Walks around Paris

Since we are moving out of Paris soon, I am trying to absorb as much of Paris as possible before we do so. There is so much to the city. Granted, I don't venture out and explore by myself too much, but there is so many areas of Paris where I haven't been before.

After grabbing lunch with a friend, we explored a little of Paris.

Yes, a scene from "Inception" was shot here

I like when trees create an arch like that

Poppy Flower

A different view of the Eiffel Tower

Interesting flower in a garden

I liked the color of this flower

Look I'm in New York!

Well......not really. =P The Statue of Liberty in New York City was actually a present from France to the United States. Being an iconic figure and representing liberty, this statue has been replicated all over the world. There are three replicas in Paris alone. One small one in the Jardin du Luxembourg, this fairly large (yet still smaller than the one in NYC) at a point in the Seine, and one in a museum that is the same size made from the mold of the original statue.

Hopefully the weather will be nice again before we leave so I can see a little more of Paris.

The Feschets are in town!

The other day, friends of ours came to Paris for a visit. Pierre is french so he was in the country visiting his family and they decided to take their 13 month old daughter for her first visit to Paris. Luckily it was a beautiful day and we were able to spend it acting like tourist.

First we took a nice stroll down the parks on the Champs-Élysées all the way to the Louvre.

The Louvre

Then we hopped onto a metro and made our way to Hotel de Ville to grab lunch. After lunch, we walked to Isle Saint Louis for some yummy Berthillon ice-cream. From there, we approached the Notre Dame from the back.....which I actually think is the more intresting side of the cathedral. 

The Feschets: Pierre, Anna and Chloe

 We rested for a little in the park behind the Notre Dame so little Chloe could eat. I always wanted to stop by that park, but never took the time. It's actually very pretty, and this time of the year, it's full of flowers too!

I'm pretty sure this is a rose, but it looks almost like a peony

Chloe. She's always smiling!

Our final toursitic activity of the day was to take a tour on the Seine by bateau mouche (the boat). It's an open top boat where they play a recording of facts for all the landmarks we passed. It was interesting prespective of the city and it was a lovely day to be outside too.

A rose window of the Notre Dame peeking through the trees

The view of the back of the Notre Dame

The Eiffel Tower

It was tiring, but kind of fun to be a tourist again, especially since we're leaving the city soon. It gave us an opportunity to revisit all the main areas of Paris.

The Legend of Zelda

For Valentines Day, I bought tickets to go see this concert in Paris. It is a concert composed of an orchestra based on the music from the video game franchise: The Legend of Zelda. It was probably Germain's favorite video game every since he was little and the music plays a huge role while playing the game.

With only three stops in Europe, we definitely took advantage of them being in our city.

While the orchestra played music from this beloved game, the back screen would play clips from the games. We were a little far, but this was more of a listening event than a seeing event anyways.

Blurry pictures of the orchestra playing.

Aux 2 Olivier

The other night we met up with some friends to grab dinner. Most of the time, Germain and I will look online before hand and book a restuarant on a specific website. By doing so, it allows us to get a special discount. Sometimes we find really good deals, others it's a miss. This particular place that we went to was just in between. We got a good amount of food for the price, but none of it was amazing. Probably won't go back. But still, it had potential.

Aux 2 Olivier:

Crème brûlée au foie gras chutney de pommes et pain d’épice toasté

A creme brulee foie gras mousse with a side of apple and onion perserves and gingerbread toast. I liked the idea; it was original. However, it was wayyy too sweet for an appetizer and I barely even tasted the foie gras.

Magret de canard purée grand-mère et sa poire au vin

Duck Breast with a side of "grandmother" style mashed potatos and a slice of wine soaked pear. Eh...it wasn't bad, but it wasn't amazing. The wine sauce, I thought, was a little bitter, but other than that was typical.

On a similiar note, a Vietnamese restaurant opened in the neighborhood. It's not as cheap as NY Chinatown, but it's not too expensive and so far, it's pretty good. Will definitely grab take out a couple more times before we leave Paris.

Dinner

The other day we had a deliciousss dinner. Nicolas (the best man from our wedding) is getting married this summer. We're not able to attend the wedding (since it's in the middle of the summer and we purchased our Miami tickets already) so we treated them for dinner when they were in town last weekend.

It was a trendy looking place in Le Marais that we found online. We had a set menu where we had no clue what we were receiving....it was completely up to the chef. The menu included an amuse-bouche, 2 appetizers, a fish entree, a meat entree and 2 desserts! None of them were very big so it ended up being a good amount of food.

The Amuse-Bouche: A small verrine of lentil soup with a slice of toasted bread

This was pretty good. Well seasoned and not too heavy. "Amuse bouche" literally translates to amuse the mouth. So it is a small amount of food to trigger your senses and get your mouth ready for the meal.

Appetizer #1: Rabbit pate with mustard mousse, home baked bread and a slice of peach

I'm a big fan of pate and things like that anyways.....So I definitely enjoyed this dish. The bread was surprising good and not as dry as I expected it to be. The mustard packed a little too much heat for me, but everyone else at the table licked the bowl clean. And the peach, it was probably my favoite part. I don't remember what it was marinated in....

