Valentine's Day in Paris!

Katie recently had a week off school - they call it "semana blanca" or white week because many families go skiing during that week. It's kind of like spring break, except that she also has another week+ off in April for "semana santa" or holy week. We decided to check some things off our list of must-see places in Europe! It was fun to take a whole week of vacation since we hadn't done that since June last year. First up was Paris! Yes, we've already been to Paris, but we had several things we still wanted to see there - besides the fact that we are just hoping to cram in as many days there as possible. :-)

Well, what a day it was :-). As a friend of mine pointed out: This is something many people dream of doing sometime in their life - and we had the amazing opportunity to do this! And it really was an amazing day, maybe not so much that it was Valentine's Day but more that it was Paris :-). Though here is the requisite romantic Valentine's Day pic of us on top of the Eiffel Tower :-)

We got to stay in the same hotel that Jason & I had stayed in 10 years ago this spring when we 1st visited Paris. It was very fun and it brought back many memories of things we had done then just by being in the same place & area of town. Best of all was that the patisserie we visited every morning 10 years ago is still there and is still wonderful! Actually, let me correct that - a close tie for best of all was that in the intervening 10 years, the hotel has realized how important it is for a hotel catering to tourists to employ English speaking receptionists :-). (When we stayed in this hotel the 1st time, every time we called on the phone an English speaker could be found. When we got there in person, not so much. Most memorable was when the receptionist was trying to tell us to leave the key at the front desk when we left the hotel - a concept completely foreign to us. She kept saying the same thing over and over again in French, each time with a different inflection and a little bit louder. This did not improve our ability to understand French :-), so eventually she had to act out what she was trying to say.)

So after enjoying a nice quiche from our pastry shop, we headed out to see the Eiffel Tower. Jason's dad, Rich, was with us still for this trip and he had never been to Paris. So we were very hopeful that the weather would be nice enough to go up in the Tower and see the view. Originally when we checked the 10 day forecast for the days we would be in Paris, they were predicting 30 degree temps and SNOW! What a pleasant surprise to find a beautiful sunny day in Paris! (yes, it was still quite cold, but at least it was pretty - and they had not seen the sun in weeks!) So we stood in line and went up to enjoy the view of this beautiful city. Rich went all the way up to the 3rd level and said the views were outstanding. We enjoyed the view from the 2nd level. This last pic is the location that we now have for a pic of Jason & I 10 yrs ago, the 3 of us last May, and now with Rich too!




Afterwards, we had the pleasure of meeting a new friend. Deb is a friend of a friend from Flower Mound who moved to Paris last summer. She & I have corresponded a bit by e-mail and on Facebook, but had never met. She lives very close to the Eiffel Tower so she came over to say hello. It was really a delight to meet her and put a face to her name. She was very kind and totally came to serve us and see if she could help in any way to make our day better. She even brought me a gift (!) and took us to a good place to eat lunch. Thank you, Deb, for brightening our day!



The street Deb took us to is called rue Clare, and it was a real highlight. My French friend, Helene, has been teaching me about French cheese and one of my desires for our trip to Paris was to find a real fromagerie to buy some real French cheese. (my understanding is that they don't pasteurize their dairy, which makes their cheese oh so yummy. Sadly I also heard that the US no longer imports some French cheese for this reason.) Well, the restaurant that Deb brought us to was right next to the fromagerie Helene had told me about!! I was just a bit excited :-). I had this amazing salad w/ exotic greens (i.e. I don't know what kind they are since it wasn't iceburg or romaine :-)), French cheese & French ham. Very simple but extremely yummy! The whole street just seemed very French to me (vs being touristy) - beautiful flower shops, shops w/ homemade jam, a wonderful patisserie. I think I could have stayed there all day! And yes, I bought a big hunk of French cheese (comte') to bring home that I'm still enjoying!

After dragging me away from rue Clare, we headed off to see Sacre Couer. Here it is as seen from the top of the Eiffel Tower. (with Rich's super duper zoom :-) ) This beautiful church is a bit away from the central part of Paris, so we had never made it up there to see it. It is really worth the trouble to get up there! The church was beautiful and the view was amazing. Katie enjoyed a ride on the carousel (of course :-) ) - it was a double decker one!


Sacre Couer is in an area of Paris known as Montmartre which we've heard is usually full of artists. (probably due to the view, at left) Guess it was too cold - there were no artists when we were there. Street performers, but not artists. We also hiked over to see Moulin Rouge. It barely deserves a mention, but there it is. Apparently they have shows there too, but not the sort of family shows that we would care to see. But we can now say we've seen it :-)




To cap off an amazing day (can you tell I had a bit of trouble finding new & different adjectives for this post?), Rich offered to babysit Katie so Jason & I could go out for dinner by ourselves - in Paris!! On Valentine's Day!!! With each thing that I've told you about that we did this day, I have been tempted to describe it as my favorite part of the day - but then I realize that the next part of the day was equally wonderful and it's really hard to pick. But a date with my hubby (something we get too infrequently here in Europe!) in our favorite city in the world.... wow. And the food was great too (yes, complete with more French cheese - the most amazing roquefort I've ever tasted!) Sadly, I neglected to get a pic of the 2 of us on our date, so here is Notre Dame that we saw while we were out :-)

Just to state the obvious :-): Paris continues to be our very favorite city in the world. There is just something magical about it! We definitely hope to get back there for another weekend soon! We are so glad that it is close & cheap to travel there from Madrid :-)