I love a travel recap post, and I hope you do too! I will split my trip into four posts, coming at you this week and next. Let's dive in!
As noted in my post about our accommodations, I headed out by myself for the first part of the trip. I got to the airport on Wednesday evening (May 28th) and got myself to the Maple Leaf Lounge. I saw a former co-worker there on his way to golf in Ireland. I was inspired by his choice of drink :)
I changed into my glasses before the flight. I was on the same plane as my friend Megan, but we were not sitting together. I slept for a couple of hours, skipped the meal, and then watched 5 episodes of White Lotus Season 2.
Flying in over France, the farms looked immaculate from up there.
Megan and I took the train into the city, dropped our bags at our hotel and then went to find somewhere to eat. We were just off Montparnasse and it had lots of options. We settled on Le Select. It was a beautiful day in Paris. We both had the omelette and salad.
First glass of Sancerre of the trip.
Walking around until our room was ready, and Cindy joined us (she had been in Amsterdam for a few days beforehand and was travelling in by train).
We rested for a little bit before changing our clothes and going out for dinner.
We walked through the Jardin de Luxembourg on our way to the Saint Germain area. What a lovely little park, people playing bocce, tennis, soccer, kids on the playground, etc.
Our first stop was La Palette for a cocktail. Spritz for all.
I always try do a bunch of research into restaurants before the trip, and although we identified a few good places to visit, we were mostly able to wander around and find good spots. Although touristy (which we are!), Paris does not lack for good food.
Example one - we found La Pre aux Clercs for our first dinner. Lovely exterior and delicious food. Apparently Ernest Hemingway used to hang out here.
We wandered home after dinner. Paris is about the same latitude as Edmonton, so quite a bit north of Toronto and we were surprised at how late the sun set (almost 10:00)
We walked by Saint Sulpice in the dusky light.
We got some gelato at Armorino on Rue Vavin near our hotel (there are several locations throughout the city).
On Friday we got ready to head to Versailles for the day. It was our plan to take the train from Montparnasse, but we realized we missed it by a couple of minutes and checked on the cost of an Uber. It made more sense to do that and relieved us of the mental exercise of figuring out the next scheduled train. We drove by Roland Garros on the way, so that was neat.
We're here!
And the gold begins. We had tickets for a 9:00 entry so had to wait a few minutes when we arrived. Great people watching!
Each room in Versailles is more impressive than the last, the details on every surface are unbelievable. The time spent on every little carving, paint, embroidery, etc. is amazing.
My only previous reference point for Versailles was the Leonardo Dicaprio movie The Man in the Iron Mask so I took this photo of a painting "of Leo".
This is a ceiling.
The Hall of Mirrors.
We walked into the gardens.
And enjoyed a beverage in the shade by the canal.
Then we walked into the town to find some lunch.
We ate at a pizza place and then got an Uber back to Paris.
After a little rest, we went for a walk to get some snacks, including these beautiful and sweet French strawberries.
We had a boat cruise booked for that evening but had some time for a drink and dinner first. We had a drink at a place we found when we got off the subway, but noticed that no one was eating, so we decided to go somewhere else for dinner.
We chose Brasseries Des Arts and it was excellent.
We sat right at the corner and watched the people go by.
On our way down to the Seine, we passed this Canadian pub.
Our cruise came with glass of champagne.
We cruised from Notre Dame down to the Eiffel Tower and back.
Then we took the Metro back to our hotel.
Our plan for Saturday was to do a little shopping/browsing.
We went up to the top of the Printemps department store on Haussmann. I snapped this quick picture but they don't really like people being up there to take photos unless they are eating at the cafe. (We understood this later, see below.)
Palais Garnier
We did go up to the roof at Galleries Lafayettes, which was teeming with people getting their photos. It was a little tacky, and then we knew why Printemps told us to move along.
Copying what the kids do in their photos, ironically.
Or we can just face the camera like normal people.
Such a pretty building inside Galleries Lafayettes, but again, with so many people there just to get photos, I'm sure the people trying to actually shop find it annoying.
We wanted a coffee and Starbucks hit the spot!
As we walked along, it rained briefly.
Then we headed up Champs-Elysees. It was around this time we noticed that so many people were wearing Paris Saint Germain soccer jerseys, and then we realized PSG was playing in the European Championships that night, kind of a big deal. The roads all around the Arc de Triomph were actually closed, in early anticipation of the crowds to come. We really had no clue. We also noticed that stores were starting to board up their windows.
We ate our lunch at Chez Andre, just off of Champs. It was delicious.
LV, so iconic.
It's rare you get to walk down the middle of Champs-Elysees right up to the Arc de Triomph.
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
We walked by the Alma tunnel where Princess Diana died.
And after that we took a bus back over to the Saint Germain area for a drink.
Our evening plans were to picnic at the Eiffel Tower. People were out watching the football match and whenever PSG scored, the Eiffel Tower were sparkle for a minute, and this happened 5 times!
We started our evening with a bottle of Veuve Cliquot, my favourite. And then had a bottle of white wine, along with our meat, cheese, bread, and fancy butter.
There are guys selling wine and beer out of buckets and we kept telling them no thank you, but after our second bottle of wine ran out, we thought maybe we did need something after all. We called them back over and bought a bottle of sort of cold white wine for a discounted price of 15 Euros. And then we laughed and laughed until we cried that we started with Veuve and ended with the bucket wine.
We wrapped up our evening when the PSG game was over. People were ready to celebrate.
On the ground outside the Metro.
We woke up to hear there were lots of crowds, looting, broken bus stops, and even two deaths in other parts of France, related to the celebrations.
