Part I: The City of Lights

Sorry for not posting for so long! It's been busy. All of a sudden, my two months in Berlin are nearly over and I have no idea what I've been doing for the past month and a half.

As noted in my previous post, I went to Paris! I met my old Artsci roommates there, and after a long weekend in Paris they came out to Berlin to visit me! It was one of those rare instances where someone mentioned a terrific idea in passing without thinking it will actually happen but then it really does. We dreamt this up months ago, and somehow, we all managed to find a week that worked for everyone and all the other pieces fell into place. 

Paris was super. Unlike most of my other trips in life, the pace was relaxed. We didn't try to cram a gazillion things into a handful of days. As a result, it actually was a relaxing holiday, and mostly was full of catching up with my friends whilst eating French pastries and walking around Paris. At the same time, though, I didn't get to see everything I had wanted to see, so a return trip to Paris may be in my future later this summer. We'll see how the cookie crumbles. There are so many cities to see...

So, I flew out to join Robin and Tiff in Paris two weeks ago, a Friday evening. The first thing we did together? This:

Parisian crepes.

We had a suitably late dinner of delicious crepes at 10pm, followed by a midnight walk along the Seine to see the Eiffel Tower. What we had thought would be an hour walk was in fact a two-hour walk, but it was a lovely walk--Paris on a beautiful summer's evening never sleeps. Throngs of people lined the river, drinking and eating early into the morning.

Midnight in Paris.

The Notre Dame.

We finally reached the Eiffel Tower at 1 am, and the park in front of the tower was still packed with people. I had started the day in Berlin by going to my German class as usual and ended it in front of a sparkling Eiffel Tower, reunited with two of my closest friends. Not too bad for a Friday.

Our first clear view of the Eiffel Tower, after two hours of catching tantalising glimpses of it. Paris is BIG, y'all. Also, we ended up eating a delicious lunch at that restaurant seen there on right a couple days later. More on that later...

Every hour on the hour at night, the Eiffel Tower sparkles like crazy. It's pretty gorgeous. This is the best my camera could do. I kinda love it.

We had rented an apartment in the east part of Paris through airbnb (my new favourite way to find accommodation, apparently, seeing as I've been to three cities on this trip so far--including Berlin--and have used airbnb on each occasion!). The apartment was small but renovated and quite suitable for our purposes, which was basically to have a place to eat breakfast and sleep. The next morning, Saturday, Lise arrived from Toronto and we were officially all roommates again, if only for a few days! And, of course, this time in Paris, not Hamilton, Ontario. We're moving up in the world.

View from our apartment.

Breakfast: baguette, brie and jam.

We were very lucky with the weather. It was sunny and hot our first full day together, the next day drizzly but refreshingly cooler, and the final day sunny and comfortably warm. On Saturday morning, the four of us headed out in the blazing sunshine to the Arc de Triomphe and then hit up Paris' famous Ladurée patisserie for some serious macaron action!

My Mr. Sub girls! (We rented an apartment together in Hamilton during our undergrad that was above a Mr. Sub.)

Underneath the Arc.

Along the Champs-Élysées.

Ladurée.

Heaven.

We didn't try any of these pastries, but my goodness weren't they pretty.

I tried two macarons--pictured here is the vanilla one. There was also a salted caramel one that didn't make it long enough to appear in this picture.

Oh, did I mention that we also bought pains-au-chocolat? Did I also mention that I definitely gained a couple pounds over the course of my weekend in Paris?

Fueled up on sugar, we then headed to the Marais neighbourhood for some (somewhat affordable) boutique shopping! It was a pretty Parisian neighbourhood, the kind I imagined I'd wander, so I was pretty trigger happy with my camera. Here's a selection of photos:

The history nerd in me was very excited when we happened to pass by the National Archives:

For dinner after a long day of wandering Paris in the June heat, we hit up Tien Hiang, a little, tucked-away vegetarian Chinese restaurant that came highly recommended by my brother and sister-in-law. And it was certainly delicious! My photos of the food didn't turn out so well, but here:

Appetizers: Fried tofu and some kind of pakora-like things.

My entrée: "poulet" (fake, of course!) and veggies in a delicious hoisin and soya sauce.

We started off the next morning with a pastry pick-me up at a busy bakery we walked past, and I had what amounted to the best croissant of my life thus far:

We opted to just go to the Louvre, rather than in it. I asked some German tourists to take our picture and successfully carried on a short conversation with them that left me with a high for quite some time afterwards.

We then headed off for lunch at a fancy French restaurant at the foot (ish) of the Eiffel Tower. We opted for lunch instead of dinner, thinking it might be a bit cheaper and that it would be more acceptable for us to show up to lunch in our jeans and rain jackets. It was a cute, tiny little restaurant with only the owner, a waitress and the single chef. The chef balked a little at my request for a vegetarian entrée (there was, of course, none on the menu) but fortunately the restaurant was empty when we arrived and I suppose he was feeling up to a challenge. Also, contrary to stereotyped expectations, the French chef, restaurant owner and waitress were all very friendly and helpful! It was a delicious meal, a decadent one I'm glad we treated ourselves to.

Heading to the restaurant.

How close we were.

The cute restaurant.

Not my soup. Robin and Tiff shared it as an appetizer. Cold cucumber soup with escargot.

My lunch. A fancy schmancy vegetable plate. Delicious.

My dessert! Another salted caramel macaron. Even better than Ladurée's!

After dinner we were feeling drowsily satisfied and wanted the luxuriating to continue--so we wandered in search of a salon where we could get pedicures, because really, what else should four women do in Paris after having a wonderful lunch? Problem was, it was a Sunday and, like in Germany, most things close down in France on Sundays. Stupid traditional Europe. So we found plenty of closed nail salons, and when we finally found one that was open, they of course had no space for the four of us. We made an appointment to return the next day, and spent the rest of the day wandering Paris in the rain. Dinner was one of the most amazing falafels I've ever had, at Paris' famous L'as du Fallafel.

It's hard eating a falafel while standing outside in the rain. Here are some of Tiff's casualties.

The next morning, Monday, was my last day in Paris--I was due on a flight heading out at 7pm--and also Robin's birthday! We got an early-ish start and headed directly for the Arc de Triomphe. We had gone on Saturday, but this time had plans to climb to the top to take in some views of Paris. It was touristy and crowded but oh so worth it:

We had a very French breakfast at a café (baguette with butter and jam) and then hit up the spa for our pedicures!

The birthday girl getting pampered. Parisian birthdays are the worst. (Sorry, Robin, but I couldn't resist!)

Sadly, I couldn't linger too long at the spa because I had to head back to the apartment to pack up and head to the airport for my flight back to Berlin. The others were to fly out the following evening to spend several days in Berlin with me.

One more for the road? Sure!

Charles De Galle.

They had a little store right at the airport, right by my gate! What was I to do?? Here, vanilla again and also strawberry candy/

Part two--my old roommates' visit to Berlin--will follow...eventually. And then of course I need to catch you up on this past week. But it may be another while between posts, I'm afraid. Tomorrow I'm heading to Hamburg with Amy and Alex.

So for now...à bientôt!