DBS Euro Trip 2013 - Paris, the Things

This is the final post of the Euro Tour recap.  For this final one, these are the structures and/or places.  The most well-known and prominent structure in Paris is, of course, the Eiffel Tower.  Designed by Gustave Eiffel, who also did a little sculpture known as the Statue of Liberty, is a breathtaking landmark adjacent to the Seine River.

As a structure, it's extremely impressive.  The wide base rises majestically to a point way above your head, but it never seems like it dominates the surroundings because of the large Champ de Mars park around it.  People picnic and lay out on blankets here to enjoy the Eiffel Tower.  At night at 10:00 pm, they light the Tower up with a series of "sprinkle lights" that people turn out in droves to see.  There's a ride to the top that we unfortunately did not do.  To compensate, DB~ took approximately 86 pictures.

We used the omnipresent Metro to go over to the Champs Elysees and see the Arc de Triomphe.  Instead of trying to re-enact Frogger across the giant roundabout, we took the underground tunnel and popped up right under the Arc.  This one we did tour and walked up nearly 200 steps to the top.  You get unbelievable panoramic views of Paris from up here.  The level of detail on the exterior of the Arc is impressive, as well, with inscriptions and engravings.

To the east of the Arc is Notre Dame and the Louvre.  You can probably spend 3-4 days at the Louvre.  We did it in 3-4 hours.  You can get a map with the "highlights" on each floor and just kind of cruise around from there.  The line to see the Mona Lisa is 20 deep and the mass of humanity got to be a little too much for me, but DB~ sifted through the people and got a nice shot of the Mona Lisa.

About 10 minutes from the Louvre is Notre Dame on the little island in the Seine where Paris started out hundreds and hundreds of years ago.  Notre Dame started construction in 1163 and finished nearly 180 years later in 1345.  The scope and, again, level of detail is something you just may never see be built again.  That baroque style and level of artistry just is not done anymore.

The final "thing" is Moulin Rouge (the Red Windmill) in the neighborhood of Montmarte.  Frequented by Van Gogh and Lautrec, along with copious amounts of absinthe, the Moulin Rouge is a classy burlesque joint.  We watched streams of middle aged people pour in for the 7 pm show.  The area around Moulin Rouge is extremely seedy, with strip joints, sex shops, and general debauchery as far as the eye can see.  Just one block parallel to the street where Moulin Rouge is located is a standard, albeit artsy, street in Paris with the ever-present array of bakery, fruit stand, butcher shop, and clothing stores that ensures you never have to leave your neighborhood.

Paris is one of the world's greatest cities.  The people were friendly enough to us, even as I was butchering their language at every chance I got.  The buildings, the food, and the general romantic nature of the city makes it a Top 5 city in the world.

DBS Euro Trip 2013 - Paris, The Food

  

Paris is pretty much one of the world's greatest food destinations.  Depending on your level of haute cuisine, French is widely considered the most technically sound and artistic cuisine of the world.  We didn't eat at a Joel Robuchon restaurant, but we still had some darn good meals.

DB~ has a friend that lives in Germany and she and her husband periodically go to Paris, because...hey, why not?  She gave us the choicest of choice recommendations for a place on Rue de Rivioli (Ravioli Street as we called it) named Angelina's.  Of course every time DB~ talked about Angelina's, I thought of Angelina Jolie.  She always seems French to me.  Or snooty.  Either one.  But she was super hot and super cool in Mr. and Mrs. Smith and that's one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies, so there you go.

Angelina's is known for their hot chocolate and pastries.  I thought it would be like a fancy little cafe/bakery.  Turns out it is a super swank tea room that I felt slightly under-dressed for, even though I had a collared polo shirt on with my shorts.  The hot chocolate is of such quality that it's like an angel is letting you drink it directly out of their mouth after that angel rubs up against a unicorn and then rubs a panda for good luck.  It's a viscous liquid that is not watery in the least bit and only augmented in flavor by the amazing whipped cream you can ladle in at your own discretion.

We both got "brunch" type things here.  I got a quiche, even though I really don't like eggs, because it seemed like the kind of joint that knew how to make me like an egg or two.  It had goat cheese and chives in it.

DB~ completely out-ordered me by getting a Croque Madame, which is a broad, flat sandwich with ham and cheese, topped with an egg.  It was decadent and delightful and hella 'spensive for a lunch.  But, when in Rome.  Or Paris in this case.

After that lunch, we went to the Louvre (future post alert!) and then stopped for macarons at another recommendation by our sister-in-law called Laduree.  It is this ultra-chic bakery that resembles an upscale clothing boutique for its display quality.  The macarons were fantastic (and expensive at $3 equivalent a piece), but much like Chez Leon in Brussels we felt that Pittsburgh has a fantastic near-equivalent in Jean Marc Chatelier's in Millvale.

The lasting memory of the whole Euro trip for me occurred outside Laduree.  It's one of those stories that if I ever forget it, I'll know that the onset of Alzheimer's is starting.  We were happily munching our macarons outside on the sidewalk, just a few feet from a large Japanese tour group being guided a Japanese guy so gay he must sneeze glitter, when a local n'er do well approached us.  He clumsily tried the "oh, did you drop this cheap ring on the ground" trick to me and I shooed him away.  He didn't get the hint and then tried to steal a macaron out of the open box in DB~'s hands.  She shot him the dirtiest of dirty looks, said "NO!!!", and then turned and ran away with the macarons, leaving me with a con man and all of our money.  But the macarons were safe!

