Reset search
Europe 2016Europe 2016
SatelliteEdit route

Europe 2016

July 2016
A 16-day adventure by meredith Read more
  • 16footprints
  • 3countries
  • 16days
  • 94photos
  • 0videos
  • 580miles
Follow Calendar Share Bucket list
Date ascending
  • TravelerEurope 2016
    1
    Day 11

    Day 11: Paris, France

    July 17, 2016 in France ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    We woke up to a fabulous breakfast of anything you could want. We're definitely being spoiled especially after staying at some bad ones recently in DC. After a really awesome breakfast we got ready to tackle the Louvre. We walked over and couldn't believe that our pass actually walked us straight in with everyone waiting. There are 3 wings and a total of 8 miles of museum. It's huge. We started on the top floor where no one was with 17th century french paintings and then worked our way down the 3 floors. We saw most of the museum (of course, not in great detail) and after visiting the British Museum, it was nice not to be crowded because there's so much space in the Louvre. You can also tell the difference between a paying museum and a free one. My favorite was the Winged Victory sculpture-- stunning. We saw the Mona Lisa- she's only famous because she was stolen and lost for 2 years. It's a cool picture, but it's unfortunate everyone comes here to see her when there's so much else to see. After the museum, we had a picnic lunch in the Tuileries Garden and walked to the musee de l'orangerie which is impressionist and post-impressionist. I didn't much like the downstairs, but I did like Monet's Water Lillies. We walked back to the hotel to clean up and make our way to church on the northwest side of the city for their English service. It was really good to worship with Christians especially in a city like Paris. If you're ever in Paris, you should worship with them. They get lots of visitors and it's really encouraging to know that there are Christians, however few, everywhere in the world. We had dinner (I had the duck- it's the price of chicken back home) and then made our way back to the hotel and crashed.Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2016
    12
    Day 12

    Day 12: Paris, France

    July 18, 2016 in France ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Today we had a later start than we would have liked. It feels like we've been traveling for weeks and our bodies are tired and losing stamina. The sun didn't set in Scotland until 10:20 and it rose at 4:45 so we feel like zombies in the morning. Now that we're in Paris with AC, blackout curtains, and a comfortable bed, all we want to do is sleep, but we want to see everything, too. The good thing is that everything is closer in Paris than it was in London. Paris may be sprawling, but the main attractions and neighborhoods (or arrondissements) are incredibly close and the metro stops are very close together if you need to use them at all. Some other differences between the metro and tube is that the tube was used by everyone (businessmen, tourists, locals) where the metro seems to mainly be poorer to average locals and some tourists. Paris' boulevards are much wider (thanks to Napoleon) and therefore driving is possible where in London it was not. Today we walked to Ile de la Cite where Paris began in the 50s AD. It's a fairly small island in the middle of the Seine next to Ile de St. Louis. On the Cite there are several iconic places including St. Chapelle church (didn't tour), Conciergerie (where it was first a palace then a prison especially during the French Revolution where Marie Antoinette stayed) and of course Notre Dame. Notre Dame is the most visited monument in France (that's what the brochure said) and is stunning with it's 2 towers, rose windows, flying buttresses, and is the best example of gothic architecture standing. We took some pictures, but with the heat and long line, we decided we'd try early another morning. We walked across the bridge to the Latin Quarter (oldest quarter with iconic Haussmannian architecture) to Shakespeare and Company bookstore. This little independent bookstore is famous for the people who frequented it like Fitzgerald and Hemingway during the 20s. It was opened by an American and houses all English books. I bought a Madeline in Paris book and received their official stamp in the front cover. We then went to the Musee de Cluny. This is a medieval museum in a monastery most well-known for the Lady and the Unicorn tapestry ("I've come to see the tapestries" keeps running through my mind) which is shrouded in mystery since it's unlike anything else made at the time. Nice museum with few people. The building itself was really neat with it's gothic medieval architecture. We then walked to Jardin du Luxembourg and had a salad and cold tea and people watched. This is probably the most famous garden in France where people come to lay in the grass, eat, and let their poor cooped up city children run around. Kids also rent little sail boats to put in the murky fountain in front of the palace. We then walk to the Pantheon where King Louis XV built a secular building to the Saint Genevieve and where thousands are buried in the crypt below with lots of famous French people (like Rousseau, Voltaire, Hugo, Dumas, Braille, etc.). I found it amusing that the godless were buried here because they couldn't be buried in a church. After cooling off there, we headed back to the island, grabbed a chocolate crepe made fresh, jumped on the metro and headed back to the hotel to shower, cool off, and give our feet a rest. Some side remarks: I read in several places that everyone under the age of 35 knew English- that is so untrue. Except those at front desks, I'd say most do not know English here. They may know a few words, but they cannot carry on a conversation or understand anything specific. I'm totally blown away. I didn't learn French before we came here, so we've been going off Joel's high school French and it's saved us several times already ordering food, maneuvering the streets, and reading placards (which are all in French even in the museums). The children at church didn't know English (and their grandmother is American) and a teenager at church last night began in English and switched to French when he got too frustrated. Anyways... After our rest, we made our way down Champs-Elyses where they are getting ready for the tour de France next week. We decide to grab a cheap and healthy dinner at Pret-a-manger because last night's dinner was super annoying with our waiter not understanding Joel explaining allergies so he gave him more potatoes, not no potatoes. Sometimes our French is better than their English- and that's bad. We decide we're going to do 2 nice dinners with reservations and pre-explain the allergies and do pret the other nights. After dinner we walk to the Arc du Triumphe (walked under the street to get to it) and then used our fast pass to walk right by the line again. Joel thinks we're going to save ourself an entire day of waiting when this is all over. We walked the 200 or so steps to the top and we got an awesome view of the entire city as the sun sets. Everything is so close- you can see the modern downtown to the west, the eiffel tower to the south, the champs-elyses and the ferris wheel to the east and sacre-couer church NE. Totally worth it. We walk down and walk the other side of the boulevard until we want to take the metro the rest of the way to the Louvre to take some awesome night pictures. We're super tired and go back to the hotel to rest our weary little legs.Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2016
    1
    Day 13

