Last day in Paris

Monday was our last day in Paris and involved a serious ground pound as we hiked from our hotel in the 6th to the 9th and back! All told we walked for about four and a half hours! It was a lovely day in Paris, not a spot of rain which was something the other days all included. As it was Monday, the city was returning to normal so we did some shopping. Purchases included a new bag for Lisa (which we are calling the "doggie bag"), new Carcasonne expansion sets and lavender sachets for our bags. We bought the lavender from an old guy on the street who claimed to have been born in 1934 and remembered seeing the city liberated during WWII as a young boy! He was drunk but full of good cheer and after our purchase he presented Lisa with a huge bouquet of freshly cut lavender. Never one to let a good deed go by without paying it forward, Lisa became the "lavender bandit" and started handing out lavender flowers to random people on the street. Reactions ranged from smiles and "mercis" to shocked looks and avoidance. An hour and a half later we were having dinner at Comptoir near our hotel (yummy but be prepared to wait up to an hour) when one of the families Lisa had thrust lavender upon went by with the mom still holding the lavender to her nose! Nothing like random acts of kindness! After dinner it was time for one more stroll along the Seine before bedtime and an early start for Christos the next day as he had to catch a 6:30 flight to Spain. Lisa could rest a bit longer as the return flight to Toronto was not until 11am.

PARIS NOUS AIMONS!

Paris post Bastille Day

It is Sunday afternoon and we have just returned from a visit to the Musee D'Orsay and a stroll through the Left Bank. So far our escape to Paris has been wonderful! Dinner on Friday night was amazing; truffled egg, baked cod, beef with truffle, a plate of cheeses, dessert of strawberries with pastry and chocolates to end it off! Of course, wine was paired with each course resulting in a state of inebriation for both of us by the time we left after three and a half hours! We stumbled back to our hotel through the rain, laughing and hugging the whole way. Saturday started with a late rising (noonish) as we adjusted to Paris time (and hangovers) and then a full day of ground pounding. We visited beautiful Sainte Chapelle for the first time and enjoyed a stroll through the Luxembourg gardens. Dinner was a bit more low key than Friday night. We ate at a place called Le Grenouille which of course had frogs legs as a speciality. Lisa has the frog legs while Christos had the magret. Yummy! Then it was off to the Place Des Invalides to watch the fireworks at Tour Eiffel over a bottle of wine. After the firework show we walked back to the hotel, got lost, had a bottle of wine and finally arrived in bed at 2am.

 Today we viewed the lovely paintings at Musee D'Orsay. The Van Goghs were tops and we enjoyed the Monets etc as well. A new name for us as an artist is Maximilien Luce whose work we both enjoyed. There were also some other realist pieces based on North Africa that we both thought were stunning. After the Musee D'Orsay we emerged into rain but that didn't last too long. The weather has been weird, beautiful sun and perfect temperature interspersed with the occasional rain shower.

On our way back to the hotel we stumbled upon an oyster bar we had visited years ago and proceeded to eat our way through two dozen of the bivalves. We chatted with the owner, the waitress and a patron about the gastronomy of oysters and discovered that today was the last day of the season ... And that there is a street party tonight outside the oyster restaurants to celebrate! That is certainly on the agenda for ce soir!

Back at the hotel we discovered that our package from Sylvie arrived! We are now back in the room and once this entry is done we are going to go through all the goodies she has made for us.

Paris Bastille Day 2012!

We arrived this morning at 11am after an uneventful flight (well we did watch 21 Jump Street) and a long trip from the airport into the city. We are staying at the Odeon, the same hotel we stayed at last year. After Christos called in to his AM call at the firm it was nap time for us both until around 5pm. After our refreshing sleep we went out for a short walk near our hotel and stopped in at the Moose; a Canadian themed waterhole that we spent far too much time at last year! A cold Guiness later it was time to head back to the hotel as Lisa had a conference call to attend; ah the modern age of inescapable labour! On the way we popped in to a shop and bought ourselves a couple of plastic glasses ... For tomorrow's walking and wining! Now it is off to La Truffiere, a restaurant that has just received its first star!