Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Paris, Day Four
Looking back over this day, it appears to have been about 36 hours long. Let's get going, kids, we have a lot to do!
First, we decided to buy tickets for the Batobus, which is like one of those big buses tourists ride in New York or London, where you can hop on and hop off, except it's A BOAT which makes it cool and not lame-o. Our own personal little Bateaux Mouches! It was a cloudy day but still really fun to cruise the Seine. I noticed that some people had what I think are houseboats on the river!
I immediately began fantasizing about living on a houseboat in Paris, having a little boat-top garden, and generally being fabulous. If not for money, job, cats, family, and the fact that I think there's some gross stuff having to do with bathrooms on boats, I would totally get me a houseboat!
We got out at our stop and began to climb. Can you guess where we were?
Oui! Le Tour Eiffel. The time between when the two photos above were taken involved climbing seven hundred steps, waiting in a long line for the elevator up, and taking a long elevator ride to the top. Don't take the steps if you want instant(ish) gratification.
This is one of those places that everyone needs to visit when they go to Paris, like you have to go to the Empire State Building in New York. Yes, it's touristy, but WOW. Amazing views.
After we descended the stairs, we decided to take the Batobus back to the Musee D'Orsay so we could get a couple of things from the gift shop, then walked across the river to the Jardin des Tuileries which is a very pretty, well manicured park where tons of people congregate. Since all we had eaten was a sandwich at the Tower (a good sandwich, but still), we got some ice cream!
We discovered the most delightful flavor at two different ice cream shops: salted butter caramel. YUM!
After walking around a bit, we sat down in an outdoor park cafe, had a pichet of wine, and wrote postcards.
If you got a wine splattered postcard, this is why!
We then Batobus-ed back to our Notre Dame spot, and for reasons I don't entirely understand, rather than collapsing we instead walked to Ile St. Louis, the island next to Ile de la Cite (where Notre Dame is), and bought cheese.
The feet of the angels. So delicious. If I could import one concept from France to be instituted throughout the United States, it would be the fromagerie. Also: a democratic society.
Anyhoo, we also stopped and bought a baguette, headed back home, and bizarrely ventured back out just a couple of hours later for dinner, returning to Ile St. Louis and eating at a lovely restaurant, Cafe Med. It was a prix fixe meal (appetizer, entree, and dessert) for 19 euros, which is about as good as it gets there. They even had 12 euro options for a three course prix fixe meal. I wanted to kiss them. Mwah! I had a tomato mozzerella salad, then this amazing crepe:
It has smoked salmon in the center, sour cream (or maybe creme fraiche) in the corner and a little lemon on the side. Holy cow. A square crepe! And for dessert:
A chocolate thing-a-ma-jig (sort of like a lava cake) in creme anglaise with slivered almonds on top. It was okay.
Kidding! It was FANTASTIC. And we finally called it a day. Vive la Paris!
First, we decided to buy tickets for the Batobus, which is like one of those big buses tourists ride in New York or London, where you can hop on and hop off, except it's A BOAT which makes it cool and not lame-o. Our own personal little Bateaux Mouches! It was a cloudy day but still really fun to cruise the Seine. I noticed that some people had what I think are houseboats on the river!
I immediately began fantasizing about living on a houseboat in Paris, having a little boat-top garden, and generally being fabulous. If not for money, job, cats, family, and the fact that I think there's some gross stuff having to do with bathrooms on boats, I would totally get me a houseboat!We got out at our stop and began to climb. Can you guess where we were?
Oui! Le Tour Eiffel. The time between when the two photos above were taken involved climbing seven hundred steps, waiting in a long line for the elevator up, and taking a long elevator ride to the top. Don't take the steps if you want instant(ish) gratification.
This is one of those places that everyone needs to visit when they go to Paris, like you have to go to the Empire State Building in New York. Yes, it's touristy, but WOW. Amazing views.After we descended the stairs, we decided to take the Batobus back to the Musee D'Orsay so we could get a couple of things from the gift shop, then walked across the river to the Jardin des Tuileries which is a very pretty, well manicured park where tons of people congregate. Since all we had eaten was a sandwich at the Tower (a good sandwich, but still), we got some ice cream!
We discovered the most delightful flavor at two different ice cream shops: salted butter caramel. YUM!After walking around a bit, we sat down in an outdoor park cafe, had a pichet of wine, and wrote postcards.
If you got a wine splattered postcard, this is why!We then Batobus-ed back to our Notre Dame spot, and for reasons I don't entirely understand, rather than collapsing we instead walked to Ile St. Louis, the island next to Ile de la Cite (where Notre Dame is), and bought cheese.
The feet of the angels. So delicious. If I could import one concept from France to be instituted throughout the United States, it would be the fromagerie. Also: a democratic society.Anyhoo, we also stopped and bought a baguette, headed back home, and bizarrely ventured back out just a couple of hours later for dinner, returning to Ile St. Louis and eating at a lovely restaurant, Cafe Med. It was a prix fixe meal (appetizer, entree, and dessert) for 19 euros, which is about as good as it gets there. They even had 12 euro options for a three course prix fixe meal. I wanted to kiss them. Mwah! I had a tomato mozzerella salad, then this amazing crepe:
It has smoked salmon in the center, sour cream (or maybe creme fraiche) in the corner and a little lemon on the side. Holy cow. A square crepe! And for dessert:A chocolate thing-a-ma-jig (sort of like a lava cake) in creme anglaise with slivered almonds on top. It was okay.Kidding! It was FANTASTIC. And we finally called it a day. Vive la Paris!
Labels: food, honeymoon, Paris