    Day 13: Paris, France

    July 19, 2016 in France ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C

    We are hot, sweaty, and quickly losing steam today. The sun is brutal and water is hard to come by. We went to the Eiffel Tower first thing and was disappointed to see that most of the park was gated off (assuming this is due to the state of emergency since November) and you need to buy tickets to go up in it which we were never planning on doing. We walk around the perimeter and decide to walk over to Trocadero for a higher vantage point and to get away from the crowds and vendors. It's hot so we take a quick picture and go down to the metro to get to Les Invalides which is a military museum and where Napolean Boneparte built himself a crypt worthy of what he thought he was- a god. The statues of him are taller and fitter than he really was and I find many of his potrayals of himself amusing and show a bit of short man syndrome. We head out across the street to Musee Rodin which is a beautiful house with his sculptures. Most know of just his Thinking Man or The Kiss. Thinking Man was under restoration unfortunately, but the gardens were quite pretty and peaceful, if not too hot. We walked over to Musee d'Orsay which houses mainly impressionist paintings and some sculpture. I like Monet and I'm especially excited to finally see Edgar Degas Blue Dancers and purchase the postcard which has been my ritual in most of the museums. I can tell Joel's tired and over it so I sugest coffee at starbucks (where they speak great English, have AC, familiar drinks, and toilettes- which are hard to come by, too). We decide to go back to the hotel (after being distracted by a few shops) and cool off, shower, and rest. We stay in longer than we intended, but we don't want to be in a dripping sweat again before dinner. We make our way to a restaurant called Sebillion which is close to the business section of Paris on the fringe. This was a recommendation from my father-in-law when he came here 25 years ago on business frequently! They've been here since 1914. Our reservations are for 8pm (normal dinner is 9pm for the French) because we need more help with the menu and don't want to order during their rush. They are friendly, helpful, and have an English menu. Our waiter speaks English and appreciates Joel's attempt to speak some French which sounds good to me. We order their leg of lamb served tableside and it's absolutely divine. The bread, the tuna en croute, the lamb, the buttery mashed potatoes, the bread, the rum pastry, the espresso, and the meringe all very very good (although too much rum for my liking). We are the only Americans in the restaurant and that's always a good sign. The restaurant reminds me of Ratatouille with the booths, the tableside service, the swinging kitchen doors, and waiters with heavy French accents and tuxes is all what you picture France to be. Here, you can forget about the begging refugees, the pickpockets, the vendors, the smelly metro, the smokers, and the snobs, if just for a little while, and pretend that Paris is still a romantic and lovely place to be. I think about the movie Midnight in Paris where I wonder if Paris would have been better in the 50s or if each era wants to believe that the previous one was the golden age. I reminisce on this and then pay the l'addicion. We talk to the owner through a waiter translating and Joel tells him that his father was here 25 years ago and loved it and now we are here. He smiles warmly and gives us 2 postcards of the restaurant pictured in 1914. We get on the metro and return to our hotel to try our best to get a good night's sleep.Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2016
    1
    111
    Day 14

