26 Monday Nov 2012
Tags
8th Arrondissement, Arc de Triomphe, Église Saint-Augustin de Pari, Champs Élysées, France, Paris, Paul
Mr. Selfish and I enjoy saying the term “Chumps Élysées” instead of just saying “chumps.” So, we definitely ventured to the Champs Élysées in the 8th Arrondissement and said “Chumps Élysées” as often as possible. We didn’t buy anything but just window shopped. We also stopped by Paul for a croissant. Paul is a prolific chain but it has consistently good pastries.
25 Sunday Nov 2012
Mr. Selfish and I rode the metro all the way to the end of Line 1 to go to Bois de Vincennes and Château de Vincennes in the 12th Arrondissement. The Bois de Vincennes is a park that is three times larger than Central Park in New York.
We arrived at Château de Vincennes, which was a favorite second home to 14th century French kings. They used it as hunting accommodations due to its proximity to Bois de Vincennes. Mr. Selfish and I had brought some banh mi from Saigon Sandwich with us to eat. The weather looked like it was clearing up, so we sat down in the château grounds and enjoyed our banh mi.
24 Saturday Nov 2012
Posted in Europe, Food & Drinks, France, Paris
Tags
10th Arrondissement, 2nd Arrondissement, 9th Arrondissement, A L’Etoile d’Or, France, G. Detou, L’Epicerie Anglaise, Paris
Mr. Selfish and I discovered three interesting specialty stores in the 2nd, 9th, and 10th Arrondissements.
The first was G. Detou, which is a specialty store for bakers and cooks. The name is a play-on-words meaning “I have everything”. It indeed looked to have most everything a cook or baker could want. Mr. Selfish and I purchased a kilo (2.2 lbs.) of dried strawberries and have been munching on them ever since. Our friend purchased pearl sugar to make liege waffles.
22 Thursday Nov 2012
Posted in Europe, Food & Drinks, France, Paris, Searching for the Best . . .
Mr. Selfish and I love macarons. We therefore decided to search for the best macarons in Paris. It was a hard task but someone has to do it.
First, we tried the macarons at Stohrer, which is supposedly the oldest bakery in Paris. Stohrer is near Les Halles and Saint Eustache. Stohrer only offered traditional flavors, so we purchased chocolate, vanilla, pistachio, and strawberry.
Verdict: The macarons were pretty good, but not much different from the macarons we had tasted in the States.
Score: 6.5
21 Wednesday Nov 2012
Posted in Europe, Food & Drinks, France, Paris
Mr. Selfish and I went all the way out to the Porte de Versailles Exhibition Center in the 15th Arrondissement to attend the Salon du Chocolat. It is billed as the largest chocolate event in the world. How could we resist?
It is an exhibition of all things chocolate. There were so many chocolate samples – lots and lots of samples. It was amazing. I never thought that I could get sick of chocolate but I actually did get a little sick of it toward the end.
20 Tuesday Nov 2012
Tags
4th Arrondissement, Centre National d'Art et de Culture George Pompidou, Hôtel de Ville, Musées, Romulus and Remus, Victor Hugo's House
Mr. Selfish and I were constantly in the 4th Arrondissement. Not only because we love Notre Dame but because there is plenty to do in the 4th – particularly musées.
On our last free museum Sunday, we decided to go to the Centre National d’Art et de Culture George Pompidou, which is the modern art musée in Paris. It is quite large and extensive. There were two primary floors – one floor focuses on modern art from 1960 to the present and the other floor has pre-1960 modern art. We started with the post-1960 modern art and found it (as usual) to be not our forté.
19 Monday Nov 2012
Posted in Europe, Food & Drinks, France, Paris
Even aside from the Luxembourg Gardens, it is nice to just stroll around the 6th Arrondissement. Mr. Selfish and I enjoyed walking on the bridges and admiring the different views – particularly that of the Institut de France. It houses six different academies and was opened in 1795.
18 Sunday Nov 2012
I have mixed feelings about the 14th Arrondissement. On the one hand, Montparnasse Tower was quite nice. On the other, we weren’t able to go to the Catacombs because it was closed.
I dragged Mr. Selfish to Montparnasse Tower, because I wanted to see a nighttime view of Paris. I’ve seen Montparnasse Tower from afar many a times and discovered that you could see Paris from 59 floors up. Plus, if you’re up the Eiffel Tower, you can’t see the view with the Eiffel Tower.
