Streets of Paris

After we left Notre Dame Cathedral, we crossed back over to the Right Bank via Pont Saint Michel to the sounds of quintessential French accordion music. There are accordion players all over the city, including on the Metro, and I think it's rather nice!

We were heading in the direction of the Marais district when I spotted a chocolate shop Maison Georges Larnicol, also known as chocolate heaven, and we had to stop by to sample some of their goodies. In addition to their regular yummies...

They were all ready for Valentine's Day as well!

 

Despite being distracted by coffee caramels, we finally reached the Place de Vosges, which is in the heart of the Marais district and is also the former residence of Victor Hugo! His mansion is now a museum, and we took a quick gander within. There are also a ton of art galleries within the plaza and a hidden garden belonging to the Hotel Sully. 

We were pretty tired after all this wandering about so we took a quick nap at the hotel before heading back out to visit the Place de Concorde, Champ Elysees and Arc de Triomphe. Night had fallen by then, and Paris truly became the city of lights. Did you know that the Place de Concorde was the site of the guillotine that took the heads of Madame du Barry, Marie Antoinette and Robespierre? Not to sound grisly or anything, but it's surreal that I was actually standing in a place of such historical significance. 

 

The walk up Champ Elysees started out nice enough. It was just the two of us for a while, but we soon came across the requisite crowds and shops the closer we got to the Arc de Triomphe. Apparently, it's also where the local mallrat types hang out, and there were lots of young kids chatting each other up. The peaceful walk turned into dodging crowds, and I think we were both glad to leave the area.

I wanted to continue the walk from Arc de Triomphe to the Trocadero to view the Eiffel Tower up close, but I think J was pretty exhausted from all the walking. He totted up the miles and it came out to an astounding 20 miles or so - what a trooper! I saw the Eiffel Tower from afar, and it was enough for me to not want to walk my husband to death to see it.

Saint Chapelle and Notre Dame

After a good night's rest at the hotel, we resumed where we left off yesterday after our blip at the Louvre, and we crossed over the Pont Neuf to get to Ile de la Cite. It was the first time I saw the Seine river, and I hate to say it, but the Seine is more beautiful than the Thames - much less brown and a lot more green.

Once we were across, we quickly checked out the Square du Vert Galant and walked along the Quai des Orfevres until we reached Saint Chapelle, a Gothic chapel that's renowned for its stained glass windows. It's hard to spy the chapel from the street, and near impossible to see its facade in its entirety. You can only see a bit of it once you've passed through the security office.

The chapel itself is quite small but also enormously impressive. We were initially disappointed when we walked in because the bit of stained glass that we saw was nice and all, but there just wasn't that much of it.

Then we figured out that we had to go up a very tight and very curly and very steep staircase to reach the really good stuff. So we went up the stairs, and let me tell you, it was really, really good stuff. The windows were at least twenty feet high, and they were just about everywhere, except for one wall, which was dominated by a large rose window. Wow. Just wow. It was quite dim in there, and the chandeliers were lit a bit haphazardly, but the windows were amazing. I can't imagine how beautiful it must be when the sunlight streams through.

The caretakers had very thoughtfully lined the sides with seats, and J and I sat for a while just enjoying the windows. I hope J enjoyed his respite, because it wasn't long before we were headed for lunch at Au Bougnat, a restaurant on rue de Chanoinesse, but the place ended up being closed. Boo. But I did enjoy walking through a street that was somehow entirely free of tourists. =)

Anyway, we ended up lunching at the Cafe Quasimodo, and I ordered a hamburger with frites. When the hamburger arrived, it was just the meat patty, lettuce and tomato - no bun. I'm not sure if this is a french thing or something, but I thought it was hilarious and pretty perfect since I hate hamburger buns. It's protein-style at In-N-Out for me. After I ate my hamburger steak, we headed next door to Notre Dame Cathedral.

The Cathedral offers candles that you can light...

After we walked around the Cathedral, we took the long way back to the hotel via the Marais district, which is the oldest part of Paris. But I'll get to that tomorrow - this is already a super long post!

Friday at the Louvre

We left our flat at 8:30 this morning to catch the Eurostar to Paris from St. Pancras station. Why trains beat planes, hands down: we had plenty of time to buy some euros and metro tickets and still be early for our train scheduled to depart at 9:22. I get to keep my shoes on, and no one insists on rifling through my luggage in search of explosives. Everyone wins!

The train ride itself was pretty boring, and the views weren't great. You're either in a tunnel or looking at farmland for most of the time. A funny thing I noticed during the ride: the announcements are made in English first and then in French, but they reverse the order as you get closer to Paris. It didn't matter either way since the announcer's french accent was so thick that I couldn't tell the difference between his French and English. Gare du Nord isn't in the nicest area, so we hightailed it out of there as soon as we arrived.

This was the first time for the both of us taking the Metro, and it's pretty much just like the Tube so we didn't have any trouble getting to the Hotel Castille on rue de Cambon. It's where Coco Chanel used to have all of her shops back in her day, and fittingly enough, there's a huge Chanel shop right next door so I had to drool over their purses every time we left the hotel. The hotel itself is absolutely beautiful in a very French way, and even though our room wasn't huge, things seem snug and just right, as opposed to feeling squished in.

My first impression of Paris is that it's a beautiful city rich with history. The thing is... I've lived in London for the last half year, and I've become used to the sight of historical monuments on the way to the grocery store. Paris probably would've made a bigger impact on me if I had arrived straight from Los Angeles, as opposed to a city like London.

I had made big plans for the day, but they soon hit a snag as soon as we caught a glimpse of the Louvre on our way to the Pont Neuf, and we couldn't resist the temptation to go stop by and "just check out the outdoor plaza." I was pretty hungry by then, so we each bought a sandwich from Paul's in the Jardin de Tuileries, and they were pretty good and not overpriced (unlike most of the restaurants in tourist heavy areas). I also bought a hot chocolate to warm up, and let me tell you - their hot chocolate is the biz-omb! It's literally like a hot melted chocolate bar that can't really be classified as a liquid. It's more like this molten chocolately awesomeness in a cup - you don't drink, you slurp.

The exterior of the Louvre is pretty amazing. Note that being in a world class museum hasn't stopped me from acting the fool. 











The weather was much colder than I expected, and my feet were too frozen to walk any further so we decided to head inside the Louvre and take advantage of the fact that the museum is open until 9:30 on Fridays. I got so distracted looking around me that I almost fell when I got off an escalator - I had completely forgotten that I was on the damn thing until my ride came to a rather abrupt end!

The interior is just as amazing as the outside:



Of course we saw some of the most famous pieces:











But there were other not-as-famous pieces that I loved:









And I gotta love the bling, especially old school bling:








J was ecstatic when we came across the Roman gladiator exhibition:









And we finished off our visit with a stop by Napoleon's apartments. Some phrases come to mind - gilded, ostentatious, and that's a really big chandelier:







J's "dogs were barking" after 5 1/2 hours of roaming the Louvre, so we headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep and to enjoy the madeleine cookies provided by our very thoughtful turn-down service.

The Hoop and Grapes

Instead of watching re-runs of the Gilmore Girls and trying to talk myself into going for a run, I met up with my friends for lunch at The Hoop and Grapes, a mellow little pub on Farringdon Road. I decided to live dangerously and ordered the vegetarian lasagna, which came with chips and a side salad. Much to everyone's surprise, it was pretty good!

It was nice catching up on everyone's goings on and getting some tips for Paris. Now I know how to pronounce at least three French words. Mon dieu!

We're happy because we ate lunch. Very happy.