2 Weeks in France - Paris and Provence - Trip Report
 

Hi Everyone! I decided to keep a blog on this trip so I'll be reposting that stuff here as well. Mostly written for my friends/family and I don't have time during the trip to edit for this group so I apologize if there is superfluous information and/or not enough of the impt travel info - please feel free to ask questions about where something is or anything like that! Hope you enjoy. [Sam is my husband, btw]

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We're finally in Paris - given that we booked this trip last July (that's how it goes when you're redeeming miles), it's hard to believe we're actually here!

The trip here was incredibly smooth. Beginning with the tucked away British Airways lounge at Dulles Airport - now I know why the general airport population looks so unkempt. The lounge is amazing, although we were still second class citizens with our Open Skies tickets, as only the actual BA ticket holders can eat the buffet dinner food. But we had enough to eat and drink - small tea sandwiches, cheese, cookies, and free alcohol. I've never gotten on a plane that tipsy before. It was part of my plan to drink enough to fall asleep, but of course I forgot that alcohol actually makes jet lag worse. Oh well.

Open Skies is owned by British Airways and is an all business class airline that is about 60% "Biz seats" that don't recline all the way, and 40% "Biz beds" that do. We had biz seats which are sort of like domestic business class seats but they do recline quite a bit. It's like sleeping in a very nice reclining lounge chair. The flight attendants were the old fashioned kind, right down to the little french hats and the "would you like a warm towel?" Awesome, I could definitely get used to this. The food was wonderful and we ate it all despite being full from the food we had in the lounge.

3 hours of sleep and a warm croissant later and we had landed! Orly Airport is another perk of flying Open Skies. I have never been through CDG but customs and luggage pickup at Orly was a breeze. We were able to buy the Paris Museum Pass there too, and the very kind people at the info desk took one look at our luggage and suggested a cab, which was the right choice and not nearly as expensive as we'd imagined.

Sam was the hero of the day - carrying two extremely heavy bags up four (more like six although it was advertised as four) flights of narrow curvy old stairs to our apartment in the St. Germain area of Paris in the 6th Arr. We phoned our landlord who, in his delightful accent, said he was "outside paris" and would "come tomorrow." No problem, we didn't need him, the apartment is perfect - clean and small and cozy and with a little balcony.

In order to save myself from the temptation of a nap, we went out to walk around the area. We are only two blocks from the Seine, so we strolled along there and then walked south a bit looking for a cafe to get some breakfast (or lunch? honestly we had no idea what time of day it was or what meal we should be eating at this point, only that we were hungry). Now, anyone reading this probably knows that Sam and I are really really into food. And that was one of the things we were most excited for on this trip. However, even we were not prepared for the insane array of food everywhere you turn. The streets are filled with an overwhelming number of sidewalk cafes crowded with people all facing the street of course, snack shops with sandwiches as long as your arm, tea salons, ice cream stores, and street market stands selling cheese, fresh fruit, and rotisserie chicken.

In our jet-lagged haze we found the decision even harder than usual. We first sat down at a cafe on or near Rue de Buci and then discovered with my terrible french that breakfast was no longer being served (it was 12:05). So we went to a cafe/bar/restaurant next door where I was able to get a mushroom omelette and Sam a "croque norwegiene" with smoked salmon. I was able to order orange juice and hot chocolate all in French, but then when Sam wanted water my brain turned off and I told him to just order it in English. Of course the waiter understood, and was quite patient with us. After that we just wandered around the streets getting lost, stopping every few seconds to read a menu or pop into a boulangerie or a patisserie. We are constantly pointing things out to each other, usually with our mouths open in awe at what we are seeing. It's sensory overload here, but in a good way.

I hope we are awake enough to take advantage of the relatively nice weather, as there might not be more for awhile. Perhaps a boat cruise on the Seine or a visit to the Eiffel tower? I'll update later!

Great start. Looking forward to reading this. What apartment are you staying in?

yeah, great start

i love your enthusiasm

thanks for sharing, shar.

Look forward to more.

Super! More, please and yes, where are you staying?

Thanks! We are staying here: http://www.parisbestlodge.com/ppp.html
More to come soon....very soon if I don't fall asleep..if not, then tomorrow. Jet lag is the worst!

More of Day 1 - the longest day ever..

I feel like I haven't slept in a year....But anyway, so after I last left off we succumbed to temptation and took a nap, but we set an alarm and very reluctantly got up after it went off..again...and again. We stopped for tea at this cute place in this little passageway (Passage Dauphine) across from our apartment at L'heure Gourmande where we had lemon cake, goat cheese tart, and tea of course. We'd intended it to be a quick snack before hopping on a 6:30 boat ride, but we are learning that NOTHING in Paris is quick. This is nice because everything has that leisurely pace, but not nice when you're in a hurry (I suppose the trick is never to BE in a hurry).

