Day 11 - Back to Paris

Long ride back to Paris on the high speed train today as we said goodbye to the Cote d'Azure and headed back north for our flight home. As soon as we started nearing Paris the beautiful sunshine went away and grey clouds rolled in. Is it ever sunny in this city?

We checked in at the Citizen M hotel near Charles de Gaulle airport and wow this is a cool modern hotel. Everything from mood lighting to TV and movies and temperature controls are done by an in room iPad control centre. Mark went to take a shower and I treated him to an impromptu disco light show in the bathroom.

The only disappointing aspect of this room is the lack of glassware with which to drink our last bottle of French wine with tonight. Plastic ikea cups does not scream high class.

Day 5 - McDo and Gypsies

Two key observations today...1. McDonalds is way cooler in Europe and 2. Gypsies appear to be organized homeless people.

In an effort to save a few euros today we popped in to a local McDonald's for a meal. Complete confusion ensued. They have self serve kiosks where you order and pay for your food, then take your ticket to the counter for pick up. Not sure this really saves any time, but the kiosks are available in so many languages so I guess it may ultimately help with language barriers? 

Then there was the issue of everything on the menu being different from us aside from the standard Big Mac. But who wants a boring Big Mac when there's other weird stuff to explore?!? I ended up with some baconator type burger and mark had an onion ring burger. Both decently good for a McDo-type meal but when oh when will we get these wedge fries they have in North America please? And a real McCafe complete with macarons, pies (real pies!) and pastries! That's what we're missing. 

Every time we walk down the street there's been begging gypsies. Better that than pick pocketing gypsies I suppose. But they seem strangely organized - territorial, relieving each other on shifts, and getting the whole family involved. Mark is fascinated by them but I told him to get out of the window and stop watching them before they put a curse on him.

Day 4 - Fancy French Dinner

I really dislike reading posts about what other people had for dinner so I'll keep this really short and to the point - I found a nearby restaurant that scored great reviews on tripadvisor as well as local gastro blogs for having amazing food at a good price point. It was called Pario in the 15e Arrondissement. The Chef combines French cuisine with a Brazilian touch (hence the "rio" in the name). I had a carre de veau with frites and Mark had a lobster dish with potatoes and caviar. They were both melt in your mouth delicious. I couldn't believe how tender the beef was. Highly recommend.

Day 2 - Moulin Rouge

Wow what a show. So much fun. Variety show with so many different acts - not just topless and cancan dancing! Horses, snakes, acrobats, adrenaline stunts and prat falls. Thoroughly enjoyed it 😀

Day 2 - Champs Élysées

Took a ride on the metro to check out the Champs Élysées this afternoon, saw the Arc de Triomphe (and the nutso chaotic traffic around it) and a whole lot of shops that I wanted to throw money at but controlled myself. So many gorgeous stores! In the end just ended up buying a few souvenirs and a whole lot of expensive tea at Kuzmi Tea because, hey, it's tea.

Also found a wonderful macaron shop and so brought a few back to the hotel. Yummers. Can't come to Paris and not get macarons.

Day 1 - Paris

After a long drawn out ride to the hotel (that shuttle service is in for a bad review) we finally arrived. I thought the hotel room I had in NYC was cramped. This may even be smaller. But it's clean and quiet and in a great location so no complaints. After a long nap we were refreshed enough to walk down to the Eiffel Tower. We planned on going up but it was closed!! Roped off even. Apparently something fell off it. You can kinda see something in the photo.

So we'll try for that another day. Instead, we crossed over to the Seine and hopped on a river boat cruise with champagne down the Seine. Absolutely beautiful. By the time we got back it was dark and the tower was even more breathtaking.

A delicious supper of mushroom risotto with wine at a random street cafe and I'd say that's a good first day.