Paris, Deuxième Partie
My wife found a great deal for flights in the fall. She follows this Facebook page, Girls Love Travel, and one of the members posted that there was a pretty insane airfare war going on. We ended up getting round trip tickets from Tampa to Paris for just over $400 per person. With a deal like that, you just can't pass it up.
So, with tickets and passports at the ready, we set off for Paris. This time, we went for our 18th wedding anniversary in late January. Being Floridians, we don't get much cold, so we escape as often as we can during fall and winter months.
Landing in Paris, we were much more familiar with the city and using the metro, so after waiting around for a bit to get tickets to head into the city centre, we boarded the RER C. It was certainly cold, but we were plenty prepared-ish for it.
Once we got off the metro and walked to find our Airbnb flat, we knew we were early so we continued on and went back to a cafe that we enjoyed on our first trip to Paris last summer for Bastille Day. This began the marathon of french onion soup for us. I had some boeuf bourguignon as a main, which was excellent, but I could have done with just the soup.
After enjoying a meal, we received the bill and went back to the flat to meet our host. We got into the flat and met Pierre, whom handles the oversight of the property for the owners. As the flat was still being cleaned, we decided to let them finish up and headed out to get some groceries.
We decided to go out for the evening and take in cold night air and go see the Eiffel Tour. It is such a sight to behold. From the flat, it was about a 20 minute walk, or so. Paris is an easy city to walk.
Walking up to, then under the Eiffel Tour at night is completely different than during the day. It's also a bit different during this time of year in general. After some hot chocolat, and quite a bit of smooching under the structure, we decided to walk along the Seine. Again, get used to walking if you're going to visit Paris.
As the days went by, we ate and drank in many cafe's, always trying the creme brulee. I'm a biere drinker mainly, but French wine is so good and I switch to drinking that primarily, though I tried more French biere this time around.
A visit to the Pere Lachaise Cemetery is a must when visiting Paris. It's absolutely beautiful and full of history. Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison, and Oscar Wilde are all buried here, among so many others. After spending time walking around the cemetery, we were in need of warming up and what better way to do so than to pop into a cafe.
So, with tickets and passports at the ready, we set off for Paris. This time, we went for our 18th wedding anniversary in late January. Being Floridians, we don't get much cold, so we escape as often as we can during fall and winter months.
Landing in Paris, we were much more familiar with the city and using the metro, so after waiting around for a bit to get tickets to head into the city centre, we boarded the RER C. It was certainly cold, but we were plenty prepared-ish for it.
Once we got off the metro and walked to find our Airbnb flat, we knew we were early so we continued on and went back to a cafe that we enjoyed on our first trip to Paris last summer for Bastille Day. This began the marathon of french onion soup for us. I had some boeuf bourguignon as a main, which was excellent, but I could have done with just the soup.
After enjoying a meal, we received the bill and went back to the flat to meet our host. We got into the flat and met Pierre, whom handles the oversight of the property for the owners. As the flat was still being cleaned, we decided to let them finish up and headed out to get some groceries.
We decided to go out for the evening and take in cold night air and go see the Eiffel Tour. It is such a sight to behold. From the flat, it was about a 20 minute walk, or so. Paris is an easy city to walk.
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| L'Eiffel Tour - I love the shot I took here. Yeah, I doctored it some, but c'mon. |
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| Seine at night |
Sacre-Coeur
On one day, we made our way over to Montmartre and took in the views from Sacre-Coeur and walked among the art shops and artists themselves. This is a great part of town. Our daughter stayed in a hostel here just a month earlier and recommended we come over to this part of the city. Glad we did.
We walked down to see the infamous Moulin Rouge and then decided to browse one of the many sex novelty shops. Kinda like going to The Todd Couples Superstore here in Tampa, but cooler due to it being Paris.
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| Pere Lachaise Cemetery - Paris |
We left the cemetery the way we came in and found Le Pere Lachaise across the boulevard. We warmed by the space heater, drank some wine and beire and enjoyed our time. I learned French back in high school, but have only really had to bring it back up this past year. I will say this second trip, I was a bit more confident, but fluent I am not, but I do my best to communicate in French first.
Another American couple came in the cafe and sat down near us. They were fairly rude and when messing up even a simple please or thank you in French, they'd just laugh it off. They ordered wine, but got vin chaude (hot wine). They obviously didn't like it and were not terribly nice about it.
Nevertheless, the wife and I continued to enjoy our time in the cafe. At the end when settling out the bill, the man running the cafe came over and offered us each a vin chaude, on the house. Our bill was settled, but he felt the need to give this to us, which we gladly accepted and enjoyed. This is the lesson here, if you want to enjoy your time, anywhere, be respectful, attempt to assimilate to their culture and speak in their language. Both times we've been to Paris, we've enjoyed it. I think this is a good part of the reason.
We'll continue on with our visit to Mont Saint-Michel in the next post. As well, we'll wrap up this trip. Bonne nuit!
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