A Wonderful Trip to Paris

On July 1, my grandma, mom, and I left for Paris.  We arrived in the morning of July 2.  My aunt, Julie, was already in Europe, and she arrived at the Paris airport shortly after us.  We were in Pairs until July 8.  It was a wonderful week.  For a few days, my grandpa's cousin, Katherine, joined us in Paris.

July 1
My mom and I left in the morning to head up to my grandparents' condo.  We had a few stops to make along the way and wanted to get to the airport early.  My grandpa dropped Grandma, Mom, and me off at the airport a few hours before our 5:15 flight.  We got through security just fine.  The time went by fast.  I packed my own supper to enjoy on the plane.  I tried to sleep some.

 July 2
We arrived in Paris at about 8-8:30 in the morning, but really it was like 1 o'clock in the morning for us.  We went through customs and got our baggage.

We hired Paris Airport Limousine Service to pick us up from the airport.  We thought we could just take the metro to our apartment, until Katherine told my mom that there wasn't any metro at the airport and suggested this limo service.  We were so glad that we hired a driver to pick us up.  The driver was right outside the airport waiting for us.  He was holding up a sign with my grandma's name, so that we knew who to look for.  We got connected with the driver and we waited for him to go pick up Julie.  My aunt, Julie, came in shortly after us.  She came in a different terminal though.  The limo service told us to tell her not to come looking for us, but that the driver would meet her outside where she came out.  Julie didn't get the message though.  She came looking for us.  She asked where a plane from the U.S. would be.  Luckily, she found us.  And our driver came back to us.

Shortly, we were loading into the van and our driver was driving us to our apartment.  We were so glad the we had hired a driver.  Otherwise, it would have taken us a long time to get there.

This was the courtyard of the building that our apartment was in.

The elevator was so cute.  Only one person at a time if there was any baggage going up.

 We rented an apartment right by the Madeleine.  It was in a great location.  The Madeleine was a great land-mark and we were right by a metro station, and right in the center of Paris.

Our apartment was on with 5th floor.  We had an elevator up to the 4th floor and then had to take stairs up to the 5th.

Our apartment was so cute and cozy... very French.  There was one full bathroom, and then just a bathroom with no tub upstairs.  On the main floor there was the full bathroom, a living room with a pull out couch, and the kitchen.  Upstairs was another bedroom with a small bathroom and another bedroom with two twin beds.  At first we couldn't find the 3rd bedroom (the one with 2 twin beds).  After searching and searching the apartment we finally found the door to the room behind another door that was open... funny!

We had a great view of the Eiffel Tower from the upstairs of our apartment.  At night it would sparkle and then light up - so pretty.

After we unpacked, we were hungry.  We went out to find a place to eat.  We ended up eating at Les 3 Quartiers, a cafe near us.

This is what I got.  A baguette with smoked salmon, hard boiled eggs, and tomatoes.

Mom got this.  A grilled ham and cheese sandwich with an egg on top.  A very French dish.

After getting some lunch, we went to the market (grocery store) to get some food to have at our apartment.  Monop' was a market right near us... that we ended up going to a several times.  We got some bread, cheese, ham, butter, yogurt and chocolate mousse because of the cute jars it was in, some fruit, and probably some other random things.  After we got some groceries and stopped in few stores near us, we went back to the apartment to put the groceries away and to take a break.

The Eiffel Tower was HUGE!

We walked to the Eiffel Tower along the Seine River.  It was a much longer walk then I thought it would be... but it was nice.  It was beautiful day - warm and sunny.  We picked up some souvenirs along the way.  After getting to the Eiffel Tower, we admired it some and then turned back.  On our way back to the apartment, we stopped to get something to drink... we needed to hydrate.  We walked for around 3 hours and probably went several miles.

My mom got me some fresh strawberries... look how cute they are packaged.

Back at the apartment, we had some bread, cheese, ham, fruit, and wine (not me) for supper... so French.  And, relaxed.

 July 3
 For breakfast I had some of the yogurt we got because of the cute jars it was in with fresh  strawberries.  The yogurt soooo good!  So, Mom, Julie, and I headed down to Monop' to get more... and we needed toilet paper.  We got lots of yogurt to eat... Julie wanted to bring some jars home to use as coffee mugs.
 Katherine arrived early Thursday morning.  She met us at our apartment when we got back from the market and soon we were off for the day.  It was another beautiful day!

