We arrived in London after a 3 hour flight from Belgrade. Of course, our flight was delayed, so all the things I had planned for the afternoon of our arrival didn't happen. By the time we checked into our hotel, The Copethorne Tara, it was almost 7pm.
We ended up having dinner at a local pub called the Prince of Wales. I had the sausages and mash that I've been dreaming of, and my hubby had his ale and a meat pie.After dinner, we just walked around the neighborhood a little. Everything was closed. Not much to see at night. Ended up back at the hotel and resting up for our early morning. 6am wake up call - we were going by EuroStar train to Paris!!!
I love the fact that you can just hop on a train and in under 3 hours, you're in Paris. It was pretty comfortable. I thought most of the time we could be under the English Channel, but that part only took about 20 minutes. The rest of the time, we were traveling by the countryside.
We arrived in Paris around noon (London is ahead by 1 hr), and after an easy trip from the Metro, we found our hotel in no time and we prepared for our first outing in the City of Lights. We stayed at the Renaissance Paris Vendom Hotel on the Rue du Thabor. It's a beautiful hotel - newly renovated. It's also right in the heart of the city and a very short walk to the Louvre, and about a 15 minute walk to the Champs-Elysees. The Metro is half a block away. The perfect location.
We walked around the area a bit and then headed towards the Champs-Elysees. Along the way, we stopped for crepes from one of the street vendors. I had a delicious chocolate banana crepe. Yummy! The Champs-Elysees was packed!!! For a Tuesday afternoon, I was surprised that there were so many people! We walked the entire way to the Arc de Triomphe - what a sight. The structure truly is magnificent - moreso than I thought it would be. I couldn't believe the details of the scupltures. With the French flag waving in the wind under the arch - it was quite a regal image.
We walked all over the area, hitting some side streets, and we found a cute little bakery. Our first taste of pastries at its best. I forgot what my husband had, but I had a wonderful square of pizza - on a croissant. DELICIOUS! As we walked out, it started to pour. And then buckets of rain came down. We huddled with strangers under the small awning of the bakery. One big crash of thunder and it was over. It was surreal. By then it was almost 5pm already, so we made the slow walk back to the hotel.
For those who like to shop, don't forget a visit to the Avenue Montainge. Sex and the City fans will recognize the Hotel Athenee that Carrie stayed at in the series finale of the show. The area is very chic and beautifully designed - and it has most of the major designer stores. The Dior store that Carrie took a spill in, it's on this street. There's also another Louis Vuitton store, must less crowded than the 10,000 sq ft one on the Champs-Elysees. Yes, I may have indulged and purchased a little something 'pour moi'.
For dinner, we ended up at a neighborhood restaurant called The Rotunde. Don't bother. Enough said about that.
Our second day in Paris - we ventured out around 10am and found the most perfect bakery in the world. In French, we managed to get our orders in, and within a few minutes, we were eating the most delicious Quiche Lorraine and chocolate croissants you could dream of (we would end up coming back to this bakery three times in the 6 days we were in Paris). We walked to the local travel bureau and bought two Paris Museum Passes. This is a must if you plan to visit a lot of the more popular sights in Paris. The pass covers the admission fees, plus, you get into the shorter 'group' ticket lines. No need to wait in the hour long queue.
Today, we covered the Louvre. Looking at the map, it doesn't seem that big. But when you actually start walking around, you realized how small the scale is on the map. The Louvre is HUGE!!! So, making an executive decision right there - we would cover two floors of paintings that day. We would come back for the other two floors of sculptures. With the pressure off, we headed to the Denon wing, home of the Mona Lisa first. On the way, you must pass another well known piece of history - the Winged Victory. There is was in all its glory - sitting at the top of a grand staircase. WOW.
I'm not going to go into everything we saw that day, but it was amazing. We did see the Mona Lisa, the Venus De Milo, and so many other pieces of art that I studied in school. It's such a elating moment when something you only saw on a slide is now really in front of you. The real thing! And things you thought were huge, are really rather small. And things you thought were small, could be on canvas that takes up an entire wall. We were lucky that there was a Jean Ingres exhibition there too - he is one of my favorite painters. I wasn't able to take any pictures (you're really not supposed to take any in the entire museum). There were so many guards in that small exhibit area that I couldn't even sneak any shots. Oh well.
So, here are some random shots I did get. I took several shots of the ceiling of the Louvre. The details are incredible. Did you know the museum was originally built as a palace? I don't know how you can 'live' in something this immense.
We ended up walking over 7 hours that day in the Louvre. Our feet were pounding. I don't know how we made it back to the hotel - it was only about a 10 minutes walk from the museum, but still... We rested until around 9p and then wandered around the neighborhood in search for some dinner. We came across an Italian restaurant called Fuxia on the Place du Marche St. Honore. We ordered two pasta dishes, and let me tell you - it was the best we've ever tasted. Unbelievable. The sauce! Oh, the wonderful sauce. It's the kind that makes you take the bread afterwards and just mop up every little smudge off your plate as to not waste any of it. The waiter was also extremely nice. He actually took the time to explain the specials to us, because it was all in French. The place was packed, which is what first drew us to this place. Go where all the locals go.
That's all for now. I'm hungry just thinking about that meal again. More later...
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