Monday, May 25, 2015

And another long weekend . . .

Which I spent most of sleeping and recovering from my food and drink indulgences over the week. I did venture out today to do a little shopping. The stores are decked out for the season and Mother's Day which is the 30th here.

Les Grands Magazins - Printemps
I still need quite a few things for the kitchen (can't wait for my shipment!) but one can't spend all their time shopping for kitchenware so I also came home with two pairs of shoes (shocked - is no one!). I think these look great in my apartment - they really go with the decor.


For the Fashionistas at work!

The tour des "illuminations"

So we wanted to see the city of lights, well, with lights. Alas, spring is not the time for such things. It only starts to get dark here around 10pm these days so no building or street lights go on until that point. Needless to say the tour was a bit of a bust! 

Though my visitors did get the chance to take a boat ride down the Seine which is always a first timer must do. Guess they'll just have to come back in the winter to see the lights!

Here are some of the sites from the water:

Pont Aexandre


Louvre

Louvre

Parisians doing what Parisians do on a nice day!

Notre Dame

Ile Saint Louis
Conciergerie 

Musee D'Orsay



My first visitors!

Last week I finally went out for dinner multiple times - this is very exciting for me because restaurants are kind of my thing . . .

While my family was only here for a short while, we took advantage of the time and headed out every evening. The two restaurants I'm going to feature are ones I recommended. 

First of we have A.Noste. This place was introduced to me by a friend when we were here for work in December. I liked it so much I had to go back. It's tapas style (though they do have a fixed menu as well) but filled with French offerings. There is an entire section of the menu dedicated to duck - enough said! They don't take reservations so be prepared to wait but it's well worth it and there is a bar section you can occupy your time with.

The visitors (minus one)

Scallop ceviche - probably the best dish on the menu

Polenta, duck and deep fried - how can you go wrong!

Fish in a fish

And of course some dessert - it is Paris after all!
The second one is sort of a Paris institution. Boeuf sur le toit opened in the early 1920s and was a hangout for artists, writers, musicians, designers and couturiers. You used to be able to find people like Coco Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent (which was in his autobiography I read!) dining at this establishment. It's tradition for myself and a friend from Switzerland (some times the odd Australian and Canadian as well) during a long week of meetings to come here for champagne, seafood and some Pouilly Fuisse. As such, I thought it was worth sharing with others.

You can see why we have the seafood!

It was Friday after all . . .
We also took some time to toast my new place with the good stuff! 


And enjoy some tasty macarons. I was introduced to the salted caramel which is now my fav!


Of course they did touristy things during the day . . .or so they said :)

Sunday, May 17, 2015

The long awaited apartment!

This is the post many of you have been waiting for - I finally moved into my apartment on Friday! It is so nice to be able to unpack after three weeks! I spent the entire weekend cleaning, shopping and rearranging all the furniture. 

The place is great but like all Parisian apartments, it has its share of quirks. The guy I am renting from lives in Geneva so his mom is my primary contact, she is a typical french bourgeois and a little bit of a scatter brain. She was here when I did the walk through and I think it set us back about an hour! I'm also assuming she is the reason there are so many pieces of furniture in here - I think she likes to shop . . .

After spending three weeks at a five floor walk up, it is nice to be on the second floor. The building has an elevator but it only goes to the half floor, because that makes sense. And there is no stop between the second and third floor for some reason so I always have to go up stairs when I'm carrying heavy things!



By French standards the apartment is huge so lots of room for guests :) Every room is separate with a door which most North Americans wouldn't like but I don't mind it.


Entry Way

The living room is divided into two spaces which is awesome when you only have one bedroom and live in Paris, a place that everyone wants to visit! For those of you that know me, you will laugh at the size of the TV - I think it's the same size as my computer screen at work! On that note, telecom here is amazing - I get TV, home phone with unlimited calls to 100 countries and the internet which is fiber with no data caps all for 40 euro (see DPBers, we do suck!) - RIDICULOUS!




View from the other half of the living room


The "guest room" (with a brand new sofa bed) gets the sun in the afternoon which is great because it's also where my balcony chairs are. The art is left to be desired but until I find something better, sumo wrestlers it is.

Loving the fake flowers - super low maintenance!




Next is my room. Apparently Paris was not built for the vertically challenged. I have to keep random wooden chairs around just to reach my clothes! Paris was also not built for people who like clothes because I am already running out of hanging space and my shipment has arrived yet . . .And Ikea is truly the same around the world, I had the same lamp at one point and it too always looked like it was tipping over.



The kitchen is by far the smallest room but for me, it's the same as home! It's supposed to be "fully equipped' but I'm guessing that's a relative term given there are about 100 plates and sets of utensils but no bowls, for example. Glad I shipped some of my things but will still need to do some shopping!



And last but not least, the main bathroom. Which I may change the name to the "laundry room" since one load of laundry takes about 5 hours! I think I may be doing laundry daily just to make it through all my clothes! I also haven't quite figured out the whole washer/dryer in one concept yet. There have been some hiccups needless to say.



As mentioned in my very first post, I picked "character and cheap" so these next pics are the elements that I think are some of the nicest parts of the place.


Ceiling in the guest room

Bedroom lock

Toilet sign


So that's the place!

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Lazy Sunday

I decided to take a break from all the sightseeing and spend a lazy day in Paris. I also got a request for some food posts so trying to keep the people happy!

My day started late with brunch at La Carette with a view of Trocadero. Opened in 1927, La Carette is a bit of an institution in Paris known for its prettiness. I sat outside today so sorry, no pictures of the inside this time. Allegedly this was a favourite hang out of Yves Saint Laurent. . .though I read his autobiography and didn't see it there.


This place is known for their Oeufs Brouillés so I went for the full brunch which includes the eggs, your choice of a pastry, toast, coffee and freshly squeezed orange or grapefruit juice. The brunch is 30 euro but for this place, it is well worth it. But not something you do every week! 



After brunch it was off to the Luxembourg gardens to enjoy one of the first really nice days we've had in 2 weeks. I was not the only one who had this idea however!


And that was about the size of it . . .

Hopefully by the time I move into my apartment on Friday I will have my camera back up in running #leftchargerinCanada

A Paris icon owned by an icon

Saturday I opted for a different kind of museum - Art Nouveau at Maxim's. It's at 3 rue Royale in between Place de la Concorde and Place de la Madeleine (which will make up a future post as it's one of my fav places!)

Maxim's is one of the oldest restaurants in Paris - it first opened in 1893 as a bistro. Its popularity grew during la Belle Époque thanks to a courtesan, Irma de Montigny, who drew in all the right people. In 1898 under new ownership, it was decorated in the Art Nouveau style and has remain unchanged. The exterior was completed in 1900 for the World Expo held in Paris that year and Maxim's became the city's most fashionable restaurant. The restaurant is still open today but is a lot less busy than it once was.




The upper rooms are open for private parties and functions and are classic French, particularly the mirrors to elongate the space. These are some of the ones I saw:





Beyond these spaces lies the Art Nouveau museum. In 1981 Pierre Cardin bought Maxim's and at 93 he still owns it and has dinner there weekly. He also created the museum which is a collection of pieces he has purchased over the years - not necessarily because they had value but because he thought they were beautiful. It is an impressive collection.


Tiffany lamp with chair by Gaudi

Designed for at the 1900 World Expo

Original Toulouse Lautrec
The tour lasts about an hour but it does come at a steep 20 euro price tag - I guess they have to compensate for the lack of customers! Though there were only two of us on the day I went so it was like a private tour!