Appetizer #2: Foie gras ravioli with mushroom foam, crispy noodles and alfalfa sprouts

Mmmm this was yummy. As you know, I'm a huge fan of foie gras and mushrooms to begin with. The mushroom foam was not really foamy to me, but more like a soup with a layer of foam on top. It was delish! And the foie gras wrapped in a sheet of pasta was soft and silk which was perfectly balanced by the crunch of the crispy noodles and alfalfa sprouts.

Fish Entree: Salmon wrapped with bacon over a bed of cauliflowers and a pickled vegetables with a side of thai soup

This was probably not my favorite dish of the night, but it was still good. The salmon was cooked to a perfect medium. There was a nutty flavor somewhere in the dish....couldn't really pinpoint it tho. The soup was like a curry soup. It was good, but nothing too special.

Meat Entree: Moussaka with a slice of deep fried rice cake and soy bean salad

This was not your typical moussaka, but it was perfectly seasoned and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It took me a while to figure out what the fried slice was, you can't really tell that it's rice, but anything fried is good. =P

Dessert #1: Baked pear over Philadelphia cheesecake foam, Philadelphia cheesecake icecream over caramelized walnuts and a citrus sauce

I really enjoyed the first two elements....especially the icecream. Cream cheese icecream....it works! However, I'm not a huge fan of citrus desserts (or even adding citrus to entrees, like fish) so I didn't enjoy the last element too much....too sour for me.

Dessert #2: Carrot meringue over a bed of rice pudding and a scope of citrus sorbet

We had to crack the meringue globe before eating so all the different elements could be mixed together. I enjoyed the meringue, surprisingly. And with the rice pudding it worked. However, once again, when I reached the citrus sorbet, it was a little much for me. Still, if you like citrus, it was pretty good.

This place was definitely on the pricier end of a weekly meal out, but it really wasn't that bad! We booked the reservation on a website that gave us a discount so it was 20% off. And it was the early wedding gift to Nicolas and Frederique, so it was worth it (a present where we get to eat too!) We will probably have to treat ourselves to this again before leaving Paris!

Le Crillon - un palais

The other night, we were invited to visit the Crillon. It is consider a "palace" or a really fancy, highly ranked, extremely expensive, 5-star hotel. They are selling everything inside and completely remodeling the place. And since Germain and his class of notaraires are future rich people, they were invited to go visit the place and potentially auction on some of the furniture and art pieces. I tagged along =P

I didn't take many pictures, but here is a glimpse of the inside of this palace:

View of the American Embassy from a guest room

Pretty chandelier....in a guest room

Cocktail room

Here are some pictures from the guy who was incharge of taking pictures that night.....just to give you an idea of how the place looks. It's a little much for me, personally, but I can understand why movie stars would want to stay in a place like this. It really resembles a palace in which French kings would live in.

This is the common room in a guest suite! Yes, that's a piano....

One of the bedrooms

In the lounge

This was also in a guest room.....

Museum Visit

Today we visited the Musée d'Orsay. It is a very popular museum, but we never got around to visiting it. Until now. My sister wrote about it in her blog. You can click here to read further.

It is a much bigger museum than I thought. If I knew, I wouldn't have worn high heeled boots =P Nonetheless, it was very interesting to see. The museum carries several very famous pieces by artist like Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir and Degas (just to name a few). But, unfortunately, they did not allow pictures to be taken inside the museum.....for the most part at least. Like my sister said, the museum is located in an old train station. This provided for some very interesting architecture as well as some beautiful views. I snuck a picture in of the view from the opening of a clock window.

One of the clock windows from one of the restaurants

View of Paris and the Sacre Coeur from the window

Also, the other day we celebrated our one year anniversary.....which happened to also be the chinese holiday of Mid Autumn Moon Festival. We didn't do anything special since we just got back from an extravagant honeymoon cruise. So we just went out to dinner. On our way to dinner we got a beautiful view of the sunset by the Eiffel tower.

And on our way back, we got to see the bright full moon over the Seine River. 

So yesterday was Germain's birthday. He had class until late so I just made him food at home. But on Saturday I took him out for dinner. He picked the place (since I don't know the restaurants very well here) but it was a first for him too. It was pretty good. My pictures, however, did not come out very good. It was a dark restaurant.

Our appetizer: buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes

Germain's cow cheek stew over mashed potatoes

My foie gras ravioli with truffle cream sauce

Dessert: a house Napoleon...very good.

On Sunday night his parents were in town and we went to a restaurant known for it's meat. It was good too. Then we walked around the city. It was chilly, but we passed by the Louvre and the night view was very nice.

That's all. Last week of school. Finals coming up. eep! Gotta study!

Christmas everywhere!!

More Christmas decorations around the city! Enjoy!

The outside of Galerie Lafayette

The other side of Galerie Layfayette

Look it's Santa Clause!!

The Wheel and the Obelisk

Another angle

The Eiffel tower!! ok...not the real one...just a small version on the Champs-Elysee.

Christmas is near

So it's almost Christmas and the decorations are up in Paris. Supposedly it's not as nice as they were last year, but Christmas decorations are still pretty.

on the both sides of the streets of the Champs-Elyees

At the corner of the intersection on the Champs-Elysee