First we walked down to the Musee d'Orsay.  We were in Paris for a week and got the 6 day Paris Museum Pass.  I am glad we got the 6 day one because otherwise we would have been stressed and rushed to get to all the museums we wanted to get to.  I would highly suggest getting a Paris Museum Pass (My grandma bought them at the airport, but I am sure you can get them lots of places.) because then we didn't have to wait in long lines.

At a lot of the museums, you can rent audios to listen to learn about the art.

We ended up eating lunch at the restaurant on the 5th floor.  Julie and I got the Chicken Caesar Salad and everyone else got the Quiche Lorraine.  They loved the quiche.  And, I learned that when you are in Paris, get French food.  The salad was good, but I wish I would have gotten something more French.

After lunch, we walked down to La Conciergerie, which is on the island.  This was built as a palace, then converted into a prison, and is now a museum. 

Right next to La Conciergerie, was Sainte Chapelle.  This was a chapel with beautiful stained glass windows.  Each window was huge and told a Bible story.

For an afternoon snack, we walked across the foot bridge to the smaller island to get some ice cream.  We went to Le Flore en L'Ile for Berthillon ice cream.  I got caramel and honey nougat.  I really liked the honey nougat.  If you get ice cream to go you can get it in a cone or dish, otherwise they just give it to you in a dish with a cookie like cone.

After ice cream, we walked over to Notre-Dame, which was very close.  Notre-Dame was really fun to see.

 When we finished looking around at Notre-Dame, it was late afternoon.  We started to make our long walk back to the apartment.

 

 Of course, we stopped at some places.  For supper we were just going to have bread, cheese, and that kind of meal back at our apartment.  We stopped at one bakery to get a baguette and another place to get some cheese.

Both my mom and Katherine had the Eric Kayser - Artisan Soulanger bakery written down as a good bakery.  We just had to stop there.  We got some hearty bread with seeds and that kinds of thing.  It was excellent!  SO GOOD!

 Back at the apartment we relaxed.  We did a lot of walking that day and were tired.

 July 4
Katherine, Julie, Mom, and I got up early and walked down to the market (farmer's market).  We had some great finds there.

We got some meat, cheese, and fruit for lunch.  Mom found some things to bring home.

My cousin calls this the middle finger of Paris.  It is a random skyscraper that they built in the 60's and now they regret building it.

 There weren't really any baked goods at the market... and we wanted some baked goods.  So, we went looking for a bakery.  We walked all over looking for one.  We asked several people where one was.  A couple French speaking people didn't give us much help.  Finally we found an English speaking man, and he knew of one.  He gave us directions, but they didn't get us to it.  Mom and I were really hungry, so we stopped at a  bakery we saw.  But, we really wanted the bakery Poilane.  We asked a French mom, who was with her boy.  The mom didn't speak any English, but the little boy could speak some.  And, he was the one that gave us the directions to get to Poilane.  This boy was very sweet.  I am sure his mom was very proud of him.

 Finally we got to Poilane.  We got some croissants, bread, and some of their cookies.  The croissants were excellent!

If you ever go to Poilane, get some of these cookies.  THEY ARE SO GOOD!  They aren't very sweet, kind of like a shortbread or biscuit, but delicious.

 By now we had been walking around for a good 2 1/2 hours.  We didn't bring any metro tickets with us, and there wasn't a place to get any at the station by us.  Grandma was back at the apartment by herself and it would take too long to walk back.  So, we got a taxi.

Shortly we were back at the apartment, we got ready for the day, and we were all off.  We wanted to get to E. Dehillerin, a cooking store that Julia Childs used to shop at.  We took the metro to the area that the store was in and then walked to it.  We stopped at a couple stores a long the way.

Figuring out the metro.  It really isn't that hard to get around on.

 The store was nothing fancy... it felt like a cooking hardware store.  I got 2 Madeleine cookie sheets and my mom got an apron for Thomas (he was in charge of cooking while we were gone).

 

 I was signed up for a bread baking class on this day.  I did it with Cook'n With Class in the Montmartre neighborhood.  After stopping at the cooking store, we had to get on the metro to Montmartre.  Once we got there, we had to find the place.  It was getting really close to when I needed to be there.  We asked a couple people if they knew where the street that it was on was at and no one knew where it was.  Finally, we found it.  I was a little late, but it wasn't a big deal.  

