I’m a little behind but I’ll start with Paris! Also, I took almost no pictures there. Whoops.
Andrew got into the city and we met around 11:45, then went to meet the owner of the apartment we were renting. I picked it because it was affordable and looked to be in a pretty good location – it was both, but the location was very touristy. We were right next to Notre Dame.
We spent most of the day on Saturday walking around, went to the Eiffel Tower, and browsed some cooking stores. I wanted to get some chocolate molds, but they didn’t have anything that I loved (and would be worth adding to my already full suitcase), so I’ll just order it online. We found a little neighborhood bar/restaurant which was one of the only non-touristy places nearby and had a pretty good dinner.
On Sunday morning, we headed to the Marche Monge (like a farmer’s market but it happens year-round) and grabbed breakfast at a little cafe on the way. The streets were dead even though it was probably after 9am – the French do not wake up early and aren’t big on breakfast. It was actually really great walking around without all of the people; otherwise, the city is so hectic. At the market, we grabbed some cheese and cured meats and had fun looking at the wares of the fish and meat mongers.
We stopped at Strada coffee for a latte, and also the best cup of coffee I’ve had in France. Then we headed to the Musee d’Orsay, the Impressionist museum, and spent a few hours looking at paintings there.
On the way home, we happened by a Laduree shop – I had really wanted to go to the main one for lunch or brunch but it was so expensive that we decided not to. At least we were able to taste the macarons! We went to a beer-bar in the evening.
Beer has not quite become popular in France yet so most bars have only one really crap beer on tap. To get a good beer, you have to find the beer-bar (which doesn’t exist in most cities) and it happened to be about 15 minutes from our apartments! We had a few microbrews at Brewberry and then bought some bottles of French and Belgian microbrews to take home with us. I’d like to note that they serve their beer in wine glasses, which is exactly how I like to drink it at home! At home, we had a dinner of sausage, cheese, fresh bread, and fruit, along with the beers. We topped off our evening with a walk by Notre Dame to what I read is “the best ice cream shop in Paris“. The next morning we were up early to catch a train to Switzerland!
More Croissants, Please! 