Let me start at the end, and then I'll go back to the beginning. Monday night, as we sat on our couch we both stared off into nothingness. "I want more crêpes," Ben said.
"I wish I had bought more pastries," I replied.
"And croque monsieurs."
"And baguettes."
"And crêpes."
"Pastries. Mmm."
I'd like to tell you that we snapped out of it and went on our merry way, but instead, we moped off to bed and then trudged wearily through Tuesday, Ben at work and me unpacking and cleaning. Tuesday night, I looked at Ben, "I should have bought more pastries..."
In short, we miss Paris. And we miss its food. We had a really good time there, even when we weren't eating. On Friday morning, Ben dropped the dogs off at the kennel (we like to refer to it as "doggie camp"), and then we walked with our suitcases to the train station. A few stops and a little more than four hours later, we stepped out of the darkness of the Paris metro into a bright and bustling Paris. Voilà, Paris!
After a brief stop at our hotel to drop off our stuff, we were off to see the sights, and boy, did we see them. All weekend, nonstop, we walked and walked, and hopped on the metro and then walked some more. We did the big touristy things - Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysées, Jardin des Tuileries, Louvre, Notre Dame, Bastille. And then in the evenings we would return to Montmarte, where our hotel was, wander the streets, and find a nice café (or two) where we would sit and drink wine and watch all the other tourists wander the streets. Our favorite café was right on the Place du Tertre, a square near the Basilique Sacré Coeur where artists gather to paint, draw, sell stuff. It's totally touristy, but at the same time it's a very nice place to sit and drink wine and feel very frenchy and relaxed. It's also very nice to wander the short distance to Sacré Coeur, and look out over Paris as the sun is going down. Ahh, Pareeeee.
To give you all the details of everything would take much too long and be much too boring, so here are some of our highlights:
The Tour Eiffel!
Notre Dame!
Gargoyles at Notre Dame!
Us at a café!
Ben found a Starbucks! (I know, I know, we're in Paris and we end up at Starbucks. What can I say? Ben needed to buy a mug to add to his collection.)
Oh, and the food... The croque monsieur in the park, the quiche at a little cafe, the pain au chocolat by the Seine, the baguette from a boulangerie by Notre Dame, the tarte au chocolat in it's perfect little individually sized pastry box, the crêpes at 11:30 p.m. as we walked back to our hotel, the croissants for breakfast on a bench in Montmartre...
Oh, the food. We may always have Paris, but we won't always have warm ham and cheese crêpes and freshly baked croissants. For that, we'll have to go back.
*If you want to see more of our photos, we've got plenty. Let us know and we'll give you the link to our Snapfish album.
3 comments:
Mon dieu!
I am sooo envious.
My day consists of slogging to work and slogging back.
And the only food is what I pack in my lunch sac. Not the same. Not the same.
We will just have to start planning for our trip this summer.
Bon Sante et bon apetit.
Mom
Well, when you visit we will eat zee crepes and drink zee vin and pretend we are in Paree. Maybe we'll even go somewhere exciting, you know, besides the Netherlands.
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