessarily and still had no internet so we stopped in the first cafe offering free wifi.  We were seated at the very back table with a great view of trashy American music videos.  Russell ordered a pizza and I ordered bruschetta.  We then found out that the internet wasn't working which lead us to feeling like we should lay in the floor, throw a toddler fit and demand someone find us an internet connection...instead we sucked it up and waited for our food.  The good news- Russell had a good pizza.  The bad news, my bruschetta came instead as a pizza.  We were charged more for it and nothing was done to fix the mix up (even though our server acknowledged the error unsolicited).  Oh well!  Got to love the tourist areas!

We continued our way up the Champs-Elysees to L'Arch de Triomphe.  What a beautiful spectacle!  This arch is set in the middle of an enormous roundabout and symbolizes France's Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars as well as honors the "unknown soldier."  We loved admiring this beautiful piece of art and history.





Upon leaving the Arch de Triomphe we stumbled upon a beautiful wide and quiet street lined with the truly luxurious shops.  We were surprised at the lack of activity on this street since it crossed the Champs-Elysees.  We window shopped at Chanel, Dolce and Gabana, Dior, Ferragamo, and Gucci to name a few.  Don't worry, we didn't go in.  There are big scary guards that stand in front of all of the windows that give off the vibe that they don't want you to come in.  That's ok, we weren't in the buying mood (and neither were our wallets).  One thing that we have loved about Paris is that in most windows, the price of all of the items in the window display are discreetly presented in the corner.  This way there are no surprises when you walk in the store.  It's much better to realize that the dress you see in the window is actually a Valentino and it is around 1800 Euro.  I'd hate to walk into a store, go to the trouble of trying on something beautiful only to find out that it costs more than a months rent!

On our way home we stopped in this quiet little park with children playing and couples sitting on benches.  The park had a grand view of a beautiful old church, it was sunny and not too cold so we took the opportunity to rest our bodies and sit in peace.  


beautiful church seen from the park

another attempt at using public wifi


The next thing we know there's a HUGE storm cloud sitting over us and we notice everyone getting up from the park to leave.  We feel a couple of drops here and there so we get up to be on our way...and then the bottom falls out!  As we've said before, coat hoods aren't ideal to keep off the rain.  They restrict our view of the streets and they're not really waterproof either.  I will say, it was pretty cute watching all of the children scuttle around with their mommies- some laughing and excited about the rain and some a little more stressed about the situation.  We ducked into a little cafe to have an espresso, a little snack, some hot chocolate...and of course use their internet!

We headed back to the apartment to get cleaned up for dinner and to use the awesome Paris Trip Adviser app that I downloaded on my Kindle Fire (that's right...a little name dropping of one of my favorite Christmas presents) while we were in the Starbucks the day before.  The awesome part about this app is that you don't need an internet connection to use it.  To this point, it was our saving grace!  Click here to check it out.  Oops, sorry for the divergence!  Anyway we began looking up places to eat.  Our strategy was to look at things in our area that made at least the top 200 (there are thousands and thousands that have been rated).  We found an awesome place, Les Papilles that we decided would be our best option so off we went in search of it!  

As we mentioned before, Paris winds about quite a bit which makes following directions difficult.  We did a little back tracking and retracing our steps.  As our stomachs began to growl we found the restaurant...and it was closed til mid-January!  To be honest, there was some curse words uttered as we realized that we would have to go back on the hunt for a place to eat dinner.  Out came the Kindle and on went the hunt. 

At this point, my hungry monster evil twin was beginning to emerge.  For some reason, anytime we are hungry we find ourselves in a sea of Asian restaurants.  Don't get me wrong, we love Thai, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean food but something about craving sushi in Paris never adds up for us.  Since we had irrationally chosen mediocre (terrible) Thai food the night before, I had to surpress the hungry monster and tell her to be patient until we found the right restaurant.  Good thing my rational mind won over the beast because we found our favorite restaurant in Paris! 

 Au Pere Louis was our kind of restaurant from the start!  Not pretentious yet not dive-y, local, cozy, and reasonably priced.  It sits in the Latin Quarter of Paris near the Luxembourg Gardens and where many students seem to live.  Menus are scattered about on chalkboards and they also have an English menu available that they are happy to share with you (some restaurants are a bit annoyed when you request a menu in English, although Russell gets us by just fine most of the time with his limited French).  Their food is seasonal so this time of year there is plenty of comfort food.  The wine is priced well and there's just enough of a selection that there is plenty to choose from but not an overwhelming list.  

