Oh how I missed the @premierleague
Days ten and eleven of our #honeymoon.
We started off Friday with another trip to the Louvre. We looked at the medieval foundations to begin. A small exhibition in the museum, but I still learned a lot. I never knew the Louvre started off as a castle to defend Paris. Before becoming a palace for the royals.
Then a stroll around some more sculptures. Including two my parents have bronze busts of sat proudly in their front room.
A trip on the batobus that was too sunny for me and we popped into the Musée d’Orsay again. We shared an excellent salad in the cafe before going to the Impressionist art gallery on the top floor we couldn’t make last time. Some wonderful Monet paintings in there.
Back to the hotel for a rest and another trip to Mian Fam for dinner. Simply great tasting food 🤤.
Saturday was our last proper day in France. We went out to Rouen for a little day trip. A lovely old town in Normandy. If it reminded me of anywhere, it was Chester. An old town with newly developed suburbs.
After Rouen we stayed in the hotel for dinner. I went out on one last walk, this time effectively five stops down the metro line, looking for some ham and cheese to make sandwiches with.
Today was just a flying day and we’re now back in England.
Day nine of our #honeymoon.
Day eight was Disneyland, I’ll write that up later, it was a very busy day. We didn’t get back to the hotel till 1am!
That left us quite tired for Thursday, so we had a big lie in. We got breakfast from the local patisserie again and ate it in the hotel room. We had croissants followed by a chocolate eclair for myself, chouquettes for Sophie.
For the afternoon we headed out to the Champs Elysées. The only shop we actually shopped in was Levi’s, and we didn’t even get jeans 😮
We tried to go to a ramen bar a friend recommended to us, but it had closed for nearly all of August. Is that a French thing or a Paris thing?
So we went to an Oriental deli called Tafa on the same road. It was very tasty, we got several plates of nibbles.
We then went back to the hotel for a rest, and ate dinner in. I headed out to the kiosk round the corner and got us some crepes for dessert.
Days six and seven of our #honeymoon.
Monday was another busy day. I started the day off with another walk in the surrounding area. When both of us were up and ready we headed to the Notre-Dame, this time we’d booked the towers.
Climbing all 387 steps was definitely worth it. The panoramic view was spectacular. The two bells in the tower we saw (Emmanuel and Marie) looked awesome. I wouldn’t like to be in the tower when they rang.
We had lunch at a cafe opposite the Notre-Dame, a simple but tasty French lunch.
Then we went to see Napoleon’s tomb. I know he’s famous, but it’s as though they think of him as a god. It’s a seriously impressive tomb - it is MASSIVE.
Within the army complex there are a number of exhibitions and next door is a war museum. We went to the exhibition about the two world wars, it’s fascinating seeing history from another countries perspective.
We then went to the Arc de Triomphe, or as I found out it’s also called, the Arc de l’Etoile. Another amazing view of Paris. Such a gorgeous city. Another 284 steps up to the top. So that’s the equivalent of 11 flights of stairs so far, but who’s counting.
Finally a McDonalds dinner and back to the hotel.
Tuesday was a bit of a fail day.
We had a big lie in as the last two days had caught up with us.
We took the Mètro out to the edge of Paris, then a bus out to Versailles. Having spent over an hour in the queue and getting less than halfway we decided to bail.
Once back in Paris we thought about to doing the Catacombs. The queue for that scared us away - it encompassed the whole block and into a nearby park - with many who looked as though they’d not moved in a while. We walked back to the hotel and had a little rest watching Jimmy Fallon in the air conditioned comfort.
We spent some time in the hotel, and went out to a local Asian place for dinner, Mian Fan, magnifique. To start we had some hand made pork dumplings, chicken and prawn dumplings, gyoza and crispy prawns. Followed by some noodle dishes that were super tasty. A short walk back to the hotel and we were ready for bed!
But it isn’t all bad. I’m posting this from Disneyland!
I post without comment
It’s Disneyland day! 😆😆😆
Get psyched
Sophie Barnes
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sophieryder
Day five of our #honeymoon.
Sunday was definitely a day of walking.
Our plan for Sunday and Monday is to get through all the things we wanted to do that were on the Paris Museum Paris before it runs out.
