Final Thoughts

And just like that, my trip to Paris has come and gone and I am back here in my apartment in Charlotte.  My trip back from Paris was certainly an eventful one.  First, I got stuck in my apartment as the door knob fell off when I was trying to leave so I had to wait for the landlord to come and let me out.  Then, the train I was taking to the airport stopped when we were halfway there as there was an accident or something - I can't say for certain what happened because I just don't understand enough French to even come close to piecing it together, but let me tell you - getting a cab to the airport from there was a disaster as there were well over 100 people trying to hail cabs.  Oy vey.  I about had a panic attack as for awhile there I was fairly sure I was going to miss my flight.

But alas, it all worked out, and I am back in Charlotte.  I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to take this trip to Paris.  That city will always hold such a special place in my heart.  It's certainly not perfect, no place is.  But it's a perfect getaway destination for me.  Between its history, beauty, and charm, Paris has certainly captured my heart and it's hard for me to imagine loving another city as much as I love Paris.  

I had a lot of time to think on this trip, and a recurring theme of my thoughts was the crazy amount of uncertainty in my life right now.  I am going to make a bold statement and say that my life holds more uncertainty than it ever has.  A year from now, I don't know where I will be living, what job I will have, or whether I will be back to running.  All this uncertainty weighs on a type-A planner like me.

But I know this much is true.  I know I have family and friends (including those of you reading this) to lean on along the way.  I know I have my faith in God and a (sometimes wavering) belief that things will work out as they are supposed to.

And I know that I will always have Paris.  It will always be a place that I can go to (albeit not as often as I would like) to be reminded of who I am, what I value, and how very blessed I am. 

Day 5: last day in Paris

All good things must come to an end, I suppose, and sadly this trip is. I can't complain too much as I am lucky to be in Paris, the time just went far too fast!  It does not help when you don't have an ounce of enthusiasm about the city you are returning to, but I am trying to block out those feelings right now.

My last day in Paris was a great one. I started off the day with a walking tour of Paris. I have done about 6 tours by the company 'Paris Walks' and they never disappoint. We spent over 2 hours walking through the Montmatre area, which is a northern quartier of Paris that is known for many things from art to its entertainment district (the famous Moulin Rouge is found there) as well as the famous Sacre Couer cathedral.

One neat thing we saw along the way was a mural that was recently done. The artist had people from all around the world write down the phrase 'I love you' in their own language. He collected the phrase in over 300 languages and when it came time to make the mural, he used the writing of each person who wrote the phrase down, which I think is really cool! Can you spot 'I love you' in English in this photo?

We would around this hilly quartier, learning a lot about the artists that lived in this area, such as Van Gogh and Renoir. Most of these artists were very poor and only because famous posthumously.  Like much of Paris, this area had lots of narrow winding rows. You can see Sacre Couer peeking through in this photo.

The tour ended in front of Sacre Couer. I attended mass here on my first trip to Paris - it is a really beautiful cathedral and is kind of an architectural marvel as it's built on a hill that is not very sturdy!

This area of Paris is especially known for pick pockets so I did not hang around there for long after the tour concluded. I am always really careful about keeping my bag closed and close to me but it still made me feel a little uncomfortable knowing thieves are prevalent in this area!

I took the metro back to the central part of Paris so I could have lunch and walk around the Marais, which is one of my favorite areas of Paris.  I wailed along the Seine for part of the way. It was another beautiful day. I have definitely lucked out in terms of weather as it's been in the 40s and hasn't rained!

I found a little brasserie that served a dish called 'aligot' which I had read about last month. It's basically mashed potatoes with a special French cheese whipped into them. Talk about the ultimate comfort food! It was served with a little fresh salad and really hit the spot. I saved room for dessert, though, as I had one last famous macaron shop to check out called 'Pierre Herme'. They had a large selection of macarons and definitely win the award for most 'unique' flavors. Some of the macarons at the top are their seasonal flavors and have foie de gras in them. I know that is a delicassie but can I just say GROSS?  Yes, ALL CAPS.

I avoided those and stuck with more traditional flavors such as vanilla, chocolate, and a caramel with a brown butter filling.

The verdict? These were good but my favorite ones from this trip are the ones from Carette, followed by Laduree. Which makes Pierre Herme a close 3rd. I definitely could write an article on what makes a good macaron after this trip!!