We sat up in a little loft with the perfect combination of seclusion and views of the restaurant and the street.  Our waitress spoke English about as well as Russell speaks French so their combined skills made for easy service.  We settled on a cheese plate; foie gras with jam; cassoulette with white beans, sausage and goose; and a bottle of cotes du rhone wine.  Of course there was a never ending flow of bread at our table.  That good, hearty, crusty on the outside and soft and airy on the inside rustic french bread.

With full bellies and happy hearts we ended the day on a high note and walked home to work off a small amount of the exorbitant number of calories we had just consumed.



Here are some beautfiul shots Russell took during the day



taken near the Place de la Concorde at the end of Le Jardin des Tuileries and right before the Champs-Elysees starts




my favorite picture of the day (Louvre on the left) - courtesy of the hubs!







Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Paris Day 1 OR Thank goodness for Starbucks OR Heights aren't for me

From Arkansas to Chicago (even though we thought ORD meant Orlando until we got to the airport)  to Paris was a breeze.  No delays, no flight issues, surprisingly good meals on the airplane.  My suggestion to you is when booking your overseas flight to request a vegetarian meal.  I had pearl couscous and curry.  We ordered the gluten free option for Russell and he had chicken breast and rice with broccoli, also a good choice.  Everyone eating the regular meal had what appeared to be bad pasta with chicken chunks.

We arrived at Charles De Gaule almost an hour earlier than scheduled and the airport was fairly quiet.  We found our way to our baggage and the train with ease.  The great news was that the metro was free for most of the day as a New Year's gift- very thoughtful of the government!  We took the fast train into Paris and this is where the real journey begins.  Once exiting the metro, I was in dire need of water.  I hadn't had anything to eat or drink in many hours and I was starting to turn into a monster.  Our first stop?  Starbucks, obviously.  We knew they'd have water and they did!  Once I was rehydrated and no longer morphing into a beast, we caught a cab to our apartment and entered without issue.

The apartment is lovely and spacious.  Especially from what I've seen of Paris apartments (pretty much the only time I've seen Paris apartments is on House Hunters International on HGTV).  We have 2 bedrooms with bathrooms, a living room/dining room, and a full kitchen.  It's very cozy and well-decorated.  We're staying in the 7th Arrondissement on the Left Bank to those of you familiar with Paris.  It's a great area full of beautiful shops, lots of antique furniture stores, cute little restaurants and places that we can't afford :)  It's pretty centrally located and near the river.

As I unpacked, Russell thought he'd jump on the internet to retrieve our itinerary that we wrote out the day before.  This is when we discover that the internet in our apartment was out.  I cannot explain to you the anxiety that ensued as we realized we were totally lost with no internet access.  We were out the door quickly in search of a wifi connection much like a hungry dog searches for food.  Being that it was Sunday AND New Years Day you can imagine how difficult this search proved to be.  There are many "fake" free internet connections that give false hope as your device begins to access the connection only to tell you that you need to enter your access code.   We popped into the first restaurant we could find (Le Petit Tiberio) because we were told that most cafes have internet access.  Of couse we chose one that did not have wifi but what it did have was AMAZING Italian style pizza.  Once we had some nourishment, we were were back on the hunt for internet.  Over an hour later with no luck we stumbled upon, yes, Starbucks.  Just as a wifi connection is a sure thing in the states, a wifi connection is a sure thing at the Starbucks in Paris.  We were saved.

*Russell Writing*
Great though this internet salvation proved to be, Starbucks in Paris only gives you free wifi for 30 minutes...and so we were soon on our way again.


