Simon and The Thinker…
Paris, France, Day five
We woke eager to find the Aussie pub for Simon to watch the Collingwood preliminary final. After finding one, they directed us to another ‘ten minutes’ down the road. After walking for over an hour we arrived at the next pub, eager to watch the game. Sadly, they were showing yesterdays game - pathetic! Hot and bothered we went and grabbed a bite to eat. We had a great charcuteries plate with lots of delicious meat and cheese to try. Our waitress was very enthusiastic and loved practising her English with us! Putting the game behind us, we headed to Arc de Triomph. It was a maze working out how to get to the arc, which is in the middle of a huge, crazy roundabout! Then we hit the shops of Champs Elysees. Mainly window-shopped, but we did get a few goodies. Highlights were a HUGE Sephora and, of course, Louis Vuitton for which we had to line up for entry! We also made sure we stocked up on macaroons and eclairs from Ladurée, a well known store Simon’s aunty recommended. We shopped for hours, but that wasn’t enough, so we got a taxi to Galleries La Fayette where we spent a few more hours (and euros). What a jam packed shopping day! Simon coped sooo well. We’ll have to do it more often! Hehe.
We headed out for a late dinner of more snails and French wine. To top it off we had our eclairs from Ladurée… Mmm. The coffee one was really good! Katie xo
A successful day shopping. What financial crisis?
Katie very happy outside the Louis Vuitton flagship store on Champs Elysees
Arc de Triomphe
Place de la Concorde
Katie eating her snails
Paris, France, Day four
We woke to our first hint of blue sky! Is that a rarity in Paris? Simon went and found us some pastries, our normal breakfast now. We got going pretty early in order to find the Catacombs by opening time. We passed some huge cemetaries, with huge tombs put aside for families. Simon tells me there just wasn’t enough room for all the bodies though, thus there are the Catacombs - old quarries filled with bones. With much disappointment, the Catacombs had been vandalized and are not open to the public until further notice. We then had a drink and a croissant while we disscused where to next. We ended up on Rive Gauche, the Left Bank, an headed for Pont Neuf. Once there, we walked along Ile de la Cité to Notre Dame and had a look around inside. I really liked the stained glass windows and Simon thought the statue of Joan of Arc was pretty cool. We decided not to climb the towers, but Simon was sure to stand for a photo on ‘point zero’ outside the church.
We then spotted a really cute, old restaurant on Ile Saint-Louis. There we tried the famous buckwheat crepes. Mine was very nice… cream, fresh tomato and basil. There’s something about the tomatoes in Europe, they just taste better!
We then walked back toward Trocadero and the Eiffel Tower. The undercover cops had just busted some of the dodgy souvenir sellers and were dropping their confiscated merchandise all over the place for greedy tourists (like us!) to grab. Good one! We had another great view of the tower before heading down Rue Cler and looking in the cheese and meat shops. We bought some delicious ham and cheese, as well as some amazing chocolate and raspberry macaroons. After a leisurely afternoon drink we found a spot for dinner. Being the great tourists we are, I ordered snails and Simon got French onion soup. Both delicious! I can’t believe all the good food we’ve had! The snails weren’t too garlicky which was good. I was a bit scared of them at first but I’ve taken a liking to them now… yumbo! Shopping tomorrow - can’t wait!!!! Katie xo
Paris, France, Day Three; Lunch @ Le Jules Verne
After a relaxing morning we prepared ourselves for our first outing to the Eiffel Tower and lunch at Le Jules Verne. It is great staying so close to the tower: we are only a 10 minute walk, max. All rugged up in my new coat, it was great walking toward the tower and, as rain was forecast, it appeared to have scared off the crowds to some extent which was nice.
The elevator up the tower was amazing, we could hardly tell as it changed angle and the view was wonderful. With us in the lift was a family with two children and two English speaking women. The women rudely asked not to be seated next to “those screaming children.” They were then shown to their seat and when they asked if they could have a seat next to a window, they were refused. We were seated last, next to a window if course! Such good luck and the best table ever! So impressed! We started our meal with a drink. I got a Belle Eiffel which was champagne with passionfruit liquor and peach purée… sooo good! Lis, u would have been in heaven! We were then served a gaspacho of watermelon with tomato, capsicum and duck - very nice. We chose a three course menu and they chose three wines to match - good choice! For entree, I chose the duck paté which came with stewed berries and figs. Simon got a cauliflower soup with foam. He wasn’t really interested in the foam, but certainly agreeed it was the best cauliflower soup he’s ever had. For mains I had a lovely fish with a fresh ratatouille.. yum! Simon had poultry with vegetables. Dessert… mmm the dessert was soo good! It took three waiters to serve Simon’s. The first one brought the cake over, another filled it with Amaretto then the third filled it with Chantilly cream (once the alcohol soaked in). I had a mint/chocolate delight with THE worlds best fresh mint sorbet… we both agreed that was the best thing ever! The view was just wonderful and we really enjoyed the whole experience. Once finished our meals, we were able to access the observation deck (saves queing and paying), then head back into the restaurant and back down their lift! Even though it was overcast, we still had a great view over Paris and really enjoyed looking st all the buildings that make up the city.
After our hectic day we needed a rest, so we relaxed at our apartment for a few hours before heading back to the Eiffel Tower to see its night lights. It was so beautiful all lit up! On the hour it glitters white sparkles… so pretty! I could have sat there all night watching it! It’s definently my favourite thing in Paris so far. Katie xo
Paris, France, Days one and two
We were faced with a long train ride today, first from Berlin to Cologne (Köln) and then swapping trains and continuing on to Paris. The leg to Cologne was fine, and we quite enjoyed riding the Italian and German trains, not least because we were able to travel in first class. The Paris leg wasn’t quite as smooth though. Firstly, we were back in the packed cattle class and secondly because the train seemed to be heading through Belgium on its way to Paris, and our ticket was only valid for travel in Italy, Germany and France - an expensive oversight for us on behalf of our booking agency.
Still, after eight hours on trains, we arrived at Gare du Nord in Paris and set about finding the apartment we had booked for the week. This wasn’t too difficult, but the apartment itself wasn’t exactly what we were expecting and turned out to be pretty ordinary, really. Still, the location was good, so we decided not to dwell on what kind of hotel we could have got for the same price. We ended up finding a supermarket and, after bread, cheese, ham and wine (our new staples) for dinner, we headed to bed.
The forecast for the week looked a bit cool, so Katie thought this would be the best time to start shopping and the next day we headed to Printemps, a huge department store. Katie found a couple of jackets to buy and we went up to have lunch on the ninth floor of the store, with a great view of the city. After this, we just explored a bit more of our neighbourhood and finished up another quiet day.
