Europe trip (Part 2): More Paris!

Part 1 (Paris) - Part 2 (more Paris) - Part 3 (Fonte de' Medici) - Part 4 (Montalcino and Montefiridolfi) - Part 5 (La Petraia) - Part 6 (Florence) - Part 7 (more Florence) - Part 8 (Cinque Terre) - Part 9 (Pisa, Fiesole and Volpaia) - Part 10 (Lost in Siena) - Part 11 (Siena) - Part 12 (Rome) - Final


Still haven't adjusted to Toronto time yet; I woke at 5:30 a.m. and finally gave up trying to go back to sleep, made myself a cup of Casablanca tea from Mariage Frères. Mint and bergamot, yummmm...

Thanks for the comments to my previous post. I especially liked the one from Amanda Snyder: "Scott and I had a moment in London when we were at Westminster Abbey looking at the coronation throne. Our guide explained that the carvings on the chair was from the 1700's when you could sit on it. Various school boys carved their names on it. Scott leaned over to me and said 'The graffitti here is older than our country.'"

I can SO identify with this!

But back to Paris. Don't forget that you can click on any of these images to read my Flickr comments about them...



Jeff and I only had two full days in Paris, so we knew ahead of time there would be no way to visit all the usual "must see" tourist attractions, and we didn't want to be rushing from one place to another, not being able to take the time to actually enjoy any of them. Instead, we opted for just a few and spent the rest of the time just getting a feel for the city: exploring the narrow streets, peering into shops, people-watching, discovering delightful markets like this one...



We strolled down the Champs d'Elysée and dropped by Ladurée, an upscale chocolate shop that my friend Joey told me about.

Martin GK had recommended climbing the Arc de Triomphe. As he predicted, the queue was quite short and the view well worth it. Here's a view of the Champs d'Elysée from the top of the Arc de Triomphe:



Jeff and I also visited Sainte-Chapelle (more gorgeous stained glass!), the Musée d'Orsay, Tuileries gardens, Luxembourg Gardens, rode the Metro, checked out Victor Hugo's house. I'm glad we decided not to go to the Louvre; even at the Musée d'Orsay, I felt as though I could have spent days exploring the gallery instead of hours. I love art galleries, but I get more satisfaction looking at fewer pieces of art for a longer time than rushing through each room with barely a few seconds on each piece. When we lived in downtown Toronto, I bought a membership to the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) so that I could go whenever I wanted.



On our walks through Paris, we kept running into avid soccer fans who were in Paris for the Champions League final: Arsenal v Barcelona; they wore team jerseys, waved flags, chanted and yelled. Greek restaurants smashed plates in their doorways at night while fans cheered inside; I'm not exactly sure what ritual this was, but we're theorizing it said something like "HEY! Come inside and cheer your favourite team here! We know how to party!!"

Here's a bunch of fans who gathered at The Great Canadian Pub (yes, Jeff and I were highly amused by the name) to watch the big game:



Barcelona won.

And now I have to talk about the food in Paris.

Ah, the food. For me, food is a vital aspect of travel enjoyment. I love trying new cuisines, comparing how other cultures prepare dishes, checking out the produce. I LOVED each and every meal I had in Paris. Some of my favourites:

- A sandwich I ate in a small park near Victor Hugo's house, bought from a street vendor. Flat bread sliced in half and stuffed with sliced tomato, basil and brie, and grilled until the brie melted a bit. YUM.

- Walnut chestnut ice cream cake in the La Rotisserie d'en Face (2 rue Christine).

- Our lunch at Delmas restaurant on Rue Mouffetard, where we sat at one of the outdoor tables and watched passersby. My St. Jacques salad (with scallops) was fantastic:



I had heard rumours about the Paris locals being rude to tourists. I'm sure this has happened, but Jeff and I never came across it. To tell you the truth, the only rudeness we experienced on our trip came from other tourists. :-\ Like any big city, the Paris locals tend to be busy and rushing around, but downtown Toronto can be like that as well.

I loved Paris, and hope to go back someday.



We fly to Italy in my next Blathering...

You can see my Paris pics here and all my trip pics here.

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Europe trip (Part 1): Paris!