We had two standout dinners in Paris.  The first was at a restaurant called Les Cocottes de Christian Constant.  Christian Constant is this restauranteur in Paris who has a bunch of popular restaurants.  This one specializes in food prepared in cocottes (or casserole dishes).  For an appetizer, we had a chilled cucumber soup with goat cheese mixed in the center.  It reminded us a little bit of the chilled avocado soup we make, but this was way better of course.

 For dinner, I had a pork shoulder with seasoned potatoes in a red-wine gravy.  DB~ had langustino and a fine risotto in hers.  We finished things up with a mousse in a cocotte.  Again, hey, it's Paris and if you don't get mousse here, where are you going to get it?  Both of us put this dinner in our all-time Top 10 meals.

Our final dinner in Paris was in the part funky/part skeezy section of town known as Montmarte, home to the Moulin Rouge.  DB~ found a great off the beaten path restaurant called Chez Toinette (via the always helpful TripAdvisor).  It was only open from 7 pm to 11 pm, so we made reservations for 7 pm that afternoon and got the last table.

Chez Toinette is a tiny 20 seat restaurant with an even tinier kitchen that puts out exquisite food with only 2 people, plus a host/waiter/busman with a great personality.  For our appetizer, we decided to go Full Paris and get escargot.  Yes, snails in general are gross.  But if you put those snails in a butter, garlic, breadcrumb mix and then heat that mix to high temperatures, you have a taste sensation.

For dinner, DB~ had a poached salmon dish with a small side of risotto.  Each of had a small array of steamed vegetables, highlighted by the tastiest carrots ever.  The carrots were cooked, pureed, then reformed into a carrot shape with seasonings.

I had a steak done in a red-wine sauce with the aforementioned vegetables.  The funny part about the meal is that two tables away from us was an American couple.  They were talking to another American couple.  We left at the same time as the first couple and chatted them up.  Turns out they were from Philly and were talking to another Philly area couple.  So three Pennsylvania tables in a tiny French restaurant.  It's a small world after all....

Of course there were many other little treats we sampled in Paris, such as crepes and chocolate and sandwiches, but these were definitely the highlights.

DBS Euro Trip 2013 - Paris, Gettin' Around

Typically, my posts are arranged chronologically; it's just the easiest way for me to work through my thoughts about a subject.  But as I was laying out these potential Paris posts, I thought it might be a better idea to group them by subject instead.

We got to Paris via the Eurostar high speed rail.  Our trip from Brussels to Paris was a brisk 1 hour and 5 minutes.  It's clean, efficient, hassle-free, and there's even a bar/restaurant car in the middle of the train.  We worked on our travel journal on the trip and I looked over my shoulder in amazement at the two young Asians sitting one row behind me and to the left.  They were boyfriend/girlfriend and identically dressed in striped red and black tops with yellow shorts (festooned with a Paul Frank monkey).  I mean....there's about no way I would ever consider wearing the same outfit as DB~.

DB~ had read so much about street crime and pickpockets in Paris that she had me wired for sound to the brim with tension.  When we pulled into Gare du Nord, I put my game face on and made sure our bags were secure, money in a safe spot, and we were ready to do this.  We opted against the Metro into town (too many bags to oversee on a crowded train) and waited in the taxi line instead.  When we got out of the station, it was hemorrhaging rain outside; luckily, we were under cover.

The standard trope is that the French are snooty and dislike Americans.  Our first impression of Paris was our cabbie and he couldn't be nicer or a better guide.  He was a young guy (around 28) from the Ivory Coast, but he spoke French primarily, although his English was workable.  He was energetic and quite a traveler.  He's been to parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe already, with plans to visit the States one day (he has a friend in Miami).  Whenever we didn't understand each other, I resorted to charades and/or sound effects -- my attempt to give the definition of "mean" made DB~ laugh/cringe at the same time.

After we checked into our hotel, the ridiculously hard squall ended and we hoofed it around town quite a bit.  It's a walkable city, but you can't walk from key landmark to landmark.  They're all pretty much evenly distributed throughout the reaches of the city.  We were lucky enough to be just a 10 minute walk to the Eiffel Tower, which is a sight to behold.

Once we got comfortable enough to warrant venturing into the "scary" world of the Paris Metro system, we took to it swimmingly.  In the course of our three days in Paris, we were in 19 different Metro stations and used probably 5 different colored lines.  Our hotel was right across the street from the Bir Hakeim station, which was a convenient stop for what we needed to do as it went directly to the Arc de Triomphe and the hub station of Charles de Gaulle, which gave access to many other lines.

We used the Metro at all times of day.  Morning, afternoon, late night and every time it was packed.  I think we both had seats only a handful of times.  We were very vigilant; at times we stood back to back to protect ourselves, but we never felt threatened.  The stations were massive.  It felt like we were walking underground forever at some stations when we had to transfer.  You were able to take the Metro to a station directly under the Louvre.  You just came right up and into the main lobby (with a high end mall, as well).

We saw plenty as we were walking.  It's definitely a city that you want to see all the architecture and landmarks you can, but we saved ourselves and our energy by using the Metro to the fullest extent possible.  When we got there I thought people were going to come out of the walls to steal our money, but we left feeling quite content with our Paris transportation experience.