Paris is our relaxing leg of the trip since we covered most of the major touristic landmarks during our visit last year. We slept without any alarm and woke up around 9:30 am. We had in-room coffee and relaxed in the room till about noon and then decided to head out for some food when we couldn't bear the hunger anymore.
We walked through Place Vendome towards Angelina which is a famous bakery/cafe. We had their brunch and one lunch entree. It was a typical Parisian brunch comprising omelette with hash brown potato, fresh orange juice, croissant and a couple of pastries. We also had a codfish entree which was delicious. We finished off with 4 mini macaroons - coffee, lemon, chocolate and raspberry. Laduree definitely has fresher and more tasteful macaroons. We also tried the signature Angelina pastry which wasn't too appealing to our tastes and we were fairly full by this time as well so we only had a couple of bites.
Then we walked back to our hotel and freshened up before heading out again to Galleries Lafayette, a shopping mall with mostly high end shopping stores but the main highlight being the fancy and ornate dome in the center of the building. We window shopped and checked different stores. On one of the floors, we spotted Pierre Herme, the main competitor of Laduree when it comes to Parisian macaroons. We had to try them, if only to find out which ones are better so we got 4 mini macaroons - rose, mint, chocolate/passion fruit and banana yogurt. They didn't have classic flavors like coffee and chocolate but their macaroons are a touch better than even Laduree's macaroons! The rose and mint were the best flavors and the quality of macaroons was excellent. Then we window shopped some more before heading back to our hotel.
We relaxed at the hotel and I fell asleep so we ended up missing the walking tour of the Montmartre district of Paris that we had decided to do. Samia found a smart workaround and found online step by step instructions for a walking tour. We took the subway to Montmartre and from there on, Samia was my walking tour guide. I followed her while she followed the instructions she had found online. We walked through the winding, hilly and narrow cobblestone streets of Montmartre and saw all the major highlights. We saw a vineyard, various squares with lots of trees and a few statues but the two major attractions of the district are Sacre Coeur and Moulin Rouge. Sacre Coeur is an imposing white church with huge domes and looks somewhat like the Taj Mahal. Since its on top of a hill, you can also see a panoramic view of the city of Paris. We went inside and were surprised to see that the church is even bigger than it looks from the outside. It's central dome is extremely high and the giant murals of Jesus, the twelve disciples, God, the Holy Spirit and other biblical scenes on the dome hosting the main altar are very impressive. Then we walked through a lively market square and some more winding streets and green squares to arrive at the second major attraction of Montmartre, the Moulin Rouge. It used to be a cabaret club in the red light district. Tourists always get a picture outside Moulin Rouge because of its iconic windmill and the global fame received by the club because of a famous movie being made about it with the same name as the club.
Then we took the subway to Flottes restaurant which was close to Jardin des Tuileries. For appetizer, Samia had the French onion soup and I had shrimp tempura. For our main entree, I had the beef steak and Samia ordered the cheeseburger. The food was good but not as good as yesterday's dinner. We had gotten a nice table adjacent to the patio though so it was better in terms of experiencing the typical dinner at a French restaurant - tiny tables with barely enough space for plates anf hardly any room to walk between them and lots of people talking to background music while taking pauses to eat. We were almost at the end of our entree course when all of a sudden a hailstorm started which turned into a rainstorm. People who were seated right at the patio had to be moved inside. We didn't need to move since we were a couple of feet inside, under the roof. We weren't planning on having any dessert but we had to wait for the rain to stop so we decided to share one scoop of coffee ice cream. We had ordered coffee with walnut but the server accidentally brought coffee with pine nuts (what we call chalgoozas in Urdu). It was interesting and I didn't mind it but Samia didn't like it too much. By the time we were done, the rain had lessened but since our hotel was still a good ten minutes walk away, we took a taxi to our hotel and then went to bed after a very laid back and relaxing day. Till the next update, take care and goodbye!
A correction to day 13 - the column that we saw on the side of Jardin des Tuileries is actually Place de la Concorde, not Place Vendome. The square Place de la Concorde has a pillar-like Egyptian obelisk from Luxor that is 3300 years old but is much smaller than the towering memorial pillar of Napoleon in Place Vendome. Extremely high end shopping stores selling diamonds, luxury bags and watches are located in Place Vendome and it is also home to the Ritz Hotel Paris.