Le Marais District 

Le Marais District
By this time we were exhausted from walking but were extremely interested in visiting Le Marais district, which is essentially a little Jewish area of the city on the Right Bank (way far away from us) with lots of restaurants serving Israeli-style falafel and shwarama, a personal favorite of mine from my days visiting the West Bank a few years back, and a few street bands playing music that sounded straight out of New Orleans.  Katie's cousin Sherri highly recommended that we go on Sunday so we weren't giving up until we made it.
Cute street band!  The lead singer was American and he was really getting down!
Russell noshing schwarma

When we arrived in Le Marais, our stomachs decided on what turned out to be a delicious eatery with a little window on the street where people are able to place their order.  Upon sharing the best shawarma I have had in years (and the first Katie's ever had), we then picked back up with our itinerary schedule for the day, which dictated that we visit the Pompidue Centre for some exhibition that Katie had read about.  Unfortunately we got a bit lost (we have discovered that it is VERY easy to get lost in a city like Paris that boasts a mostly sloppy grid system--with deceptively NON-parallel streets) and decided that it was too late in the day--around 6:30pm--to visit the Pompidue Centre by the time we arrived.  This is when "getting lost" was taken to a whole new level.


a little metro navigation (in all honestly, I'm sure whatever I was doing wasn't helpful.  Russell has proven to be the master navigator)
In our attempts to get back across the river to the 7th Arrondissement, we somehow ended up at some enormous roundabout in the Bastille district near the Opera House.  With zero exaggeration, I can say there are probably 10+ "spokes" (that did not have matching counterparts on the opposing side of the round about) of this roundabout, and we circled it at least 4 times (each time taking ~15min) before finding the correct street to lead us back to the apartment.
Here's a shot of the round about where we were totally lost!  
There was a little children's carnival just off this round about.  This little guy was hanging out with his daddy who was manning a booth.  Of course I had to stop and give him a little head scratch!

At this point the amount of walking we'd already done was something truly extraordinary, although we weren't quite finished yet.  As Katie had already booked us 10:00pm tix at the Eiffel Tower that night, we decided to take the metro over to some street called Rue Cler, a supposed "foodie" hotspot, in the surrounding neighborhood.  Unfortunately, with New Years Day in full effect, there was NOTHING open for entire blocks.  When we finally stumbled upon a rather dismal looking Thai restaurant, our feet said "just let us sit down...we DON'T care!"  After eating a few dumplings stuffed with miscellaneous pork (or maybe an animal American's use for pets) byproducts though, even our feet agreed that a little more walking might have been worth it.

After dinner, we walked to the Eiffel Tower, dodging shady street vendors--selling glow-in-the-dark Eiffel Towers and other marvels--along the way.  The wind, rain, and cold really started to pick up at this point (and we unfortunately both have coats with laughably pathetic hoods to shield us from the elements), so we were [exhaustedly] grateful when it was finally time for our reservation to ascend the Tower.

on the hour, the Eiffel Tower sparkles
beautful
Looking up from the ground into the tower

Russell being blown away off the side of the Eiffel Tower
beautiful views of the city from the 2nd platform of the Eiffel Tower
I quickly discovered something I hadn't yet witnessed during the time I've known Katie. She is DEATHLY afraid of heights!  She suppressed a few near-vomits while riding up the tower elevator, but would barely even look off the edge once we arrived at the 2nd floor.  I couldn't help but drag her a bit closer to the edge (as far as she'd let me anyway), and there was one side of the tower that definitely gave a bit of an adrenaline rush as the wind gusts were enough to knock you down if you weren't careful.  Sadly though, Katie stopped at agreeing to descending the stairs rather than the elevator.  You win some, you lose some I suppose.

Look at this gem of a photo.  My (Katie) hair is blowing and frizzy and that is absolutely as close as I could get to the edge...if you're wondering, that's about 10 feet away from the large retaining wall and protective fence.
By the time we arrived back at the apartment (again, PLENTY of walking involved, although we took the Metro part of the way) it was after midnight.  One of the biggest issues travel wise when going to western Europe is that people fall asleep during the day they arrive, which totally disrupts their body clock.  In our concentrated efforts to avoid this, we pretty much had the most exhausting 24 hours I've ever had in my life (littered with frequent cafe visits as we walked around to recharge ourselves with espresso shots).  Victory?  An epic beginning to an epic trip!

By the way, in case we didn't make it clear, it rained all...day...long.

Katie Writing:

While we had a few hits and several misses, overall we had a really fun day!  What's better than wandering around a beautiful city with your best friend?  Another thing about getting lost- you stumble upon all kinds of things you wouldn't have otherwise seen if you stayed on your desired path.  We accidentally walked by tons of great monuments and historical buildings we didn't even mean to see until later in the week!





Whatdaya Say We Go To Paris?

