What a dream this feels like. As I begin to form my thoughts on how to describe our weekend away in Paris, I'm thinking, "is this real life?". Picnics under the Eiffel tower, cheese, red wine, baguettes? Yes, that happened. Our own Parisian flat complete with brioche bread waiting for us in the kitchen? Oh yes, that happened. Crepes, fancy hats, red lip stick and more cheese? Why not. That's how we did it last weekend in Paris.
We have been to Paris once before. It was at the end of last summer, when we were wrapping up our 7 week Europe trip before moving to England. At that time, we found ourselves staying in an overpriced hostel on the edge of town, and really not having any leftover funds to even eat out at a cafe. This time, since there were four of us (our friend Mel from home and her friend Joe) we all chipped in to get an Airbnb in an area of town that is a bit closer to the sights we wanted to see. Since we had been to Paris before, we had a better idea of how we wanted to spend just two days exploring. The apartment in itself was a highlight. It was so.... Parisian... and so much better than that overpriced, crowded hostel we stayed in last time. We spent Saturday doing a lot of walking. We planned a route that would bring us past some of the major sights: Notre Dame, the Louvre (though we didn't go in. We were content not waiting in the massive line!), the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, etc. We stopped at the Eiffel Tower for an afternoon picnic in the grass and loved it so much that we took the metro back at night to see the tower all lit up. To us, it didn't get any better than that. Eiffel tower, wine, cheese, baguette: bam, we are happy campers.
The next day we visited Montemarte and fell more in love with this city. I believe I talked about this area of the city quite a bit in my first post about Paris last summer because I loved it so much. It is an outer region of the city that many well known artists worked and lived such as Pablo Picasso and Vincent Van Gogh. The streets are beautiful to stroll, and you can find some of the best pastry shops in all of Paris. We actually bought baguettes from the shop that has been rated to have the BEST baguettes in Paris. That definitely did not let us down. We ate crepes, pain aux chocolates, and drank espressos. By 4 in the afternoon, we sadly had to hit the road. We hopped back into our rental car and made the long trek back to England. Just to clarify, this is not a normal weekend trip for people living here. Most people would take more time off for a trip like this, as it could take anywhere from 5-10 hours depending on border delays/ferry crossing times, etc. We made it back to London by 12:30am and to Cambridge by 1:30am that night. Though in the end we felt exhausted, this weekend was probably one of the best weekends ever. Paris is always a good idea :).
View from our apartment!
Above is the original love lock bridge, which has recently been cleared of all the locks. Still, you find people selling locks on the street.
Asparugus and egg crepe in the morning.
Truly fantastic! How fun.
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