La plus heureuse

This is as close as we got to culture in Paris...

This is as close as we got to culture in Paris…

I’m borrowing from Anne Boleyn’s motto here because a) I’m in France, b) have spent an obscene amount of money shopping and c) have finally had a meal where bacon “bien cuit(e)” was indeed well done! As you can see, it doesn’t take much to make me happy.

I know my plan was to see as many *different* countries as possible but one simply cannot come to Europe without visiting Paris. Our plan to see Versailles was swiftly ditched in favour of shopping in the Marais district on Sunday (Chris actually agreed to this – I kid you not!). We’ll get there one day but there’s a shopping inferno underway here and culture just doesn’t get a look in. After a few weeks of moping around being homesick, I’ve finally remembered the advantages of foreign climes and, shallow as I may be, they revolve around drinking and shopping. I’m still firmly set against living here permanently but the embargo on future travel this direction has definitely been lifted in my mind. Not only do I have a whole new outlook on life, I have a whole new wardrobe… or maybe the new wardrobe has led to the different outlook – who knows? That aside, I still haven’t had enough of Paris and probably never will.

Coming back through customs we obviously looked suspicious as we were stopped and asked if we had anything to declare. I promptly declared my two boxes of porridge in a bid to divert them from the national debt’s worth of clothing in my bag. Fortunately I was under the 20kg limit of oats so crisis averted. As Chris informed me after, they weren’t actually looking for shopping so it was just my general paranoia and guilt over spending my entire holiday savings in one day kicking in 🙂

Places we’ll go back to:

  • La Cafeotheque: THE place to go for coffee in Paris.
  • Lizard Lounge: Happy hour is good value for money and burgers were tasty. Cheap night out.
  • La Mangerie: Yummy cocktails and tapas – get there early!

The City of Boots

by the River Seine

Romance by the river

I know, I know, Paris is normally thought of as the City of Love, but for this trip it was in fact the City of Boots. Fun shopping for, but not so fun having to lug them all home. Severe. Luggage. Crisis.

Not that we weren’t romantic, but this is as close as it gets:

Sam: Let’s go for a romantic stroll by the Seine
Chris: Really? These things are never as romantic as you think they’re going to be
Sam: I’m benevolent to all mankind (a few vodkas by this stage) – why would you want to wreck that when I’m being romantic?

Anyway, he was right – it was noisy, busy and completely unromantic, plus one of the pairs of aforementioned boots were hurting my feet quite considerably. But I gave it a red hot go.

Maybe we’ll try again on our next adventure: an African safari, coming to your screens Jan/Feb 2013…

Au revoir

Everything but the kitchen sink

Louvre – check; Eiffel tower* – check; Musee d’Orsay – check; Museum of Modern Art – check; L’Orangerie – check; copious amounts of shopping – double check; holiday to recover from holiday… well that might have to wait for a bit 🙂

I just have to say that for me the L’Orangerie was the best part of the whole trip. Those wrap around Monets are incredible and the moments when I walk around with my jaw on the floor in an art gallery are few and far between. The fact that you get a few Renoirs, Gauguins, Picassos and Cezannes et al are just an added bonus. Its bigger sister, the Musee d’Orsay, had a wonderful impressionist gallery housed in an old railway station. Chris took a picture of me at the clock face but I looked like I was having teeth pulled so I’ve put up a picture of just the clock instead.

The other worthwhile stop was in fact the Museum of Modern Art. Now if you plan on seeing it, please note that there are in fact two museums of modern art in Paris. The difference is one is free, the other isn’t**. Can you guess which one I went for? Well, if you didn’t know my tightarse ways by now you should have guessed that I don’t much like spending money on exhibitions (but incidentally have no problem doing it shopping). Anyway, the City MOMA is absolutely free and has a pretty good cafe there to boot and featured such highlights as a morse code chandelier. There was also a mouse running in a  circle on one of the floors, but I’m pretty sure that wasn’t one of the exhibits, though it was pretty entertaining for about five minutes or so.

I believe I have now maxed out my credit card so it’s just as well we’re leaving Paris tomorrow <sob>. Who would have thought that I’d ever have wanted to stay?

*this involved standing underneath it in the rain, looking up and thinking ‘just can’t be bothered’
**there are probably other differences too, but I would have had to fork out the bucks to see it so I guess we’ll never know.

Not another art gallery…

Ah Paris, I love you so… There are so many interesting things to do and see – a week is just not enough. I guess I’ll just have to keep coming back until I’m done 🙂 We are staying in a fantastic location on the Ile Saint-Louis in the centre of Paris. Close to everything with a boucherie, a boulangerie and fromagerie just outside the door and on a street of restaurants. I may put on 5 kilos in Paris alone.

We went to the Louvre today <sigh>. It was pretty big (actually, that’s somewhat of an understatement) and had a fabulous collection, but I think I’m just over art galleries and wandering around seeing the same kind of paintings over and over again. I know I shouldn’t diss the Mona Lisa, but it didn’t seem all that special quite frankly. Not that the queue milling around thought the same. In fact my exposure to the Mona Lisa was actually a backward glance over my shoulder as I walked past the crowd *lol*. Please try not to swoon all you art lovers, but I’ll reserve my praise for my personal fave; Monet who is and has always been da man.