Gone guy

We had tickets to go to the top of the ET at noon, and since our hotel is around the corner of the ET(did you know that by the way??;), we decided to kill time by sitting down at a restaurant for our usual on-the-go breakfast, and going to the Musee du Quai Branly. This museum is new (built in 2006) and houses art from the Americas, Oceania, Asia and Africa.

Breakfast on Rue Cler

Musee du Quai Branly

 

On top of the ET

Check us out in the bottom left corner!

Afterwards we headed up to the Montemarte neighborhood to the Sacre Coeur basilica. We also had the most FFT quiches for lunch. I don't know why I can't find or make quiches like this in the US. It is only eggs and cream!

Spinach and salmon

 

Quiche Lorraine

 

Next we headed to the Marais neighborhood which has the square Place de Voges, hailed as Europes most perfect square.

Prior to coming to the Marais neighborhood, Kyle and I got separated on the train. We somehow managed to get in separate cars, and once in them, realized the other wasn't there. We found each other shortly after (it was only 10 minutes but felt like hours), but in that 10 minutes every possible worse case scenario was running through my head, all of which for no sane reason whatsoever ended with me going to the American Embassy . But who thinks sanely when they have their spouses's passport, no cash or credit cards whatsoever, and no cell phone?!?

And of course Kyle being Kyle, never brought it up the rest of the day, or tried to hide from me, or pretended as if he was going to get on the wrong train and leave me behind......

Well, nothing like a little afternoon cafe au lait to calm the nerves

 

Dinner was going to be another three course heavy meal, but our quiche lunch was late, so we decided on a lighter dinner at a tartine restaurant we happened upon.

Duck confit with mashed potatoes on too. So FFT.

Ham and two types of cheese tartine. Kyle said this wasn't FFT right of the bat, but became so shortly.

 

Dessert crepe

Au Revoir!!!

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

A lot of Eiffel Tower

My all time favorite picture

 

 

We didn't have much of an agenda today other than start the morning with breakfast crepes in hand and taking pics with the ET, a process which lasted about 3 hours. The rest of the day we spent wandering the city with stops at the Place de la Concord (where thousands were beheaded during the French Revolution, including Marie Antoinette), the Opera house, Notre Dame, and St. Chapelle. Lunch was spent eating baguette sandwiches while wandering down the Champs-élysées . And of course there was a mid afternoon crepe and coffee stop. So if you are keeping count, that is two crepes each today.

Here are some highlights from the hundreds of ET pics we took. Be prepared to admire our mad camera skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obelisk at the place de la Concorde.

In front of the opera house

 

We spent most of the afternoon/ evening in my fav neighborhood, St. Germain.

St. Germain cathedral. We went inside just as mass was starting, I thought it'd be cool to stay for mass, but then we remembered we wouldn't be able to understand, and we weren't catholic.

 

Dinner was at La Jacobine. Again everything was FFT. Kyle says I'm handing out FFT's left and right, but everything really is!

French onion soup.

My Coq Au Vin (chicken braised in wine)

Kyle's salmon with spinach and cream

 

Paris Brest- a puff pastry with hazelnut cream. I've had this at Balsan in Chicago, and Balsan's was a pretty good replica, but this was better!

Chocolate, banana and pear crumble

The cute little street our restaurant was on

 

Posted with Blogsy

Day deux

 

We started the day walking to les invalides, where Napoleans tomb is housed, with croissants and cafe au laits in hand. Neither of us had been here.

Les Invalides ( the Invalids, where the injured from the war would go) , the gold domed building.

 

Napoleans tomb, with me standing at the top.

Rodin's sculpture garden, with "The Thinker", in the background.....and the Eiffel Tower too.

 

The kiss

 

Lunch was at this restaurant owned by a bakery that was next door to it. They specialize in tartine (open faced sandwiches) , and use the bread from the bakery for les tartines. It was all FFT.

My tuna tartine

Kyle's ham and cheese tartine

The Poilane bakery

St. Sulpice cathedral, anyone remember this from Da Vinci Code??

 

Luxembourg gardens

The Sorbonne ( Parisian University) behind me. To the right behind me however appears to be a group of friends engaging in happy hour as it was 430pm. I wanted to join!

The Pantheon where Voltaire's tomb and many other famous French people's tombs are. Neither of us had ever been here either.

Looking out from the Pantheon

 

Afternoon snack

St. Severin

St. Severin had my favorite stained glass windows

 

Notre Dame in the background

The famous exterior escalators at the Pompidou museum

Chagall

 

For dinner we ate at Le Quincambosse, which I found on tripadvisor. It was ranked the #5 restaurant in Paris, deservedly so. It was FFT. A husband and wife ran it. I took this picture because you can see the tiny kitchen in the background. We might go back tomorrow night!

My beef bourbignon with mashed potatoes and salad

Kyle's sausage and sauerkraut

The dessert menu

Chocolate pear cake. Mmmmmhhhhhmmm

Hotel de ville (city hall) which had a skating rink in front of it. People were skating to booty music in the background. I called it "booty skate".

 

Norte dame at night

 

Posted with Blogsy