    Day 14: Paris, France

    July 20, 2016 in France ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    We got up early(ish), jumped on the metro, and went back to Notre Dame on the Ile de la Cite while the city was still cool and quiet. We were able to walk right in (without showing our pass) because they had an 8 o'clock mass. We looked around the beautiful church which was started in the 1200s and took a couple hundred years to finish! It's the best example of gothic architecture in the world and the stained glass throughout is stunning. This is my favorite church we've seen on this trip. We return to our hotel for breakfast (the best breakfast we could have hoped for in Paris - buttery croissants, sausage, freshly squeezed juice, crepe pancakes, fluffy eggs, apple tart...). We sip our coffee and decide we've had our fill of museums and definitely got our money's worth. We've gone back and forth about visiting Versailles and after I think about it, I'd rather meander the streets shopping and eating than fight the sun and crowds at Versailles. I saw an enormous garden based on Versailles in northern Scotland 4 years ago and had it to myself and am quite happy with that. We decide to go up to Sacre-Couer Basilica on the highest point in Paris north of the city and walk up about 200 or 300 stairs to get to it. It's an interesting church with domes and it looked Turkish to me - like a cross between a mosque and a church. I looked up the architecture and it's considered Romano-Byzantine- aha. We walk down the main steps which was a mistake. The vendors thus far have been relatively harmless, but this time they were in a line so you had to go through them. I don't mind them trying to sell something, but if you touch me, I will hurt you. One of them grabs my arm and I twist out of it and slap his hand hard. He jumps back and says some colorful language. Pickpocketing is an enormous problem here in Paris and a tactic they use is distract you while the other person grabs your wallet. Of course, you don't need to slap them, just hold on to your wallet, but sometimes they need to be gently reminded that it's not ok to grab. My blood boils and I decide I deserve a macaron. We go into Le Petit Musee Du Chocolat and I pick coconut, blackberry, and rose flavors and feel better soon thereafter. We decide to metro down to Boulevard Haussman for some shopping which is similar to London's Oxford street. We peruse a few stores, smell Chanel perfumes you can't smell in the states, and purchase some delicious Mariage Freres Tea. We run into the Palais Garnier (their opera house) and peruse the beautiful gift shop and get a little glimpse into the famed foyer where Phantom of the Opera was inspired (there was an actual lake underneath the building which also inspired the book). We continue back to Champs-Elyses to revisit a couple shops that were closed before, but didn't find anything. We metro back to our area and I pick out a box of macarons from Laduree. No trip to Paris is complete without macarons from this store- after all they invented them. It's beautiful, delicious, and very overpriced. At least I now have a reference point to taste other macarons and decide if it's worth it and it is ;-) We return to our hotel for our usual rest and shower before going back out. Joel wants to find the official Tour de France store so we walk that way bobbing into shops as we go. I see a kitchen store that looks interesting and we go in. It's french cookware meant to be sold to commercial kitchens and I want to buy it all- the copper cookware, the chef knives, the ramekins. I end up with a rolling pin I've been wanting for $6. We have a fun conversation with the employees with the English they know and say bon soir. We find the Tour de France store and they don't have what Joel's looking for, but it takes 3 employees and a couple of customers trying to help us and a brit translating. We're all laughing, especially the brit... it was really comical. Biking brings people together. Something Joel and I noticed during this week was that everyone is quite nice and polite... after you get off the beaten path. The main attractions and stores don't always give you the best impression because they're working with tourists and in service day in and day out, but the random shops further away have all been very pleasant. We grabbed a cheap dinner and went back to our hotel to enjoy a quiet night in.Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2016
    1
    Day 15

