City of luuuuuurve - recap

Oh Paris! The city of love, here you will find all things celebrating passion and romance! streets of love, lover's lanes, love bridges etc etc. Luckily for those of us travelling with family or without lovers there is still plent to do! (much of it involving food...or shopping, but mainly food)


First up I've been to Paris an embarassing amount of times so I tended to skip most of the big tourist attractions, which turned out to be a blessing... NEVER, where possible, go to Paris in June/July for the following reasons:


1. No one is a local. 
2. There are lines for everything, long lines, beyond Sydney restaurant lines that take hours upon hours. 


But if you do, I suppose you could just get up early and get in before everyone else.. novel idea really. 

You may recall we arrived in Paris at some ungodly hour after boarding the bus from hell... So we decided to take things at a more leisurely pace than London, spending lots of time waking through gardens. To add to our cultural experience we even attempted to mingle with the locals by treckong out to the hip part of Paris to catch a DJ set. Alas, poor Oli, we got lost and missed the show but any night where I fall heavily on my shoulder after a 4am crepe must be a good one.

In Paris we continued to troll down mum's wish list, searching for restaurants, bars, and secrets all through town! I was particularly excited about an article recommending we go off the beaten track to visit some apparently untouched archades in the middle of Paris. We now know to be wary reading the Sydney Morning Herald Travel section... apparently off the beaten track means next to Hard Rock Cafe and Holiday Inn. 


Obviously the arcades weren't as untouched as initially imagined and many of the shops have been replicated in Surry Hills etc. but they were super pretty to look at!


At the end of one of the arcades was a restaurant that according to the same article  french food blogs rave about it, and I can see why! Le Diable Verre had the most spectacular pre fixed lunch menu - the best meal I had in all of Paris! And as an added bonus we met the chef who spoke a little english from living in Sydney for a year.. he interned at this little restaurant, you may have heard of it... TETSUYAS!? I die.


It's become clear this trip that local knowledge is invaluable whilst travelling, and makes for some interesting adventures, but I've narrowed down five things I would reccomend in Paris.

1. Visit Notre Dame
2. See Mona Lisa - Louvre is huge so I'd pick a few must sees before heading there otherwise you're looking at a potential 3 day Commitment.
3. Muse D'Orsay - level 5... Like being slapped in the face with genius at every turn.
4. Be consumed by the wonder of the Eiffel tower, by day or night.
5. Find a perch, top of Eiffel tower, visit to sacre cur, or wonder up to the top of Galleries La'Fayette to have a good squiz at the city! Some of the greatest views of Paris around.


Obviously, I'm no local AND there is so much to chose from but if you can squeeze in a few sights in between shopping/eating you can start your own love affair with Paris! (cringe)

Ps sorry if the format is whacked..



xx

30 Euro for bread and tea... nice one Paris

Parma, Parma, Parma

Paris!!

Bus from Hell!

Because I'm cheap and waiting waaaay too late to book the Eurostar Oli and Ihad to get an over night bus to Paris, I was pretty optimistic about this,having caught overnight busses in Asia and South America I just assumed thiswould be a breeze.. anyway because we were getting the bust we had the wholeday to wonder around London again, trying to squeeze in everything.


London put on a show (even though I didn't see a show) and it again was justtoo fantastic. The bus to Paris was not. It was hell. WORST. IDEA. EVER!

But please do enjoy my pictures of the last ferry out of Dover at 2.30 AMand then again us pulling out of port in France at 3.50AM (spew) beforearriving in Paris at 8.15 having snatched about 4 hours of sleep.

Bruges? London, London, London

You may be wondering, whatever did happen in Bruges? But you probably aren't because I never really outline my itinerary. In short the two curly haired sibblings (my bro bro and me) decided to sleep in, giving Bruges a miss. However, after one cancelled train, a highly emotional breakdown and large doses of panic we did spend one night in Belgium...
Buuuut then we were in London! London, London, London! It actual felt like home, or as much like home as Orange County does. 

It's such a BIIIIIG city! You always feel like you aren't doing it justice :( 


The first day after the exhausting debarcle of not actually getting to London on time we walked over to Camden Town and had a sneaky look at the markets. They have so much stuff, most of it useless but all of it very cool to look at. I usually find while away I start to like things I would never wear at home or have an extreme desire to dye my hair purple (true story). 

They had all these amazing antiques there too! I mean if there is ever a place to buy antiques it would have to be Europe, things are actually old there... not 200 years but centuries and centuries! Obviously, I wouldn't be able to afford things that were that old but it's an entertaining idea to own something that has a history of its own... that isn't clothing, because with clothes it's like you are wearing a dead person, unless it's thoroughly dry-cleaned I just can't do it. 

Aaaanyway, went out to Shoreditch that night and watched TNGHT a hip hop DJ set with my bro bro, which was pretty awesome. I, being not as awesome as everyone else there did wear ear plugs but I owned it! So what if I couldn't hear people to the point they started speaking to me in French because they thought I couldn't speak English? I mean, how complimentary that someone thought I was French... even if he was mighty high, still a compliment. 




The next day I attempted to play tour guide to Oliver aka bro bro but just got lost and kept finding historically significant areas by accident. It still worked. Then we went back to Shoreditch to meet a friend... the most exciting part of my day was finding out he worked in the SAME COMPLEX AS THE STUDIO IN WHICH JAMIE OLIVER'S 30 MINUTE MEALS WAS FILMED! Such a stretch but it's like I was there! I actually got a photo of the window of the studio (looking in, not out) but it's on my camera camera so you'll have to wait until I get home.

On Saturday our parents arrived, que the beginning of a more classy and luxurious holiday. I had a shower at their hotel (before getting the overnight bus to Paris - see the juxtaposition, it's almost like neglect) and it was deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelightful! I hadn't felt such pressure since leaving home. My hair has developed a second layer of 'sheen' whilst over here - making it mainly flat but whatevs. 


As this holiday is primarily a kind of last hurrah of family holidays for Mum's 50th it is nice to spend some time with them (and enjoy the finer things in life). Obviously, Mum is very excited about this... she has a list of 'dream' places to go that she has been carrying around - literally pages out of traveling magazines (too cute).

The family part of the holiday was intended to begin in Italy in a couple of days so the first couple of days of overlap were a bit of an accident and so, family time was a little splintered. But much of Saturday and Sunday we spent together.

Saturday evening, for instance, we were spoiled with a fabulous dinner at NOPI (blow by blow to come later).


Sunday we attempted to nullify the shopping with an injection of culture at the Tate. We saw Damien Hursts 50 million pound skull - which I'm going to admit I don't really get, it's just super extravagant, before heading off to lunch at Brick Lane. 

A historically significant sight in London

My knowledge of Brick Lane was limited, coming mainly from a few scenes in movies so I expected the markets to be quite exotic.... They weren't... but they were soo amazing! There are such large crowds of people, glorious smelling food and cute little stalls popping up everywhere. The markets stretches for a couple of kilometers and it is hard to resist not buying something! At the end of our short visit we stumbled across a small bagel house that just so happened to be featured in one of Mum's wish lists. I have honestly never seen her so excited.... They served fresh bagels with salt beef, supposedly better than in New York (according to Mum's article which quotes Heston Blumenthal - that's some authority there!) I wouldn't know if it was better but it was super delicious!


The true joy was watching them carve the meet and stack up the sandwiches like well oiled machine!