England Expat Adventures: Paris!

Ah, Paris... Both Chris and I had each been to Paris in college so this time around with kids was a little different.

Pros:

1. This time around we could actually afford to eat nice meals and actually partake in the wonderful cuisine (instead of consisting solely on street vendor crepes and buying a baguette for lunch and oogling but not buying the pastries). Such amazing food!

2. I was able to go shopping and actually purchase a few things (I bought this really fun dress the day I went shopping for a few hours while everyone else napped.) I will have to come up with an excuse to wear it. :) I loved the fashions there. Practically every female there was wearing a dress which made me want to wear dresses more often. Paris is full of beautiful people. Not sure if it is good genes or because they are dressed nicely, lifestyle or what they eat but statistically way more beautiful people percentage-wise than most places I'd say.

3. I didn't have to stay in a hostel this time around. The AirBNB loft we rented was an awesome location-just steps away from the Etienne Marcel metro station and a few blocks from the popular pedestrian street known for great restaurants, Rue Montorgueil.

4. I was in the city of love with the man (and kids) I love so it seemed more romantic than traveling with my gay friend in college. :)

Cons:

1. The journey by train and waiting in lines for all the attractions (like the Eiffel Tower) seems SO MUCH LONGER/More painful when traveling with kids that are complaining and hot and whining and can't stay seated (Hailey) and want nonstop snacks. :)

2. Meals out get cut short because of bedtimes, acting up and breakdowns. (Dinner there doesn't even start until 7pm (luckily there was a time change so it seemed like 6pm except Hailey was waking up an hour early for some reason). Yes, sometimes we were THAT American family in the restaurant. The kids were worn out after long days of walking, not as much sleep, etc. which didn't help. We made sure to eat in restaurants that had more space and offered a more secluded area so we weren't RIGHT next to the next table like in many of the restaurants. It's hard to flag the server down for the check!

Overall it was great trip and the pros outweighed the cons. Not complaining by any means, just explaining how it was different. We had a marvelous time! It felt so nice to be in Paris, it seemed more foreign and everything is so charming. Such cute shops, bakeries and restaurants and a relaxing laid-back cafe atmosphere.

The journey getting there involved a 2.5hr. train ride to London then a mad rush on the underground in London to make our way from the Waterloo train station to the St. Pancreas train station 45min. before our train departed (because of the protestors setting fires on the tracks earlier that week). We JUST made it, pretty much on the dot. And then the Chunnel train from London to Paris that took roughly 2hrs. Luckily there were no delays or cancellations or protests and everything went as planned. Chris and I were counting down the minutes until we arrived though. Hailey was a nightmare--not wanting to sit down the whole time. But, we made it! It took awhile to locate an ATM and a bathroom for Chris and Ethan (good old McD's) and then find our way to the metro. The loft we rented was up 6 flights of stairs and it was a humid 100 degrees out so we were a sweaty mess when we arrived. After putting our things down, our first order of business was to venture to Rue Montorgueil to check out the restaurants and grab some pastries. Ethan wasted no time in eating (ha, we were supposed to be sharing this one but he was shoveling it down):

Rue Montorgueil (like Ballard, hip area full of trendy cafes, shops and restaurants):

And then Chris and I got some mojitos and we sat and relaxed (Hailey was taking a late nap) and people-watched. Those mojitos tasted so good on that hot day. So nice to just sit and have some drinks before dinner at Au Rocher de Cancale. It was funny, my friend Teresa had recommended this place and the restaurants on that street (little did I know it was right by where we were staying!) so we ate there. I tried the beef tartare (when in Rome...) but it just seemed like raw hamburger meat with a raw egg on top to me. :) We also got the baked Camembert and it was phenomenal!

Love this Paris laid-back cafe lifestyle (and watching the love-birds etc.):

I read this article about how many holidays they get in France (more than most places, they have 4holiday days in May so it is nicknamed the Swiss Cheese month because of all of the holes in the calendar.) Most things close at 4:30pm and are closed completely on Sunday. They really value/protect their family time and free time which is pretty cool. Speaking of which, England is pretty good about it as well but I just spotted this article today mentioning about how that might change:

We saw this bike ride by on the street with this huge metal basket on the front containing his two little girls and their picnic basket. I wasn't quick enough to get a photo but it was really cute.

No, I did not try the Escargot but I thought this restaurant exterior and snail sign was cool:

Saturday we ventured to Marche Port Royal (pictured here) market for some great fruit:

Look at these cheese assortments on hand:

Hailey wanted to keep going back in this chocolate shop (can you blame her?):

And then we found our way to a market by the Tour Montparnasse building (this was the original one we were looking for but we ended up at the other one). We bought some pesto olives (best ever!), olives stuffed with almonds and huge (the biggest I've ever seen!) Greek and Italian olives:

Next we bought some Brie cheese and Foie Gras sausage sticks and croissants and pastries for a picnic lunch.

After we took the metro, we got sidetracked with these cool shops with plants and gifts and birdhouses and neat hanging hot air balloons:

Chris took the lead to find Notre Dame and somehow we ended up crossing the Seine River:

And thought this was Notre Dame from afar (it's some other building with gargoyles):

So we crossed back over:

Picnic lunch in front of Notre Dame:

Liquor infused one for mom and dad and berry one for everyone:

Sweaty but still smiling, outside Notre Dame (hot and humid in the high 90s):

Chris' artsy shot:

Intrigued by the statue of the guy (St. Denis) holding his own head:

I went shopping for 2 hours while Chris and the kids napped. It seemed like EVERY store was advertising a 50% off sale. I don't know if it was just mid-summer and a lot of stores have sales at that time of year? Sounds good to me! I

Got this cool white patterned burn out shirt, a fun fit and flare blue and coral chevron bandage style dress, and this wrap belt (I had to wait in line forever at this one store for the fitting room but it was kind of fun to watch people come out and look in the mirror and have the sales ladies style them. Some of the dresses seemed baggy but this wrap belt made everything look good and was super flattering, I was sold! The bright coral one was fun but I figured black would go with more.) One thing I noticed was that they only had a few of each size in each style on the floor so that they could offer more styles and have less clutter. So a lot of times they had more sizes in back. Nice presentation. I could have shopped for much longer. :) And I didn't realize all the shops would be closed on Sunday!

Excellent dinner outside street-side at Cafe Montorgueil:

(Ha, this was the night the kids were acting up and we were trying to get the check.) Man, such good food there.

Thank God we took this photo BEFORE we waited in line for hours with cranky kids (Chris and I were done with lines and waiting after that and we got takeout that night as a result):