Paris, vous êtes belle!
I loved absolutely everything about this beautiful city - the language, the people, the art, the museums, the food, the wine, the architecture, the pretty façade of the buildings, the french windows... Really, what is there not to love?
...the view of Paris from atop L'arc de triomphe, CDG Etoile!...
...Gypsy Boy by L'Arc de Triomphe...
Paris was hands down my favourite city on this whole trip, and actually, it's probably in my top 3 favourite cities in the world!
...La Tour Eiffel...
We stayed in between the first and second arrondissements, just up the road from the Opéra, and down the road from the Louvre! As with most of the cities we visited on our trip, we bought passes which included unlimited entry to museums and also on public transport. This was fabulous value as we visited at least one museum each day of our stay [and avoided long queues at the same time!], and caught the métro everywhere.
...Louvre pyramid...
I was lucky enough to spend my Birthday last month in gorgeous Paris spending the morning in the Picasso Museum, the afternoon wandering down lovely rue Mouffetard in the Latin Quarter where we enjoyed some delicious crepes! Then, we browsed through the amazing Galeries Lafayette and neighbouring Printemps.
...an ad for the Galeries Lafayette sale...
...Galeries Lafayette - inside...
..spice for sale at Galeries Lafayette...
I'd learnt about Galleries Lafayette in high school French class, so to actually finally see it and shop there was really cool! Gypsy Boy and I have taken a liking to eating escargots every now and then at home in Dubai. We can easily get them seasoned and frozen from France at our local Carrefour hypermarket in Dubai. So, at Galleries Lafayette Maison [the department store actually occupies more than one building in the block!], we were delighted to find the little plates, forchettes and pinces specially for escargots.
I was also excited to see Printemps - a French department store that my family used to frequent when I was little in Kuala Lumpur, except this was the real deal!
During our stay, we got to be friends with Moun a lovely French girl working at our hotel, who'd suggested the most amazing places to dine at as well as making reservations for us. One of which was at a wonderful little family run restaurant nearby, called La Cordonnerie. The chef passionately described the menu to us, his wife helped him in the kitchen, and their young son enthusiastically waited on guests! It was simply delightful, and the meals were delicious!
...My Birthday dinner at La Cordonnerie Restaurant... One of the things we really wanted to do while in Paris, was to go to a French cabaret. There were a few choices such as The Crazy Horse, The Lido, and of course The Moulin Rouge amongst other smaller but also excellent cabaret shows. Once again, Moun was ever helpful in describing what each was like and seeing that we wanted to go to a real French cabaret [as opposed to a more 'Americanised' one], she made reservations for us to go to The Moulin Rouge. The tickets are as pricey as they are rumoured to be, however you do get a bottle of French champagne to enjoy with the show, and we loved every moment of it we even bought the CD afterwards!
...outside the Moulin Rouge...
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6 days is probably more time than most visitors would spend in the French capital, however I was so in love with this beautiful city, I was ready to move in! It is however an extremely expensive city to be in and Chief Financial Controller [aka Gypsy Boy!] was ready to move on. More snippets of our stay in gorgeous Paris in photos:
...Le Bon Marché, the world's first department store!...
...rue Mouffetard in the 5th arrondissement - great restaurants, cafes, traditional French shops, and a small market to boot at the end of the street...
...a Gargoyle enjoying the view of Paris from Nôtre Dame, with the Sacré Coeur in the background...
...The real deal! LV's flagship store on Avenue des Champs-Elysées...
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