Paris Day 7 or Shop Til We Drop or How Rude!

Today was shopping day.  We wanted to go to a few flea markets and see what they were all about.  We found a great market on the Paris Trip Adviser app and headed that way.  Well, of course we went the wrong direction when getting of the train, why wouldn't we?!  Once we finally got to the market, everyone was packing up.  We were super-bummed but were there long enough to see really great things and know we needed to come back the next day.  As we were leaving, we saw a beautiful buffet table and Russell fell in love with it.  This story continues later...

Back to home base we went to do a little more shopping.

Apparently Paris rarely has sales and we happened to be there during the biggest sale of the season.  EVERY shop has markdowns.  Unlucky for us- many markdowns are only for Parisians. We figured this out after aimlessly wandering around Bon Marche trying to figure out what the stickers and key tags meant.

We were looking for the sales person who wouldn't hate us too much for being American so we found a dude in the men's department.  He was nice about explaining that the sales (and I mean they were  crazy good deals 50-75% luxury designers) were only for Bon Marche card holders.  We first thought, "Great! We'll just apply for the card, use it while we're here, pay it off immediately and then cancel it."  It didn't work that way either- bummer.  You had to have already had a card and I'm pretty sure he told us that only the French are approved for the cards. Oh well!

From there we were off in search of my souvenir.  I'm not much of a purse girl in that I don't frequently change out my bags with my outfits or lust over LV, Dior or even Kate Spade.  I will say though, I like my bag to look nice and reach further than "just another purse".  We found this place called Upla earlier in our trip- conveniently one block up from our apartment.  We took a peek inside, I loved what I saw but I couldn't commit.  We went back this day and we found out that many of the bags were on sale...and we qualified for the sale!  When I say "many" bags were on sale what I mean to say is "every bag in the store was on sale except for the color I wanted".  So I tried on every sale bag and they were "fine".  Probably if I hadn't been looking for just the right yellow purse for the past 4 years, I would've liked every sale bag in the store enough to have one of them.  But, the perfect yellow purse kept staring me in the face.  After many bag on shoulder, turn to the side, cock one knee, pose in the mirror moments, the two beautiful French sales women going back and forth on whether the tan purse would be a great compromise or whether I should stick to the yellow, Russell pleading with me to make a decision- I decided I wasn't ready to decide and off we went.

We took a break for lunch at another great creperie up the street, ducked in and out of amazing home furnishing stores (we brought home all of their brochures only to find they don't ship to the US), perused a pen and ink store, and stared in windows at baby clothes- that I wanted to buy so badly for "one day".  I was still thinking about the purse.

I knew what would help me make up my mind- Go home and put on my good brown boots to make sure the tan of the boots matched the tan of the purse that I only sort of wanted that was on sale.  While home, we took a minute to call our parents and weigh in on the purse decision (like they cared) and while talking to Fran, we remembered that we still hadn't found her hair combs.

Have I told you about the hair combs?  I can't remember.  My mother-in-law has beautiful curly hair that I'm crossing my fingers is passed on to our babies. She wears it short and often wears tortoise shell combs in it to keep it back.  Who knew those combs actually could only be found in France?!  Each time they visit France, Fran buys all of the combs she can find.  She was running low so we'd been on the hunt for the past 3 days.  I was so stressed- I didn't want to mess up and buy the wrong ones (those suckers are expensive...and I'd be sad if they didn't work).  Once both of our mothers had tried to convince me that the yellow purse was the one I should get, we were off to find more combs!


But not before I made a decision on a purse.  I just knew an Upla bag was right for me.  Oodles of storage pockets, durable leather, no big logos or flashy metal- just functional and pretty.  I was getting tired of waiting on Russell (I don't even remember what he was doing) so I marched myself over to the store, held the two contending bags (the tan bag did mach my tan boots), took a deep breath and went with the YELLOW!  The two sales women laughed at me and were happy I finally made a decision (and they made a sale).  We had a little celebration in the store, I closed my eyes and signed the receipt and met Russell for the comb quest

in this color: Jonquille

picture this purse 

We'd found the right size but the wrong color, the wrong size but the right color over and over and over again.  Today was our lucky day though because we went back to the only drug store that we could find that carried them and the Bon Marche and the BOTH had combs!  Woo Hoo!  This was probably one of my favorite shopping days- ever!

For dinner we headed to a place that was highly rated near The Louvre.  I'll make this long story short by telling you that it was closed- surprised? no? We had gotten to be quite the Paris Trip Adviser experts so we were on the hunt again for another restaurant.