So we just took the next took the next boat cruise on the Seine river instead. We went with Bateaux les Vedettes du Pont-Neuf (Thank you Fodorites for the tip on the discount coupon). While I've done this before at night which is lovely bc of the lights, it is not that warm out and I didn't feel like freezing at night. I was hoping for sunset but forgot that happens very light here. It was a nice hour ride up and down the river, perfect for getting oriented geographically and having some great views of main attractions like the Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower - a preview of what's to come.

We were too tired to track down any of the restaurants I'd done some research on so we ended up back in the lively Rue de Buci area, which, while touristy, is definitely the greatest place to people-watch that I've EVER seen. There were musicians performing in the street that we watched over a carafe of wine, and then we moved onto the Bistro with the tastiest looking frites - Peres et Filles. We both had onion soup and frites which were absolutely delicious. I can't eat like this for the next two weeks but I need to get some of it out of my system now! We picked up some groceries so we can at least have a light breakfast in the apartment in the morning.

And now, my pillow is calling....

Thanks, Sharbear84, I love these live trip reports!! Waiting for more.

Thanks Shar. Enjoying the report and looking forward to Provence.

What a great start, I'm looking forward to reading more.

Ah, sharbear. The one with my childhoood nickname combined with the year I graduated from high school (prob the year you were born). I remember reading about your trip planning and am so glad you are finally in Paris and having a blast. Love the details. Keep it coming (after you get some rest, of course.)

~ Shar

looking forward to more...I love the 6th!

Bonjour! What a difference 10 hours of sleep makes. I can now fully appreciate Paris instead of seeing it through the tinted haze of exhaustion. (and sorry for the many typos in the previous entry!)

We woke up late but decided to try to make the free walking tour of the Marais area that we had reserved (I love this free tour concept - of course you are supposed to tip but you feel so great that you're getting something "gratis"). Luckily, the Paris Metro is much faster than the DC Metro and even on a Sunday morning trains were coming every 4-5 minutes, so we made the tour with time to spare. On the Metro you have to actually pull a lever to open the doors to get out; it's a good thing I saw other people do it or we would have been standing there like idiots waiting for them to slide open automatically. It started to rain a little which it did on and off for a while and then the rest of the day was cool, with a mix of sun and clouds.

Chris, our tour guide, was very sweet and spoke very good English. The group was a mix of clearly American tourists and a group of Australians who peppered the guide with questions. We started out at the Etienne Marcel metro stop and highlights of what we saw include: the Les Halles area (which used to be a giant food market and is now an ugly shopping mall about to be torn down and replaced by an even uglier shopping mall), Centre Pompidou (modern art museum - apparently revolutionary in its design, with all the pipes and air vents being outside the walls of the building), Saint Eustache church, the Jewish area in the Marais (including falafel samples from L'As du Falafel..yum), Place des Vosges, and Place de la Bastille.

Interesting things I learned: The term "gothic" architecture came from an insult that someone (I forget who) gave to the churches he thought were ugly, naming them after the Visigoths. The biggest French controversies seem to concern modern buildings and whether they belong amongst the older ones. Also, all French are socialists (just kidding) - our guide lamented the fact that many of the fancy apartments surrounding the Place des Vosges remain empty while many in Paris are homeless. On the other hand, apparently many of these fancy apartments now belong to rich Brazilians and Saudi royals, because the "French are not so rich anymore," he said. I was happy to hear him discuss the oft-hidden role of the French in the Holocaust, including the deportation of school children to the Concentration Camps. He mentioned two good movies about this that I've seen - Le Raffle, and Au Revoir les Enfants. When he talked about how the city had given apartments in the Marais to low-class city workers to get people to live there, someone pointed out that those apartments probably used to belong to Jews. Good point.

After the tour we needed to rest our weary legs so we sat down at Cafe Hugo right off the Places des Vosges. Yes, we wanted some time to rest and eat. No, we did not expect it to take over two hours. I know, you thought I learned this lesson yesterday. We had the "Brunch Complet" which comes with hot drink, orange juice, baguette with jam, eggs with smoked salmon or bacon or cheese and dessert. SO MUCH FOOD. We had to split a desert and had no room for the Macarons at the nearby Gerard Mulot. Another day...