...this was the question posed by one of us (can't remember who) on our 14 hour car trip from Durham, NC to Benton, AR as we trekked home for the holidays.  We have a 5 week break from school and we were trying to strategize the best way to use it.  Of course we first chose to visit with friends and family and we will be doing some house hunting for our move in May when we return to the states but we wanted to do something fun.

We did some in depth research on our iPhones primarily using Kayak (I highly recommend this website and app) browsing places we could go this time of year that would be fun.  The obvious warm-weather choices are quite popular this time of year an VERY expensive and many trips we could've taken state-side had pricy airfare.  What began as a total joke quickly became a reality as we found well-priced airfare, an available apartment from a family friend and a little more than a week that was free on our calendar. Paris it would be!

Since we booked our tickets a whole 2 weeks ahead of time we didn't have a ton of time to schedule our days and prepare for the trip as we were also very busy seeing family and taking a little road trip from Benton, AR to Memphis, TN to Birmingham, AL and back again.  Packing, scheduling and other preparation all happened in about 48 hours.  We had a long chat with Russell's dad.  He gave us a quick overview of Paris history, architecture, landmarks, tourist attractions, and the layout of the city.  I had a great chat with my cousin Sherri who had tons of recommendations for restaurants, things to see and things to skip and handy travel tips to keep us efficient and safe on our trip.

The Friday before we left on Saturday was spent hurriedly packing and trying to figure out the best way to spend money in France.  This was quite the process and has ultimately proved to be the most frustrating aspect of the trip.  We have only traveled out of the country together once (to Fiji- you can read those blog posts here) and everything was pretty much paid for in advance so we didn't have to worry about credit card charges.  In Paris, we paid for nothing in advance so each time we swipe a card it's a 3% fee- yuck.  Our goal was to get away from getting any transaction fees so here's what we found:

Our first thought was to get Travelers Checks.  We would just exchange them like cash without a problem or use them in stores that took travelers checks.  We thought we'd be able to buy them with our American Express, get credit card points for purchasing them and we'd have no change over fee once we got to Paris.  Well, that didn't work because you pay about a 3% purchasing fee when you get travelers checks.

A great suggestion was to get a Visa money card (gift card) which you may be able to get at your bank.  You can put money on these cards for no additional fee.  The card can be used just like a credit card!  Most places in Paris take Visa and Mastercard and NOONE wants your AMEX.  Unfortunately, our bank (Bank of America) doesn't have these gift cards so we would have to get them at a different bank that did not have our banking business.  Since you have to guarantee the money, we could not purchase them from a credit card without a cash advance (4% fee and very low limit...got to love being students), or a check for the total amount (the way we do bank accounts, we would've had to transfer money over to one account and the money would not have been available in time for our trip).

What we chose to do was to just take a smaller amount of cash out of our account and change it over once we got to Paris because everyone we talked to and everything we read said we'd get a much better exchange rate once we got there.  We'd just use our credit card for other purchases since 3% transaction fees seem to be the best  option for us. Stay tuned for the rest of this money story...

On to packing...it's hard to pack for a trip when you only have access to what you packed for the original trip.  Luckily, I packed our warm coats just in case (like it was going to get cold in AR).  I did a great job fitting 8 days worth of cold weather clothes into 2 carry on roller bags and 1 checked suitcase.    Packing took about 3 hours and 2 trips to Target.  I'd say I could probably be a professional vacation packer so let me know if you are in need of my services.

Finally, we had to plan the trip.  We knew that if we made no plans we'd get to Paris and do nothing but wander around and eat a lot so we pulled up a spreadsheet (I believe spreadsheets solve all problems) and got to planning.  Our schedule looked a little like this:

Sunday:
9:45am arrive in Paris
12:00pm arrive at apartment, unpack and refresh
1:30pm lunch and exploring in the Marais district
3:00pm Centre Pompidou
7:30pm dinner
10:00pm Eiffel Tower

Monday:
9:30 Champs-Elysses Christmas Market
1:30 Tuilleries
3:00 Lourve
8:00 dinner

Tuesday:
9:30 Bon Marche
1:30 St. Chapelle
3:30 Notre Dame
5:00 Saine cruise
7:00 dinner

Wednesday:
all day in Versailles

We decided to plan the rest of the trip after we experienced our first few days...stay tuned to see how our schedule is going.

This is it for an introduction!  I hope you enjoy the soon-to-come posts about our actual trip!

...and that's all!