I headed back to my neighborhood for some hot tea and reading and now I am packing and getting ready to head out for one last dinner in Paris. *sob* Like I said in my intro, I am not excited to go back. I know vacations are not reality, but Paris feels more like home than Charlotte does or ever will. That said, this trip away has been good for me and was definitely a great reward for both passing the CFA and surviving the Charlotte move!

I have a long day of travel tomorrow, get back around 8:30 pm and have to work the next day so I will be diving right back into reality. I am sure I will post some final thoughts on this blog before leaving it dormant until my next trip! Hope everyone enjoys their Sunday!

Day 4: Tour Eiffel and the Left Bank

Another wonderful day. Another day closer to the end of this fabulous vacation. I started off this day with my usual cafe creme and reading time at a local cafe. After I was properly caffeinated, I took the metro over to the Eiffel Tower area. Before visiting Paris for the first time, I think that seeing the ET in person would be underwhelming - that is not at all the case. It really is such a beautiful monument! And the area around it is so beautiful as you can see from these photos!

After walking around the ET area, I made my way up to the Trocadero area which also had wonderful views of the ET. I found someone to take my picture!

After that, I went to find a patisserie that allegedly has some of the best macarons in Paris. I have to agree. These were so delicious, I think they are the best I have has so far. The cream one is vanilla and the brown one is caramel with a brown butter filling. The caramel one was TO DIE FOR. I would actually say these are better than Laduree's, which is probably the most famous macaron shop. 

After that I took the metro back to the St. Germaine area as I wanted to wander around some of the areas we went to on the walking tour. I had worked up an appetite at this point so the first order of business was finding a place for lunch.  I saw a waiter deliver a roasted chicken plate to a guest and was totally sold on the place. It tasted even better than it looked! It was such a simple meal but done so well!!

After lunch, I wandered around the St. Germaine area. The stores have started to decorate for the holidays and there were definitely lots of shoppers out and about!

One of my favorite things to do while traveling in Europe is check out their food markets. I really appreciate their approach to shopping and cooking as they tend to buy less on each shopping trip but shop more often. I know that is not practical for everyone but I think its a great approach to cooking. This market was small, but still had a nice selection of seafood, cheese and other items like foie gras - which I personally do not like AT ALL.  And I can say that because I have in fact tried it!

After the market, I kept wandering around the neighborhood, marveling at its beauty. I wonder if the people who live there appreciate it? I just love all the little details from the terraces with window boxes to the beautiful street lights!

After all that walking, I took a break, had some tea and did more reading.  I had an early dinner and then went to mass at Notre Dame and went to a Christmas concert at St. Chapelle, which is a famous church known for its stained glass windows. I have been to a concert here before so was glad I was able to go to another on this trip. The setting is beautiful. My only complaint is that the building is not heated. Burr! But it was still a fun experience and the music was beautiful!!

Tomorrow is my last full day in Paris. I fly out Monday but will spend most of the day traveling. I plan to take a walking tour of the Montmartre area and walk around the Marais area, but don't have much planned besides that. I know I will have no trouble filling my day, though! 

Day 3: Notre Dame and the Right Bank of the Seine

Another day is coming to a close, and I am finding that this trip is going entirely too fast!!

I started my day off with a cafe creme and some reading in a coffee shop close to Notre Dame.  Even though my natural inclination is to 'go, go, go' I am trying to force myself to take it someone easier on this trip so I don't come back too exhausted!

After reading for a bit, I headed over to the grounds of the Notre Dame. While the interior of this church is obviously very beautiful, I also love the surrounding grounds.

There is a park area in front of the church with lots of trees and benches to sit in. I think Paris does a great job of providing lots of outdoor spaces with ample benches and chairs, which I think is really cool.

There was a bit of a line to go into the church so I decided to delay that until later in the day and instead headed over to the right bank of the Seine for a walk to the Tuilleries/Louvre area. You can just barely see the Eiffel Tower off in the distance in this picture. I have not seen it up close yet but plan to tomorrow!

After my long walk, I had worked up an appetite so treated myself to some mussels at a restaurant on Champs Élysées, which were delicious!

After lunch, I walked back to Angelina's, which is a cafe I discovered on my last trip to Paris. They have this incredibly decadent hot cocoa.  It's definitely rich, but so good!