We walked over to Ile St Louis - such a charming island in the middle of the Seine. We passed a real estate office - studios there cost over a million euros. Craaazy. The island is also home to more ice cream than I've ever seen, but again, we were too full to have any. We crossed over to the neighboring Ile de la Cite and headed to the Notre Dame. Unfortunately, the line was really long and our museum passes don't let us skip that line (boo) so we just looked at the outside, but we'll try to go back. Right outside the Cathedral we stumbled into some sort of bakery/pastry festival! It said it was a meeting of the best bakers in the world, and we got to watch them baking baguettes. Very cool. We also walked through a flower market that was selling birds. Hundreds of singing birds in cages of all colors of the rainbow - yellow, turquoise..it was quite a sight. I wanted one but figured customs would probably not let me through with a live animal....too bad.

We also visited Sainte Chapelle, a smaller Cathedral nearby with breathtaking stained glass (we were able to skip the line there - yay), and the Conciergerie - a museum in what used to be the prison during and after the Revolution. Upwards of 2,000 people were detained and executed there. It definitely has the requisite creepy atmosphere going on. On the way back we walked by Saint Germain square where we hadn't actually been yet, with the famous Cafe de Flore and discovered an outdoor Jazz concert that is apparently part of the Saint Germaine Jazz Festival going on this week. Now it is time to rest before dinner and drink the bottle of Cote du Rhone Sam we just bought at the corner store...

Every time DH and I got to Paris, we returned to Ste. Chapelle but always missed the Conciergerie.

Really enjoying your report!

This is really good. Keep it up, but enjoy your trip!

The Conciergerie is fantastic!! I got tearful seeing that little fountain against the wall in the courtyard, thinking of the women (including Marie Antoinette) drinking water from there and having a brief glance at the sun.

Sharbear, what a great trip!!

Thank you so much for all the kind words of encouragement! I find that writing the report while I'm on vacation, although it does take a little time, makes for much better recollections. Also it is a way to keep in touch with family back home so they know what we are up to - and a way to elicit real time suggestions and comments on this forum!

A tip for you: when you get back home and watch Au Revoir Les Enfants, have a big box of tissue nearby!

I'm enjoying your report - thanks for sharing. I blogged on our Paris trip a couple months ago, and while it is nice to do it as you go, it really does take time. But we appreciate it, of course!

So I must post about dinner last night. We ate at a place called "Fish - La Boisonnerie" (which is basically fish - fish if you translate it) on the Rue de Seine. They clearly cater to English speakers while still managing to be authentic and have good food, which made it perfect for us. Immediately we felt at home, it's a small cozy laid back place with an Australian bartender, who may also have been the owner, and several lovely English speaking waitresses. The menu clearly changes a lot, and the waitress was nice enough to run down the entire menu in English for us even though it was written in French. Every ten minutes or so you would see someone bringing baskets of focaccia bread from the sandwich shop owned by the same family I think across the street (Cosi - no relation to the one in the US). We ate so much of that bread it kind of ruined the whole idea of having a "light" meal, a difficult feat to achieve in Paris. I starte with a celery veloute (soup) with a poached egg on top and Sam had a cauliflower risotto with anchovies. Both were amazing. My entree was sea bream (dorade) with pesto and artichokes and Sam had red mullet. Both wonderful and light. We couldn't decide on a desert and asked the waitress her favorite, which was a lemon orange tart that was bruleed on top. The texture was almost custard-like and contrasted perfectly with the crispy topping, and the tartness was delightful. We also had some great wine. I would definitely highly recommend this restaurant!

Paris - Day 3: Vespa-ing, the Louvre, and the Best Hot Chocolate in the World
So once again it was extremely difficult to get up this morning - I suppose this is some lingering jet lag or just exhaustion from all the walking. But the excitement about our Vespa tour with Left Bank Scooters got us up and out the door. Adam, our guide, met us with another couple and our vespa right outside our apartment. [Now a little background here - last time we rode a moped in Greece the woman renting them made Sam come back and exchange his for a less new one because she saw how badly he was driving it - so it was time for a little redemption.] I started out riding with Adam so Sam could get used to driving it without the extra weight. He got the hang of it very quickly and then I hopped on behind him. Admittedly, I'd been nervous, but driving behind Adam made it a lot easier. I could tell that Sam was relaxed, which made me relax, and we both had a ton of fun driving around the city and feeling like real Parisians (although not driving anywhere near as fast as they do or weaving in and out of cars). We got to see so many sites this way, stopping along the route for commentary from Adam. We drove through the Latin Quarter, past the Sorbonne and the Pantheon, past Notre Dame, over to the 1st Arrondissement and past the Louvre, then back over the Seine past Les Invalides and up to the Eiffel tower, just to name some highlights. I think its time to buy a Vespa back home!

