K arrived around noon on the 31st of January and we went straight for the skies due to the perfectly sunny weather. That is the Eiffel Tower. But first we had to do a photo session in the Champ des Mars of course and the photos turned out lovely. K is a great photographer and one of my missions for the weekend was to be inspired by her! The hike up to the second floor was amazing as always and even more amazing: there was practically no line for the tickets. At the first floor there was actually still Christmas decorations made out of ice which prooved to be good as props in our photos. K actually made me eat a Christmas tree. Or almost eat it. It looks as if I am about to eat it in the picture. What one doesn’t do to get pictures!
One thing that is a bit odd about Paris is that they bring out the Christmas decorations quite late. Some shops don’t even decorate until 10 or more days into December. However once it’s there it stays there! It is not completely uncommon to still come across Christmas decorations now in February. I am totally against decorating in October but I find it worse to have to look at it after Christmas. And well into the new year!
We rode the elevator up to the third floor because you sort of should once you’re there, but we agreed that the second is much nicer. I find the view is better on the second floor and the space is a lot less cramped.
After the Eiffel tower we walked along the Quai Branly and the Quai D’Orsay to Place de la Concorde and on to Champs Elysees where we picked out a nice pink café for our break. I got the “Soy Delight” which was indeed delicious, bananas, strawberries, honey and of course soy milk. Yum indeed. Nice that someone thinks of the people who cannot tolerate dairy products!
After a bit of shopping/browsing we wanted to go and eat at the Comptoir de l’Arc in Avenue Marceau (right next to the Embassy and hence very nostalgic). I had just been there with the other interns before going to a very strange experimental concert at the Maison du Danemark at the Champs Elysees on Thursday night. Food at the Comptoir was great, Penne with tomato and basil, simple but oh so well made. The concert – which was more of a poetry recital in four languages – was mainly interesting as an intellectual concept not really that entertaining. But I was still happy that I was there and experienced it. Btw. the name of the performing group was Polyfonias.
Back to Saturday night: The Comptoir was sooo closed. How can a restaurant be closed on Saturday night? K was smart – she instantly scanned the area and saw a place 200 meters away in sidestreet and said: that looks nice. And she was right! In fact they had only one table left and it was sort of a crappy table but then they just did some magic and produced a table out of nowhere by moving some of their dessert display. Really nice! The name of the restaurant is Le Marfil, and it is located in rue Auguste Vacquerie. K chose a vegetarian omelet which had fries on the side. Why does everything in France have fries on the side? Even in the OECD headquarters I have seen people get lasagna with fries on the side. How odd is that? I know they’re called french fries, but isn’t that sort of just a name?
I had a Norwegian salad – everything in France which is called Norwegian has salmon in it – so I sort of compromised on the veggie thing. Again. This is something that happens to me all the time here in France. It is soooo difficult to be a vegetarian in France and even more so being a vegan so I have sort of put the 100 % on standby till I go home. For dessert K had the cheesecake and I had lemon sorbet with vodka which is one of my old faves. There was live music in the restaurant and it was all together really nice.
One thing that is a bit odd about Paris is that they bring out the Christmas decorations quite late. Some shops don’t even decorate until 10 or more days into December. However once it’s there it stays there! It is not completely uncommon to still come across Christmas decorations now in February. I am totally against decorating in October but I find it worse to have to look at it after Christmas. And well into the new year!
We rode the elevator up to the third floor because you sort of should once you’re there, but we agreed that the second is much nicer. I find the view is better on the second floor and the space is a lot less cramped.
After the Eiffel tower we walked along the Quai Branly and the Quai D’Orsay to Place de la Concorde and on to Champs Elysees where we picked out a nice pink café for our break. I got the “Soy Delight” which was indeed delicious, bananas, strawberries, honey and of course soy milk. Yum indeed. Nice that someone thinks of the people who cannot tolerate dairy products!
After a bit of shopping/browsing we wanted to go and eat at the Comptoir de l’Arc in Avenue Marceau (right next to the Embassy and hence very nostalgic). I had just been there with the other interns before going to a very strange experimental concert at the Maison du Danemark at the Champs Elysees on Thursday night. Food at the Comptoir was great, Penne with tomato and basil, simple but oh so well made. The concert – which was more of a poetry recital in four languages – was mainly interesting as an intellectual concept not really that entertaining. But I was still happy that I was there and experienced it. Btw. the name of the performing group was Polyfonias.
Back to Saturday night: The Comptoir was sooo closed. How can a restaurant be closed on Saturday night? K was smart – she instantly scanned the area and saw a place 200 meters away in sidestreet and said: that looks nice. And she was right! In fact they had only one table left and it was sort of a crappy table but then they just did some magic and produced a table out of nowhere by moving some of their dessert display. Really nice! The name of the restaurant is Le Marfil, and it is located in rue Auguste Vacquerie. K chose a vegetarian omelet which had fries on the side. Why does everything in France have fries on the side? Even in the OECD headquarters I have seen people get lasagna with fries on the side. How odd is that? I know they’re called french fries, but isn’t that sort of just a name?
I had a Norwegian salad – everything in France which is called Norwegian has salmon in it – so I sort of compromised on the veggie thing. Again. This is something that happens to me all the time here in France. It is soooo difficult to be a vegetarian in France and even more so being a vegan so I have sort of put the 100 % on standby till I go home. For dessert K had the cheesecake and I had lemon sorbet with vodka which is one of my old faves. There was live music in the restaurant and it was all together really nice.