    Day 15: Paris, France

    July 21, 2016 in France ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Today is a random wandering day. It's our last full day in europe and I feel like I've gotten the hang of things. Growing up not using public transportation is the main hurdle to get over for me when I'm traveling. Overall, I enjoyed riding the tube and the metro is simply a means to an end. It's a maze and extremely smelly and dirty. In London you'd smell BO sometimes, but in Paris it's a societal hazard. Unfortunately I've picked up a cold- doesn't help that we've experienced extreme weather change from Edinburgh to Paris. I'd highly recommend coming in the fall or early spring to have better weather, less people, and less bo :) Even so, it's still been a great trip and I'd consider it a success, especially with us planning it so quickly. Even with the terrorist activity in Nice, you wouldn't know anything happened walking around Paris except the increase in militarized police around public landmarks 2 days after we got here. People live their lives as usual. Today we asked the hotel employees about the famous flea market on the northside of the city (les puces). It's a weekend thing, but I was hoping some of it was open during the week. They said it might be so we decided to try. We took a metro all the way to the outer rim of Paris and find our way there. Mistake. It was a ghost town and extremely dirty and poor. Not a good area to be, especially the route the website told us to go. The flea market would be fantastic, but lesson learned- go on the weekend and go to the porte de clignancourt metro stop, not the one on the website. We get back on the metro and go to the marais neighborhood. It has lots of shopping and independent stores that wind through the streets. We start with the Le BHV which is the Parisian department store and we're the only Americans- love. I purchase a gold eiffel tower without any words on it which has proven difficult. We start popping into shops here and there and I'm astounded with how many stores and bistros there are and with so few tourists. When tourists come we're under the impression that they come for 2-3 days (because our hotel staff is surprised and think it's great we're staying for a whole week). If you come for a short time, you're more likely to visit the few big spots- eiffel tower, louvre, notre dame, champs-elyses, and sacre-couer- and if that's you're only taste of Paris, you'll have a very limited and perhaps bad impression of Paris. I can definitely understand how one could either love or hate this city. We've enjoyed our trip and although I don't see Paris with rose-colored glasses, it's a great city. And that's something you have to keep in mind... it's a city and city's have the best and the worst sorts of people. In strolling a single street, I can begin with hating it, then love it, then feeling relatively indifferent towards it. But I digress.

    Despite walking by so many stores, I've only purchased a little gold eiffel and a 3 scoop lemon, strawberry, mango sorbet. When I'm almost ready to return to our hotel, I spot a perfumerie and try a musk and fall in love. Finally, something to bring home for me that isn't edible. We take the metro back to shower and rest before our night out.

    I had the best dinner of my life tonight. I'd heard about a restaurant through a French cook blogger named Mimi Thorisson called L'Ami Jean (my friend john). It was her favorite restaurant and so I trusted her with my last night in Europe and I'm so glad I did. This experience made the trip. It's a small, unassuming space that isn't at all pretentious or white cloth. They immediately call us the Walker Texas Rangers when we walk in and one of the staff is embarrassed. I think it's cute. It's so small that they have to slide the table out to let you in and you can see and hear the chef (Stephano) cooking and preparing your food with the sous, saute, and pastry chefs. It's loud and lovely with the chef yelling things and clapping his hands when food is ready to go saying ala, ala, ala (let's go!). Our waiter speaks perfect English and we come early (730) once again so he can accomodate Joel's allergies. We get the prix-fix menu (7 courses!) and tuck in.

