Paris & Versailles ... Day Seventeen

I love waking up in Paris.  We started the day at one of my favorite places we found in Paris called Paul.  Breakfast consisted of espressos, quiche lorraine and two croissants.   There actually was some rain in the forecast, but we decided to make the best of it.  We made our way to the metro and headed out to Versailles. 

The train ride out was super easy and only took about 30 minutes.  I took so many pictures in the Palace of Versailles.  It is such a gorgeous chateau, filled with beautiful furniture, paintings and replicas from the era.  You can see from a distance that it is going to be overly lavish and wonderful.   

I mean come on, why wouldn't you need a stunning gold entrance gate?   Our tickets, which we got before arriving at the palace, included an audio guide, which was amazing!  I highly recommend getting the audio when/if you visit.  In each room there was a number you'd punch into the device and it would tell you about the history of that space.  These were just a few of my favorites spaces we saw:

The Palace Royal Chapel:

I'm calling this the Hall of Statues:

Exterior facade:

The Hall of Mirrors:

Kings Chamber created by Louis XIV in 1701:

These are two famous paintings that are placed in the same room.  The one directly below is the Crowning of Empress Josephine that was commissioned to show the mother in attendance, which is the main figure in the blue seating area.  However, she was never actually there.  She refused to attend, which makes me laugh.

Army swearing allegiance to Napoleon:

After seeing this amazing palace, we walked out to the gardens.  Sadly most of the greenery was dead and the fountain/statues were covered up or off.  We still walked around the space and just used our imagination and laughed at how beautiful it would have been, given it wasn't still dormant.  Once we had our fill of beautiful Versailles, we took the train ride back into Paris.

Have I told you how sweet my hubby is?  Well he did have to make up for not getting me my favorite sweet treat the first round.  He decided we should stop at the Eiffel Tower, and I could finally get some of the large amazing cotton candy... and amazing it was! 

It was so good and totally worth the wait, since I didn't get it the night we were there.  We walked along the river, and I even let him enjoy some of it with me.  We ended up walking to the Champs-Elysees again to go do some shopping.  Then, because I hadn't had enough sugar, we went to Laduree again for macaroons.  I got a large pistachio and cafe, and I was in a sugar coma of heaven.

We sat outside on a bench and enjoyed the treat and the people watching.  The sugar didn't give us the energy to walk home though, so we jumped on the metro back to our little home in Paris.   We finally got some lunch/dinner at this Indonesian cafe around the corner from our studio.  Who doesn't love a good shawarma?

Then, because it was a beautiful night, we decided to walk to a bar called Wine by One that we had found online.  I thought the set up was pretty unique and nothing I'd seen in the states (yet).  You have a membership card that you load with any dollar amount you'd like.

 

Then they allow you to go around and pick which wine you'd like to try.  You could try a really expensive bottle, which was charged to you by the ounce you choose, 2, 4 or 6 ounce pours.   It was really neat to see, but I definitely think it's over priced.  We spent 30 euros there in too short of time and then decide to head back since we were exhausted from the day.

We got upstairs and ended up drinking the small amount of wine still left in the bottle we had and of course wanted more.  I went out and grabbed some wine, cheese and crackers while D stayed to find us some entertainment.  We ate cheese, which was one of the stinkiest cheeses I've ever experienced, watched a few shows and drank wine in our undies.  It was the best end to the evening.

Paris ... Day Sixteen

Day sixteen had me waking up as early as can be.  I was ready to check out of this 'hotel' and get to our other studio.  After packing up and checking out as quickly as we could, we walked over to our studio.

It wasn't the shortest walk, especially with our luggage, but we were there in about 30 minutes.  The studio was located in the cutest little section of town called the Montorgueil area.  The tenant gave us instructions through AirBnB on how to check in.  It took us a few minutes to actually figure out the first gate.  He left pretty detailed directions, but the doors there are a little more complicated.  We then got the key, which was placed on top of the mail boxes to open the box that had the apartment key in it.  Once we climbed the spiral staircase to the 4th floor (and figured out exactly which one was the 4th floor) we found the right door.  It's was the most adorable, teeny, tiny place and I was in love.

I thought it was perfect for two people traveling and who don't spend a ton of time in the room anyways.  We dropped our bags and went to get breakfast in the area.  The street was filled with cute shops and restaurants, people were welcoming.  It was basically night and day from where we were staying. 

I got the almond croissant that was heavenly.  I would have eaten 30 of them that day.  I still crave an almond croissant like we had in Paris... sigh.

Once we were settled, our big adventure for the day was to go see the Musse d'orsay.  We made our trip over there, just enjoying Paris along the way.  We went over the Seine River and saw the main love lock bridge.  Apparently Paris wasn't crazy about this fad at first, but they seem to be embracing it.  You are supposed to write in sharpie your names and the date and then throw the keys into the river.

Not long after we crossed the river, we came to the museum.  There was a little line, but not a huge wait.

I apparently didn't pay attention as we walked in, because I got in trouble for taking the picture below.  You are definitely not supposed to use your camera in the museum.

It was such a huge, museum with some of the coolest art I'd seen in person.  We were on our feet all day,  and we finally had to take a little time to sit and relax.  I'm pretty sure I got evil eyed even for taking a picture of the hubs above.  Oh well.

The medium was mainly paintings, which I loved.   I couldn't take a ton of images, but I did sneak a few as you can see.  There were quite a few pieces that I remembered studying.  My favorite part was being about to see the brush stroke in the painting up close. 

It's like we never learned our lesson.  We decide to walk to Norte Dam Cathedral after we left the museum.  It was nearby, so it was hard for us to pass up.  The entire cathedral is amazing.  The only lights were the chandeliers hanging down and low lights around the perimeter.  This was one of my favorite churches we saw on our trip.

The best part of the church, which I felt was unexpected, was the exterior on the back side of the church.  Stunning.  There was a little park that we sat at and took some awesome pictures.

Since we hadn't gotten lunch, that was our next goal.  There were a few places around the cathedral that we considered, but we ended up walking a few blocks before picking a space.  We were really headed to get macaroons, and just started in that direction.  This trip really helped us realize how awful we are at making food decisions.  We sat outside at this little cafe.  They seat you both facing the street, because it's truly for you to people watch.  Why don't we do this in America? 

We ended up having more of a brunch then lunch.  Once in route to get those macaroons, we made another pit stop for coffee.  We saw a Starbucks down the block, so we stopped to get D's Parisian name on the cup.  

I did already miss the Italians and their love for quick, amazing, cheap espresso.  Along we went, and we finally found what I was most excited for... Laduree aka the Mecca of Macaroons. 

We got eight macaroons and then one large one to eat then.  The vanilla was to die for!!!!  We were saving the rest for home, but we really should have just ate them there!

We then made the walk home to drop off the extra macaroons.  I of course didn't want them to get ruined.  We enjoyed some time off our feet for a few minutes.  We took part in happy hour drinks, which is what everyone does, at one of the restaurants right by the studio.  D was drawn in by the pint special.  We ended up having about three drinks and then went to search for dinner.  It started to rain, so it made things a little harder.  We walked a ways and then decided on a crepe place.

 

D got the 3 course option, and I got a savory crepe. We split the salad and the dessert, it was perfect. At dinner I said the nuts are perfect (regarding dessert) and D just laughs at me, quote of the year apparently.  The maturity of my husband.  We had almost a bottle of wine at dinner and then decided to make a pit stop for wine, a beer and an orange on the way home.  We spent the rest of the night at our studio drinking and waiting out the rain.