The City of Light!

I would love to start this post with a beautiful French phrase, but my language attempts in that country only receive painful expressions from locals, so I will spare you all (also the blog doesn't do accent marks!) Brandon and I popped over to Paris for a long weekend earlier this month via the Eurostar (high-speed train from London to Paris.) It only took four hours to get from our flat in Notting Hill to our rental apartment in the neighborhood of Saint Germain des Pres just off the River Seine - amazing! Our AirBnB host had a gorgeous, Parisian apartment decorated with vintage furniture and wild Louis Vuitton shoes. If the shoes weren't so tiny I would have tried them all on!


Let me explain why we just got around to visiting Paris after living in London for over nine months when it is such an easy trip. Rewind to August 2006, my first trip to Paris. It's hot (read: smells like urine), insanely crowded with tourists, my friend and I have been traveling/studying in Europe for two months, and I have a stomach bug. Neither of us speak any French and all waiters and service people give us the cold shoulder. The fact that I can't remember the hotel we slept at is probably a bad sign.

Fast forward to the present, and you see why I may have been putting off Paris. But now I am a convert! Paris is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever visited. Yes, some Parisians suck, but who cares. Brandon's petit French helped immensely (thanks, Mark, for those lessons in the Markley dorms!)

Because it was Brandon's first time to Paris, we needed to check off the big guns from the list - the Louvre, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower.

Selfie in front of the Arc de Triomphe

In addition, we did a 3-hour walking tour of the city and learned some interesting facts about the city's founders (Celtic tribe) and its current architecture (Haussmann.) Other than those sites, we just ate tons of cheese, bread and pain aux chocolat and drank Bordeaux wine, yum! Oh yeah, and shopped on the Champs Elysees of course!

Musee du Louvre

They are going to have awesome photos of the Mona Lisa

Notre Dame

Notre Dame stained glass

My favorite meal was Saturday morning brunch at Laduree, most famously known for its macaroons. On a recommendation from a friend, we ordered the French toast or pain perdu (literally: "lost bread" for the day-old French bread used), covered in homemade raspberry coulis and creme freche and a side of scrambled eggs. For good measure, we added mini pastries, which included a croissant with German strudel filling (swoon!) To top it off, they had the best coffee we tasted all weekend.

The Laduree bakery has been around since the 19th century, and the decor in the cafe (Asian tea garden) alludes to the oriental fads in Europe at that time. It was a perfect meal in a lovely location. On our way out, we purchased the obligatory macaroons (my favorite was pistachio!)

I think our approach to the weekend was a big part of why we enjoyed the two-day trip. Paris is a substantial city with an insane amount of things to see, do and taste. We knew we couldn't come close to seeing everything we wanted to see, so we made a short list and stuck to it. We didn't make ourselves crazy rushing from one museum to the next. We took our time walking along the Seine and around the winding, cobblestone streets just enjoying each other's company and the scenery.

Suffice it to say we loved our little hop over the English Channel so much, we've already booked a return trip at the end of May! Interesting fact: Paris is nicknamed the "City of Light" after the scientists who philosophized at the famous Sorbonne university during the age of enlightenment (17th century) and for being one of the first cities to adopt gas street lamps. Au revoir!