We walked through Place Vendome towards Angelina which is a famous bakery/cafe. We had their brunch and one lunch entree. It was a typical Parisian brunch comprising omelette with hash brown potato, fresh orange juice, croissant and a couple of pastries. We also had a codfish entree which was delicious. We finished off with 4 mini macaroons - coffee, lemon, chocolate and raspberry. Laduree definitely has fresher and more tasteful macaroons. We also tried the signature Angelina pastry which wasn't too appealing to our tastes and we were fairly full by this time as well so we only had a couple of bites.
Then we walked back to our hotel and freshened up before heading out again to Galleries Lafayette, a shopping mall with mostly high end shopping stores but the main highlight being the fancy and ornate dome in the center of the building. We window shopped and checked different stores. On one of the floors, we spotted Pierre Herme, the main competitor of Laduree when it comes to Parisian macaroons. We had to try them, if only to find out which ones are better so we got 4 mini macaroons - rose, mint, chocolate/passion fruit and banana yogurt. They didn't have classic flavors like coffee and chocolate but their macaroons are a touch better than even Laduree's macaroons! The rose and mint were the best flavors and the quality of macaroons was excellent. Then we window shopped some more before heading back to our hotel.
We relaxed at the hotel and I fell asleep so we ended up missing the walking tour of the Montmartre district of Paris that we had decided to do. Samia found a smart workaround and found online step by step instructions for a walking tour. We took the subway to Montmartre and from there on, Samia was my walking tour guide. I followed her while she followed the instructions she had found online. We walked through the winding, hilly and narrow cobblestone streets of Montmartre and saw all the major highlights. We saw a vineyard, various squares with lots of trees and a few statues but the two major attractions of the district are Sacre Coeur and Moulin Rouge. Sacre Coeur is an imposing white church with huge domes and looks somewhat like the Taj Mahal. Since its on top of a hill, you can also see a panoramic view of the city of Paris. We went inside and were surprised to see that the church is even bigger than it looks from the outside. It's central dome is extremely high and the giant murals of Jesus, the twelve disciples, God, the Holy Spirit and other biblical scenes on the dome hosting the main altar are very impressive. Then we walked through a lively market square and some more winding streets and green squares to arrive at the second major attraction of Montmartre, the Moulin Rouge. It used to be a cabaret club in the red light district. Tourists always get a picture outside Moulin Rouge because of its iconic windmill and the global fame received by the club because of a famous movie being made about it with the same name as the club.
Then we took the subway to Flottes restaurant which was close to Jardin des Tuileries. For appetizer, Samia had the French onion soup and I had shrimp tempura. For our main entree, I had the beef steak and Samia ordered the cheeseburger. The food was good but not as good as yesterday's dinner. We had gotten a nice table adjacent to the patio though so it was better in terms of experiencing the typical dinner at a French restaurant - tiny tables with barely enough space for plates anf hardly any room to walk between them and lots of people talking to background music while taking pauses to eat. We were almost at the end of our entree course when all of a sudden a hailstorm started which turned into a rainstorm. People who were seated right at the patio had to be moved inside. We didn't need to move since we were a couple of feet inside, under the roof. We weren't planning on having any dessert but we had to wait for the rain to stop so we decided to share one scoop of coffee ice cream. We had ordered coffee with walnut but the server accidentally brought coffee with pine nuts (what we call chalgoozas in Urdu). It was interesting and I didn't mind it but Samia didn't like it too much. By the time we were done, the rain had lessened but since our hotel was still a good ten minutes walk away, we took a taxi to our hotel and then went to bed after a very laid back and relaxing day. Till the next update, take care and goodbye!
A correction to day 13 - the column that we saw on the side of Jardin des Tuileries is actually Place de la Concorde, not Place Vendome. The square Place de la Concorde has a pillar-like Egyptian obelisk from Luxor that is 3300 years old but is much smaller than the towering memorial pillar of Napoleon in Place Vendome. Extremely high end shopping stores selling diamonds, luxury bags and watches are located in Place Vendome and it is also home to the Ritz Hotel Paris.
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