 I learned some different ways of doing bread.  It was a small class of 5 students and 1 teacher.  There were people from all around the world in the class.  And, yes, the class was in English.  We made the French Baguette, Brioche (2 ways), and Focaccia (the French and Italian way).

 We got to eat some and then take whatever was left home.

It was a cooler and rainier day, so my grandma, Julie, and Mom just went back to the apartment, and Katherine went shopping while I was at my class.  My mom picked me up and then we went back to the apartment.

We got ready for supper and met up with Katherine.  We had reservations at Terroir Parisien - Yannick Allend.

This is what I got.  John Dory (fish) with glazed carrots.  It was really good.

 Since it was the forth of July, we went over to Katherine's hotel room after supper (she was staying in a hotel very close to our apartment).  We got to see what she purchased that day and we tried some of her favorite Macaroons from Pierre Herme.

July 5

 This is the yogurt, La Fermiere, that we bought because of the cute jars it was in.  The yogurt was so good!  I wish I could get it in America.  If you ever go the Paris, make sure you try some.  It has speckles of natural vanilla in it.  I didn't know what it was at first, and was kind of surprised.  But, it is safe.  I ate this for breakfast several mornings... but it tasted like dessert.

 This first thing we did on this day was to walk to Musee national de l'Orangerie des Tuileries.  This is the museum where Monet's Les Nympheas (water lily paintings) are at.

On our way we saw a model doing a photo shoot.

Jardin des Tuileries

 Next we went to Musee De Cluny, a medieval museum, Le Musee De Cluny Dont Vousetes Le Heros.  I thought the medieval building itself was really fun to see.

Then we went to Musee Rodin.  We ate lunch at the cafe in the beautiful garden.  We got the dessert Julie to share and it was super good.

 That afternoon we did some shopping.  Katherine stayed with us for a while and then went off by herself.  By then we were getting tired.  Grandma, Julie, Mom, and I made our way back to our apartment.  We wanted to stop somewhere to get an afternoon treat.  We ended up stopping at the cafe in the Jardin des Tuileries.  I had been wanting to try some crepes, so that is what I got, Julie got the special for the day, and mom got the chocolate pastry.  The crepes weren't anything fabulous and Mom was disappointed in her chocolate pastry that reminded her of a HoHo without any filling or frosting and that just came out of the freezer.
At this point of the trip, we decided that if there is something you want in Paris, get it right, then, and there.  There is no going back.  Whether it is an Eclair or a pair of shoes, there is a great possibility that you will never find that place again or they won't have it if you get back to the place.

After taking a nice little break, we headed back to the apartment.  We stopped to do a little shopping right by the Madeleine.  Mom and I got some of the famous mustard from Maille.

That night we went out for supper with Katherine.  We had reservations at Les Botanistes.  The menu was a big chalk board that they set up on a chair by your table when you were ordering.

This was an appetizer that we got to share.  It was mushrooms cooked in a pastry crust.  Really good.

I ordered this steak with creamy potatoes.  It was sooo good.

 I thought all the food at this restaurant was really really good.  We all thought that this place had the best bread (baguette) that we had in Paris.

We ordered 2 desserts to share.  One was a little chocolate cake with a chocolate filling and the other was apricots that were fried in butter (caramelized) and both came with ice cream.  I personally liked the chocolate dessert better.

 July 6
As we were leaving the apartment a waiter, Nichole, at a cafe by us said that it was going to rain (he even showed us on his phone).  We weren't prepared for rain, so we ran up to our apartment to get some rain gear.  He also tried to get us to sit down and order something (we did go back there later, but he wasn't working then... we were hoping he was working).  When we came back down we were taking a picture right outside the cafe and right by the metro station.  Nichole quickly came over to us and asked if he could take the picture for us so that we could all be in it... how nice.  Katherine left this morning, so we said our goodbyes to her.

Grandma, Julie, Mom, and I then hoped onto the metro to Montmartre.  We were planning on going on a Paris Walking Tour that met right outside the Abbesses metro station.  We got there a little early, so we found a bakery to go to.

 We found the bakery Coquelicot.  It was so cute!  We got a morning treat and then went on the walking tour.  The bakery had a bunch of super cute dishes that my mom and I wanted to get so we went back after the tour to get some.