Part 1 (Paris) - Part 2 (more Paris) - Part 3 (Fonte de' Medici) - Part 4 (Montalcino and Montefiridolfi) - Part 5 (La Petraia) - Part 6 (Florence) - Part 7 (more Florence) - Part 8 (Cinque Terre) - Part 9 (Pisa, Fiesole and Volpaia) - Part 10 (Lost in Siena) - Part 11 (Siena) - Part 12 (Rome) - Final

The red-eye flight from Toronto to Paris went pretty smoothly. I used to love flying but the whole Philly commuting experience jaded me somewhat. Jeff and I met some interesting people at the airport, like the Air Canada employee who told us about an elderly woman who wanted to fly to London, Ontario about fifteen years ago (when security was obviously more lax) but accidentally got on a plane for London, England instead. She refused meals during the flight, saying her son would be taking her out for dinner when she arrived. The airline ended up calling her son and then sending his mother back the next day.

Anyway, we both managed to get some sleep on the flight. When we arrived in Paris, we took the RER (train system) to a station near Notre-Dame. It was only a short walk to our hotel, but I found the experience surreal...it seemed as if one minute we were lugging our bags through yet another long hallway and then BAM we're out on a busy street. I was focusing on not walking into anyone when Jeff tapped my shoulder and pointed. I turned and saw the Notre Dame Cathedral. I felt like jumping up and down and screaming, "HOLY COW WE'RE IN PARIS!" but I restrained myself.



We stayed at the Relais Christine (3 rue Christine, 6th arrondissement, Tel: +33 (0)1 40.51.60.80, fax: +33 (0)1 40.51.60.81) during our few days in Paris. The hotel itself is beautiful and well-maintained, plus the location was fantastic...in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and within easy walking distance of Notre-Dame and other interesting places we were hoping to explore.

This was the entrance to the hotel:



The hotel is a 16th century mansion built on the ruins of a 13th century monastery, and the management obviously went to great effort to preserve the building's character.

Jeff and I got over our jetlag pretty quickly. Our strategy: DON'T NAP THE FIRST DAY. We achieve this by walking around in the daylight and doing as little sitting as possible. Sitting is bad because then fatigue immediately sets in and you're overcome by a huge desire to lie down "just for a few minutes." So after dumping our stuff in our hotel room, we immediately set off to explore the city.

While we were strolling by the Seine, we ordered two ham, egg, tomato and cheese crepes from this fellow, who made the crepes right in front of us:



When the filling was cooked, he folded the crepe twice and then handed it to us in a paper envelope. YUM.

We explored the Tuileries Gardens, up to Place de la Concord, and the outside grounds of the Louvre, where there seemed to be a lot of police and military types wandering about (or rollerblading, as you can see from the photo below):



A few minutes later we heard a loud bang, and then most of the military and police left. Our theory is either some movie crew was filming, or there was a bomb scare and they were exploding some suspicious-looking package.

That afternoon we also visited Cacao Et Chocolat (29, rue de Buci - 75006 PARIS, Métro : Mabillon ou Saint Germain des Près, Tel : 01 46 33 77 63, Fax : 01 46 33 80 29), a chocolate shop that Mark Bernstein recommended, and Mariage Frères, a tea shop that Kristen Chew recommended and is apparently the oldest tea importer in France. We only had a short time in the tea shop and had planned to go back to explore the teas as well as their tea room...sadly, we ran out of time.



We had dinner at La Jacobine (59-61, rue Saint-André des Arts, Tel: 01 46 34 15 95). After poring over the menu (it was my FIRST DINNER IN PARIS, after all), I ordered the lamb shank with honey and figs with vegetables; it was delicious.

The next day, we visited the famous Notre Dame Cathedral. The stained glass windows were gorgeous:



Every panel depicted a different scene, a retelling of Bible stories. The amount of craftsmanship and number of man-hours that must have gone into this building floored me. Plus the fact that this building was over 700 years old...as far as I know, the oldest building in Toronto is merely a couple hundred.

I imagined the thousands who had walked on this same floor, the historical events that had taken place here, the lives that been devoted the building of the cathedral, the celebrations and the pillaging. But the windows were the biggest delight for me, sunlight illuminating the stained glass in such brilliant colours.