In addition to the hot cocoa, I also had some macarons that I had picked up at Laduree on the Champs Élysées.  You know, since there wasn't enough sugar in the hot cocoa. ;)

After putting myself into a sugar coma, I headed back to the Notre Dame so I could look around at the interior. It is the largest church in Paris and is so beautiful! I wandered around for awhile and then stopped for a bit to light a candle and pray for some intentions, both for myself and others.

I had been gone for quite awhile at this point so went back to my apartment so I could use the wifi connection to so some research and plan out my last 2 days in Paris. Then it was off to my favorite Gallette place that I found on my last trip to Paris. Luckily I am able to eat gallettes as they are make with buckwheat flour, which is gluten free. I really want to learn how to make these as they are so good! The one I ordered had onions, mushrooms, ham, and an egg and it was so good!

Now I am back in my apartment figuring out my agenda for tomorrow which will include seeing the Eiffel Tour up close, attending mass at Notre Dame, and going to a Christmas concert at St. Chapelle, which is a beautiful church!

Au revoir for now!

Day 2: St. Germaine, making a new friend, and French Thanksgiving

Happy Friday, everyone! I bet some of you were up at the crack of dawn to snag some deals? I certainly wasn't. I guess Black Friday is sort of being introduced in France but has not taken hold yet!  Anyways I hope my American readers had a great thanksgiving! I certainly had a great day in Paris!

When I woke up yesterday morning, I missed my family but I can't complain about waking up to this view!

After eating breakfast in my apartment I headed out for a walking tour of the St. Germaine area, which is the quartier next to the one where I am staying. I love doing these walking tours as I learn way more about an area than I could if I was seeing it on my own. The St. Germaine area is one of the oldest areas of Paris and has several beautiful churches, 2 of which we went inside. The first church we explore was St. Sulpice. It's the 2nd largest church in Paris (largest is Notre Dame). It's so beautiful. The main church area is gorgeous and then it has all these side altars, like the one below which is dedicated to Mary. 

There are also some impressive works of art in these churches, like the painting below by Delacroix.

We also went inside St. Germaine des Pres which is another beautiful church that dates back to the 11th century I think? The stained glass window below dates back to the 13th century. It's hard to wrap your mind around how old some of these buildings are!!

At the beginning of the tour, I struck up a conversation with another woman as we were the first two to arrive. She lives in the UK, but is from Russia and had lived in Australia (where I studied abroad). We chatted on and off along the tour and at the end, she asked if I would like to join her for lunch and then walk to the Galleries Lafayette to see the magnificent tree, and of course I said yes!  We had lots to talk about between our travels and shares loves of Paris and reading. I know that some find my willingness to travel alone strange (and well, I get the sense some think it's a little depressing) but experiences like this just go to show that traveling alone doesn't have to be lonely. I find that I always seem to meet people along the way. I had so much fun with Elena, and now I have a new friend to visit if/when I travel to the UK! I know we will definitely stay in touch!

Anyways, Elena and I had a delicious lunch at a restaurant that overlooked the Notre Dam and then we headed over to see the tree at this huge department store called Galleries Lafayette. The building itself is gorgeous as you can see, and the tree was magnificent!

After spending several hours together, it was time to part ways as I had a thanksgiving dinner to attend in a suburb of Paris. How did that come about? Well this fall I was traveling back to Charlotte from Pittsburgh and got upgraded to first class. As you all know, I have a strict no talking on planes rule, but I broke it on this trip because when I sat down, he immediately asked if I was a runner and when I had ran my last marathon! I guess my running shoes and 'club run' fleece I was wearing made it fairly obvious that I am (err was) a long distance runner. He had ran 97 marathons and was an all-around interesting guy between his career as a professor and the extensive travel he has done. It tikes out that his girlfriend lives in Paris and he thought he might be there over Thanksgiving so we kept in touch over the next couple of months. In September when we met, I was hoping we could meet up for a run on this trip, but that was not possible so instead he invited me to the thanksgiving dinner he was hosting. 

I had such a fun night but unfortunately I don't have any pictures. All the other guests were academics and they were from countries such as Lithuania and Belarus, so it was quite the multicultural crowd! We had a great time and are very well!  My contribution to the meal was macarons, of course! I tried a different shop this time and they were really good! 

So that does it for Thursday. I was out and about from 9:30 am until 11:30 pm so I plan to take it a bit easier today!

