What A Way to Ring in 32!

In the grand scheme of things, 32 seems like a pretty insignificant birthday number.  Who would have thought that I would get to celebrate 32 in Paris?  I definitely did not, but then it just happened to coincide with when we moved to Switzerland...what a great treat!

BK and I headed out from our home of four days and took the TGV to Paris.  I would highly recommend this type of train if you're traveling around Europe.  It is essentially a bullet train that goes about 200 mph, and got us from Basel to Paris is just a little over three hours.  It was sleeting when we left Basel and Paris greeted us with gray skies and very cold temps and lots of wind.

Paris can be a little overwhelming, but mostly because you think you need to get out and do as much stuff as possible while you're there.  When you first arrive, unless you have done some serious studying beforehand, you may find the public transit system a little confusing.  Often they have all types of public transit (Metro, RER, T, bus, etc.) depicted on one map which can leave you feeling like you'll never figure out how to get anywhere.  We figured it out enough to get us where we needed to go- the M is the Metro and was built first as an inner city transit system; it makes many frequent stops, but will pretty much put you anywhere in the city.  The RER is the "suburban" train line; in addition to going outside of the innermost zones, it also crosses the city, but with fewer stops in between.

Little Palace Hotel

We stayed at the Little Palace Hotel, which was your typical European hotel- nothing too exciting, but it's also never my plan to spend lots of time here.  It was in a good location, with relatively easy access to anything you could need.

I'll tell you about the sites in a separate blog, but I have to rave about the food.  All the food we had in Paris was amazing.  BK asked me at one point, "What do you think makes French food so good?" My response: lots of butter, fresh herbs and full fat everything.

The food was ridiculous.  Nearly any bistro or brasserie you walk into will have a cozy feel to it and will offer traditional casual French food.  Croque monsieurs, tartines, mixed salads with seasonal veggies...you name it, it was good.  These places are on nearly every corner and probably feel cozy because each place tries to stuff as many tables as possible into one space- upcloseandpersonal with all who are around you.

We also had nice dinners each night we were there.  On Friday after we saw the Arc de Triomphe we happened upon a little place on the opposite side of Avenue des Champs Elysees called Chez Georges.  It was a white tablecloth restaurant, but we easily got in without reservations.  It was by far one of the best meals I've ever had.  We had escargot to start and a veal chop meant to split with new potatoes.  YUM! 

 

Beware if you ever go to Paris over Easter weekend.  You may find that many things usually open are closed for the holiday, which is what happened with the both restaurants we initially chose in Paris for dinner.  Saturday after finding that the restaurant we wanted was closed, we then found Les Deux Canards, a restaurant specializing in duck l'orange. Again we had escargot, plus mushrooms to start, then BK had duck l'orange and I had duck confit.  If you're not a fan of orange in your main course, I wouldn't recommend duck l'orange anywhere, but my duck confit was excellent.  We ended the night with creme brûlée, which they caramelize at the table with a branding iron of sorts.

 

If it sounds like the food was indulgent, it was.  Throw in some champagne, wine and desserts at every meal, and you're really over the top.  As they say, "When in Rome," well this time for us, it was, "When in Paris."  I have a feeling you'll be seeing that theme in our travels quite a bit now.