I talked Greg into taking a trip to Paris for Valentines Day. We headed out on Friday morning and arrived in time to have lunch at our favorite spot, Bistro Vivienne. We walked off lunch spending quite a bit more time exploring the Marais. This time we focused on looking at art galleries (we would love to bring a nice abstract piece home with us) along with stops along the way to pick some new spring 'garments' . After a sitting down at a spot recommended by a colleague for a moules dinner, we got a bad vibe and headed at the door prior to ordering. We ended up at place in the 11th called Astier for dinner instead which was fine, but nothing exceptional. 
The next day we headed out early and walked off our pain chocolate on the left bank looking for an artist I saw the first time we went. About two miles later, we gave up on her and headed into the Latin Quarter for more art galleries and shopping. After looking at art all day, we abandoned our plans to go to the Musee d’Orsay and headed to the Galeries Lafayette for more shopping. It is a really beautiful inside, but when you live next to Selfridges its hard to impresses on the shopping front! Dinner was at Table d'Hote du Palais Royal, which I’ve been pining to go to for several months, again fine, but nothing exceptional (sensing a theme here ??).
Sunday is always a bit tricky in Paris as most things are closed. We decided to head out to the catacombs and a cool jewelry market my friend Nikki told me about in the 14th near Montparnasse. The jewelry market only had about two jewelry makers, but it had quite a bit of cool art that was somewhat more affordable than the galleries. After that we headed to the catacombs only to find out they were closed for renovations until March – bummer! We decided this was the opportunity for to spend more time in the Marais and had lunch at an interesting little Algerian restaurant. This is a photo of the very cute Briard that was also dining there – it’s rare that you don’t find a dog in restaurants in Paris (I sure with London was like that!). After lunch we walked around a bit more before heading back to the hotel (The Golden Tulip – Highly recommend, but make sure you request a room with a shower or you might end up with only a tub, which felt very French, but isn’t terribly practical when you are trying maximize your time) grabbing our bags and catching the Eurostar back to London.
Sunday is always a bit tricky in Paris as most things are closed. We decided to head out to the catacombs and a cool jewelry market my friend Nikki told me about in the 14th near Montparnasse. The jewelry market only had about two jewelry makers, but it had quite a bit of cool art that was somewhat more affordable than the galleries. After that we headed to the catacombs only to find out they were closed for renovations until March – bummer! We decided this was the opportunity for to spend more time in the Marais and had lunch at an interesting little Algerian restaurant. This is a photo of the very cute Briard that was also dining there – it’s rare that you don’t find a dog in restaurants in Paris (I sure with London was like that!). After lunch we walked around a bit more before heading back to the hotel (The Golden Tulip – Highly recommend, but make sure you request a room with a shower or you might end up with only a tub, which felt very French, but isn’t terribly practical when you are trying maximize your time) grabbing our bags and catching the Eurostar back to London.
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