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Published: February 26th 2010
Last Saturday, we arrived in Paris via the train after saying goodbye to our good friends Soup and Mike. There is a very speedy train in Europe called the TGV, and it goes really, really fast. We were likely going between 200-250 km on average, which would have been quite unfortunate for anyone who suffers from motion sickness. High speed trains are awesome though - especially when traveling first class. Apparently there's talk of getting two in the US that run up and down each coast, perhaps reaching up to Vancouver and Montreal, respectively. We can hope...
Our apartment in Paris was in the 2nd arrondisement, near the Les Halles metro station. After booking our apartment (and paying for it too), we read in a few guidebooks and heard from a few people that the area was slightly sketchy, but we didn't notice. We were on a quiet pedestrian street, about a 15 min walk to Le Louvre, and we had every store we could possible want within a 3 min walk - meat, fish, veggies and fruit, cheese, wine, and bread. When thinking about food shopping in Paris and France, this is what I was dreaming of. All I
needed was a basket to hang my baguette from one side and leeks from another and I would have been living the Parisian dream. But no basket for me.
I think I talked about food a lot in my last post about Angers, but I just can't let it go. The food in France is SO GOOD. They have the whole process down, from shopping to preparing to eating. A real bakery isn't a real bakery unless it is called a 'Boulangerie' which means that everything is prepared fresh in store. Cheese vendors are licensed to tell you how to serve your cheese. Each store will have someone yelling from the front, '1 euro, sac de champignons, 1 euro!' I believe that all stores should have a French person yelling deals out into the street. You also don't usually go out for drinks without ordering food - of course, a platter of various cheeses, meats, and breads. Food is life, and life is good in France. We even bought baguettes so fresh that they snapped in half in Tim's hands.
Besides eating, we spent 2 full days in art museums - Le Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay. We
walked the Champs Elysees, went up to Montmatre, ate crepes, and drank cafes au lait. On Wednesday night, we went out for drinks with someone we had met in Angers, and he showed us a bit of older Paris - small, windy streets, authentic French bars... it was an awesome way to see the city.
A few random thoughts about Paris:
1.Who mass produces the Eiffel Towers? We were in Paris during the low season, and there must have been at least 100 men selling the souvernirs just in the tower area alone, not to mention the hundreds of vendors and tourist shops scattered around the city.
2.There is a lot of space in Paris, compared to the rest of Europe. Just pointing it out.
3.Parisians are not as rude as the rest of the word seems to think. What I have learned, in France but specifically in Paris, is that the customer is most definitely not always right, and the most important thing you can do is respect people. If you walk into a cheese shop and don't say the magic words... “ Bonjour, Monsieur/Madame,” you are instantly pegged as rude and impolite, and likely won't get
good service. All you need to do is say hello when you arrive and wish them a nice day on your way out the door, even if you don't buy anything. Everyone says hello in Paris. It's nice.
4.I thought Londoners were fashionable? Paris takes the cake.
5.The Louis Vuitton store is humongous. Tim and I went in and stuck out like sore thumbs. The only way to truly fit it is to walk in with Gucci bags, and sadly, we had no Gucci bags.
If I had to choose to live in London, Dublin, or Paris, I would choose Paris. I love speaking French, I love the food, the bars, the clothes, the atmosphere, everything. There's something about being in Europe that makes Canada seem very, very far away - culturally, and literally.
Brussels is next. Hoping to catch up on a few episodes of 24 tonight...
Sarah
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Bev
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It is SO wonderful to read of all of your adventures and I know that between each and every line there is much joy as you guys continue your adventure!!! How FUN!!! Ok - so I literally started singing the openign lines from Belle's first song in Beauty and the Beast Sarah - 'there goes the baker with his tray like always . . something something bread and rolls to sell" . . and you just prancing through the french markets!!! Continue to have a wonderful time you too . . and remember to be on the lookout for European hotwings !!! We have all been enjoying the Olympics - Grandma in particular! VERY sweet!!! Take care and keep blogging !!!.