3rd Day in Paris

Off to a late start again, we headed out on Monday morning for our last chance at a coffee and croissant. After breakfast we climbed the hill to Sacre-Coeur. We explored the Montmarte neighborhood along the way and tried to picture Renoir and Picasso hanging out in the cafes of this area.
After a struggle to find a lunch spot (it was after 2pm) we found a reasonable spot near the Louvre to refuel and then headed to Marais is now officially my favorite part Paris! It has really cute shops and funky cafes. We will definitely explore in more detail next time. After shopping for a few hours we headed into a nice lounge for our last aperitif of the trip and then back on the bikes to the hotel to grab our bags.

We hoped into a cab and I headed for the train station to return to London and Greg headed to the Sofitel for one more night and a meeting the next day where he showed in business casual and everyone else had on a suit and a tie...Greg has purchased two new suits and about four new ties since!

All in all a great trip and I am ready to move to Paris!

Day 2 in Paris - a little less magical

Less, magical as you will learn, but I must start by saying that Paris is a stunningly beautiful city. Day 2 starts with us sleeping in a bit, we then set off in search of breakfast. On the walk back from dinner, Tiff said she wanted croque monsieur for breakfast and I saw a place that looked authentic pretty close to our hotel. Unfortunately they were closed (August in Paris) and Tiff was getting hungry. In these situations, I've learned to let Tiff lead the way. So, we're wandering the streets and not finding anyplace with croque monsieur. In fact, most places aren't serving breakfast anymore since it's around 10/10:30, not to mention that Tiff has led us into the Asian-town section of Paris. Anyway, we're walking past a hotel where some tourists have all their luggage on the sidewalk and I'm trying to navigate around them when out of the corner of my eye I see some pigeons flying away and some "stuff" falling from the sky. Not only do I see it, I also feel it on my back. I ask Tiff, "did I just get shit on by a pigeon." I can see she is simultaneously trying not to laugh and gag as she says, "yes. we need to go back to the hotel." 20 minutes later, I'm in the shower vigorously washing the back of my head and neck. Luckily we didn't run into Pierce in my sub-optimal condition. Tiff probably would have died from embarrassment. Sorry, we don't have any photos of this incident. Although it is good luck I hear. Anyway, we end up settling on Le Pain Quotidien (Parisians probably view this as equivalent to McDonalds. They have them in NYC for goodness sake) for breakfast. It's packed and not a good experience. They forget/get wrong our order and it takes 30 minutes to pay the bill.

We put the morning behind us and I lead the way to some tourists attractions. We walked through the Louvre and went to the Isle de Cite to check out the Concierge (it's OK, but not really memorable), Notre Dame and the St. Chapelle church. When we walked upstairs in St. Chapelle we both said, "wow". You think once you've seen one church/duomo you've seen them all, but this one is pretty remarkable. The photos don't do it justice.





We then walked off our croissants and headed to the Latin Quarter which is the university area of the city. Definitely less touristy which was nice. We grabbed a drink at Brasserie Balzar (recommended by Frommers - as was Au Pied de Cochon) which was fine. We had been eyeing these bikes that you can rent. Turns out the city has a pretty new program where they've installed 10,000 bikes (soon to be 20,000) stationed throughout the city. You just pick one up and ride it wherever you want to do and then drop it off at a station near your destination. We grabbed a couple of bikes, braved the Paris traffic and rode to the Arc.

(bike docking station with only one bike available)

At this point it was time to start planning dinner. I had made a reservation based on another Frommer's recommendation and we decided to cancel it (given the so-so Frommer's track record) in hopes of going back to Bistrot Vivienne. Unfortunately, not much is open on Sunday night (including Vivienne) so we checked out the Palace Royal and found an Italian restaurant called Martin that was pretty good. Only people eating were us and a lone Asian-American girl who ordered 3 entrees. The waiter/bartender/host/owner? warned her, but she claimed she was hungry. As I recall, she wasn't a big girl, but thanks a lot for perpetuating the American stereotype. After an early dinner, we headed back to the room for a power nap and then grabbed a drink at the legendary Hotel Costes. The Hotel is rumored to have lost some of its lustre, but as a first time visitor I was impressed. They have an open-air restaurant that looked really cool and the bar was a pretty good scene for a Sunday night. Drinks were a little more reasonable than the Ritz, plus you got a free cup of crisps (potato chips).

That about sums up day 2. Pigeon crap, no Pierce Brosnan, lots of drinking and some bike riding. By the way, even though I'm trying to build up my tolerance for Mike and Nicole's wedding in Portland in the next week, I'm starting to reach my limit on consumption of buttery food and wine/alcohol. Tiff, on the other hand, is still going strong.

Three Magical Days in Paris - Day One

Greg had a meeting in Paris, so we took advantage of the opportunity and headed to Paris for the three day "bank holiday" weekend. We took the Eurostar over through the chunnel for the first time and it was really easy...much, much better than dealing with the lines and strip searches at the airport.

We popped out of the Metro at opera and were awed my the magnificence of the opera house (in my opinion, the most beautiful building in Europe). Greg gets out the camera only to find that the screen is cracked - we've had this camera all of about two moths. Grr...we decide to take photos anyway looking through the view finder (so 1990's) and as you can see, it worked for the most part!

We stayed at the Hotel Castille. It was perfect. Great location across from the Ritz and next to the original Chanel - I was in heaven. The beds were so comfortable it was hard to get out of bed in the morning.

We headed down the road for a late dinner a pretty good spot called Restaurant Flottes. I had a delicious dinner including my favorite - a cheese course! After dinner we went for a lovely walk along the Rue de Rivoli and Jardin des Tullerjes where they were having a carnival. It was a great night and set the scene for a wonderful weekend.

We woke up the next morning and headed to La Duree a famous tea house for our first pain chocolate and croissant. It was perfect. On our way out I noticed this rather striking, hansom older gentleman headed into La Duree with his wife and two children....it was non other than James Bond himself, Pierce Bronsen. Our first celebrity spotting since arriving in London and my second encounter with Remington Steele.

After a morning of shopping Rue Saint Honore and a long hunt for Christian Louboutin, we had a nice long lunch sitting outside at a cafe (Le Cafe des Inities) watching the world go by. It was perfect except for the obnoxious American couple next to us on their cell phones, but we didn't let that interrupt our experience.

After that we headed over the Latin Quarter and wandered around,to walk off our lunch and finish off our shopping. After a nap, we head back out for a dinner a Au Pied de Cochon. While the french onion soup was tasty, it's not a place I would recommend - a bit of a tourist trap. Again we were seated next to an interesting couple who discussed very intimate details of their relationship and her "exploratory" university days. After that we headed to find a better option for dessert and stumbled upon Bistrot Vivienne - a great find and highly recommended. We sat outside and enjoyed the night surrounded by only french speakers, oblivious to their conversations.

We capped off the night with a trip the the Hemingway Bar at the Ritz. It was a bit surreal going through the revolving door that I had seen so many times on the various Princess Diana tributes over the years, but I quickly forgot all about that as we were entering the bar as Pierce (I figure we should be on a first name basis by now) and his wife were leaving. Crazy. Anyway, this bar is famous as a spot where Hemingway hung out - hence the name. It very small and classic with wood walls. We sat down and were handed a menu. Greg's eyes nearly popped out of his head - the cheapest drink listed was 28 Euro or about $40! We decided that it wasn't just the drink, but the experience we were paying for, and it was too small a spot to duck out gracefully, so we enjoyed every sip of our drinks!