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We had a pretty nice day to travel to Barcelona, and based on flight schedules, it made more sense to
take the TGV to Paris instead. It took us 6.5 hours by train, and we hit a max speed of 280 km/hr, which
felt very smooth and comfortable. I did a bit of work and reading, and the time flew by.
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Apparently you CAN get IPA in Europe, just not a lot of them.
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One comment was that at least on our train, the amount of storage space for luggage was far less than
I would have expected. So that meant I had to initially stick a bag upstairs and then bring it down
after leaving Montpelier.
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Our room at Le Walt, room #103, which was the same hotel we honeymooned at. I would say it's gotten
a LOT more expensive since we were here, but I think all of Paris has cranked up prices to take advantage of
the 50M tourists a year who now come to Paris. Just silly.
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A lady biking with her purse dog in her E-bike. This was as we were walking along boul Babylone enroute to
a crazy high-end shopping mall that Natalia wanted to check out.
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These jackets are apparently 'after ski capsules'. Yes, they are quite something!
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These shoes are made by the Dandelion Mounteering Association. Yes, indeed.
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And these moonboots, made by a company called 'Moonboots' are just that.
Some of the rabbits in the window of this shopping center. Similar to Macy's in the Christmas season
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Seeing so much French butter was definitely one of Natalia's food highlights.
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Probably the biggest croissant I've ever seen. This store is called La Grande Epicerie.
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One of the dumber French words I saw on this trip.
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A whole fridge full of foie gras, which I took a photo of for our friend Nicole.
Every hour for 5 minutes the Eiffel Tower is lit up like a Christmas tree
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Most of the French beer I didn't like that much, but this one was one exception.
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The chips I bought informed me that the manufacturer is a 'chipsier'. Everyone who wants to be an
artisan in France basically invents themselves a new type of craftsman.
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Eiffel Tower in fog our first touring morning.
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We were apparently in France the same day as 'Le Sausage', a big gathering of wiener dogs and their owners.
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This gives an idea of how many people had their wiener dogs in Paris that day. It was silly.
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Natalia decided that she wanted to see Monet's big waterlilies, so we waited in line at le Musee
de l'Orangerie for maybe 20 minutes before getting in.
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Natalia liked the happy colours in this painting.
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One of the other things on Natalia's travel list was to see a Christmas Market, which in this case
was at the Jardin de Tuilleries. She was pretty stoked to see the food and the crafts here. This was
a kids' roller coaster with a reindeer head on the front of it. It makes me wonder where these rides
go when it's not Christmas market season.
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Natalia loves the 'bonbonerie' shop here.
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Some of the decorations at the tartiflette shop.
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We didn't wind up having one of these 'tete au choco' which appear to be a meringue covered in whipping
cream and then dipped in chocolate and sprinkles/toppings.
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Natalia and I and Santa at their little ice skating rink.
Natalia with their big wooden moving nativity
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Natalia with a German nativity. It turns out that all of the things she likes from a Christmas
market are all German. The artisans were all from Germany. The food I like best (beer and sausages)
are all German. But Paris is horning in on the action now. We apparently need to go to the Nuremburg
market and the Dresden one too.
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A giant pan of tartiflette, which is potatoes with cream, larder (bacon bits), and lots of cheese and
onions. Then they stick a sausage on top of it.
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A neat secure bike parking option, if you don't have an inside option.
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We went back to Berthillon, apparently the second best ice cream in the world. Natalia quite liked
her chocolate and raspberry and I had a rum and chestnut that was also delicious.
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We popped back to Repetto and found out their ballet flats are now over 300 Euro. AND they didn't
have the style Natalia wanted anyway. Yikes!
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Apparently this was a big street art thing for awhile with Space Invaders and now there's 8-bit video
game characters all over old building corners in Paris.
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Natalia and I at the Eiffel Tower after a full touring day.
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We didn't go to the Louvre on our last visit, so we had to rectify that. The weather wasn't terrific
but that's fine, we were mostly inside on this day.
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Natalia thought some of the grand apartments were incredible so we started our tour there. To me this
simply tells me the 'why' of the French Revolution. When the nobles were living like this and the rest of
the country was starving, it was simply a matter of time before the guillotines came out. Apparently the
last French execution by guillotine was only in 1977. Geez.
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This guy should have been guillotined if only for his mustache and boots.
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This is simply out of control. Just wow. Give it another year and the White House will look like this too.
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Incredible ceiling frescos in this museum.
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Big sphinx in pink granite. The Egypt material here is pretty impressive especially when you consider that
it was stolen in the 1800s so imagine the work in getting it back to Paris!
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Monkeys that were originally above the Luxor obelisk that was gifted to French as a gift when the French finally
figured out the Rosetta Stone.
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Natalia and a coffin. You could say this is a mummy with a Mommy!
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An amethyst necklace from thousands of years ago.
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This is the biggest sphinx outside Egypt.
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Natalia wanted to check out an historic kitchen store. They had pretty much every possible size of
icing stick thing, along with many many different sizes of skillet/pot.
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Natalia wanted to try beef bourguignone. I thought it was pretty bland.
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Natalia wanted to try a pastry from Stohrer, so she did.