Day 1

Greetings from Paris! I made it here safely, albeit sleep deprived but that is to be expected and was overcome by my excitement of being in my favorite city in the world!  I landed this morning and was at my apartment by 10, dropped off my bags and headed out to explore!  In the 5 minutes I spent in the apartment before heading out, I failed to notice that there was no computer... So that was not the best discovery when I got back tonight. Womp womp. But you know what, I am in Paris so I am going to try to not sweat the little stuff. It just means I won't be posting as often as I normally would as posting from my phone SUCKS! This is the one time I have wished I had an iPad...

Anyways, back to the post at hand! This is what I was up to today!!

One of the first 'landmarks' I spotted, besides the Notre Dam was this famous book store!  I wanted to get some fresh air today so didn't pop in but I intend to before my trip is over!

I spent a lot of time today just wandering the streets of my neighborhood. Even the most 'ordinary' streets are beautiful, in my opinion.  I just love the narrow, winding streets of Paris. They are so charming!

I mean, even their metro signs are charming!!

In the afternoon, I rested my feet for a bit and treated myself to a cafe creme and 2 caramel macarons which were so good! I think the eating of macarons will be part of my daily routine!

After I was properly fueled with caffeine, I went for a long walk along the Seine. I will never tire of these views!!

That mostly sums up how I spent day one. I am eating in tonight as I am pretty worn out since I got less than 2 hours of sleep on the flight so will call it an early night. Tomorrow I plan to do a walking tour of the St. Germaine and then I have Thanksgiving dinner plans in the evening. And I am going to hopefully find an Internet cafe as posting on my phone is definitely not something I want to do again. So if you don't see another post from me, that is the reason. If the recaps have to wait until after the trip then so be it!

Au revoir for now!!

Final Thoughts

Hello, friends. I have sort of put off this 'final thoughts' post because it represents the end of what was a fabulous vacation... Truth be told, it has been a bit hard to come back to the states. The hellacious trip home aside, I really didn't feel anything 'pulling' me back home, but that's a topic for another post back on Lisa's Yarns (maybe next week). I'm still sorting through how I feel about being back.

But here are my final, discombobulated thoughts in bullet point form:

• What will I miss about Paris? I will miss the little jars of spicy mustard that you tend to find on the tables of cafes. I will miss how much walking I did! I will miss the feeling of looking down a street of Paris and thinking - 'oh my gosh, this is so beautiful, can this be real?' I mean, you are surrounded by 13-18th century buildings that are just SO beautiful. Every street sort of took my breath away. I will miss speaking French to people - I know very little French, but I loved attempting to communicate! I will miss the delicious gallettes! I will miss all theses things and so much more!
• Traveling alone to Paris was fabulous. Would I love a fabulous person to join me in my adventures? Hell yes. But if I wait until someone fabulous comes along, I could be waiting forever. Honestly, I really was not at all lonely on this trip. And it is interesting is to compare how I felt on this trip v. my time spent alone in Paris in 2008. On that trip, I was far less comfortable dining alone - this trip, it didn't phase me one bit to sit in a cafe or restaurant alone. It's great to see how much more comfortable I've become in my own skin. The point of all this rambling is this: if you do not have someone to travel with, do not let that hold you back. Just go.
• Staying in an apartment is Europe is the way to go. Seriously. Don't waste your money in a hotel. You get much more bang for your buck renting an apartment - and you get a much more authentic experience, in my opinion!
• My goodness, Parisians know how to accessorize with a scarf. Whether you are a man or a woman, you do not leave the house without a scarf. Seriously. I wish they would hold scarf tying classes for us Americans - Parisians have it down to an art form.

Those are my final thoughts. It truly was the trip of a lifetime and the perfect way to celebrate my 30th birthday. I honestly would not change a thing - the whole week was just wonderful. I am a Francophile for life.

Please let me know if you have any questions! Wondering how I found an apartment? Curious about my favorite part of this trip? Or my favorite meal? Ask away!

I will leave you with one final photo from Paris. As I've said before, I know that the lights are not out permanently on this little blog. I will be back in Paris.