We thought all these people dressed in white were part of a wedding, but we later found out that it was an old car show.

 The walking tour was excellent!  It started at the bottom of the hill in Montmartre.  We slowly made our way up the hill.  This area was where a lot of artists used to live and work.  Our tour guide would point out those places.

 The tour ended at the top of the hill right in a very touristy area.  My mom had been wanting to find an artist to draw a picture of me, Thomas, John, and Sarah, so she did here.  We needed to get some lunch, but didn't want to get anything in the very touristy area (high priced, poorer service, and just overall not as great).  So, we made our way down the hill a little an found a little cafe.

 We stopped and all got hamburgers.  They were excellent!  The French really like sauces, so the burger even had a special sauce on them.  After lunch we went back to get my mom's drawing.  Then we went back all the way down the hill to the bakery.  We got some dishes and then headed back to the apartment.

It had been raining all morning and by the end it was raining pretty hard.  We were wet, cold, and a little tired, so we spent the afternoon relaxing at the apartment.

That evening the sun came out.  We walked down Avenue Des Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe.  This is a famous avenue, but it wasn't anything great.  It just had stores that you could easily get to in the U.S.  But, it was a beautiful night for a walk. 

We walked up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe for a great view of Paris.

 That night we went on a Bateaux-Mouches river boat tour.  We were taken up La Seine one direction, turned around, went passed the loading and unloading station, and taken to see the Eiffel Tower.  We got to see the Eiffel Tower just as it lit up.

July 7

My mom and I started the day with trying to find a bakery near us.  We found one.  It seemed that whenever I was looking for a bakery, I couldn't ever find one, but when I wasn't looking for one, they were all over the place.

This was the day that we went to the Louvre.  It was extremely crowded and hot in there.  We saw the Mona Lisa, wandered around for an hour or two and then had enough of the place.  During this time we did sit on a bench to people watch.

My mom had been wanting to go to Jardin du Luxembourg.  So, we walked down Rue de Seine to make our way to the garden.  We really liked this street.  It started off with lots of art galleries and then turned into lots of fun stores and restaurants (near the street Saint Germain).  We wanted to stop somewhere for a late lunch along the way.

At all of the many cafes, on practically ever street corner, people are seated side-by-side and faced out so that they can people watch (funny).  We wanted to experience this.

 We sat down at a cafe, and were seated side-by-side and faced out.  But, we were driven out by the smokers (I am so surprised at how many people smoke in Paris) and the poor menu.

We went right across the street to Paul.  It was a very cute restaurant and we were glad that we changed our minds and ended up going there.

This was the first place that we got butter with our bread... it was in a cute tube.

 I got the Quiche Lorraine and it was excellent!

On our way to the garden we did stop in some stores... and I bought a pair of pants!

The Jardin du Luxembourg was beautiful.  We walked around it for a little while and then took the metro back to our apartment.

They used rhubarb to decorate in the flower garden.

Do you see the pattern?

A cute little stand.

 That evening, we had supper of bread and cheese and such just at our apartment and we packed.  It was our last night in Paris and we had not had any creme brulee yet.  So, we went down to the cafe where Nichole worked and hoped that he was working, to get some creme brulee.  Nichole wasn't working, but another Nichole was.

July 8

 At 7:30, our limo service picked us up and brought us to the airport.  We had a 10:30 straight flight.  The line for checking baggage was super long.  It was getting close to the time of our flight, and the workers had to start calling people up closer who had the same flight as us.  Finally we got our baggage checked.  We had to run to our gate.  Luckily, we got through security just fine.

We had an 8 1/2 hour flight home.  Almost everywhere you go in Paris you can get these long sandwiches to go.  You see a lot of people eating them around the city.  I wanted to try one, so I got one to bring on the plane for lunch.  It was good... and fun.

The flight went by fast.  I slept some, tried to watch a movie, and otherwise didn't do much.  I really like flying!

We landed, went through customs, and then went to pick up our baggage.  Only to find that my mom's big suitcase wasn't there.  We went to baggage service and they got it lined up to be sent to our house.  It was probably a good thing that we didn't have it though.  We probably wouldn't have all fit in my grandpa's car with all the other baggage.  (My mom's suitcase was delivered today.)

My mom and I stopped at a couple places on our way home.  Then we were home.  Paris was wonderful, but it is always good to be home.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for the lovely trip to Paris!!