After the tour we didn't want to spend so many hours eating, so we grabbed tuna sandwiches at a bakery and ate them while we walked. The long skinny sandwiches in Paris are so much easier to eat while walking than the way they make them in the US! We also had two yummy mini beignets fille with chocolate. We took the metro to the Louvre - we have really mastered the metro now, including changing lines. I love the Paris metro, it is so simple and intuitive to use and you never seem to have to wait for a train! We entered the Louvre from the "Carousel" (shopping mall) which is definitely the way to do it without the line from the main Pyramid entrance.

The Louvre...what can I say? I read beforehand that it is really overwhelming and you need to plan before you go, but I thought, how overwhelming can a museum be? Well, I was dead wrong. I actually almost had a complete melt down at one point when I couldn't understand where the audio guide was telling us to be and we couldn't find anything or decide what we wanted to look at. The place is MASSIVE. Apparently if you looked at every piece of art for two minutes you'd be there for seven weeks!!! Since we wanted to see the Mona Lisa anyway we decided to do the "Italian collections" tour on the audio guide. We finally got the hang of it and I would definitely recommend the audio guide, at least for me, in order to get something out of a museum like this I'd rather focus on fewer pieces and learn more about them rather than just rushing by everything, especially when the plaques are in another language. I also have to say this but I am not a huge fan of basically pre-Impressionism era art, although I can certainly appreciate it. The favorite things I saw were probably the Italian sculptures, the things they could do with marble are incredible. I just can't get into some of the religious pictures from the 14th and 15th century, but I do enjoy learning about the different art styles and it takes me back to my art and architecture class in college. I've seen the Mona Lisa before, so I was prepared for how it's small, and behind glass, and people are crowded in front of it taking pictures - but it's still cool. Sam wants to go back and see more of the Ancient Greek and Roman stuff, so we'll try to do that if we have time.

After, we were tired, but I insisted on going to Angelina's as I knew we were close by. Angelina's, hands down, has the best hot chocolate in the world. It's like chocolate soup. I can't describe it, just go have it. We also had their specialty pastry, the Mont Blanc, which is some chestnut cream concoction and a "New York-Paris"which was almond something something. I wish I had kept the menu somehow, because the intricacy with which they describe the pastries, each one consisting of about 10 elements, is fascinating.

We stumbled out of there and onto the metro again back to Saint Germain, where we went to the Mono-Prix store and FINALLY got a converter so I can use my hair straightener. Important, I know. We ran over to Rue de Buci to see if the rotisserie chicken guy was still there and yes, he was cleaning up but he had a few chickens and some potatoes left! But then came the bad part....he somehow charged us 26 Euros. Yes, we got totally ripped off. Sigh. I'm hoping that this is the best chicken I've ever tasted, I'm going to find out soon. We also picked up some salads as I'm worried about scurvy if we don't get some vegetables into our bodies soon.

A bientot!

Hope you enjoy the chicken!

Still enjoying your report. Fish is on my list, but unfortunately it was closed a few years ago during the Christmas holidays. So hoping to get there next time.

Loving your report - so much that I had to make un kir while reading it. Just had to cancel my trip to Paris next month so thanks for this.

Yes the chicken was good, although not the best I've ever had..but the potatoes that cooked in the chicken fat...BEST EVER!!!! I just had to not think what they were cooked in.

We just booked tickets to see Marriage of Figaro at the Opera Bastille tomorrow night!! SO excited we got 40 euro tickets for the nosebleed seats - any tips we should know?? We've never been to an opera before, let alone in Paris of course!

This is a fun report, sharbear. Thanks for keeping up with it. Fish is on my list, too, thanks to Fodorite recommendations.

I do have to personally disagree about art, though. I generally prefer everything just through the Impressionists & Van Gogh & feel that it went downhill after Cezanne. Each to his own (Caravaggio & Rembrandt being among my personal favs). Amazing calculation about the two-minute/seven-week Louvre estimate.

Looking forward to more. Enjoy!