To go up Montparnasse Tower, you have to take a lift that only takes 38 seconds. It takes you to the 56th floor, which has a cafe and is encased in glass. You can take photos but the reflection from the glass and lights makes the photos not too ideal.
17 Saturday Nov 2012
Posted in Europe, Food & Drinks, France, Paris
Tags
9th Arrondissement, France, Higuma, Japanese Food in Paris, Kunitoraya, La Petit Tokyo, Opera, Palais Garnier, Paris, Ramen, Sapporo, Udon
The beautiful Palais Garnier is in the 9th Arrondissement of Paris. It is the opulent opera house of Paris. Mr. Selfish and I looked into going to an opera but the prices were outrageous. Instead, we just walked by and admired.
But, the main reason that we kept coming back to the 9th was because Le Petit Tokyo is there. When we were sick of French food, we ate ramen and udon to our heart’s content. We went to three restaurants in particular and found each of them to be respectable.
First, at Higuma, we enjoyed gyozas and the shio and syoyu ramen, which was called “lamen.” The broth was tasty, and it hit the spot since we were craving ramen. I also liked the demonstration kitchen because the chefs really seemed to enjoy their cooking stations.
15 Thursday Nov 2012
Posted in Europe, Food & Drinks, France, Paris
Tags
18th Arrondissement, France, Montmartre, Moulin Rouge, Museum of Eroticism, Paris, Red Light District, Sex Museum
Mr. Selfish and I lived only two metro stops away from the red light district of Paris in Montmartre. Of course, we walked around to enjoy the ambiance. Moulin Rouge also happens to be one of my favorite movies of all times. I still love the elaborate singing and dancing sequences with the shaky cam feel.
14 Wednesday Nov 2012
Tags
I fondly remember the cartoons and comics of Asterix and Obliex from my childhood. When I learned that there was a Parc Asterix near Paris, I knew that we would check it out.
The price of the park was 24 euros per person if purchased 7 days in advance. This advanced purchase saved 9 euros per person. Although I thought this was a good deal originally, the day that we chose ended up having horrible weather. It was in the 40’s and literally hailing right before we left for the park.
13 Tuesday Nov 2012
Posted in Europe, Food & Drinks, France, Paris
Tags
19th Arrondissement, Cité de la Musique, Django, Django Reinhardt, France, Gypsy Jazz, Jazz, Paris
While we wandering all over Paris, Mr. Selfish and I kept seeing ads for a Django Reinhardt exhibit. Since Mr. Selfish loves gypsy jazz, I tracked it down online and discovered that the exhibit was in the Cité de la Musique, which is in the 19th Arrondissement. Since there isn’t much going on in the 19th, I figured we would check out the exhibit. Plus, on Friday and Saturday evenings, there is live jazz.
The Django Reinhardt exhibit was very interesting. It chronicled his life and set up sound booths whereby you could listen to the music that Django created during that era. We also enjoyed the live jazz session.
12 Monday Nov 2012
As many times as I’ve seen it and from assorted angles and different times of the days, I never tire of admiring the Eiffel Tower. This post is dedicated to the Tower.
I love it on sunny days. The United Nations bears in the front are fun. Each country that is recognized by the U.N. has a bear. I posed in front of the Vietnam bear.
11 Sunday Nov 2012
In my effort to visit every arrondissement in Paris, I knew that we would go to the Père Lachaise Cemetery in the 20th Arrondissement. As far as I could tell, there isn’t much else out there, but the cemetery should be enough of a draw itself.
This was our second visit to Père Lachaise. Mr. Selfish and I had been in 2006, but we didn’t have a map so we just wandered aimlessly around. This time, we downloaded a map onto our phone and were able to find all of the famous graves. I would recommend downloading or purchasing a map of Père Lachaise. It is a very large and hilly cemetery with over 1 million bodies buried there (this number does not include the number there was cremated there). You will have a very difficult time finding any graves in particular if you don’t have a map.
Nevertheless, if wandering around aimlessly is your goal, this is the place to do it. There are so many places to admire and ponder, and it was particularly beautiful with the autumn leaves.
10 Saturday Nov 2012
Posted in Europe, Food & Drinks, France, Paris
Tags
6th Arrondissement, Église St.-Sulpice, France, Luxembourg Gardens, Luxembourg Palace, Paris, Zadkine Museum
Mr. Selfish and I enjoy wandering around the 6th Arrondissement, particularly the lovely Luxembourg Gardens. The park is in the garden of the Senate, which is actually located in the Luxembourg Palace. We found a day when it wasn’t raining and headed over to the gardens.
The Selfish Years 