Blogs from Paris, Île-de-France, France, Europe - page 5

As I write this post, it is Thursday, so I am now a couple of days behind on my blogging, but we had a couple of busy days and a very early and long travel day. We are now in the South and have a couple of hours before dinner, so I will try to get caught up. Our final day in Paris was fairly chill. We did not really have a packed agenda. We got up at a reasonable time, had our morning croissant (our last for a while) and coffee, then headed out. Our first stop of the day found us back in the 14th, Montparnasse. The day was overcast, so the view from the top of the 59th floor of the Tour Montparnasse would be somewhat muted. Turns out that the best time ... read more

Last night before we retired for the evening, we decided to change up the itinerary for Monday. We had originally planned this as our day trip out of Paris to Chateau Fontainebleau. This would have required us keeping up early and taking a train for an hour to the Chateau. Instead we decided to sleep in a bit and finish off the last five arrondissements. Of course, sleeping in means no morning croissant since we did not get up early enough for the morning breakfast. Instead, before continuing on our hopscotch we had lunch at a nearby café. We both were in deed of some raw vegetable, so Jerry had the French version of a cobb salad. It was basically the same, just more blue cheese, crispy chicken and strips of bacon instead of bacon bits. ... read more

Things happen for a reason, and today was a perfect example of that. First, our bodies revolted (protested so to speak) and we slept until 10:00. Meaning, we missed breakfast, most importantly the croissant and now were very behind in what was to be a very intense day hopscotching across Paris. By the time we were ready to leave for the day it was already 12:30, first stop was our favorite little crepe stand at La Tour Maubourg. It is just a few blocks from our hotel so we walked. It was again another lovely cloud free day in Paris around 75 and a nice breeze to keep you cool as you walked. We ordered our standard crepe fromage and jamon and then sat in the park across the way. Which is also right next to ... read more

Several years ago, I ran across a list of the 10 oldest restaurants in the world. Since that time, we have been making sure to tick each one off our list. Paris has two on the list. When we were in Paris in 2016 with Christina, we ate at A La Petite Chaise number 5 on the list. This trip we would be marking on number 3 La Tour D’Argent, first established in 1582 during the reign of Henry III. We now only have three more until we have been to all ten of them. The most difficult will be number ten, Yar Restaurant, which is located in Moscow, Russia. Brief History La Tour D’Argent first opened in 1582 as an inn on the right bank of the Seine, looking at Ile de la ... read more

As I write this entry, we are resting in our hotel just off Rue Cler in the 7th. I will not mention the name of the hotel, because this is our favorite place to stay and do not want it to lose any of its charm. This is the 4thtime we have stayed in this hotel and have our usual street side room with a view of the top of the Eifel Tower. The first day is always the hardest and seems like the longest. You start in one time zone and end up in a different country on a different day, but your mind still says your in the time zone you live in. We try very hard to immediately adjust to the time difference, we typically plan a full day, but not intense, don’t ... read more