We first set out on the Mètro to north east Paris and went to the Philarmonie de Paris. A quaint little music museum. Unfortunately it wasn’t all open, but we still had a nice wander round two floors of exhibits of instruments and artifices from the 16-18th centuries. The audio guides were great, allowing you to listen to each instrument or instrumental style as we went through the museum.
Outside the museum was an unusual community project where volunteers were building giant buildings or structures out of cardboard boxes. We saw a ship, a rocket, a globe...and a big pile of squashed cardboard that was clearly a failed attempt!
We then walked through a region called La Villette. It was a wonderfully calm region with lots of families enjoying the park and it’s amenities. The other end of the park was the science museum and “la Gèode” - a spherical cinema building devoted to VR exhibits and IMAX documentaries.
After realising we’d missed the next IMAX doc by about four minutes, we wandered across the bridge to the science museum (the museum is surrounded by a moat). We had lunch at the Burger King, then spent some time in the science museum in the mathematics and sound exhibits. These were very interactive and contained a lot of puzzles.
We then got the Mètro back into central Paris and headed to the Jewish Museum. Fascinating, one takeaway I had is how Jewish culture has kept its essence through the centuries but still been influenced by host cultures. The museum was in a very unsuspecting road, though set back through a courtyard. On the way out we saw a sign to an exhibit...there are no words. It was a room of clashingly bright colours and children’s toys that had been deformed or modified (giant teddy bear with four bodies and one head?). On that note, we left.
We crossed the road to what looked like a cute little ice cream shop - total rip-off! Overpriced and mediocre, with pixie-sized portions.
A short stroll through the hot streets and we were at the Centre-Pompidou. Thankful of our museum passes that let us in the shorter line and gave us a queue-jump to the galleries. Sophie preferred the Modern Art level (1905–1965), I loved the contemporary art level. So that’s 1965–present day. The sheer size and diversity of the artworks was just insane!
After weighing up the pros and cons of eating out (again) and jumping the Mètro back to near our hotel, we decided to walk to a little supermarket and get some bits for a cheapy picnic dinner in the hotel.
Day four of our #honeymoon.
The main thing we did on Saturday was the Louvre. We’re planning on going again later next week, it’s that big!
We spent the morning in the European paintings wing. Of course we went past the Mona Lisa. For such a famous painting it’s quite small, especially compared to some of the other paintings we saw. I swear one was as big as my bedroom wall.
We then got lunch at the Louvre’s restaurant. In a word, don’t. Just get a baguette from the mezzanine kiosk. The restaurant food was mediocre at best; cold, bland and extremely overpriced.
We headed back into the Louvre, this time heading into the Greco-Roman wing. We loved the marble statues, including the lovely Venus di Milo. I took lots of photos.
We finished off in the Egyptian section. Some of that stuff is seriously old! Sophie continued taking photos of ‘little weirdos’ she found. Unusual carvings of maybe gremlins or little old women or a set of blue people...
We then went on a little stroll through what appeared to be the antique shop and gallery area of Paris. When unable to find a cafe (I know) we got an Uber back to the hotel.
After a rest we attempted to get a bus to dinner. It terminated just before the river though, so we got another Uber to the final destination, Cafe des Abattoirs.
Oh my god, for a “set menu” that appeared very simple, it was delish! We started with a cold sweetcorn velouté with basque pepper and a black bread and heirloom tomato salad with mozzarella, I also had an amuse-bouche of green apple, raw mackerel and aubergine purée (I ate Sophie’s too - her and apples aren’t friends). These were the “appètisers du jour” - decided by the chef. Then we got a steak to share, and this was a beast of a steak. A prime rib cooked on the bone in a charcoal Josper (indoor barbecue grill) basted in butter and finished with fleur-de-sel. Served with triple-cooked fries and a selection of homemade condiments. Ace. Pudding for me was a flourless chocolate torte - Sophie had a creamy chocolate pot with a little banana muffin.
After we’d eaten our weight in steak we waddled for the bus back to the stop by the hotel. We sat in a cafe in the warm Parisian evening having a drink and planning out the rest of the week. Then a quick mooch in the petit Marché (seriously, that place NEVER closes) for breakfast groceries to stock up our little hotel fridge and then it was most definitely bedtime!