My friend Bill Sutton said that he and Brenda fell in love with Paris when they visited the top of the Eiffel Tower at sunset. For me, it happened in Notre Dame.



More about Paris in my next Blathering...

You can see my Paris pics here and all my trip pics here.

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Back home!

Above: chocolates from Cacao Et Chocolat (thanks to Mark Bernstein for pointing us to this chocolate shop in Paris).

Back home! Jeff and I had a truly *amazing* time in Paris, the Tuscany area of Italy, and Rome. Thanks so much to those of you who offered advice and tips for our trip; we followed up on many of them and they were well worth it.

I have to unpack and catch up on nearly three weeks' worth of e-mail, but I'll be posting a detailed trip report when things settle a bit and my brain recovers from jetlag. Meanwhile, I'll be uploading some trip photos to my Flickr account, with comments.

And thanks SO much to my mom-in-law Ginny for making this trip possible!



re: photo above: Jeff and I took Martin GK's advice to climb the Arc De Triomphe, and the view was fantastic...thanks for the tip, Martin! In the photo, Cora is posing with the famous Paris landmark. See for more background about Cora.

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savouring moments

Above: Handwritten entry (click for a bigger version). See this Flickr set for my other handwritten entries. For a closer look at my kitchen window picture, see here.

Will Write For Chocolate has been updated. Column topic: "Positive financial thinking for freelance writers."



Reminder: The frequency of my Blatherings is likely to become more sporadic over the next while as I focus on pre-trip workstuff and other prep.

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QOOP and driving through Paris at 180 km/hr

Above: This Little Nightmares drawing was inspired by the squirrels in my sister's neighbourhood who tend to like biting the heads off tulips, much to the frustration of garden owners. For some of my other gardening cartoons, see this Flickr set.

In yesterday's Blathering, I said that Flickr's partner, QOOP, didn't do prints. Hugh Folkerth, QOOP's Director of Consumer Relations, sent me an e-mail today (I have no idea how he found out about yesterday's Blathering, but I'm glad he wrote...especially since he said nice things about my drawings :-)) to tell me that QOOP does indeed now offer prints. "In fact, we have a double prints offer for a limited time on 4 x 6 and 4D sizes, but we print poster-sizes too, which you might enjoy."

I'm definitely going to check out the service by ordering something, but I'm still on the lookout for a reliable online service that will sell prints for me, where I won't have to do the packaging and mailing and administration myself. Thanks to those of you who have sent me tips. I'll be writing another Blathering in the future with an update on QOOP as well as my search for an online print sales service.

Thanks also for all the great Europe advice! To clarify: Jeff and I do plan to return to Paris someday for a longer stay. The main purpose of this trip is to visit with Jeff's mom in Italy; the short Paris trip at the beginning is a special treat for ourselves since I've never been to the city. Anyway, here are some of the useful links that people have posted:

C'etait un rendez-vous: a great short film about driving through Paris at 180 km/hr. From antonia_tiger, who says "It's not that long, and manages to take in some of the standard tourist locations on the way. You don't get much time to actually see them..."

National Museum of The Middle Ages (from Hitch)

Cacao et Chocolat: Yay, the chocolate shop I was looking for! From Mark Bernstein: "I especially like the chocolates in the Imperiale line."

This afternoon I decided to run on a treadmill at the gym instead of outdoors because the weather was colder than I expected, and I discovered an Italian soap opera on the little tv attached to the treadmill. Jeff and I gave up cable tv over a year ago, so I do sometimes surf channels while I run to see what I've been missing. Not much, it seems, at least not during the day...I usually end up watching part of a Star Trek rerun, preferably Kirk-Classic (which we have at home on DVD, but I can't resist Captain Kirk, y'know)...

Anyway, I was curious to see whether I'd be able to understand ANYTHING in Italian so I put on the headphones and listened. And y'know, I did manage to pick out the occasional word or phrase. Like when the somewhat conniving mother called her son on the phone and asked how he was (I even recognized the informal "How are you") and he said he was doing badly. Um, what else. Anytime someone said "please" or "baby" (which was frequently...there seemed to be a lot of angst about people having babies or not able to have babies) or "beautiful." I was especially proud when I recognized the verb "to buy."

Don't know how far this will get me in Italy, but it's a start, eh?

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