3 Days in The City of Light

As it turns out, I have a terrible habit of writing blog posts, saving them to my computer, and never posting them online so that others can read them. This has happened on a number of occasions and once they become outdated I refuse to post them and they become just another Word document that is saved in the vault of files stored on my computer.

Needless to say, I should have told you months ago that Blake and I planned an anniversary trip to Paris.

We thought the trip would be a great way to celebrate our new path in life to uphold a jet setting lifestyle on a backpacker budget. This trip would also be a great way to celebrate our 10-year anniversary as a couple!

We booked a couple of tickets on Air France back in December. Air France, by the way, seems to be a great airline carrier. The flight attendants were all presentable and knew how to speak a variety of languages. The meals were great, and what made the flight absolutely superb was that Blake and I were seated in middle section and nobody sat next to us. We were able to spread out a little during the whole flight. Might I also recommend traveling with some Dramamine in your system when taking a long flight. I took the stuff for the first time at the Atlanta airport, and I have never felt an 8-hour flight go by so quickly!

As soon as the plane touched down, it was apparent to us that the weather was going to be somewhat of a challenge. Paris in January is cold and dreary, much like the rest of Europe, I suppose. We quickly exited the airport and headed for the Paris metro.

The metro was just OK. Most of the trains are clean, but they don’t come near as frequently as the NY metro. After about 5pm, the underground stations become hotels for the homeless. Basically, the cost isn’t consistent with the service.

Blake and I booked a hotel room at Les Argonautes, which is on a cute pedestrian street in the Latin Quarter. I read a review of this place and since it was one of the few hotels in our budget and also in a cool, cheaper section of town, we jumped on it. We had no trouble finding the place. The hotel is quite small and is extremely close to a metro stop.

We had a room with a shared bathroom. There was only one bathroom per floor, but it didn’t seem to be a problem. Our room did have a shower and a sink inside but we had to walk down the hall to use the toilet. I would totally stay there again. I believe we paid about 55 Euros a night. The only complaint that I do have to warn you about is the sound of the bass at night. On our third night, right before we were about to come back to the U.S., the jet lag caught up with me. I didn’t get one wink of sleep because of the time change and the thumping bass that came from one of the clubs downstairs. So, if you are a light sleeper, you might want to think twice about staying at Les Argonautes.

When we dropped our luggage off at the hotel, we went to a Creperie down the street. After that, we walked to the Eiffel Tower, took some pictures, and headed to Rue Cler. Rue Cler is a cute little Parisian cobblestone street, complete with a Fromagerie, a few fruit vendors, cafes, wine shops, bakeries, etc. There were also a few musicians playing in the street.

By the time we headed back, I started getting really tired. Blake and I went back to the hotel for a quick rest and then went out later that night. We were on the hunt for a FNAC which is kind of like a Best Buy that happens to be a ticket vendor as well. Blake had purchased two tickets to a Fu Manchu show for Friday night and we needed to go to FNAC to pick them up. Fu Manchu, by the way, is a band that I turned Blake on to a couple of years ago. They were pretty popular in the early 90s, and although they do still tour, they hardly ever come to Atlanta. It was pure irony that they were in Paris when we were, so we decided that we couldn’t miss it.

We found FNAC on a map, and we walked most of the way there. When we finally found our way to the ticket counter, Blake showed a receipt to a woman who was asking to see the card that the tickets were purchased on. She didn’t know how to speak English and we didn’t know how to speak French. She took our card, looked at us, and said, “No.” After much confusion, we deduced that she was trying to tell us that the show had been cancelled. At least Blake got a refund.

Of course, Blake was upset but we rationalized that we would just go to the venue and try to purchase tickets at the door. We continued to stroll along the Parisian streets lit by all of the decorative street lamps. When we got close to the Louvre, we found a tiny restaurant called “Juveniles,” which is where we had our first real meal.

Let me just say that the food in France is ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!!! I always thought Mexican food was my favorite, and when we went to Italy, I thought I might be persuaded to claim Italian as the type that I love most. After being in France and eating such fabulously decadent food, I am reconsidering yet again, what my favorite food really is.

Blake ordered bass and vegetables and I had some sort of sausage with mashed potatoes. I know the way I’m explaining it sounds as if it were any American meal, and I’m not doing these meals justice. My potatoes were creamier than I’ve ever tasted, and Blake’s fish was in such a rich sauce, I can’t even begin to describe it. You have to trust me. It was good.