The Longest Day

I am home, but my gosh, that was THE worst day of travel in my life. Anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Here's how my day played out, bullet-point style (warning: this is a long, ranting post):

• I left my apartment around 6 am on Sunday morning and walked to the closest metro line to take the metro to a different train line that takes you to the airport. Got there to find it was closed. The metro apparently opens late on Sunday... I should have known that this was a sign of bad things to come. Luckily that main train station I needed to get to was only about a 1.5 mile walk I think? But still - not the best start to my day.
• I got to the airport at 7:30 am and was told that my flight had just been cancelled. I was pretty much like - wtf? Turns out it was cancelled due to weather - which just totally shocked me because it had been beautiful all week while I was gone. So hearing that MSP was getting 12-15" of snow? No way!
• So I got in line to re-book my flight. They let me choose what airport I flew into, so I chose Atlanta because it is a Delta hub and I figured there would be multiple flight options to Minneapolis once I landed there. I would have preferred to fly into Chicago as that's the closest airport, but I figured they'd get hit by this same storm so I thought it was best to avoid that airport.
• Paris's airport is officially the most expensive place to spend any length of time. Case in point: I bought a coke (I was dying for caffeine and needed a serious pick-me-up). It was 5 Euro for 33 ml. So basically ~$7 for the equivalent of can of coke. I felt ridiculous spending that much on a non-alcoholic carbonated beverage. I mean, for that price, shouldn't it have at least come with a glow stick?
• Boarded my flight to Atlanta at 1 pm. Pulled away from gate. Returned to gate for medical emergency - it was a nose bleed??? So we spent an extra 1.5 hours on the plane due to that delay.
• Landed in Atlanta. Airport was utter chaos due to all the cancellations in Minneapolis. No one seemed to know what was going on. I was told by one person that my flight was still on, albeit moved to 10:30 pm. Then 2 other people told me it was cancelled? Can't you, I don't know, look that kind of thing up in a computer people? When I went to get my bag tagged, the gate agent said, "there is no way you are getting to Minneapolis tonight." Taps keys... "Ok, you are all set, you will arrive in Minneapolis at midnight."
• Boarded flight around 10 pm. Took forever to take off because they did not have enough ice? At this point I was like - I think people would rather get home than have ice in their freaking drinks! But I digress... Pulled away from gate. Returned to gate for medical emergency #2. This time - gull bladder attack. I wanted to stand up at this point and shout, "IF YOU DO NOT FEEL WELL, DO NOT GET ON A FREAKING AIRPLANE PEOPLE." I bit my tongue instead and cursed the fact that we had now spent an extra 2 hours on the plane between delayed leaving the gate and the medical emergency.
• Landed in Minneapolis at around 2 am (I think). At this point, all concept of time was lost. You could have told me it was 5 pm on a Tuesday and I wouldn't have argued with you. The exhaustion had set in.
• Now for the fun part. Collecting my bag. 3 flights from Atlanta landed at the same time, including my flight which was a 747 with 400+ people. It was as if the ground baggage people decided to play plinko with our luggage amongst 3 different carousels. It was utter chaos. I have never seen since disorder and chaos, honestly. Here is a picture.




That is all the unclaimed luggage that arrived

• My bag did not arrive. Which REALLY pissed me off because I had collected my bag after customs and it was re-tagged for Atlanta about 3-4 hours before that flight left. There is NO REASON why my bag shouldn't have been on that flight. And the Delta agent who tracked my bag didn't once utter the words, "I am sorry" or "I apologize for the inconvience."
• At this point, it was 3 am. I had pre-booked a Super Shuttle home so I headed over to that area and was told that the shuttle doesn't run at 3 am, but they would cancel my reservation and I'd be refunded in 5-10 business days. Um, I'd just like to know how they can charge my card on the very same day that I book the freaking reservation, but it take 5-10 business days to refund? Whatever.
• Got in line for the taxi. Taxi ride home was interesting because the road to main road to my condo had not been plowed so we had to take a little detour. That taxi ride cost more than my round trip shuttle would have cost me but at that point, I was like, whatever, I just need to get home.

So there you have it. At 4 am CST, I finally arrived home. After being awake for 30+ hours, I was very, very, very happy to crawl into my bed.

So a pretty epically craptastic end to what was an amazing vacation. I of course am not letting the ridiculous trip home color my thoughts on my vacation at all, though. It was amazing trip.

When everything kept going wrong, I kept thinking - this is the universe's way of telling me I am not meant to leave Paris.

I'll probably do one more 'final thoughts' post about Paris and then will shut the lights off on this blog until my next trip...

Day 8: Cafes of Paris and the Latin Quarter

Bonsoir. All good things must come to an end... this is my final blog post from Paris. How sad!