We stumbled upon some beautiful store fronts and a big square with a giant statue in the middle of it and ended up on a street we'd be on earlier in the week after realizing another restaurant was closed.  We went back and forth between a Vietnamese restaurant and Le Souffle (a restaurant that only serves...souffle).  We chose the Vietnamese restaurant which oddly wasn't very full on a Saturday (we later realized that people eat late on Saturday and the restaurant was much more full by the time we left). The food was quite good and a change from the heavy Parisian food we had been eating.  We decided to go for dessert at Le Souffle.  They were busy, but there was no wait so we let them know before we sat down that we would just be having dessert, it was 9pm so we thought it wouldn't be a big deal.

Little did we know, we were about to have our first sterotypical Parisian vs. American experience.  We seated by the kitchen (we didn't mind that), were given menus, no water, and very little interaction from our waiter.  He was quickly back to hurry us through our menu and place our order.  We both ordered champagne and told him we'd order our souffle when he came back.  When we told him we would be splitting one he flat out told us "it's not possible (in French)", we laughed thinking he was jovially telling us that the souffles were too good to share one- he wasn't.  He was serious.  He wasn't going to serve us unless we ordered two!  We complied because we didn't want to leave, the souffles were the tallest we'd ever seen, and ordered a raspberry souffle and a nutella souffle that we were pretty much hassled into getting.  The raspberry souffle (which we willingly chose) was A-MAZING and the nutella souffle was, well, fine.

We were shortly handed our bill, which we paid without leaving a tip (which apparently isn't common practice anyway) and we were on our way home, chatting about our great finds and planning our last day in the city of lights.

Paris Day 6 or Cooking Like a Parisian or Beautiful Views

Since we had decided against a weekend trip away (instead opting for the Versailles day trip), we thought we'd find something a little more unique to do in Paris.  We found several well-reviewed cooking classes on our Paris Trip Adviser app and chose one that would balance a laid back atmosphere with some real cooking experience.  We chose A World In A Pan.

What a great decision that was!  We met a lovely woman named Marie outside of her train stop and met up with a young Saudi American couple (they were very friendly, both currently working as brand managers for Mars in Dubhai).  Marie suggested some menu ideas and let us choose what we wanted and then we were off to the outdoor market.

I can't tell you enough how much I love outdoor markets!  Everything at this market was fresh and organic.  There were so many fruits and vegetables I had never seen as well as many different cuts of meat and fish that aren't common in the USA.  I could've spent the entire day ogling the food but we had to stay on track and get what we needed for our cooking class!

Marie talked us through everything she purchased and we walked away with duck legs, oranges, eggs, cheese, bread, fingerling potatoes and some herbs.  We headed to Marie's family home where her husband and four children live (at least two of her children are in college now).

Marie made us all a cup of tea and we got to work learning how to be authentic French cooks!  Here are some pictures of the food we made.

We left Marie's home with full bellies and happy hearts!

From there, we headed home to freshen up and get ready for Sacre Coeur.  Sacre Coeur is one of Russell's favorite places in Paris.  He said he always had fun there when he was a little kid.  We were trying to get there before the sunset so we could watch it from the top of the mountain, but of course we missed it.  All was not lost though!  The view of the city at night from Sacre Coeur is remarkable.

After we took in the view from the steps, we went inside the chapel.  It was breathtakingly beautiful, and so moving.  The quiet made it easy to sit, reflect and thank God for our good fortune and ability to take such a wonderful vacation.  I could've stayed for hours.

Upon leaving the chapel, we took a little trip up the cobblestone streets to the square where the local artists are drawing and painting.  We were getting there just as everyone was painting their last strokes and taking down their easels.  We did a little haggling with a man for a beautiful painting but decided not to get it as we couldn't decide if he had actually painted it himself.  Of course we did a little more wandering and headed back to the steps of the chapel to drink some hot wine and watch some fun street performers sing Beetles tunes.

*side note* I can't remember if I wrote about this in the beginning and at the moment I'm too lazy to read backwards to figure it out!  Our friends Katelyn and Peter were so kind to rummage through our apartment, find our passports and overnight them to AR for us. They were both SUPER busy at the time and we appreciated their patience with us!  I should also note that Peter had to send us Passports and binders in the summer as well.  All Katelyn said she wanted was an Eiffel Tower.  For some reason, I stressed about that Eiffel Tower the WHOLE trip!  It had to be the perfect tacky souvenir.   I found the most "beautiful" pink jeweled Eiffel Tower in a gift shop on our way to Sacre Cuer. I was so excited about it- it was ridiculous!*

For dinner, we headed back to our favorite place, Au Pere Louis near the Luxembourg Gardens.  We just had to visit one more time before the trip was over.  This time our food was just as good, the atmosphere cozy and the wine superb!

