Croissants and the Louvre

We were up and out the door by 7am.  Walking down Rue Bonapart, we stopped by a little patisserie across from Laduree and bought the most amazing croissants.  They were buttery, with a crispy crust and soft pillowy inside.  The best part was that it was warm, fresh out of the oven.  Ron ate his in about 20 seconds flat.

As it was 7am, it was freezing!  Cat didn't exactly bring the best clothes for the weather.  Thankfully Ron convinced her to bring 1 decent jacket but unfortunately, she didn't bring her leather gloves.  Good thing for Cat, it did warm up as the day went on.

The first touristy place we went was Notre Dame.  With the vaulted ceilings, arches, and stain glass windows, it didn't disappoint.  There were elements that we would want in our dream house.

What's with the guy holding his own head?

As most of you know, Ron loves his eggs.  We've been in Europe for 3 days and he needed his egg fix, which is why we ended up in a cafe near Notre Dame and the Louvre.  Below is a photo of Ron's croque monsieur and our 4.20euro cafe au laits.  Darn our love of coffee.

After consuming a ridiculously expensive breakfast, we walked to the Lourve, where Cat found a second entrance and bypased the super long line up top.

The building is massive.  We could only dream about it being our home. A few elements we found that we love.  You wouldn't even know what to do with all the rooms.  I guess Cloud could have her own wing.  We loved the courtyard with the statues, very calm and peaceful. Cat's favorites were The Victory and the Artemis statues.  And a few others including The Venus.

Before heading into the Louvre, Ron had promised crepes on the other side of the Louvre.  After spending hours walking the countless halls admiring the art and exhibitions, Cat was ready for her crepe.  Too bad Ron had lied and there were no crepe stands outside.  They were all way at the end of the Tuileries Garden and they were crap.  It was luke warm and too soft.  The chestnut spread Cat had wasn't too bad but Ron's strawberry crepe was just bad strawberry jam.  Definitely not worth the 3 euros each.  But the Garden is beautiful, with many statues, super green lawn, tons of purple and white flowers on trees and fountains.  They have lots of chairs set up near the fountain, which would be lovely to sit and relax in the sun.

Bonjour!

We arrived in Paris from London on the 4th of May and made our way to our hotel, Residence du Palais on 78 rue d'Assas in the 6th arrondissement.  The hotel is on the most charming street, full of trees and historic looking buildings, little boutiques and cute patisseries.  It is also across the street from Jardin du Luxembourg and as mentioned in my previous post, only 8 minutes from Pierre Herme.  For 66 euros a night for a double room with shower you really can't go wrong.  Well, except our room was on the 4th floor and the building has no elevator.  As an added bonus, the owner was extremely friendly and spoke English.

As it doesn't get dark until 9.30-10pm, we made the most of the evening and explored the town.  We got lost a couple times making our way through Montepasso and St. Germain but Ron's Native American skills kicked in and we found our way again.  While meandering through the streets, we came across a crepe stand and we ate our first crepe in Paris.  Nutella and banana, so good!

Passing by a cheese shop on our way home, Cat just had to stop and sample the French cheese.  We walked out with a brie like cheese and a blue.  There are about four patisseries near our hotel so we picked up a baguette to go with the cheese.  The bottle of red paired well with dinner of bread and cheese.  But not just any bread and cheese... French baguette and fromage.  The baguette had an amazingly thin crispy shell, with large holes and a sweet tang.  The blue was the best we've ever had.  Ron couldn't stop eating it, he was licking the swiss army knife, it was that good.

French macarons...

The reason I went to Paris.

Yes, that is correct.  Forget the Eiffel Tower, forget Champs Elysees, and forget Notre Dame.  I came to Paris for the heavenly ganache and cream filled almond meringue cookies the French call macarons.  For weeks, I was obsessed with all things macaron.  I made many attemps at making my own.  The best were the chocolate and hazelnut macaron and my white chocolate and rose scented macarons.  I dreamed of biting into one from Pierre Herme and Laduree.  My dreams were about to come true.

It took 2 tries before we finally located Pierre Herme on 72 Rue Bonaparte, a convenient 0.7km away from our hotel in Paris.  When we finally found it, I was like a kid in a candy shop.  I wish I had photos of all the amazing desserts and treats, but unfortunately, no photos allowed in the store.

Because I just couldn't help it, we bought a box from both Pierre Herme and Laduree.

From Pierre Herme: Chocolate, Passionfruit, Peace/apricot/safron, Pistachio cherry, Jasmine and Olive oil/vanilla

From Laduree: Green apple, Cafe, (oops, can't remember), Pistachio, Rose, Chocolate, Lily of the Valley and Caramel

It was very difficult to choose our favorites, but we have a few:
- Green Apple from Laduree:  "wow, wow, ohh, wow", distinct apple flavor, followed by a tartness and then a beautiful green apple finish.  Fresh, spring.
- Lily of the Valley from Laduree: top pick.  Filling is a light cream with just a hint of lily.  So light you want to keep eating it. 
- Olive oil and vanilla from Pierre Herme: tied for top pick.  Lovely scent, very light filling.  The thin shell still had a nice crunch to it before giving way to the softness.  Almost went back to get another one.

Pistachio cherry from Pierre Herme.  Don't you just love the color combination?

Work hard, play hard... in Europe

2010 has been a busy year work wise for both of us.  Ron has been working the long hours that his new position as Manager demands.  Cat started a new job in December 2009 and was working hard to settle in and prove herself.  We decided it was time to reward ourselves with a little vacation...

We were finally able to save enough money and secure time off of work to take the vacation that Cat always dreamed of.  4 weeks in Italy with a quick stop over in Paris.  After a quick call to the Qantas office, we booked our flights with a mixture of points and hard earned cash.  As you are all aware, using points to pay for flights isn't the easiest thing to do.  Because of that, we ended up flying in to London instead of flying straight to Italy.  This meant a longer flight but it did provide us with the opportunity to see some of London's famous sites.

After months of reading travel books, forums and websites, our plans were set.  We would fly in to London, spend a few hours before taking the high speed Eurorail to Paris.  From there, the plan was to fly into Venice, then take the train to Vernazza in Cinque Terre, to Monteroni D'Arbia in Tuscany, to Positano in Amalfi Coast and finally to Rome.

Everything was set and we were ready to go.  That was until the Icelandic volcano decided to erupt and covered the UK in volcanic ash, canceling all flights in and out of the airports.  The natural disaster cost the airlines $1.7 billion and almost our vacation.  Thankfully the winds slowly pushed the ash away and flights resumed... 3 days before our intended departure.

After 20 hours and a quick layover in Singapore, we finally made it to London.  We landed at 6am and had train tickets to Paris at 1pm.  That meant we had 7 hours to explore the town. 

Is that a patch of blue sky?