    1. Cold lobster soup with deliciousness at the bottom (I pop a lactase pill)
    2. Risotto with toasted buckwheat
    3. Quail breast with mushroom cappuccino (favorite)
    4. Rare salmon
    5. Pork and cod
    6. Veal cheek and sweetbreads (trust the chef)
    7. Sheep cheese with black cherry jam (I pop another lactase pill)
    8. Rice pudding with vanilla glace and salted caramel mousse and toastes nuts and a lemon sorbet with candied cumquats and chocolate pudding (wow)

    Seriously, if you love food, eat here and you will have the best dinner of your life. If you don't love food, eat here anyways, and you will by the 2nd course. We enjoyed the interaction, watching the small staff literally run back and forth from the tables and watching the chef kiss babies and give them wooden spoon keepsakes. I could go on.

    We walk a block to the eiffel tower and it's glittering it's lights. I'm happy. We do a night boat cruise an hour long (included in our Paris pass), the weather is cool, the buildings are beautifully lit, and Paris out playing on the banks of the Seine. There are picnics, tangos, marengue, and salsas going on the whole way down and back. We metro back and despite sniffling and sneezing, we've ended our trip with a bang.    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2016
    Day 16

    Day 16: Paris to DC

    July 22, 2016 in France ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    We slept in a little, enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, and looking back that was mistake. We thought we would have plenty of time to make a 12:30 flight when we left before 9 but only just. I really wanted to fly out of Orly (it's a smaller and better airport), but the better flight was Charles de Gaulle. You have to take 2 metros, 1 train, and a tram for an hour and 15 minutes before you even get to the terminal. Then you have to check in, then go to border patrol (this was an absolute nightmare) 2 people checking everyone and we were barely moving for 20 minutes, 30 minutes... Our flight was already boarding and we hadn't even made it to security. We wait, everyone's tempers are flaring and people are missing flights right and left. Yelling occurs, police don't care of course, and we're down to the line. A large group of us are going to DC so we do the very thing I hate doing and skip the line (everyone else is, after all this is France). We barely get through and run to security up the stairs, security wants all of my liquids in an actual baggie (who does that anymore?) and they have to search my bag of course. Anyways, we make our flight and the plane takes off 30 minutes late thank goodness (also, if we hadn't skipped the line and been "those guys," we would still be in France). Oh and security had to check my purse and Joel's backpack at the terminal, but didn't want to search my duffle or his carry on- huh? Apparrently only bad things come in small packages. So very French of them. The French do certain things very well; they cook good food, they build beautiful buildings and gardens, and they sometimes make great art and music, but when it comes to efficiency and security, they fail miserably. They seriously need some left brain in that country.

    Anyways......

    For those of you who plan on visiting Paris someday, these are the things that I'd recommend:

    1. Notre Dame early in the morning and walk around the ile de la cite
    2. Louvre (and visit again at night for strolling and pictures)
    3. Night boat cruise from the eiffel tower
    4. L'Ami Jean restaurant (it's expensive, but worth it)
    5. Macarons from everywhere
    6. The flea market on the weekend (so wish we could have done this)
    7. Musee du Cluny
    8. Musee du l'orangerie (just monet's lillies)
    9. Concergerie (if you have time)
    10. Walk to the top of the Arc du Triumphe in the evening
    11. Shopping in the Marais district

    Joel and I set out to fully visit these 3 cities. I don't feel a need to return to them right now, so I think we accomplished what we set out to do. After all, there are many more countries to visit in the world. Also, for the record, this trip cost less than you might think. We didn't penny pinch and it still came in under budget and comparable to our Maine trip a few years back. Traveling overseas these days is within reach for nearly every budget (use an airline travel reward credit card and airbnb and cook your own meals). It's totally doable. The only thing that got in our way was time off so we made time between jobs. Oh crud, jobs. Reality is going to hit me like a ton of bricks in the next couple of days. We've lived longer in Edinburgh, London, and Paris than we have in Roanoke. We were there for 48 hours before we left. One thing I know for sure, I'll appreciate the clean air and ample space more than I would have otherwise.

    Hope my blog has been entertaining and perhaps useful for any future travels you have in mind. Also, I apologize for all of the spelling errors. This app doesn't auto-correct and I write this before going to sleep so I'm not really caring at the time. Now, for the next adventure...

    Peace out cub scout    Read more

  • 2024© FindPenguins
  • Home
  • About us
  • Blog
  • Group Tracking
  • Press
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy & Cookies
  • Support
  • Legal notice
  • English