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This was one of her favourite pastries of the trip.
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This chocolaterie had really cute Advent calendars.
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How does one decide how to allocate stomach space in a place like this?
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This day was an almond croissant day from la Maison Collette.
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As we were wandering the streets of Paris with multiple pastries and Natalia eating an almond croissant,
we were approached by a random French dude who saw Natalia living her best life and then proceeded to tell her
'Well if you like THAT, you should check out this chocolate shop!'
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This place was called 'Plaq' and sold chocolate bars for ~$40 and higher. Seriously.
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After having read Unreasonable Hospitality, I thought it would be fun for Natalia and I to try out
a Michelin-starred restaurant. This is called Aspic and we went for their 7 course degustation dinner
which meant we didn't have to order anything. This first course was a group of three little appies
with one being made with beets, one being a calamari single snack size, and a cracker with
mascarpone cheese. This was also served with a little hot pastry which was delicious.
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This was next an egg with caulifower crust. I missed the amuse bouche photo, which may have been my
favourite which was a citrus fish dish that was super tasty.
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This was a sea bass dish with red peppers and capers. The capers were awesome.
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This was a single raviolo with spinach, mascarpone cheese, and chestnuts.
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The beef dish was called out as being Semmental beef with squash and pine nuts. It was really good.
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The cheese course was actually a mini Creme Brulee served over Comte cheese and pears.
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Then we had a 'shot' with Pomme Verte and ginger to 'cleanse the palate'.
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We also got in on the wine tasting menu and tried two whites, two reds, and one champagne. We had
Terra Silvate, Les Hauts Grenache, Coteau Bourgognion gamay, and a Udoninoi Italian primitivo that
Natalia quite liked.
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The dessert was actually a double dessert with a mousse, a gelato served over a meringue.
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Then the last extra dessert was chocolates and cookies. Too good!
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I saw this poster on the way home by Metro and thought it was a bit much.
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Another day, another Eiffel Tower shot, this time with us dressed nicely. Our hotel was just a
few blocks from the Eiffel Tower, so it was a common stop.
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The top of the Eiffel Tower has a big light on it like a Bat signal and I happened to catch it here.
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Natalia took this for her friend Celine.
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Natalia decided that her pastry was better than breakfast, so she pulled it out for breakfast.
To be fair, it was quite good, but I had an omelette and a croissant every morning and that
was pretty good too. This pastry is called a 'Piemont'.
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We did a walking tour up into Montmartre on this morning. Here's Natalia with the Moulin Rouge.
At the prices they're charging for the dinner and a show, we decided a Michelin-starred dinner was
much better value.
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Natalia thought the 'Apou Market' was pretty funny with the Simpsons character on it. There were also
other types of stores here too.
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I did NOT buy a Borat mankini although this would have been the place to do it.
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Some beautiful sugared fruit tarts we saw along le rue Lepic.
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Natalia liked the ivy-covered buildings through here.
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This was another moulin in the area as well, which has been made famous by other paintings.
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Funny sculpture of a dude coming out of the wall.
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Some of the hordes of tourists up in Montmartre.
An accordion player playing 'La Vie en Rose' with a cat around his neck
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Some of the knock-off street art done in the 8-bit arcade style of Space Invaders.
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Natalia liked some of the decorations for Christmas.
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Some of the cool gothic water spouts on Sacre Coeur.
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Sacre Coeur Basilica, apparently a 'minor basilica'. Not sure what it takes to be a 'major' basilica.
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This dude's pants were out of control. It's too bad I didn't get the red velvet pants we had seen
a few nights earlier - Natalia thought her godfather Rick would have loved that.
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Natalia and a tourist train zipping around Montmartre.
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This guy's laptop sticker made me laugh as we stopped for a coffee so Natalia could use
the facilities.
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I found us a biking tour of some lesser-known Paris sites as I thought it would be cool to see the city
from a bike, and I also thought we'd cover a lot of ground. Most of the bike infrastructure is pretty
new and has massively helped to reduce traffic in the city. We left from the Hotel de Cite (city hall)
and had Clemens as our guide from Paris City Tours.
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Some of the streets of the Marais, or the old swamp.
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Evidence of the Jewish history in the Marais area.
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A 2000 year old arena from the Roman time when this was called Lutece. It apparently has the first
recorded writing with the name 'Parisi' which is what Julius Caesar said these people were called.
The Parisians had watching parties here during the Olympics which is cool.
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Natalia having an Aperol spritz at le Petite Hostellerie, a place at which she wanted to come and try raclette.
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The raclette being heated up to melt and be used to cover potatoes and onions.
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Natalia gave beef bourgognion a second try. She said it was slightly better, but still mostly bland.
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Melting raclette for my potatoes. Apparently raclette is also the type of cheese used.
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Natalia enjoying a creme brulee for dessert.
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Giant sheep horns that my friend Louis tells me is a 'mouflon sheep'. Of course it is. The French would
say that with the lips pursed while wearing a beret.
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One of the few decent French beers I had.
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Natalia had a lemon tart for dessert in our room that evening.
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Natalia and les Invalides while we're out fetching butter.