Paris – Day 4 – Monet, Mozart, and Macarons
Sorry so long since my last post…it’s hard to keep up with this! Now I just hope I can remember what we did. So in the morning we really wanted crepes, so we went to this place called L’avant Comptoir, which is a tiny tapas bar at night but has a crepe window during the day. Sam had chocolate banana and I had egg and gruyere. Delicious, and they fold them in this intricate way so you can eat them while you walk (or over a trash can, with napkins, in our case). We walked to the Musee d’Orsay, which basically picks up where the Louvre leaves off and features my favorite period of art – Impressionism (I know, I’m original that way right?). There were two long lines out front, and our hopes of cutting them with our museum pass were quickly dashed, but at least we were able to get in the shorter “reserved ticket” line (tip: buy tickets beforehand if you don’t have the pass). An entire group of 30 schoolchildren tried to cut into our line, but Sam was having none of that. Now we see that the children learn these habits here at a young age…

The building itself is beautiful, and although it is under renovation, they seemed to have done a good job of using the available space. We chose to get the audio guides again and it seemed much more manageable compared to the Louvre, as we spent the whole time on one floor. We saw paintings by Manet, Degas, Cezanne, Pisarro, Renoir, Monet, etc. There’s no much I can say about these paintings that someone much more knowledge about art than I am hasn’t said already, but it was an amazing experience to see them.

After, we crossed the Seine and walked through the Tuileries garden to the Place de la Concorde and the start of the Champs-Elysees. We were very tired at this point so we hopped on a bus to take us most of the way up the Champs. We got out right before the Arc de Triomphe and despite my wanting to avoid eating in such a touristy area, we were hungry, so we ate. And my ceasar salad was very good, if only a little overpriced. We ate next door to Laduree, so decided to go in there and buy macarons, finally. We got coffee, raspberry, pistachio, and citrus – all delicious of course – and met a lovely couple who live not far from us at home, it’s a small world.

We quickly rushed back to change for the Opera. We had just decided the night before to try to get tickets for something like this, and we saw some relatively cheap tickets for the Marriage of Figaro at the Opera Bastille so we jumped on it. I didn’t quite realize that the Bastille opera house is new, very new, and so doesn’t have that traditional old Opera house feeling one might want in Paris. Nevertheless, it is a striking modern space and probably more comfortable for actually sitting there. The opera was beautiful, although perhaps for a first opera it wasn’t the best choice to go to one where the music AND the subtitle captions are in languages that we don’t really speak. I hate to admit this, but we left at intermission, because we didn’t realize it was over 3 hours. But we really really did enjoy the almost 2 hours of it that we saw!

Then we walked in our nice clothes to L’as du Falafel in the Marais because I realized we were nearby and we’d been wanting to try it ever since the walking tour the other day. We got huge sandwiches, I think about 20 falafels in there! Delicious, of course. Although my stomach today is protesting.

I have to add that all the French people we’d interacted with up to this point had been really lovely, not at all rude as some people say. This changed a bit the next day, but I had intended to post on how nice people were so I wanted to do that!

p.s. the chicken was excellent.the potatoes were even better.

Loving your trip report and waiting for more!

Bonjour! Today was a great day. We tried to get up early, once again, and failed, once again...we didn't arrive at Notre Dame till after 10:30. We got on the line that had been too long last time we went, and was long again, but this time determined to make it through. Why were we so determined, you might ask. Because we thought this line was the only way to see the inside of the Notre Dame (those of you who know where this is going are already shaking your heads, laughing at us). After we had been waiting for a half hour, and we talked for awhile with some very nice New Zealanders, we realized that the line we were in was to go to the top of the Notre Dame for the view, not for the inside. D'oh! The inside HAS NO LINE. In other words, we could have gone inside last time we were here, and not taken the trip back here at all!!! My mind started to race, thinking of all the things we could've done instead of this and how we were wasting time, when the New Zealanders reminded me that we'd already stood on line this long so we might as well wait....right. Actually, it turned out to be really cool. There were some amazing views from the top of the city, but also views of the church that most people don't get. I have some great photos of the gargoyles and the bell tower now. And perhaps we can skip climbing the Eiffel Tower now that we've had this view...And we still had a little time left to go and see the awe-inspiring sight that is the inside of Notre Dame. It is just so massive and such an architectural feat.

We had just enough time to catch the Metro to our fun lunch plans. We had managed to secure a lunch date with Rachel Khoo - read all about her here: http://www.thelittlepariskitchen.com/. Basically, she's from England and trained as a pastry chef at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and has a cookbook deal and invites people over to try her recipes out on them. I don't remember how I found out about her; there is an article in the New York Times about her but I think I may have linked to her from other blogs I read. Anyway, I got on her mailing list and when she sent a list out with available dates, one was perfect for us, and I was the first of hundreds to respond! Go me! That was a very happy day at work.

