One of my very close friend’s daughter had an absolute beautiful wedding day on July 20!
Wedding Day!
Another Day of Great Food and Sightseeing!
I almost didn’t have a chance to post tonight. We started the day at the Louvre, then the Arc de Triomphe/Champs Elysees. After that we went to a chocolatier recommended by one of Seth’s customers. It is called A La Reine Astrid and was amazing! We then had lunch at a cute little brasserie named L’Escale that was near the chocolate shoppe. I had a planche de fromage and Seth had a Croque Messieur. Everything was amazingly delicious! I have fallen in love with French cheese and wish I could take it home with me!!! It is so much better than anything else I have ever tasted!
I was pretty exhausted from all the walking, and especially the STAIRS, so we went back to our hotel for a break. I ended up falling asleep! I never nap! After that, we took the metro up to Montmarte and the Sacre Coeur Basilica–more stairs!! This is my favorite part of Paris! Unfortunately, it started to rain pretty hard, so there was no reason to go to the Place du Tertre, where all the artists are–we figured they wouldn’t be there in the rain. Instead we found a cute little cafe up there called Cafe Chappe. Seth again had duck (he loves duck and it isn’t easy to find in restaurants at home). I ordered the Salade Campagnare–a delightful salad with toast points covered with 3 different kinds of cheeses as well as little roasted potatoes that were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside!
This cafe had Kronenbourg also so that is what we had to drink. It was very refreshing after all of those stairs!! We ordered nutella crepes for dessert, unfortunately, they looked so delicious we ate them and forgot to take a picture!! Sorry about that!
I promise I will post sightseeing pictures also! I’m just more obsessed with the FOOD here in Paris!! Tomorrow is our last day and that makes me sad! But I am excited to see London and to visit my cousin Linda and her family next weekend!
Bonsoir!
Our Parisian Culinary Adventures
With two days left in Paris, I am happy to report that we have experienced AMAZING food and wine in the City of LIghts! I will be reporting on our sightseeing in a later post, but I wanted to share some of our culinary joys!
Yesterday, after taking the Seine River Cruise and visiting the Eiffel Tower, we had dinner at L’Avenue. We were so tired and hungry, I forgot to take any pictures. It was delicious though more expensive than I had planned. We had some amazing champagne, Seth had duck comfit, and I had a seared tuna steak. After we got back to the hotel, our hotel bartender hooked us up with some drinks and we got a great night’s sleep. At this point we had been up nearly 48 hours other than a nap here and there!
Our hotel includes a free breakfast, and I was expecting something light and “continental”, so I was pleasantly surprised to see some pretty hearty fare!
We proceeded to visit a couple of museums (Orangerie and d’Orsay) and had lunch near the latter at Tabac d’Orsay. The staff there were amazing, and I believed it was a family-run operation as the waiter and the busboy spoke about “Maman” and the younger one later left with one of the women who served us. I had seared duck with sauce du poivre and Seth had a chicken salad. Both were amazing! And they had Kronenbourg beer!!!!! I am not a beer drinker, but I fell in love with this beer on my first trip to Europe in 1982 and have NEVER been able to find it in the US! I was so happy!!
Tonight we went to a premium wine tasting at Les Caves du Louvre. We were fascinated and it was so informative! I sadly did not take pictures (I don’t think they were allowed anyway). We stopped on the way back at a lovely cafe called Cafe de la Regence. We each had MORE wine, burrata as an appetizer (excellent with fresh pesto), salmon for me (excellent roasted vegetables as a side), and chicken for Seth. He had a Glenfiddich and I had an Amaretto for our digestifs.
I do not know why the food here tastes so much better than at home! I think part of it may be the sheer freshness! We learned so much today and enjoyed our adventures, both culinary and educationally! Tomorrow will be a whole new day of adventure!
A porchaine!
Bienvenue à Paris!
We touched down at Charles DeGaulle Airport just a little after 6am local time. We didn’t get much sleep on the plane–2 hours for me and less for Seth. We were running on excitement.
Our driver was waiting for us and brought us straight to the lovely Hotel Duminy Vendome which is in an excellent location near the Louvre and Jardins Tuileries. To our pleasant surprise they had a room ready that early!! We were able to freshen up, walk to the tourist center to pick up our Paris passes, then explore our immediate surroundings!
We had lunch at the lovely Le Carousel Brasserie right across the street from the Tuileries and then strolled through the park before heading back to nap a bit.
This is a view of the back of the Louvre taken from inside the Tuileries.
Stay tuned for updates!