Paris

We kept going back and forth between how we would fill our days, there is so much to do and see and experience and we knew that we would only scratch the surface in the time allotted, basically 4 days.

We arrived into Paris in the afternoon, and made our way via metro to the Latin Quarter, where our hotel was. Hotel Marignan wasn’t fancy, but it was perfectly charming and comfortable. It was central, and close to a few Metro stops, which made it easy to get around. We also discovered Donkey Republic, the bike rental company that has bikes all over the city. The first evening, Rob and I donned some bikes and took to the streets of Paris. We road towards the Eiffel Tower.  As we maneuvered on main streets and through small alleyways, we stumbled into our first views of the majestic tower, back lit during golden hour, with a glowing fiery hue. Heart bursting, we took a deep breathe, hopped off our bikes, looked at each other with the same overjoyed expressions, and smiled real BIG.

We let the tower lead us the rest of the way to the park right below. We grabbed some fruit at a nearby stand and popped down on the grass, soaking in the sight.

We were going to ask this family to snap a quick picture of us, but thought it would be nice to offer to take one of them on their camera first. The mom looked at us a little confused as Rob was gesturing to hand over their camera to him. She then pointed at Rob’s and asked for his also, in a somewhat awkward exchange. After we took their photo, we came to realize that they were initially wary about handing over their camera to strangers and we all laughed that we had exchanged cameras for each set of pictures, as insurance, of course.

We continued riding over to an art exhibit that Rob was exited to see, Palais de Tokyo. It was amazing and a little overwhelming. We were in dire need of some late night dinner, but decided to head up to the Arc de Triumph, and ride down the glamorous Champs Élysées. We continued along the Seine river and found ourselves riding along the Palais and the Louvre – which are night are just so magical with all the lights and the glowing glass pyramid. We rode back to the bike lock station near our house and called it for the night. Hello zzzzzzz’s.

The next day, we went to Montmarte – the area in the Northern part of the city. Note – this is the hilly part of Paris and while you get super amazing views, you also get tired feet and the crankies if you don’t stay on top of your hunger levels.  I had spotted a restaurant that I wanted to end at for dinner, so we took the metro up to the area and stayed there all day. We weaved in and out of narrow streets, popped into hip boutiques, and marveled at the mix of ethnicities represented in this area. It was a beautiful spot to walk around in. We waiting until the sun was about to set, and then walked up the 300+ narrow steps in the Sacre Coeur Basilica tower, the highest point in the city. We waited for the sun to set, and took in the vast views of the city as they slowly faded to golden.

For dinner we went to Jeanne B, just below Sacre Coeur. They specialize in rotisserie, tender meats and homemade everything. We sat outside, and chose from a chalkboard hand-written menu that our server would prop in front of each table until selections were made from the build-your-own 3-course meal. This guy was passionate about his job and worked so hard, to provide impeccable service. The food was divine. We had the “roulettes of the moment” (crostini with a creamy salty goat cheese herb spread) and Buffalo mozzarella with tomatoes and a basil herb pesto (no nuts! - rob was overjoyed he could have this pesto!). Then we had the salmon fish tartare, and roasted lamb with crisp roasted herbed potatoes. For dessert I chose the lemon meringue pie and Rob had the cherry cake with vanilla cream. I have never in my life had such a delicious tangy-tart lemon meringue like this one. The meringue was piped on beautifully and torched to perfection, it almost had the consistency of a caramelized marshmallow cream - sprinkled with lime zest. It was more like a thin tart than a thick slab of overly-sweet Marie Calendar’s pie. I found this place by scouring the Michelin website, as we were trying to find something quality, but not overly fancy and crazy expensive. This was the perfect spot for us.

It was actually more difficult to find quality food without paying exorbitant prices, so this was a real winner. Michelin actually has a category for this called, Bib Gourmand, which means "exceptionally good food at moderate prices”. Yep, that’s my kind of spot.

As soon as we left the restaurant and started in the direction of the metro, we ran a college friend and her husband, about 50 feet from where we were eating. It was one of those moments where you want to blink a few times and then rub your eyes, not quite grasping if you are seeing reality or something that your mind is making up. Our friends were honeymooning and it was such a joy to catch them on the tail end of their European honeymoon adventure. We planned to grab a bite to eat the next day, at L’Avant Comptoir du Marche, a stand-up bistro that Anthony Bourdain has highlighted in his Paris edition travel show. We had everything from stuffed anchovies in olive oil to spiralized carrot salad and croquettes. The best thing were the puffed fried cheese squares - basically fried squares of cheese that puff up with air in the middle, zested with lime and perfectly crunchy.

Rob and I definitely got some shopping in, crediting Le Marais area for all of our best finds. This area might also have been a top favorite in the city, as it had a vibrant and youthful feeling, loaded with boutique stores and creative shops. Every twisty alley we walked around, somehow got more charming and had one more cute cafe or aromatic restaurant beckoning us to step inside. We found found ourselves in the sweetest Italian spot, Piccoli Cugini, where the charming owner sat us at his favorite spot in the house. We ordered a Pizza Diavola (because we need spicy everything), to share and I added artichokes, why not!

The variety of food in this city is amazing. Flakey croissants, Italian pizza, Vietnamese bowls. You name it, they have it.

The last day in Paris, I took a cooking class at Le Foodist, with the owner Chef Fred. It was a market tour first and cooking class back at his pristine and charming professional kitchen space. I’ll have a separate post about this so I can share all the amazing recipes and tips I learned! Spoiler alert: we cooked with a lot of butter, drank good wine and learned (to my surprise) that they don’t eat a croissant for breakfast everyday (gasp!), but they do eat half a baguette daily.

Parisians kept telling us that Paris isn’t really a part of France, that is was it’s own world, culture cuisine and way of life. I’ll have to compare this to our travels ahead when we head to Biarritz and Bordeaux. More to come!

Feed your Sense of Wonder,

Chrissy Weir

PS. Enjoy the full gallery here, just click the photo to view the next!