I do not love Paris. They have delicious food, amazing architecture and even lots of helpful English speakers but I really just wasn’t able to relax and enjoy the vacation. Maybe it was the heat, maybe it was the slight ankle sprain I got while walking, or it could be how they try to cram a million tables into each restaurant so you have no breathing space. Whatever the reason I didn’t fall in love with Paris like so many people do.
Although, as a whole, I did not like Paris there were still some highlights to the trip. Kuah and I really enjoyed the great architecture. Some if it looking like it was straight out of a science fiction movie. We stayed in Montmartre which is at the top of a VERY big hill. Many people took the tram or busses up but we walked up every time. One time I counted over 200 steps. Here are a few shots of that are we took the morning we arrived.
After checking into our airb&b we went for our first walk. We wanted to eat at a place where locals eat so we stopped at a restaurant that had a lot of construction workers going in and out to eat. We got some sandwiches there. I really liked the freshness of the salad dressing and vegetables on the sandwich. Kuah thought it was so so.
After a quick bite we headed to see the Arc de Triomphe. It was cool to see something that is in so many movies. But really there wasn’t much to do there, just look at it. Some people climbed to the top but it was way to hot for us to bother. Then we went home and I iced my ankle to help it get better from my fall.
The next day we discovered one of our favorite restaurants. We liked it so much we ate there twice. The first time we tried a Bresse chicken which I found to be very flavorful but not so juicy. Kuah really liked that they got the chicken skin crispy. I gave all my chicken skin to Kuah. They also had delicious french bread and butter.
The second time I was trying not to go to crazy so no butter for me and only 1 piece of bread. I did forgo the special of the day, chicken mac and cheese, and chose to have a bowl of zucchini goat cheese mint gazpacho. It was really delicious. Not as delicious as the chicken dish Kuah ordered but still a great dish. I did steal a few bites of Kuah’s chicken. At the end of the meal they gave us free chocolates. I was trying to be good but didn’t want to offend so enjoyed the chocolate. Here are the pictures from both our meals at Le Coq Rico.
While in Paris we did a lot of walking, about 60 miles in total. We didn’t take any cabs or public transport, just walked everywhere. We saw the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Pantheon, Notre Dam (we didn’t go in) and the Picaso museum. Here are some of the pictures from our walks.
There were a few things that were so good they almost made me like Paris. The first being Moulin Rouge. It was the reason I agreed to go to Paris and it didn’t disappoint. We sat right next to the stage. Literally, I could touch the stage. We even had some feathers dropping onto our table during the dancing. The music and choreography were fun. The dancers did a great job and had a lot of energy. Of course some of the women were topless but it seemed to be more a nod to the history of the Moulin Rouge than the main part of the show.
I also had a few favorite bites during the trip. One was a raspberry macaroon with real raspberries and cream in the center. The other was a sandwich with saucisson and gherkins which were more dill than sweet flavored. The bread on this sandwich was amazing. It’s hard to find bad bread in Paris but some is definitely better than others. And it turns out that the place I got my favorite sandwich in, Eric Kayser, has a branch in Singapore. So I’ll get to enjoy it again!
Also below is my favorite picture of Kuah from the trip. I took it when we went to the Les Enfants Rouge market. There wasn’t too much there but we did share a nice cheese plate and I got this great pic of Kuah.
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