'2016-05-20 20:53:11'

Paris

Ah Paris… I will begrudgingly admit that Paris is one of my favorite cities on the planet. I think of Paris and you very similarly, I didn’t think I would like it as much as I did, but I ended up completely in love with it.

We arrived in Paris after our first international train ride from Barcelona which put us there at around 4:30 PM. After arriving we took the subway to our hotel, another Kallie special discount! The hotel was massive, it wasn’t super tall but it had a ton of rooms and was fairly nice. After we got to the hotel we needed food quick but the local places weren’t going to be open for a while so we went to the Starbucks in the hotel to take the edge off the hunger. After that we talked to the concierge about where we could eat and after he got over the fact that we could only speak English, “I will speak English with you”, we set off on our own to try to find a place. I had a massive headache so first we went to a pharmacy which was a totally different experience because it isn’t self service like a Walgreens in America. I told the pharmacist what was bothering me and we were able to get Tylenol, she was really friendly and nice. Finally it got to 7 PM which meant some restaurants were open including the place we were eyeing, La Petit Pascal. This place is just a little hole in the wall place that has a new menu every night. The waitress looked to be at least 70 and she spoke no English. They had an English menu that was just a google translated version of their French menu. I tried to select something with sausage on the menu but the waitress informed me I wouldn’t like that so eventually with the help of Google we were able to tell her just to bring me something she thought I would like. Given that information some people might think we didn’t have a great time in this place but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Even through the language barrier our waitress was excellent and extremely kind. For an appetizer we split a goat cheese salad which was the first time you had ever had goat cheese and it was enough to convert you for life. For our entrees, you had another goat cheese salad with squash and zucchini that was one of the best things you’ve ever tasted and the steak I was brought was one of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten. If it is up to us we are definitely coming back to this place.

The next morning we went to Ble Sucre which were reputed to have the best croissants in Paris. We can’t confirm that, but there were definitely the best we have ever had. We then went on our tour of Paris with our guide Niall who was from Irish and had a great accent to prove it. He was our second favorite tour guide on our trip, he was really passionate about the material and really nice. After our tour we had lunch at Eric Kayser an awesome chain bakery in France that makes all their stuff fresh in store. Then we went to look at cute boutique stores that were near Ble Sucre. We got you some new pants! Then we went to a coffee shop to get you a latte with a heart in it! After that we walked to Monmarte to view the city and the church on top of the hill. After that we walked to where the Moulin Rouge play windmill was and I brought you a rose while you waited at a Starbucks 😉 Then we went near the Eiffel Tower to start our Seine River cruise. We went up the river past Notre Dame and then made our way back as the sky turned dark. We made it back to the Eiffel Tower at exactly 10 PM so we got to see it shimmer as we pulled up.

 

Surprise Day

While we were in London at the pub eating fish and chips, I was busy winning a surprise for you. When I won I told you that it was happening in Paris but never told her what it was. Now we both know that I was using SPG Points to win a culinary experience at a Michelin starred restaurant. The experience started out with meeting at the Prince De Galles hotel, which is the nicest hotel I’ve ever set foot in. The hotel manager was very kind to us and gave us complimentary coffee. We then went down into their wine cellar which had around 11,000 bottles of wine and then the main chef for the evening, Stéphanie Le Quellec came and served us some amazing 42 month aged ham and champagne. After this we headed up  to La Scene, the hotel restaurant. We had a five course meal with wine pairings for each course. It was a really fun new experience! The deserts were particularly special and so were the cookbooks we got from the pastry chef and chef Stephanie.

After this experience we walked like a million miles to go to the nearest Pull and Bear which was in a really weird 4 story mall. Then we took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe. There was a huge parade going on so we couldn’t go on top of it but the arch is totally massive. It blew my mind how big it was. We took metro ride back to the Eiffel tower to see it more clearly in the daylight and afterwards we went to Shakespeare and Company, a famous bookstore. At this point you were dying of hunger so we tried to get crepes but the place ridiculously busy so you ended up getting McDonald’s and I got a crepe somewhere else.

We slept in our third full day in Paris because of how much walking we had done the past two days. We went to an awesome cheese shop and got some goat cheese. Then we went back to the Ledru Rollin area where our croissant place was to get some roasted chicken. We got some with potatoes and bought a baguette. We combined all of this stuff with our cheese and had a little picnic in Paris! We were planning on going to the catacombs but decided against it when we heard it was twice as expensive as the Orsay, which we wanted to go to more anyway. On our way there we went to a couple different candy shops and the best macaroon store in Paris, Pierre Herme. They were really really good. We also stopped at a classical music shop which had a really nice man working the register. After all this we made it to the museum with an hour and a half left before the posted closing time… which is apparently too little time as they said they were no longer accepting people in. That was pretty disappointing but it’s just another reason to come back! We made our way home a little sad but we cheered up when we stopped at some cute souvenir stores. To finish our night we bought some pinot noir, always get wine when in France, and some orange juice to eat with our left overs from our picnic!.

The next morning we left Paris and it was rainy and cold. We were sad to leave but excited for the next chapter of our journey together in Germany!

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