We arrived at her apartment in a very un-touristy area of Paris, which was nice to see. She lives in an absolutely tiny studio - apparently its 21 m2 and she used to live in an even smaller one! Hard to imagine. But it's so cosy and the walls are lined with cookbooks and there are big windows letting lots of light in. The kitchen is also tiny and doesn't even have a real oven which makes what she does all the more impressive. We had a wonderful two hours of great food and conversation. We started with a savory play on creme brulee which was actually a caramelized onion tart, followed by steak with sweet potato "fries" and radish salad, and then we finished with an apple cake with french caramel, which is darker and more bitter than American caramel. We were so stuffed. We really enjoyed talking with her, and she thanked us for not being quiet and forcing her to do a stand up comedy routine. I"m sure her cookbook will be a great success and we look forward to saying we "knew her when." She recommended a few stores, including one where she got this mustard Sam loved with pear liquor in it, so of course we went on the way home and got four of them.

Full and tired, it was definitely time for an afternoon siesta, which we took. Rachel had suggested we get picnic stuff to take to Versailles tomorrow, so we wanted to go to a cheese shop, but they were all closing soon. We thought we had enough time to make it to Barthelemy, so we walked quickly there, arriving at 7:25 only to be told in rapid French that we could look but not buy (at least that's what I think they said). They then literally slammed the door in our face with a not very nice "au revoir." Sigh. I guess this is the infamous French rudeness? So we went to the Mono Prix near us - honestly even though I have an aversion to these big stores in France, as I have this vision of going to one store for cheese, another for bread, etc, the Mono Prix really is great and is nothing like the big box stores we have at home in terms of food quality at least. I was very excited to see some cheeses there from another famous cheese shop, so we purchased some of that and then decided to get some more stuff to eat on our balcony tonight. We came back and made amazing sandwiches of leftover rotisserie chicken, wonderful goat cheese, fig jam, and thin apple slices on tomato-basil ciabatta (a nice change from baguette). With a Chateau Margaux wine, it was a wonderful dinner. I'm amazed by the good prices we can get on wine here, presumably because there are no importing costs.

Rachel already posted about our lunch!: http://www.thelittlepariskitchen.com...es-tarte-tatin

I've been so busy I haven't really had a chance to focus on the comments.
CaliNurse - I also found the womens courtyard at the Conceirgerie one of the most powerful parts of the experience.

YankyGal - I saw Au Revoir les Enfants in French class in high school (I went to a Jewish school), and I do recall needing a box of tissues!

I'm relishing your reports. Re: good wine prices-wait 'til you get to Provence and those Cotes du Rhones! And your picnic skills will come in handy. Keep up the good "work". And bravo for scoring your lunch invite.

I love L'Avant Comptoir! (just don't try to pay with a large bill)...next door at l"Comptoir is terrific...we went twice last trip

So funny, I did the same thing the first time at Notre Dame

We actually got up early this morning for the first time, because we were so scared after reading terrible reports of lines and crowds at Versailles from people who did not get there early enough. We grabbed a baguette from the only place open, packed up the rest of our stuff, and got on the RER C (suburban train) at the Saint Michel station. Except it wasn't quite that simple. It was easy enough to buy the special suburban train tickets, but once we got onto the platform we saw a train waiting and about to leave, so of course we got on the train. I mean that's what everyone would do right? Just get on a waiting train with no idea what train it is. So we started asking some French commuters if the train was going to Versailles, and they had no idea, which in and of itself was probably a bad sign since Versailles was at the end of the line we were supposed to be on and the whole line was named after it. At the next stop we got off and looked around, but still had no idea. Finally a lady on the train told us "non." Luckily we were able to get out and still get on the right train, as we finally noticed the TV screens up above with schedules on them! (Note: When you get off the train, unlike when you take the metro within Paris, you actually have to insert your metro ticket again, which we didn't know, so Sam had thrown his out....don't do that.)

When we got to Versailles we were happy to see almost no line, even though the tour buses were starting to pull in. Our admission was covered by the museum pass which was great, and the audio guide is free. My favorite fact about Versailles is that it was originally built as a hunting lodge. Some hunting lodge! We toured the royal apartments and the hall of mirrors, and the room that I forget the name of that has paintings of every great French military battle in chronological order around the room. Every room is ornately decorated and the ceilings are all painted. It's quite a site. Versailles is definitely a must-see if you have more than a couple days in Paris. I've never seen anything like it, and to think that it was housing the royal family not that long ago! But as amazing as the inside is, the grounds are even more ridiculous - they seem to go on forever. We strolled around and had a picnic lunch of bread, cheese, fig jam, and apples. Everyone kept walking by and thinking "why didn't we bring a picnic?" We walked over to another palace on the grounds that we had admission to with our pass but by then all the rooms were starting to look the same to me, so we caught a train back to Paris.