To bed we went with happy hearts and full bellies!

Paris Day 5 or That's One Big House or Blown Away

After a lot of research and back and forth and changed decisions regarding whether or not we'd take a trip out of Paris (maybe Brussells, Bruges, Amsterdam, Spain), we decided we'd go to Versailles this day.  The weather was supposed to be moderately good and Versailles is only a 45 minute trip from the apartment so we would still have time to do Paris sightseeing and eating in the evening and we wouldn't have to make it to the train at the crack of dawn to get to where we were going.

The train ride was painless although we were a little worried we'd left too late as once again, we slept a little too long and piddled a little too much in the morning.  We arrived in Versailles around 11am.  First stop- McDonalds to see if we could find some wifi and a potty.  In true European fashion, the McDonalds bathrooms are unisex (well, there's a men's side and a women's side but it's all in the same space). I don't know why this bothers me so much, but I just think its so strange to wait in line with a man to use the restroom. Even better- there was a homeless man living in one of the stalls- sad but strange..and annoying because it slowed the line down.

McDonalds and the neighboring Starbucks were both having technical difficulties with their wifi so we were off to feel our way through the town as best we could.

For our trip to Versailles, we downloaded an app by Rick Steves on the recommendation of our family friend, Steve Happ.  There were some ups and downs to this app, namely that their was a hand drawn map attached to it which was pretty, but not so functional.  It did lead us right to another AMAZING creperie (another Brittany style crepe maker) which I can't remember the name of.  No one spoke English there and we were pretty sure we were being discriminated against as people all around us were being served and we sat without even water for about 15 minutes.  Just as we were deciding that maybe it wasn't worth it, another steaming plate of delicious smelling crepes would pass our table and we would decide to wait a little longer.  Our waiting was no mistake- when we finally got to order, our lunch was to die for.  From the extensive menu, I decided to  have a ham, cheese, and egg crepe- the egg was over medium so the yolk coated everything and upped the yumminess.  Russell had ham and cheese with no egg.  We followed that up with an amazing dessert crepe that we shared.  I honestly can't remember what was in it but let's assume that it was some fruit mixed with nutella because that seems to be what we always order!

Just as we were leaving, an older couple (probably in their 70s) started a conversation with us.  They were so nice and excited to use their English.  Their English was about as good as Russell's French so with their combined skills they were able to have a decent conversation.  I on the other hand, was out of luck as I still know no French.  I think they were asking us if we were married and if we were on our honeymoon.  They also wanted to know if we were from England or Australia.  They were so surprised that we were from the US (this seemed to be a trend in France, no one believed we were Americans).  After they bid us luck in our marriage and we bid them luck on their vacation, we were off to the palace!

The Palace is truly breathtaking.  At some point, the golden gate was "misplaced" (let's get real, someone hocked it for all of the gold) and so for years, no one was able to take in the grandeur of its presence.  The gate has recently been restored/replaced and it really is unbelievable.  It's hard to believe that it was even thought of.  It's seriously a huge gate covered in shiny gold.

Before we went inside we acted like true adults on this windy day and of course we played in the wind gusts in the courtyard.  The wind was SO strong that you could just lean back and relax and it would hold you up.  If you walked into it, you got a major resistance work out!  Here's a picture of me being cool:

It is unfathomable to me that this Palace was actually a home to people.  It's so elaborate and uncomfortable looking...and expansive (and expensive).

The Rick Steves app came in very handy for the tour, without it we would've just walked around with our jaws dropped staring at the fancy stuff.  Rick had some interesting facts for each room that really gave us a feel for what life was like in the time of the Louis(es). Here are some pictures:

The biggest bummer was that the gardens were closed due to the weather.  It was a bit rainy and like I said before VERY windy. We were so sad about this because it was what we wanted to see the most at Versailles.  So much happened in these gardens and they're beautiful all year round.  I really wanted to see Marie Antoinette's little cottage.  Oh well!  Next time :)

We were back on the train and headed "home" to Paris.  When we got back in town, we had plenty of day left to explore so we did a little bit of shopping (window shopping that is...at this point we hadn't made any souvenir purchases) and headed off to dinner.