After our meal, we went back to the street that our hotel was on. There were tons of people out and about. I really like the fact that we stayed in the student district. Everyone was young and the nightlife was abundant. Blake and I went into a couple small clubs but we didn’t stay out extremely late due to the fact that we had an early morning the next day.

At 10am on Friday, we were expected at a particular metro stop on the Left Bank. We booked a cooking class with Laura Neulat from A World in a Pan and our class was scheduled to visit a local market at that time. Blake and I were only two of the seven participants. The only thing we had to battle was the rain and cold weather. We did the market visit in the rain and when we were through, we walked to Laura’s apartment where we prepared a three-course meal in two hours. Blake and I helped to make a French soup made from celery-root called veloute. We also cooked a guinea hen with a cabbage side and a tart filled with pear slices and chocolate. Laura was very informative, and since this was one of the cheaper classes ($110 USD per person) I think it was worth it. The main downsides were that the kitchen was incredible small, the group of seven didn’t allow us to do as much hands-on cooking as we thought, and I didn’t wear the right shoes for rainy, cold conditions. (My feet felt like a jello mold by the time we arrived at Laura’s apartment.)

The food that we made was spectacular and we are able to use the recipes at home in the U.S.

Blake and I took a long walk home and took a short nap at the hotel. In the early evening, we went to Montmartre which was close to the music hall which was scheduled to hold the Fu Manchu concert. Montmartre was really beautiful. The winding, narrow streets were picturesque and the Sacre Coeur at the top of the hill gave way to some of the most beautiful views in the entire city. The church itself was amazing and we were lucky enough to see the nuns, dressed in white cloaks, sing songs. It was completely surreal.

By the time Blake and I left the church, we were able to see a completely different Paris, known as “the city of light.” It was gorgeous. Unfortunately, our camera wouldn’t take any decent pictures.

We slowly walked down the Montmartre hill and grabbed a bite to eat before the show. We stumbled to a tourist restaurant, but again, we were surprised by the quality in the food. Blake got some sort of beef filet and I ordered lamb.

At the end of our meal, Blake and I headed to the Fu Manchu concert which was phenomenal as well. It was such an interesting thing to see such a large group of Parisians practically worshipping an American band. The Fu Manchu concert in Paris was the best of three concerts I had ever seen them perform.

After the show, Blake and I headed back to the Latin Quarter, where we went to a club and danced into the wee morning hours. It was so much fun!

On the last day, we slept in too late. We woke up at about 11:30am, and on this day, we went to Notre Dame. The church was amazing and it was nice to come across fellow tourists who we could always count on to agree to snap a picture or two of us.

Blake and I spent the rest of the day shopping in all of the countless retail stores.

In the evening, we ate at one of the cute bistros near our hotel. Since it was our last night in Paris, we agreed to go all out and order everything that we wanted to try while we were in Paris. Blake and I ordered escargot, mussels, French onion soup, two entrees (I think I had beef and Blake had a rich casserole type of thing called Tartiflette.) We also ordered flan, some kind of apple tart, chocolate mousse, two medium bottles of red wine and two glasses of white wine. The entire bill amounted to about $75 USD. (We didn’t finish everything. We merely ordered all of the items because it either came with the Carte du Jour, or we just wanted to try it.)

We tried to get an early night of sleep because we arranged a taxi to pick us up at 4am for our 7am flight. Like I said before, I didn’t get any sleep on our last night. Before we knew it, we were in a taxi on the way to the airport.

Though it was a short trip, I feel that I did all of the things I wanted to. The thing I liked most about Paris was just walking around the Parisian streets.

I don’t know if I would go back any time soon due to the fact that the Parisian people we came across weren’t all that pleasant. Most times in restaurants, cafes, and shops, Blake and I felt as though we weren’t welcome. This type of mentality is completely opposite of the American mindset that the customer is always right and a service worker should do anything in his/her power to help the customer. On the whole, Blake and I found Parisians to be pretty cold. Though I had a blast on the trip, Blake and I realized that we just had to overlook all of the rude people. Because of this, I don’t know if I would want to go back anytime soon. I would rather spend money in a place where the people are happy and a joy to be around.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 20th, 2010 at 6:00 am and is filed under Lindsey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.