After yet another nap, we went to check out Le Bon Marche, the famous French department store and grocery store. While I had never seen anything like Versailles, I'd also never seen anything like Le Bon Marche' Grand Epicerie! I took some video of it that I will try to upload and post later. The food store is known for having the best food from all over the world. Hundreds of different kinds of mustards, olive oils, vinegar, truffles, hand-made pastas, chocolates, meat, caviar, pate, terrines, foie gras, cheeses, prepared foods, breads, pastries, wine, alcohol and on and on. We bought some gifts to take home but it was really hard not to buy the whole store. Just to help explain the store better, here are some examples of specific things you could buy: Mustard with black currants; smoked salmon en croute, dark chocolate with grapefruit peel, truffle ravioli, and a bottle of Chateau Lafite for 1250 Euro. We went to the clothing part of the store which was fun to look at but way out of my range to buy, except for a scarf. There is such a large section of scarves and hats compared to what you see in the States, I even saw some hats similar to ones worn at the Royal Wedding but I couldn't decide where I'd wear mine to if I bought one...

We ate dinner at L'Atlas - a Moroccan restaurant recommended on David Leibowitz's blog, Chowhound, Fodors, and others. It certainly lived up to the recommendations. Luckily for us, there were English translations on the menu, but Moroccan cuisine is still relatively foreign to us. They immediately brought us olives, carrots, and amazing spicy potato salad to the table. Then we continued with a salad sampler which included spinach with olives, tomatoes and eggplant, preserved lemons, and much more. We shared couscous with meatballs and a lamb tagine with apricots and mint. Our waiter, while not speaking very much English, was emphatic about pointing to what we should eat on the menu which was helpful. They spooned couscous onto our plates from a giant platter, then they brought a big bowl of broth with vegetables that they poured over the couscous. They also brought bowls of raisins, chickpeas, and harissa to add in. It was an amazing presentation. Everything was outstanding, the couscous was super fine and fluffy and spiced, the lamb was falling off the bone, and the apricots and mint added just the right amount of sweetness.

Right now we are attempting to use the combo washing machine/dryer in our apartment. It keeps alternating between gurgling noises and the sound of a jet taking off so we're a little scared about what is going to happen to our clothes. Stay tuned....oh and for our 3 star Michelin lunch tomorrow!

You make everything sound so delicious. I'm drooling and will continue to do so, until late September when we get back to Paris!

That picnic idea will give you tremendous benefits in your future travels....a couple of years ago we picnic'ed on a trail overlooking the Grand Canyon in the US with some surprisingly good fresh sandwiches and a bottle of wonderful Cotes du Rhone wine we'd dragged along from a stop in Sedona. Yeah, you're not supposed to have wine in National Parks in the US, but no one said a thing to us, other than casting amazingly jealous glances....

We owe it all to our travels in France, where we learned the advantages of le picnic

Yes! How did I not mention our half bottle of wine and real wine glasses we brought??

glad to hear about L'Atlas...have been interested in going there

I am going with three other women to Paris for a week and to Provence for a week in October so it is really nice to follow your travels. You are giving me some great ideas and a lot of vicarious but valuable experience. Thanks for this blog!

Paris - Day 7 (May 20)

Today was the day we'd been waiting for: our lunch at Guy Savoy, a 3 star Michelin restaurant. We'd secured a "deal" for their daily lunch special that one table gets - making the meal only astronomically expensive instead of stratospherically (I'm actually not sure how those two compare, but you get the point). I spent a lot of time choosing the right 3 star restaurant for us, and I was a little anxious that it would live up to our expectations and we would feel it was money well spent. I'll get right to the point in case you want to skip all the food details: It did, and it was. I want to say it was the best meal of my life. It may have been, or at least on par with the other best meal of my life up until now at Topolobampo in Chicago (Rick Bayless' gourmet mexican). It's hard to compare the two though since the cuisines are so different.

Anyway, from the minute you walk in the whole meal feels effortless. The service is impeccable yet unobtrusive, and not too fussy or formal. They offered us the apertif and champagne cart, but did not push at all when we said no. There were English menus and our waiter spoke perfect English, although at an incredibly fast pace which was hard to follow. He gave us clear recommendations for food choices and we decided to go with the expert. The sommelier let us feel like we were picking the wine, while he was really picking the wine, and he seemed to sense what we wanted to spend. And now, the food:

Amuse Buche #1: Foie Gras with Black Truffles on Toast (no picture, sorry - it was a tiny bite and went too fast). They brought us a second bite when they saw how much we liked it.

