Trip to Paris
 

What an amazing trip this was in every imaginable way. So much to write, should have taken notes but hope most will come back in this photo-essay of the trip. Could not have asked for better weather for the week, 60s and not a cloud in the sky Monday through Thursday noon, Thursday night and Friday brought "Paris in the most beautiful in the rain" and while maybe not really, it was unique, it worked sitting outside on the street having dinner while it rained softly just two feet away. Airbnb, great little apartment on the 6th floor in an upscale neighborhood, pretty much central location walking distance to anything you wanted to see in the city. I will stay here every time I come back. And will definitely go back maybe in September, this was a perfect training trip learning everything, or most things, I need to make the next trip, something even more special. Learned a lot! So this opening paragraph isn't a book, I'll write a little in each section.

First, there are all kinds of people and reasons to go to Paris. I went specifically to eat and see van Gogh and walk the streets to get a feel for the city. And then I would check it off the list probably only going back with someone special someday. Instead, I fell in love with the city and especially French culture. Paris is, to some degree, a magnifying glass showing U.S. cultural decay. Settle down all you alt-Righters from PARF, the U.S. is still the best country in the world, by far, but we've definitely drifted down the River of TABS a little too far.


They say to get to the airport 2 hours before departure time for international flights. I did and was sitting at my gate 10 minutes from getting out of the car. Hanging around an airport is always fun so it was all good. Norwegian's non-stop was on a 787 Dreamliner, what a great plane! Got in at 10:30AM Paris time, into the city in an hour (surprised to see so many E Class Mercedes and big Lexus' as taxis), Airbnb done and I was on my way for the rest of the day.

Typical tourist photos. Very few tourists which was great. I don't think I would want to go to Paris during the tourist season. More on ugly Americans later.

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Musée d'Orsay

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View outside of my Airbnb

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Starting off for the night. I walked 3-4 miles around the city each day.

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Any hawt chicks, Shaun? :)

I had researched a few restaurants that I wanted to go to, namely Robert et Louise of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, S1E1 fame, and my host had recommended a few, but it was also my goal, as is here, to happen upon a restaurant completely by chance and finding that gem of place that ticks all of the boxes from quiet and unpretentious to great food prepared by people who love what they do. It is rare to discover such a place so imagine doing just that on my first night. Though the 3/4 bottle of wine may have been an influence too.

Walking along the Seine. Just lovely. A bit of a surprise to be getting closer to the Eiffel Tower as I walked along.

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After walking along for an hour or so, I turned into the city for dinner. Restaurants, brasseries, cafes are everywhere. Armed with an iPhone and Yelp and TripAdvisor, I went from place to place, looked at the menu and read the reviews. This is where it became very evident, and comical, who the reviewers were. Some were French. Those were easy to tell mostly because the translation to English via the apps was not perfect. Also because their reviews were intelligent, that was a leading indicator. The other reviewers self-selected into good Americans (subsets of these discussed later), ugly Americans (their reviews made you ashamed to be American) and then other foreigners, and these were interesting. Anyway, after going from restaurant to restaurant looking for the "perfect" first dinner in Paris, I turned down this small side street to cut over another major street and found La Haute Cloche.

I went in and in my best Bonsoir, je suis désolé, je ne parle pas français, est-ce que ça va? the server, a young woman, smiled widely and said that's OK, I speak English and we laughed a little. She turned out to be from Mexico who is studying at a top culinary school in Paris to be a chef, and is apprenticing at this restaurant as part of her studies. We talked a lot about cooking during the night.


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The food was very good to excellent. I typically ordered and ate enough for two at each and every sitting. Drank a lot of wine!

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Walking home around midnight or so.

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Thanks for sharing.....very cool,

Menu looks great, I would have loved to try the Corsican boar. I was in Belgium and France week before last, had incredible weather there too. Went skiing in southern alps and didn't see a cloud in the sky for 4 days. We both got lucky on the weather!

Shaun, really pleased you enjoyed Paris, it's a great city and thanks for posting. If you enjoyed Paris you would enjoy Rome too

I was at the cheap end of the Alps at the same time and we didn't see a cloud until our last day too

We felt very safe in walking around Paris even after midnight but that was 15 years ago. Those pics brought back many memories. Thanks for showing them to us. I was there with my girlfriend, now wife.

Glad you got the same weather Neil, I can only imagine skiing in it, must have been fantastic! Family sitting next to me on the plane back flew in to Paris and then drove to Italy for skiing for the week and they had the best time. I'm sure you did too.

I actually had the boar, what else could I have? The menu is changed, somewhat, daily and that was a new creation on the menu. In finer restaurants, I always try specials by the chef. The boar was excellent, though to be honest, it wasn't gamy enough. Sounds odd but I wanted a stronger wild flavor. But still, it was excellent.

For dinner I had the foie gras (this trip answered the question, can you have too much foie gras... yes, yes you can), snails (perfectly cooked, tender, earthy goodness), leeks, the wild boar, a bottle of 2014 Clarendelle Bordeaux, camembert, rhum baba and cafe.

I’m glad you had a great time. My first trip to Paris was magical. Sounds like yours was too.

Thank you Captain, glad to hear you also took advantage of the weather!

Rome is on the list! The largest part of my family is from Italy, one of the best memories of my childhood is Sunday dinners, virtually everything on the table each night was made from scratch (all the pasta, sauce, sausage, eel, bread, etc.) or picked from the garden that day, for about 20 of us. Great life then.

More on that.

And more on this. :)

Lots of angry people in Rome. I was glad I went and actually had a great time, but it feels more edgy than Paris.

Tuesday I spent much of the day at the Musée d'Orsay, to see van Gogh. It was as much as I could have hoped for. The Renoir collection was similarly stunning. A fair amount of Monet, Matisse, etc. I purposefully didn't go to the Louvre, the d'Orsay more than sufficed for this short trip.

I spent about 2 hours with van Gogh.


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Thanks for sharing a beautiful city in a beautiful country.

I'm trying to talk the wife into going to Brest and Bretagne this Summer.. I went there for work a lot and loved the area. Brest isn't the prettiest city (it got the crap bombed out of it in WW2) but it is the home of the crepe (or gillette as they call it). Food is beyond awesome.

It still has one of the largest submarine pens the Germans ever built.

Even though I was in early, there was a small crowd around this self-portrait. It only grew. Not my favorite, but it was mesmerizing. They of course didn't have Starry Night, nor did they have Wheatfield with Crows, a favorite. Here is something I found very interesting. French crows sound more like crows than U.S. crows. The cawing of French crows is gutteral, a little eerie, ominous. And very loud.


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My mouth is watering at all that great food.

Wife was mentioning this morning that she saw another sub $500 r/t flight to Paris this fall. Sounds tempting.

As for snow, they are going to need some soon if the want to ski through March.

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One of my favorites


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My original introduction to van Gogh and inspiration for the trip.

It's a beautiful episode. Worth a watch even if you don't like or know Dr. Who. Also on Amazon Prime.

Doctor Who S05 - Ep10 Vincent and the Doctor