Paris

We arrived in Paris last Sunday on a flight from Venice. We were greatly looking forward to our 8 nights there because we were able to rent an apartment for the week in a really cool neighborhood. We were pleasantly surprised to find a really cute and practical apartment with our very own kitchen! It was really nice to feel like we had a quasi home in a foreign big city. We cooked several delicious meals, especially due to the many various fresh food markets around the entire city. We purchased lots of fresh produce, herbs, seafood, meats and yummy cheeses (nice stinky ones.) We got to dine in and hang out and have a really nice time just appreciating life's little simplicities once again.

Don't get us wrong, we definitely saw Paris of course. We visited the Eiffel Tower and climbed up 800 steps in order to reach the second level and saw an incredible city view. We also went to Notre Dame and went inside the church to see one of the most famous ones in the world. (We made friends with the hunchback.) We went to the Monmarte and Sacre Couer, which is a church at the top of a hill in which there used to be a big art colony. It was touristy to the max but was very pretty and nice and highly elevated to allow another captivating Paris view. We visited the Musee d Orsay which had a lot of impressionism and post impressionism artwork, with some really special pieces by Van Gogh and Monet. We went to the Louvre for a hot minute, because apparently if we were to spend 30 seconds on every single art piece in the entire museum we would be there continuously for 6 months. The Mona Lisa was very small, and not really as cool as the Venus de Milo and some other famous sculptures that I forgot the names of. On our last day we jogged (in the freezing Paris weather) to the Arc du Triomph which is a national monument celebrating some kind of historical victory.

We did have one really incredible meal at L'Atlelier d Joel Robuchon, and spent a nice chunck of money on some gourmet French delicacies. This was the kind of place that puts like 3 bites of food on big white plates and charges like 20 euro per plate, but it was absolutely delicious and a really fun experience...and they accidentally gave us our dessert twice, so that was pretty awesome. Besides that and cooking for ourselves we just ate random French fare and got cafe type meals, most of which were pretty good, but our favorite cheap meal was L' as du falafel in the Marais area. It was some of the best falafel we have ever had, and pretty cheap too. We also got tons of pastries and the best baguettes we have ever had. Seriously, the bread in Paris is amazing and smells like whiffs of Heaven coming out of every boulangerie.

All in all, we had a great time exploring Paris, with the sweets, food sites and culture. We also loved living in an apartment to break up the Hostel grind and would definitely stay there again if we went back to visit. The architecture and the upkeep of the city, with its greenery and cleanliness was really excellent and nice to look at. We were sad to leave, but looking forward to the rest of our trip, which is currently commencing in Amsterdam, and we will be sure to post about it as soon as we can.