Final Europe Recap: Paris

I can't believe I'm on the very last recap of the trip!  I hope you've found them somewhat amusing and not a snooze fest.  In the last photo from the previous post, I was on the train bound for Paris.  Now, I was a little worried about traveling to Paris seeing as how neither the hubs nor I ever took french.  And what little french we learned on the crash-course audio guide was very very basic. Both of us took spanish in high school so when we were in Spain it was pretty easy to get around. But France is a whole new ball game. You can't even try to make it out cuz it's nothing like spanish! Luckily the Parisians speak a fair amount of english so we were never had any problems.

Here's the apartment where we stayed.  It was really lovely (minus the four flights of narrow wooden steps that we had to carry our suitcases up and down).  The landlady was super nice and even printed out maps with restaurant recommendations!   

On our first full day in Paris we went to Joel Robuchon for lunch.  I highly recommend it if you're there! The lunchtime menu was surprisingly affordable (for Paris.. AND for a 2 star Michelin restaurant). Here's the view from the counter where we sat.  I really loved the modern vibe of the place.


Even though I was quite full after lunch I just HAD to get my first macaron of the trip. Especially since I've heard a great deal about Pierre Herme and it just happened to be right upstairs from the restaurant!  While this macaron was super pretty, I thought it was extremely overrated. I don't even recall what flavor I got anymore. :::Side note: I didn't have any Laduree macarons in Paris (I know I know, WTH right? But we just ran out of time and I didn't want to go out of the way just to get one) but I did have some from NY and they weren't anything special either.  Both places were too hard and dry.  I read on a forum that basically these boutique-y places mass produce their macarons in a factory and therefore they're not as good as some local shops. I highly agree. ::: end side note. 

Afterwards we headed over to the Arc de Triomphe.  A total duh moment here, but before we researched for the trip I used to wonder how the hell people got to the arc since there was a circle of traffic that surrounded it. And then I found out that you go underneath. DUH... silly me to think that you'd have to make a mad dash for it.

As my sister likes to say, here's a photo that I artsy fartsy'd up.

The next day we did more exploring and ended up at the Luxembourg Gardens.  This is one of my favorite parts of this trip! I could sit here all day and just stare and the beautiful scenery and just watch the kids run around.

Here's one of the bridges on the Seine. I forget what the name of this one is... but it's the one with all the locks. obviously.  Hubs and I REALLY wanted to buy a lock and stick it on too... but we didn't feel that it was worth paying 20 euros for one at the hardware store. oh well, next time!

Here is a picture in front of the entrance to the Louvre.  Luckily the line wasn't too long that day. If it was, we would have tried the "secret" alternate entrance that the landlady told us about ;)

We had a daily breakfast of croissants from the local boulangeries around our area. These are SO much better than the ones back home. Pain au chocolat, oh how I miss you.

Here's a picture from the Seine at dusk. Most of the trip, I felt that the super romantic Paris I imagined in my head wasn't real. But then we saw the Seine and dusk and I realized that I had finally found it.  If I wasn't already married, I'd die right there if I got proposed to at that moment (yanno what I'm sayin').

Here's the Eiffel Tower at night. We waited so long that we were able to see the twinkling light show THREE times that night. FYI, the light shows occur every hour. That's how long we stayed there. But it was totally magical and totally worth it.

Now on our last full day we went to Versailles.  This was hands down my most FAVORITEST (is that even a word?) part of the trip.  Seriously people, you must go here. It's like a grand palace and the views look like they go on forever! It's so crazy to think I walked on the same paths that Marie Antoinette and King Louis did.  History is so amazing!

And that concludes the European vacation recaps... but before I end this post, I wanted to show you  my souvenirs of the trip! Now I normally don't spend a lot on handbags.  The only time I really invest in a nice bag is when I go on vacation because I'd like to think that the bags would be more meaningful that way. That's just my opinion (and how I can justify buying them. ha.)

This bag is actually from Barcelona but I totally forgot to show you in the earlier post. sorry! This bag happens to be a find from a vintage shop.  It's from the 1940's. And snakeskin. I was told this bag is actually from Italy. I was on the fence about it but the hubs love it too so he was totally an enabler. Normally he'd say something like "do you REALLY need it?". I just think it's because he really loves that era. 

 

This next purchase is one that I have been LUSTING over for forever.  Now, it's not the exact one that I wanted. And the reason for that is because we had just bought a home and I couldn't justify spending that kind of money. Especially when we needed to remodel the place. I started to see things in terms of remodel costs. That's a one remodeled bathroom! If you couldn't guess, what I really wanted was the large flap bag.

Instead I compromised with myself and got a wallet on chain.  Now, this wasn't even the one that I was thinking of getting.  But my choices at the boutique were limited (basically it was either this one or the camellia one in red) and I debated whether or not I should... but like I said earlier, this was my souvenir. And when am I EVER going to be here again right? So I went for it and got this one.  I still hope to buy my dream bag one day. I just hope the price doesn't rocket up to an even more absurd amount by then.

And thus concludes this entry.  I hope it wasn't too long.  Thanks for sticking through til the end!

Happy Friday everyone!