Russell had done some research and found this great restaurant called BAM!.  We were setting ourselves up to be disappointed with another closed restuarant, but guess what- it was actually open!

We squeezed into a tiny table, Paris style and took in the wonderful scenery of the tiny restaurant.  It was a little whimsical and eclectic and their menu matched!

Sadly, I can't remember everything that we ate but I know we had some outstanding steak (bordering on rare since in France they always seem to cook your food at least one level lower than what you asked for) and really great wine!

Paris Day 4 or That's A Lot of Art or The Best Duck I've Ever Had

Today was the day we would tackle the Louvre.  We began our morning by loading our phones with Louvre Top 100   this app was free (!) and it was a great option for us since we had done very little trip preparation.  For those unfamiliar with the Louvre (I must admit all I knew about the Louvre was written in The Da Vinci Code), it is HUGE and INTIMIDATING and houses some of the most beautiful works of art one may ever see.  We opted for the phone app rather than paying 5 euros a piece for headsets which you can rent after waiting in a line at the museum.  This app has its ups and its downs but overall we really appreciated it.  We loved that you have the option to listen to it or read.  We chose to read a) because it helped us pay attention better and b) because we forgot our headphones in the apartment.

On our way, we stopped at this little patisserie I had been eyeing just a few doors down from our apartment.  It's decor was mostly white with pops of pink and orange and most of the pastries were covered by large glass domes.  This was probably one of the best decisions we made the whole trip.  We both got chocolate croissants and we were instantly hooked.  These weren't just any croissants, they were the perfect balance of soft, flaky, buttery goodness with semi sweet chocolate I have ever had.  I guess I should also mention that I usually don't even like croissants but in Paris they're quite good and these were excellent!  (This particular place we went to seems to have a reputation about town as being one of the best patisseries around, and it's hard to disagree: La Patisserie des Reves)

Upon arrival to the Louvre we realized why people say to get there early.  There was a ridiculous line of people waiting to get in.  Russell had heard there was a "secret" entrance but we never found it.  Luckily our Paris Museum Passes came through and we didn't have to stand in the line at all.  That's right- we could've spent at minimum an hour standing in lines but instead we skipped right ahead, flashed our passes and wasted no time getting to the main event!

We spent about 30 minutes getting oriented to the museum.  Neither of us are very good at directions but when you put both of us together we look like blind mice.  We walked in a large circle about 3 times before figuring it out.  We didn't take as many pictures as we should have (of course) but I will include some pictures that I have found on google images (and I will cite them) so you can see some of the beauty that stood before us.

Psyche Revived by Cupid: This was one of Russell's favorites.  It truly is a beautiful sculpture.  We had to keep reminding ourselves that all of the beautiful fluid movements depicted in these sculptures is actually cold, hard stone.

Borghese Gladiator: This was one of my favorite sculptures.  This is one of the oldest correctly proportioned statues in recorded history- believed to have been created in 100 BCE.  I couldn't believe the accuracy and detail.









Venus de Milo: Also very cool!












Winged Victory of Samothrace: The beauty of this sculpture can only be appreciated when you are standing in front of her.  The story of this statue is also fantastic.  The way the artist was able to portray the drape of fabric is amazing and this statue is quite big!








Crown of Louis XV of France: This crown was actually a disappointment when we realized that the real stones had been removed and the ones in the crown are now only glass...imagining the stones was pretty cool but I wanted to see the real ones!

We then went on to look at A LOT of paintings!  So many in fact that I can't even begin to tell you even half of what we saw.  I can tell you that most of them were quite impressive.  Our favorites were:

The Wedding at Cana was my very favorite!  I think we spent about 20 minutes standing in front of it.  Its placed on the wall opposite of the Mona Lisa which I think was a horrible idea because The Wedding at Cana is extremely huge and grand and complex and the Mona Lisa is, well, small and behind a million feet of glass surrounded by a crowd of smelly people.

The Coronation of Napoleon: Russell's favorite painting since he was a child and visited the Louvre really is a beautiful painting.  Napoleon thought so much of himself that he commissioned the painting which depicts him crowning himself king.  No one did that, I'd say he was pretty tacky.  Anyway, the painting is very beautiful and we probably spend another 20 minutes sitting in front of it.

We were pretty much museum'd out at this point.  I think we spent a little over 3 hours in the museum and barely broke the surface of what there is to see in that awesome place... and we were hungry.  If you haven't figured it out by now, if I'm hungry I can't really do anything else but find food.

