Paris was the last stop of our trip in Europe, and definitely one of our favorite cities. Taylor had already fallen in love with Paris on a program trip during his semester abroad, but this was my first time in the city. Even though it was a bit cloudy and on the colder side, I also fell in love. How can you not? We stayed in the cutest little apartment in the 14th arrondissement, near a subway stop that got us to all the sights easily. Every morning Taylor went and got the yummiest pastries from a patisserie down the street, and we ate breakfast out on the porch connected to our room.
Each day we went to a different market street where we walked around and got supplies for lunch. On our first day we went and had our lunch in the park near the Eiffel Tour in a rare spot free of crowds of tourists. On our last day we got rotisserie chicken and fat soaked potatoes to go with our bread and cheese and wine in a water bottle. SO GOOD. On our second day we went and locked our love on Pont des artes (we're corny like that...)
As we explored the city we quickly saw lots of the sights, but stayed away from going into most of them. The only museum we went to was Musee de Orsay. I felt crazy not going to the Louvre, but with so little time we didn't want to deal with the crowds and long lines. Next time!
TO DO & SEE: The two streets/markets we went to that I remember were called Rue Cler and Rue Montorgüell. Both were nice but we liked Rue Cler better. It was definitely less touristy--lot of locals buying an armful of baguettes for the week!
Montemarte was one of my favorite neighborhoods. There were lots of cool boutiques with locally designed and made clothing (some really great dress stores). On our last night we went to dinner in Montemarte and ended up walking around as it got dark. After hearing some people talking about a beautiful view near by, we walked all the way up to the top of the hill that the area is situated around and found a building/church (?? our tour book probably knows what this building is but I don't feel like looking it up...it's the building pictured above). Anyway, below this building were stairs filled with people looking out on a beautiful view of the city. It was super full of tourists, but worth a few minutes to take in the twinkling city lights.
Musee d'Orsay-- we chose to go here instead of the Louvre because honestly, most of the art at the Louvre isn't really our thing (gasp!). We especially enjoyed seeing art by Dega and Van Gogh. Would highly recommend it!
TO EAT AND DRINK: On our second night we set out to go to a taco place called Candelaria. It is a tiny little place with a small area to order tacos (there is one table and a little bar space to eat at) and a really cool bar in the back. The door to the bar is at the back and looks like it leads to a back room for employees or something. When we got there the line was super long and we were hungry so we decided to skip the tacos and come back for drinks after dinner. The tacos looked really good though so I would definitely recommend giving it a try.
We ended up going to the restaurant right next door, called Clasico Argentino, which was an empanadas place. So good. And so cheesy. Afterwards we went to Candelaria for yummy cocktails.
On our last night we went out for a fancier meal to end the trip. We went to Miroir in Montemarte which was amazing. I had fish and Taylor had lamb. Everything we saw people order looked amazing.
We also found La Famille (also in Montemarte) when we were looking for nicer places to go. Apparently they have really fancy, interesting drinks. Unfortunately we didn't end up being able to go there, but it would be a good place to check out.
Check back tomorrow for the video we made about our time in France!