Amuse Buche #2: Chilled cucumber soup and tiny beet tartlet. Amazing presentation and super bright flavors.

he bread trolley. I wish I'd gotten a picture of this. 10 different kinds of bread. I tried seaweed baguette! We also had two kinds of butter on the table.

Appetizer: We both had the same thing - artichoke black truffle soup accompanied by mushroom brioche with truffle butter. Decadence in a bowl. And they encouraged us to dip the brioche in the soup. This is probably their most famous dish, and I certainly understand why.



Entree: They actually brought these out to us in these vacuum bags and let us smell them before taking them away to plate them. Sounds weird when I write it here, but it was awesome.
Sam - duck liver with radishes, and a side of just-fried turnips with crispy duck bits (that's not the way it was described on the menu, but that's what it was)
Me - Chicken breast steamed with lemongrass sauce, and a side of mushrooms and swiss chard puree. (I know, I ordered chicken - the waiter recommended it and it was unlike any chicken I've ever had before. SO MOIST).

Desert:
Me - Strawberry. That was the name of the desert. It was several different plays on strawberries - fresh ones, sorbet, dried strawberries, and granita. Every bite was a strawberry explosion.
Sam - mille feuille pastry with vanilla bean cream.

And more desert....they brought out a desert cart! They offered us different ice cream flavors, rice pudding, chocolate tart, and I can't even remember the rest..I was in a food coma by then. We ended the meal by taking a picture with Guy Savoy himself outside! At first I had been a little upset he hadn't come over to our table like he had to some other ones, but I just decided to ask our waiter if we could meet him - why not!? I was definitely there for the food, not the famous chef aspect, but I knew I would like having a photo with him.

Then, even though we were in our nice clothes, we went to the Eiffel Tower since we had only seen it quickly on our Vespa tour. There was a much shorter line for the stairs only section, as opposed to the lift, so we did that but only to the first observation deck. We figured we burned off maybe a few bites of our lunch that way at least! Beautiful views of course and I think I was able to find and take a picture of the apartment building my dad lived in for a few months when he was a kid.

We went back to the apartment to rest, and then against our better judgment decided to try to go to Montmartre for the sunset at Sacre Coeur as we hadn't been there yet. But we were hungry (I know, I can't believe we wanted to eat again), and we barely had time to get there by sunset (which is extremely late in Paris - around 9/9:30), and it was far away....we finally got there on the Metro and walked as quick as we could up, up, and up some more...until finally we got to the steps of Sacre Coeur where a veritable United Nations of people were chatting, boozing, and watching the sun go down. Or, er, watched the sun go down, as we'd definitely missed it. Sam went running off somewhere chasing the last remnants of sunset (and a mysterious public bathroom that never materialized) while I watched the pretty post-sunset colors of the sky and did some great people-watching/eavesdropping. We took the funicular down from the hill as my poor knees had had enough. While it was quite beautiful up there, the rest of Montmartre looked incredibly touristy so we got out of there as quick as we could.

For dinner we just went to the Italian place on our street - we'd been drooling over peoples' plates every time we walked by. Now, all the restaurants in France squeeze tables together in ways that would be impossible in America due to the average wide girth, however this restaurant took it to a new level. In order to even get into our seats our entire table had to be pulled out from the row and then put back again. Crazy. You basically have to take turns with your neighbor in order to talk to the person across from you. I saw "salmon pasta" on the menu (in english). I asked the waiter what sauce, he didn't know what I meant, and I didn't know the French word for sauce, so I tried another way - "Cream?" "No, no cream." Good, I just wanted pasta with a nice piece of salmon on top and a light sauce. But what came to the table? Pasta with SMOKED Salmon and CREAM sauce. Fail. I ate some of it and ordered a plate of marinated vegetables, which were yummy. Sam had pasta with truffle cream and olives.

Then it was home to pack and sleep for only a few hours before catching our early morning train to Provence!

I can't believe you're still being so good about keeping this up while you're on the ground & on the go. Thanks for thinking of us, Sharon. It's great fun to eat/travel with you vicariously. Looking forward to your Provencal experience. That will be our next stop after Paris, too.

~ Shari

Thanks sap! I did fall a few days behind, but I also have more time now that I'm in Provence...I also just figured out how to add photos on my blog, not sure they will work in here but I am pasting the blog link if people want to see photos: eatdreamtravel.blogspot.com

More posts coming very soon!