travelogue: paris (part 1 of 4)

paris in the springtime.  i am mad about this city.  there is so much to love, its striking massive and gorgeous buildings, its eclairs and macaroons, the way it shines under clouds or sun, not a single rude french person encountered, and then there's eiffel and mona too.  it is, justifiably, one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

we stayed in the marais district, the 3eme.  with its coffee shops, boutique lined streets, and gorgeous apartment buildings everywhere you look we certainly lucked out.  on our first day, with my knopf mapguide in hand - i can't recommend these guides enough - we decided to meander the winding streets of what would be our home for the next four days.

our plan was to first find a coffee for stefan, baguette for me, and croque monsieur for kai (he ate many!) to fuel us for our walk as we made our way toward rue montorgueil.  we usually just stopped into a random cafe/bakery and were never disappointed.  

 

i had read wonderful things about rue montorgueil and it turned out to be a great place to take a stroll.  it was choke full of food shops, bakeries, chocolate shops and kitchenware stores (like le creuset).  stefan was in heaven.  

needless to say, we sampled one too many pastries along this route.  first we ate a gigantic macaroon from eric kayser boulangerie then eclairs from maison colette then petits financiers (moist little almond cakes) from stohrer.  the latter is the oldest pastry shop in paris so we had no choice but to sample their pastries.  as you stroll rue montorgueil the smell of delicious stinky cheese draws you to enter the cheese shops (the aroma from la fermette was especially lovely).  

 

we made our way through les halles with it's impressive renaissance church st. eustache and gardens where kai enjoyed parkour-ing.  we needed to pick up our tickets to the louvre from the tourist office in this area and since we were so close to notre-dame we decided to visit it before continuing our walking tour of le marais.  

 

once we reached pont neuf - one of the many bridges - we got our first peek-a-boo view of the eiffel tower.  very cool. on a couple of the the bridges we found the love locks and of course had to pose with them.  notre-dame is a gothic stunner with its buttresses and stained glass windows.  wow.  the line-up was huge so we chose to admire it from outdoors only.  what a spectacular view it is.  on a non-related note, the weirdest thing we saw right by the notre-dame was a couple eating subway sandwiches, we were flabbergasted that one would choose subway vs. fresh french baguettes! 

first glimpse of eiffel

 

 

it was time to find a place to sit and eat some lunch.  we found artichoke, french onion soup and sardines on the menu at cafe st.regis.  it was my favourite meal.  and, the waiters were happy and funny guys too.  actually, on our way out, one of the waiters was clearing a table and tossed the remains of a drink onto the seat of a moped sitting nearby which startled me.  noticing my surprise, he flicked his hand, rolled his eyes up as if to say 'pfft, who cares, it's nothing.'  i couldn't stop giggling.

 

back in le marais, this time we walked past fashionable shops on rue des franc bourgeois and into the jewish quarter on rue des rosiers.  we were so full on pastries and lunch we didn't take the opportunity to try the famous l'as du fallafel (we made a mental bookmark to return later but unfortunately that never happened).

watching pastries being made

 

  

my boys returned to the hotel to rest up for dinner at sixieme sens (note: the chef was also the waiter and host with no other staff and the food was delicious). so, i took the opportunity to continue window shopping and relax at the beautiful place de vosages square.  it is flanked by 17th century stone buildings with pitched roofs.  victor hugo lived here when he wrote les miserables.  it turned out to be a delicious break.  while sitting in the park, i slowly devoured the entire gigantic pistachio macaroon i had originally saved to share with my boys. 

continue reading... part 2 of 4 coming up later today.