Paris/London

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After my trip to London this summer, everything was just a bit easier this time. The real highlight of this trip was Paris though. It has been over 22 years since I was there, so it seemed like a new city to me.

We stayed in the Montmartre neighbourhood which had a Bohemian feel to it with cobblestone streets, cafes, restaurants, and shops. Space, as defined by the distance between two tables at a restaurant or cafe, is certainly smaller here. At a number of restaurants, tables would be moved in and out for a person. It did make for some interesting conversations though, because you almost felt you were at the same table with other patrons…

I now have a new appreciation for French cuisine. All of our lunches and dinners were fabulous! There were set lunch menus that were of particular value priced from €10 to €20. This would come with two or three courses (this was very similar to what we experienced in Barcelona). TripAdvisor came through again as all of the restaurants were in at least rated in the top 5th of restaurants in Paris.

The old part of Paris is almost magical. The French have done such a good job of preserving it unlike many other European cities (e.g. London), where new and old buildings are intertwined through the old part of town. I was also relieved to hardly see any American franchise restaurants in this part of town. Why can cities like Paris and London seem to make the small speciality food stores work, but not at home. The only reason I can think of, other than just cultural differences, is that if you live in central Paris or London you don't have a car to run out to the suburbs and load up with groceries from Walmart.

We spent most of our time sightseeing some of the things we hadn't seen before or sights we wanted to see again. Like London, the weather was seasonably warm. This is certainly not a bad time of year to come to Europe. Crowds are done and one is not sweating all of the time. The most memorable experience was going to the Shoah Memorial, which chronicles the plight of French Jews during WWII. This is at least the third Holocaust Museum I have been to (Washington and Jerusalem are the others) and I have found them all fascinating. It does remind us how good we have it now 65 years after the worst war the world has ever seen. Another favourite activity was just wandering the streets of Paris and window shopping or grazing the small food shops like the pâtisseries (pastry shops). We had a least a macaroon a day. We kind of got hooked on them, as our craving continued upon arrival back in London.

I did go for a run on Monday morning and wandered past the Pigalle area where a dirtier grungier side of Paris appeared. Lots of graffiti in this city... We noticed that even before we arrived at the Gare du Nord (train station). It is unfortunate, because it takes away from the magic that central Paris has to offer. It is hard to believe the vision the city designers had 200 years ago, when much of what we know of Paris (e.g. Arc de Triomphe, Avenue des Champs-Élysées) was laid out along with its arteries.

Most of my time in London was spent either shopping or sightseeing. I took in the Imperial War Museum on Tuesday, which ended up being a four-hour marathon. Lots of great stuff (if you are a war buff). They had some neat exhibits. In particular, a WW1 trench, a typical 1940's British home, and a London street during the Blitz. Interestingly enough though none of the public museums in London cost anything… That is likely to change with budget cuts the UK Government is going through.

On Tuesday night, I joined Shauna's colleagues for a skate at the Somerset House and dinner afterwards in Covent Garden. The rage in London right now is to have outdoor skating rinks during December and January (they seem to be all over the place). The Somerset House, a large 18th century building on the south-side of the Thames, made for a beautiful backdrop as it surrounded the skating rink. For £12, you would rent skates and an hour's skate on the small rink. The time flew buy even though it was pretty crowded. It was truly an unique experience.

One thing that has both amazed and shocked me is the number of cyclists that ride into and out of the downtown core everyday (lots at night with sunset at 16:00 right now). It seems a bit crazy given how many vehicles are on the road, but apparently people are just frustrated with either driving or taking the tube here, which can be suffocating at rush hour.

For my 50th birthday, Shauna took me for a champagne ride on the London Eye, which was a neat experience to see the city at night. The line-ups were sure smaller than when we passed by there in the summer. After the 30-minute ride, we headed to Petrus (a Gordon Ramsey restaurant), which is the number one-rated London restaurant on TripAdvisor (there are nearly 6,000 rated). It was an expensive dinner, but truly an incredible experience. We thought we were only going to get five courses, but it ended up being more like 10… Everyone there certainly exceeded our expectations. The dishes were all small, but tasty and well presented. The two desert dishes we had even put on a show for us! The main desert had a hollow chocolate dome over the ice cream that melted as the hot syrup was poured on it. The last desert dish came with dry ice underneath it, which made for quite the presentation when the cover was taken off. Service was flawless and not too pretentious. With a bottle of wine, the 2.5 hours passed by quite quickly.

The rest of the week was spent pretty much shopping. I hit Westfield Mall (Shepherds Bush), Regent Street, and Oxford Street. The two streets starting Friday night were packed like something in of Hong Kong -- way too congested. The best find of the week was Sheffield, which was on Oxford Street. They had all the mens designer labels nicely laid out on the second floor. It worked well in terms of figuring out where to go next. I ended up spending two hours in this store alone on Wednesday. I would end up going back on Friday night to pick up some stuff and then stumbled onto a 20% sale on most everything -- the store was packed like the sidewalks... Edmonton was less than 48 hours away... Thank God for Deadmonton. :-)

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Photos

Basilique du Sacré-Cœur
A perfect day for pictures and walking distance from our hotel.

Advertisement European Style
Benetton is always trying to push people's buttons.

Eiffel Tower
A view from the Galleria department store.

MontMartre Neighbourhood
This is the area of town we stayed in Paris.

Brick Road (London)
Some of the best Indian restaurants in London can be found in this area.