Paris Part Trois - Fin

Pierre Herme
I wanted to know where I could get excellent desserts and pastries. We're both so fortunate to have Vins as our personal tour guide. He said if I wanted very good chocolate and desserts I should go to Pierre Herme off St.Germain Boulevard. This boulevard is a major street in Paris and located on the South Side of the La Siene river. It has many shops like the shops on Champs Elysees but not as touristy. Anywho, Pierre Herme... its expensive but worth it. Its not just fancy dessert, its a work of art. I wanted to save the desserts for dinner with Vins later that evening. We walked around all day with a box of these desserts. The sad part about this story is the subway cars were so crowded as I hopped on, a swarm of people pushed me in against all the other people. I was still holding onto the desserts but my arm was fully extended now with desserts in hand and the box was squished between all the people... Sad day. We didn't have the desserts with Vins, we just saved the box scraping for the following day. We ate them at a park and even though they weren't pretty anymore the taste was still amazing.

Cafe Procope

I discovered this restaurant on the Moleskine site when I purchased my sketchbook for the trip a couple months ago. This is one of the oldest restaurants in Paris, opened in 1686. Some famous historians used to come to this exact location. Those such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamn Franklin and famous writer Voltaire. The rumor is Voltaire used to have about 40 cups of coffee each day! Anywho, this place was fancy and beautiful. Our coats were checked for us and we were seated immediately. Mike had the cream of mushroom soup with scallops and I had the french onion soup. Both way better than what we are used to having back home.
Escargot was on the menu (land snails). I have a rule when it comes to new food: Try everything once. We ordered 6 burgundy escargot and they were delicious. They're also high in protein and low in fat..Bonus! If I could compare it to any other type of food that tastes similar I'd say its almost like clams and I love those too. For dessert we had creme brulee. It was good but I still think Market Broiler (at The Block in Orange) has the best I've ever had. The second best would be the creme brulee I ate at Andy and Mary's wedding and third place would go to the Ritz Carlton.

Red Light District
We wanted to check out the Moulin Rouge but had no idea the prices for dinner and a cabaret show were so expensive. Shows were up to 180 Euros which converts to $243 US. That's for dinner + show + bottle of champagne. The lowest price is 80 Euros ($108 US) for just the show. Yikes! We went into a sex museum while we were there. Tons of fertility figures and other bodily figures from all over the world and from different times. I liked some of the art I saw and I saw some that I don't care for and the rest was humorous. There was a sketch book on every floor and I did a quick sketch while we were there.

We saw this place as we walked down the street... Is it really necessary for this store to have several stroies?

Dinner and a show?

St. Patty's Day

Our last night in Paris and we had to get to an Irish pub to celebrate at least with one pint of beer. We were supposed to meet with friends of Vins' at this pub called Connoly's but our day ran too long and by the time we made it to the pub we had just missed them. We still had our beer in the crowded pub. I wasn't wearing anything green to show my spirit. The bar was so packed, people were drinking in the street just outside the bar. We found a place to drink inside and even made a few friends. We were glad to celebrate in another country.

WRONG TERRITORY
We wanted to walk to La Siene and have some wine. It was quite a walk so we had a little journey ahead of us. We had to cross the street to get to La Siene, we found steps that led under that street so we went in that direction (there were too many cars to try and cross the street). Oh boy... there were big SHEATS on the steps and I thought to myself, "that's too big to be dog sheat"... Well I was right! It was human poo! And another big poo and another and next to one was a dirty t-shirt the human used to wipe! For some reason we continued on and found ourselves walking between bums and their tents. I just held tight to my baguette and hummed a little tune to find a happy place. It stunk down there. We made our way through to the river but walked back in another direction. That definitely was not our scene.

Random Shots
We had to stare at this add at every subway station... Not sure what its for but it must be a big deal. Sniff...sniff..... Do you smell bread?

Lunch is served for two and all for about 7 Euro!
In Paris, most everyone is pretty small. Mike was worried the airline would lose his luggage and he wouldn't be able to buy new clothes. Jackpot! We found a shop!

Taking the alley to Cafe Procope with my Pierre Herme sweets in hand and pre-squish.

Mike awaits his fresh street crepe!

The Soto's just outside Le Louvre .

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Paris Part Deux

Formula 1 Race at the Restaurant in the Renault Dealership
As some of you may know I am a big Formula One fan. It's a European based open wheel racing series that is second to none. So of course while in Europe I have to watch an F1 race as the locals do. Well, while we were in Paris the season opener was being held in Bahrain. So Elaina and I set out to find a place to watch the race. Vins recommended trying places along Champs Elysees so that where we started. After no luck and many places we hit the jackpot. There is an indoor Renault dealership right on Champs Elysees (who happens to be one of the current F1 teams so we went to check it out. Inside we found a 20' tall projection screen showning the race live with people all standing around and sitting on the floor in the middle of the showroom. Everyone was cheering and having a good time. On an upstairs terrace we noticed there was a restaurant with full bar so we asked to be sat so we can over look everyone and the screen. Once up there though there were about 20 flat panel tv's all around also showing the race so there wasn't a bad seat in the house! So that's where we stayed and had lunch. It was a great experiance and something I will never forget. I can't wait to watch another race two weeks from now while we are in Italy. Oh by the way, Fernando Alonso and his Ferrari took first place with Ferrari's Felipe Massa in second. It was a good race, too bad all the commentary was in French.

Lavender sorbet served with a blood orange tart.