We decided to have a big lunch since dinner last night was a flop and we weren't able to go to Lescure. I am so glad we made this decision because Elizabeth was right, the duck confit is to die for.  This tiny little restaurant in the corner of the back of a street has about 5 tables that seat around 10 people.  It doesn't matter if you know the people next to you or not, you get seated family style.  We were seated at the opposite end of a table of business men and women.  The entire restaurant was filled with French people, we were definitely the only non-french speakers in the house, so we knew we were in for a treat!

Our waiter was kind and jovial and was humored by our excitement to eat.  We began our meal with bread, hard sausage, cheese and the best mustard you have ever eaten.  Later we would find that many restaurants had this mustard.  It must come pre-prepared but I've never had anything like it.  We decided to order 1 prix fixe menu and then add 1 entree (we did this a lot because it's usually a great deal but there was no way we could eat 2 full 3 course meals).  A great thing about the prix fixe menu at L'escure was that it came with almost a 1/2 bottle of wine so we had two glasses and split it for the same price it would've cost for each of us to have one glass from the regular menu.

Russell had chicken with rice and tomatoes.  You could tell that the sauce was made in the kitchen and that it had simmered for quite some time.  I had the duck confit.  It was the largest duck leg I have ever seen and it was surrounded by potatoes and cabbage that had been cooked in the duck fat.  When I say there was no food left on my plate, there was literally nothing but a bone.  Uncharacteristic of me I even ate the skin.  I usually don't even eat leg meat and there was a time in my life that I wouldn't eat meat still on a bone.  The meat just fell off and melted in my mouth.  I think I may have had to close my eyes to eat it.  The potatoes and cabbage had so much flavor and the cabbage really brightened the dish (I used the word brightened because it makes me feel like a food critic).  Our waiter was surprised at the amount of food I had put down and I think he may have made fun of me to Russell in French but I have no clue because all I can say is "bon jour" and "merci" and I sound ridiculous when I say it. Our final course was a caramel pot du creme.  I loved it more than Russell, I think.  He's not really into custards but it took me back to my childhood when my mom would make egg custard cups and pudding.  This custard had the perfect texture and the caramel was outstanding.

After our leisurely and satisfying lunch, we were ready to head back out to the museum circuit again.  At the opposite end of the Tullerie gardens is Musee de L'Orangerie which houses a large collection of impressionist work.  I think I preferred this museum to the Louvre because it is smaller and more focused.  I could really absorb what was in front of me instead of switching gears between medium and time period.  I guess what this really means is I don't know that much about art and simple is better.

I really love the impressionist period of art.  I realize that the technique is not as complex as what was happening in the Renaissance but I love the colors and the whimsical nature of it.  I'd rather have an impressionist piece on my wall any day.

The layout of this museum is great.  It leads you right through it's twists and turns and before you know it you've seen the whole collection and it's leading you back up the stairs.  Just when you think you've seen everything there is to see at the Musee de L'Orangerie you realize there is more.  In the upper floor are two white rooms- white ceiling, walls, floor and benches.  Surrounding the walls are the Matisse Water Lily paintings.  The rooms are silent and people are sitting quietly and looking.  These paintings are truly breathtaking.  I don't know what it is about them.  When you look closely there's just spots of paint but when you look at the big picture, those spots make beautifully flowing art.  This was probably one of the day's highlights.

Upon leaving the Musee L'Orangerie, we headed back home again.  We thought we might take a boat ride on the Saine since we finally figured out where to get on a boat, but it had begun to drizzle and we thought the scenery might not be as pretty.  Once home, we regrouped and talked about whether we would take an overnight trip somewhere.  In the end, we decided we'd go to Versailles which is only about 45 minutes from the city by train.  We decided that since we'd been doing so much wandering and getting lost, that there was still more we'd like to see and do in Paris.  In the beginning we thought we'd fly through everything and be ready for a change by the weekend, but we weren't!

We decided that we'd go for a lighter dinner since we'd eaten such a big lunch.  We'd read about a great beer place and since we had determined that we wouldn't be going to Brussels or Bruges, this would be the next best thing.  My map skills told me that the place was very close (it wasn't because I'm terrible at reading maps).  Of couse we got lost walking to dinner but luckily this place was actually open!  We sat outside and had good beer, pretty good sausages and terrible fries and then went inside to split a beer for dessert it was about the sweetest beer I've ever had and I'll probably never order it again.

We stopped at a little crepe stand on the way home and finished off our evening there!