Paris: Towers

Some tourist highlights of Paris are towers. We visited the biggies.

We visited the Notre Dame Cathedral on our first full day. It is an emotional experience to walk there, one of the most famous and storied cathedrals on Earth. It is beautiful and opulent, as so many European cathedrals are.

We were able to visit one of the towers; the other was undergoing restoration.

It was a long climb up a spiral staircase.

We did not hear the bells, alas.

Still, it was quite a treat. We had a perfect day for city views!

 


To be upclose and personal to the gargoyles: lovely. It felt like touching history.

 And then the long climb down with the lovely Annette!

I had mixed feelings about the Arc de Triomphe. Of course, it is a landmark. And an interesting piece of architecture. The military history is interesting but does not move me. It has great views once you climb the staircase up and up and up.

Another "tower." Our apartment was on the third floor (European style; that's the fourth floor for you and me). No elevator. It was a good workout going up and down every day.

And of course, the Eiffel Tower. We went in the evening. It was beautiful at night, and we got to see the twinkling lights.

We half walked, half elevator'd up the tower. Again, it was just a thrill to be inside one of the most iconic places on Earth.

Annette and I had great laughs, too. I was trying to get selfies (or "samesies" as I called them), and she was photo-bombing me. I laughed until I nearly pee'd my pants. It was great fun.

Paris: Food

Yes, food capital of the world. But it wasn't a focus of our trip (*duck and cover*).

But there were definitely high points!

The highlight for me was the Patisserie/Boulangerie right across the street. I stopped in minutes after arriving and bought a quiche du fromage, which the shopkeeper heated up for me. I took it with me and walked down to Pont Neuf. It was the most delicious quiche I've ever tasted! YUM!

I stopped into the shop nearly every day, either for croissants or pain chocolat for breakfast, a bagette, quiche on mulitple days, or pastries.  The tart citron was to. die. for.

We had an apartment with a small kitchen, so for cost savings and convenience, we ate in quite a bit. Most of our breakfasts and some of our dinners were in. The rest of the time was street food (crepes, sandwiches), picnics (cheese, baguette, wine), falafel, and what-have-you. 

Crepes: Nutella, Chocolate, Grand Marnier, Lemon ...Wow! all were delicious.

Picnics: We had two or three picnics, with bread, cheese, fruit and wine. It was beautiful sitting river-side, boat- and people-watching. Once we took sandwiches from Cosi, which was a go-to place for Annette. She had discovered it with her group, and was delighted that it was just a short walk from our apartment.

We had one breakfast, one lunch, and one dinner that were each quite special and satisfied our need to partake of the French Food Experience.

Breakfast one day was at Le Deux Magots, a well-known cafe that was frequented by artists, writers, and philosophers, including Picasso, Hemingway and Sartre.  We enjoyed baked goods and the most amazing hot chocolate--more like melted chocolate bar than any hot chocolate I've ever had!  Yummers.

Our view from our street-side table at Le Deux Magots. That's the oldest church in Paris, for which the neighborhood is named. St. Germain des Pres.  Maybe Hemingway sat there one day!

Delicious chocolate and pastries

We had a beautiful lunch at the Cafe Campana inside Musée d'Orsay. The museum is housed inside a former art deco train station. It's a beautiful building, and the restaurant was stunning, decorated in orange and aqua. I took only crappy iPhone pictures, apologies for the quality. I had croq monsieur. Delicious.  (I'm not sharing a picture of the food.  Food pictures never translate well!)

Our fancy dinner came on our last night, when we walked the few steps up the street to Restaurant Procope, the oldest restaurant in Paris (1686). We sat and enjoyed dinner where Victor Hugo, Benjamin Franklin, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Voltaire enjoyed their dinners! As an apertif we enjoyed a glass of Kir Royale. Oh. my. Gawd. It was the best glass of champagne I've ever tasted. I nearly had an out-of-body experience!  For dinner, though the Calf's Head sounded tempting (not), I had traditonal onion soup followed by Coq au Vin. Delicious. Annette enjoyed gazpacho and duck.

We are among esteemed company!

Inside Procope

Cheers! The best champagne ever: Kir Royale. Oh, my!

Thumbs-up for gazpacho!

The Coq au Vin came in a pretty copper pot!

After that fine, traditional French meal, our vacation was complete.