I woke up this morning to rain so skipped my run, got ready for the day, and headed out. It was quite a cold rain so I stopped for cafe creme #1 in my neighborhood before heading to the Trocadero area. It was extremely overcast so today was not the best day to see the Eiffel Tower, but oh well!

I saw it on my last trip and already have photos of it from that trip hanging on my wall at home so it's not like I needed a perfect photo of it!



I was chilled to the bone from the cold rain so stopped in at cafe #2 for my 2nd cafe creme of the day. I had planned on walking from the Eiffel Tower towards city center, but decided to hole up in the cafe and read all morning instead.

Next I headed to the Hotel de Ville area so I could do some shopping at BHV, the store I browsed in earlier this week. I tried on the coat I saw earlier this week and decided it wasn't anything I HAD to have. Instead I purchased a pink scarf - I had to buy something for myself!

Then I stopped in cafe #3 to have some fries. Healthy? Non. Delicious? Oui.

Then I headed over to the Latin Quarter for the walking tour. It was still cold and rainy but I figured if I can handle sub-zero temps, I was not going to let the rain bother me. The tour was awesome - I learned so much about this area of Paris. In case you were wondering, it is called the Latin Quarter because it is the home of Sorbonne University where Latin was the language of instruction....

I loved this area so much, I might stay in the Latin Quarter on my next trip to Paris....

After the tour, I stopped in to cafe #4 of the day. I was really cold after being out in the rain for 2+ hours, so I warmed up with a cup of soup - and read some more. I finished my 4th book today. Luckily, I have one more loaded on my nook so will have plenty of reading material for the trip home!

After attending mass at Notre Dame, I had my last gallette of the trip. Yum. It did not disappoint!



Now I am back in my apartment. I am sad that my trip has come to an end! However, returning to Paris is certainly not a question of if, it's a question of when (maybe in a couple of years?) I just really love this city; it feels like a 2nd home for me.

Thanks for following along and commenting - I've thoroughly enjoyed blogging. One downside to traveling alone is that you can't turn to someone and say - "Look - isn't that beautiful?" So instead, I came home each day and shared the beautiful sites of the day with all of you. This blog will now serve as a digital scrapbook; I know I will look back on it on days when I am really missing Paris.

So au revoir for now. My flight leaves tomorrow morning at 10:50 am - fingers crossed that I get 2 seats to myself on the way home... or a handsome, single seat mate! That's bound to happen for me some day, right? :)

I'll close with a quote from Hemingway from A Moveable Feast:

"There is never any ending to Paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other. We always return to it no matter who we were or how it was changed or with what difficulties, or ease, it could be reached. Paris was always worth it and you received return for whatever you brought to it."

Day 7: Palace of Versailles

Bonsoir! I spent the bulk of today at the Palace of Versailles. The oppulence of this place just blew my mind away. King Louis the XIV spent a whole lot of money on this get away in the country (it's about 21 km outside of Paris). Here's the view of Versailles as I approached it.



It was really cool to walk through the grand apartments and see where the Kings and Queens of France lived. My favorite room was the famous "Hall of Mirrors". I loved all the chandaliers - so gorgeous!



The views of the gardens from the various apartments were great, too.



This was quite the place to live! Although, I don't know how "comfortable" it would be to live here since it's just, well, SO grand... It was interesting to see that they had billiard tables, though. I don't know nothing about the history of that sport but I guess I was surprised that it was something the royalty did?

After touring the apartments I headed outside to check out the gardens. The gardens were MASSIVE!


I would love to come back here in the spring or summer when everything is in bloom. It was fun to walk around, though, and the gardens are beautiful even during winter! It's so odd to me that everything is so green over here - back home, everything is covered in snow!


I kept thinking about how this whole area is considerably larger than the area of land that my hometown in North Dakota occupies. It seriously took me about 20-30 minutes just to walk to the middle of the gardens!

I also toured Marie Antoinette's apartment but I do not have any photos of this. I kind of got to a point where I OD'd on taking photos...

I got back to my apartment and rested a bit before heading out for dinner. Tonight I went to a place that had a set menu where you could choose an appetizer, main dish, and dessert. Interestingly, appetizers are called entrees over here. I think maybe because entree means enter, and an appetizer is how you 'enter' the meal? I don't have any pictures, but I tried something new tonight... I had rabbit for the first time. My friend Nora's mom had told me that I should try this while I was in Paris. It was actually really good! It was in a mustard sauce. I had mussels for my appetizer and creme brulee for dessert. Yum. That sounds like a lot of food, but the portions were small.

