Wordless Wednesday 66

A weekend trip to Paris

The Louvre Museum

Two weeks ago my friend Sandi and I spent a chill out weekend in Paris. We'd been expecting it to be cold and wet, and had braced ourselves for endless hours in department stores and museums. Instead, we woke up on Saturday morning to bright sunshine which lasted until mid afternoon, so we bought tickets for the open top tour bus and decided to leave the museums for another time.

As it happens we managed to see quite a lot of the city in one day: the Louvre, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, the Latin Quarter, the Champs-Elysées, Saint Germain des Pres and everything in between.

Place de la Concorde

Parisian driving :-)

Buskers at the Ile de la Cité

Notre Dame cathedral

The Eiffel Tower at sunset

We wandered round Saint Germain and the Champs-Elysées and even caught a "just married" couple being photographed in front of the Arc de Triomphe. How special was that?

Congratulations, whoever you are!

Between sightseeing tours, we managed to fit in quick trips to Sephora and Fnac for supplies of cosmetics and DVDs, although we were unsuccessful in finding a LV bag for Sandi (apparently out of stock!!) and Diptyque candles for me (couldn't find the shop). We didn't have much luck with the cake shops either - Ladurée was busy at the time we visited and we never made it to Stohrer. Maybe next time.

TRAGEDY

We did have some yummy food though. Friday night dinner at L'Avenue (118 € for two risottos, two small glasses of wine and two giant desserts, but *so* worth it), Saturday lunch overlooking the Louvre courtyard at Café Marly, scrummy Berthillon ice-cream at the trendy Ile Saint-Louis, and Saturday dinner with friends at Le Relais de l'Entrecôte followed by drinks till late. It was gone 3 AM by the time we got back to the hotel and 7 hours later I was meeting another friend for hot chocolate at the Hotel Meurice. Life's tough in the fast lane.

The chocolate eclair was clearly happy to see Sandi

Club sandwich and croque-madame at Café Marly

Scrummy Berthillon ice-cream

Steak and fries at Le Relais de l'Entrecôte

Anyone for seconds?

All in all, a very relaxing weekend of good food, good shops and good company, and the sightseeing wasn't bad either ;-)

Sandi, we must do it again soon xxx

Paris in the spring

Sunning ourselves at the Louvre on Saturday afternoon.


Trying (and failing) to keep dry at the Ile St Louis on Sunday evening.

It's amazing what difference 24 hours can make...