Elaina's new favorite Parisen dish... Croque MonsieurThe following day on the subway the guy next to us was reading about Alonso's win. Front page!

Tour Eiffel
Another attraction to check off our list of things to see. This was probably our coldest day in Paris (6 ºC = 42.8 ºF) and it was even colder at the top. The view was grand! You don't realize how huge and dense Paris is until you see it from this perspective. You take an elevator to the top and it has many windows so you can watch the world get smaller as your ascend to the top. Its pretty cool and freaky at the same time.

On the grout between the tiles on the bathroom in the tower people had written their names... So we had to do it too.

Street crepes were good. We ate so many crepes all over Paris. Some in a fancy restaurant and others off the street. We haven't had a crepe we didn't like yet.

Arc De Triomphe
Is a beast of a building. I mainly say this because we decided we would go to the top of this building except you don't go up the same way you would if you were in the Eiffel Tower. There is NO elevator, just a narrow spiral staircase about 3' wide all the way to the top. Our legs were burning and we lost a lof of momentum about 1/3 of the way up. There were a couple recessed areas on the way up and we hopped in to catch our breath. Once to the top the view was nice and we spent a little while enjoying the view of the boulevards and watching the cars circle the structure. 284 steps all the way to the top.
Taking a break on our way up the spiral staircase.

It was really cold, Mike had to put on his scarf. He's never owned a scarf till he came to Europe.
I'm still not sure why Mike had me stand over this light.

Its not a very clear day but in the center of this photo is La Grande Arche de La Defense (a 20th century version of the Arc de Triomphe) taken from my view at the historic Arc de Triomphe.

The Axe historique ("historical axis") is a line of monuments, buildings and thoroughfares that extends from the centre of Paris, France, to the west. It is also known as the "Voie Triomphale" (triumphal way).

Beware of Birds
Yeah... I got pooped on. Luckily the bulk of the SHEAT (as the French say) landed on my purse. It kinda bounced off my head. I looked stupid while Mike used baby wipes to clean my head. Robot was amused.

Champs Elysees
This boulevard is one of 12 that connect to the roundabout that circles Arc De Triomphe. It took me forever to get the pronounciation correct and I've finally got it... chonz-ee-lee-zays. I sound like I know what I'm talking about when I say it too! This boulevard is filled with tourists from all over. You'll see stores such as: Louis Vuitton, Sephora, McDonalds, Renault Dealership, Toyota Dealership, Swaroskki, Cartie, Mont Blanc and a butt load more. It's very similar to Rodeo Drive back home, very expensive and fashionable. All the cafe's face the crowded streets so you can people watch and see the cars go by. Sometimes there are so many people you can't see the cars on the street. And then there are the gypsies in most places here collecting spare change or if you drop any they'll catch it before your money hits the floor. Very very sneaky. I just want to know where they get their gold teeth!

The Hole on Champs Elysees Boulevard
We found a small cafe to sit at while we had cappuccinos and chocolate eclairs. Our table was directly on the sidewalk facing all the people walking the boulevard. We noticed a person to our left do a little dance. As we focused our attention on him we realized he was trying to avoid a fall... Why? Because he stepped in a small hole on the sidewalk where a brick should have been. This was the highlight of our evening. We had a good reason to sit at this spot... for the next hour we watched so many people step in that hole. Our stomach's hurt from laughing so hard. Don't worry, no one was hurt or came close to it. They all just did a little "I didn't just trip in that hole" dance and looked back at the hole they stepped in.





Bois De Boulogne
A large park/forest located to the West of Paris. We originally discovered this park when we were at the top of the Eiffel Tower. We asked Vins about the mass of trees we saw and he told us that it was Bois De Boulogne.
We strolled around and got lost a bit in the forest.

We found a bench and decided we'd have ourselves a little lunch in the park. Mike sitting at a bench.

Everyone has dogs and they're all off-leash and very social with the other dogs. Their owners are just as friendly. We met many dogs that day. One was a sweet Golden Retriever, we could tell he was a puppy... he had big paws and was really clumsy. We found that he was more than clumsy, he was a thief! One minute we were petting this dog and giving him love and the next BAM! He took off with our baguette! We weren't upset, we thought it was funny. His owner (a young boy) repeatedly apologized but we assured him everything was fine. We stayed in the park till the sun went down and then headed back home.

We saw a woman leaning into the window of another car with her butt out but the police came by pretty quickly and she walked away. We saw our first Parisien prostitute... I know... exciting.


The Subway
Sometimes its simple and easy to get on and off. Other times its loaded with people and very difficult to get on and off. Sometimes the door slams on you because you just can't shove one more person into a car. Other times its very lonely.


Dinner with Vins, Olivier, Richard and Helen
One night while in Paris Vins had some friends over for a little gathering. His long time childhood friend Olivier, also from Paris and another couple, RIchard and Helen. RIchard is part French part New Yorker living in Paris after years in Long Beach with his wife Helen. She's half French and half Greek now living in Paris. Everyone was very nice and we all had a great time. Of course we always feel like we're talkig too much but we half of them all laughing with our hijinx here in Paris and back home. We talked politics, music, amongst other things. We wished we had taken a photo with everyone but we totally forgot, DAMN. We did exchange email with everyone so hopefully we will be able to keep in contact with everyone. They're always welcome at our place!

Random Shots

Mike in front of the Peugeot dealership on Champs Elysees

Tiny elevator... Its a process just for the both of us to get in.

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