Tomorrow is my last full day in Paris. This vacation went by WAY too fast. Usually, but the end of a vacation, I am anxious to get home and return to my usual schedule. I really don't feel that way this time, though... A large part of that probably has to do with the fact that I took this week off from studying for the CFA (which has totally consumed my life) - so knowing that I have lots of studying to return to is not all that appealing...

Tomorrow my plan is to go for one final run in the mroning, head to the Eiffel Tower area, and then do a guided walking tour of the Latin Quarter. I'll cap off the day with mass at Notre Dame and one final meal out, which will probably be a gallette. Oh how I j'adore gallettes. :) They aren't gourmet or anything but that's probably my favorite thing that I've eaten here!

Au revoir - I am off to do more reading. I'm on book #4 of my vacation!

Day 6: Museums of Paris!

Bonsoir! Another day has come and gone - this vacation is going by much too fast!

I was pretty tired out from the Normandy tour so I slept in this morning and then headed out for another run along the Seine. I was feeling pretty tired but the fresh air from my run rejuvenated me! I got ready for the day and headed out to tour some museums.

My first stop was l'Orangerie. This museum is known for the beautiful displays of Monet's Water Lilies. They are beautifully displayed in a circular room.




The museum also had works of other impressionist artists, such as Cezanne, Renoir, and Matisse. I love the artwork of the impressionists - definitely my favorite type of art!

I walked back through the Tuileries towards the my next stop, the Louvre. I just love the huge parks, like the Tuileries.



As you can see, they have chairs around the pond. In the summer, children float little boats on these ponds. So cool.

Next I headed into the Louvre. Holy cannasta, it is massive. Truth be told, I only tackled one wing and one floor of the museum. It's just too overwhelmingly massive for me. I am glad that I went, though. I saw the wing of Italian artwork, including the famous Mona Lisa.

At this point, I started to get museum ADD, so I headed out and walked along the Seine towards the Latin quarter. I was craving a gallette, so I headed toward the St. Michel area to find a creperie. I really need to figure out how to make these gallettes when I get home. They are SO good. This time I had one with ham, cheese, and onions, topped with an egg and a little salad.



Yum. It tasted even better than it looks. I might need to have one more gallette before I go home... I think it might be my favorite thing to eat in Paris!!

After my late lunch, I was hoping to check out the Conciergerie, which is where prisoners were held during the Revolution - including Marie Antoinette. Unfortunately, it is closed this week. :( Bummer.

So I walked home along Rue de Rivoli and stopped at Hotel de Ville. Hotel de Ville is so beautiful! I love the carousel on the corner!


You can go ice skating in front of the Hotel de Ville right now. I opted not to, but seeing the skaters definitely makes me think of the Barrister as we went skating together in December.



I am thinking it may be a good idea to avoid this corner for the rest of my trip (I've walked by it multiple times now and run by it in the mornings) - it conjures up memories that I really don't want to think about right now...

I cleared my mind with a little window shopping in the beautiful BHV.


I came very close to purchasing some outerwear but then I remembered that I already own, um, 12+ jackets, possibly more... So I really do not need another. Amber is probably laughing as she reads this because she heard all about my outerwear obsession on our marathon road trip. I am drawn to outerwear like a moth to a flame...

After that, I stopped in at multiple Tabacs and got REALLY good at asking (in French) if they had stamps for post cards. Dear God, it is hard to find postage card stamps! I stopped at 5 different Tabacs. No luck. Finally I stumbled upon a post office and was able to purchase some! Success!

I celebrated the fact that I won't have to ask about postage stamps anymore by having a couple of glasses of wine in two different cafes and read for a bit before heading back to my apartment.

Je suis fatigué. And I am craving french fries so I might go to the cafe on the corner and have some for dinner. I swear they taste better over here - especially when dipped in mustard. Oh and the mustard tastes better over here, too!!

Tomorrow I will head to Versailles. I only have 2 days left in Paris! I honestly could spend a month in this city. Or maybe a lifetime? Ok, kidding... I can't afford to live here - and I am sure it wouldn't be as lovely if I was working each day... And I'd miss my family/friends. But seriously, this city rocks.