January in Paris

Though the blog has been hibernating in January I haven’t. I have been at work to complete my tasks at the Danish Delegation to the OECD while also doing some other things such as wandering around unfamiliar neighbourhoods in Paris, which on one day lead my to find no less than four really nice churches that I took great pictures of. I also got a little insight into the anger of the Palestinians when I was out for a walk and met the demo at the Boulevard Beaumarchais on the 17th. There was police officers everywhere. When I got back from my walk the entire Place Bastille was occupied by people demonstrating. I guess I was lucky that I could even get to my appartment!

I have also been to Shakespeare and Co to buy a couple of more books which are going to be difficult to bring home with me! I hope I have room for everything. One thing I am very proud of is that I have completely avoided the January sales. I haven’t bought a single thing. Ok, well the books in Shakespeare and Co but they weren’t on sale and besides the soul needs nourishment! On the 24th I went to the Louvre and visited the entire section on French paintings from the 17th to the 19th century. I found some paintings I liked, I mostly do, but apart from them this section wasn’t my favorite one, but I still appreciated visiting it because you can also learn a lot from what you don’t like.

My mom and dad’s visit to Paris

My mom and dad came to Paris on the 12th of December and I took two days off during the following week before flying back to Denmark with them on the 21st. So we had a fair amount of time to go sightseeing together which was great!

On Saturday 13th we took the train out to Versailles and managed to see a bit of the garden before the weather got really bad. I bought a nice print of a painting of Marie Antoinette and another print which depicts three nice dresses from that time. The experience in the restaurant was really bad though – they forgot to bring us our drinks and even though reminded (twice!) didn’t bring them until my dad had finished his meal. Very bad service. The visit to the castle was very nice however and much less crowded than in October when I visited with my boyfriend. Except for the entrance to Marie Antoinettes bedroom where it is always crowded and we had to wait in line to get to the room. It was a very cold day as most of the days my parents were here so on the way back to the train station we escaped into a couple of the souvenir shops and those souvenir shops are actually really great.

On Sunday we spent the morning at the Louvre which was a great experience. I have now found the format for the perfect tour: the famous highlights of the Louvre – Mona Lisa (cause you sort of have to), Venus de Milo (same thing!) and the Cheveaux Marly (which I absolutely love) – and then all my personal favorites within a three hour visit. My dad got to spend his 60th birthday among some of the greatest art of all time, which I think is very privileged. Before completing the visit entirely we went to the Café Richelieu to eat lunch and then proceeded to visit Napoleon’s appartment. This is actually a good strategy because you need a break sometime in order to appreciate everything and Napoleon’s appartment is in my opinion one of the highlights of a visit to the Louvre.

We walked through the Tuilleries and to the Place de la Concorde and then on to the Christmas market in the lower end of the Champs Elysees. This was far too crowded but it was my first French Christmas market ever so it was pretty interesting. We found great French macaroons which we enjoyed in the evening along with sorbet ice cream and a champagne birthday toast. Then it was shopping time and more precisely time to visit the Nike empire on the Champs. I loooove Nike. I am more or less raised to love sports gear and Nike is just my favorite brand ever. Though Adidas became more appealing to me than before when I lived in Berlin because they have so much more stuff to choose from than in Denmark. But Nike and I are forever friends.


On Monday I had the day off so we ventured to Galleries Lafayette to look at the Christmas decorations, especially the windows are great. They were decorated with an Alice in Wonderland theme. And I just love Alice in Wonderland. We bought a lot of nice Christmas decorations and went on to the Christmas market at the Esplanade de la Défense, which is the largest one in the city. I am amazed by the fact that there isn’t really much Christmas stuff at the markets. There was one big indoor area with Christmas decorations, where we bought some ornaments, but the rest of the market is mostly typical market stuff that doesn’t have anything to do with Christmas, and off course lots of food. There was one shop there with a really impressive display of dried fruit and then there were lots of home and décor stuff but not Christmas-themed.

Wednesday was Disney day and oh my had we selected a bad day. The weather was horrible to say the least. Very cold as well as rainy for the first couple of hours. However we had bought advance tickets so we had to go on that particular day. Buying advance ticket at a FNAC store is a great deal; you get the ticket for 29 euros instead of 50. But you have to buy the tickets three days in advance so you will not know if the weather is great or not.

Seeing the sleeping beauty castle was great. It was really lovely. We fled the rain and went sailing on a river boat in Frontierland. Then we went on to the phantom manor and the graveyards of some unlucky minors who were too greedy. Next stop was Pirates of the Carribean where we made a reservation to return for lunch at the Blue Lagoon an hour later. My mom insisted than she wanted to eat there and it prooved to be a really good choice. We were seated right next to water where the boats come sailing through the restaurant. At 16 we saw the parade in front of the Castle and then walked to Fantasyland where I got a photo of me and the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. I like that rabbit. Afterwards we went back to the castle to buy Disney Christmas decorations in the Castle (very hard to choose, because there is so much cute stuff!). Finally we walked back through Main Street and browsed through the shops there as well. Outside the park there was a small Christmas market which we visited as well and then a short trip to the huge Disney store in Disney Village. This was mainly toys though so didn’t buy anything. However when I went to the Disney store at the Champs Elysees later that week to look for a photoframe I found a Winnie the Pooh Christmas toy, where Pooh rides a sleigh, which rocks and plays music at the same time. I placed it on the floor in front of Pingo, my parents youngest dog, and it was soooo scared of it. That was really funny. Should have videotaped that. I might do that next year. I am sure she will still be scared of it. That dog is kind of weird!

Then on Saturday we went to Montmartre and walked the stairs up to Sacre Cour which we visited. I finally selected a rosary so now I have one. Due to my dad’s bad knee we didn’t climb the stairs to the dome, however it is really nice, but the stairs are very steep and narrow. We then walked through the streets to the left of the church and bought some really good drawings of Paris and proceeded to Place du Tertre where the cold weather had scared many of the artists and onlookers away.

Then we walked down the stairs to the maison du thé in Rue Tardieau for crêpes. After that we went shopping in Antoine et Lili. I had thought of a great blouse/top for my mom and it turned out I was right, it was absolutely perfect for her. Finally we walked past Amelies café and then quickly popped back to the Rue Dunkerque where my mom bought a ton of scarves!

On the 21st we flew back to Denmark – and despite some trouble we managed to land in Copenhagen only about 30 minutes late. I wont even go into that story, but let’s just say that it involved a bomb alarm and an evacuation of the airport! All in all however very nice to have my parents visit me here and I enjoyed having time with them to go sightseeing.

Yael Naim concert

Already before I left for Paris I had decided that I wanted to go to see one of Yael Naims concerts when she was to come in November and so I did on 15th. It was at Folies Bergere where Edith Piaf, among many others, used to perform. And I so regretted that I had not brought my camera. The hall of the theater is exceptionally beautiful. But on the positive side I now have a great excuse to go some other time. Yael Naim is an absolutely amazing artist. Very sweet voice, lovely poetic feel to the music and lyrics. And she has a presence on stage like no artist I have ever seen. She looks so genuinely happy that I’m convinced she is. She has fun entertaining the audience and dancing in crazy shoes and getting all of the audience up from their seats and singing along. It was definetely one of the best concerts I have ever been to. So charming and sweet. She has not left my ipod since the concert.

Weekend in Denmark

After our lovely holiday it was very nice to only be back at work for one week and then have a long weekend. It was a national holiday on the 11th of November so that was two days off! On Friday the 7th of November I went to the airport in the afternoon and got on a plane to Denmark. I didn’t arrive in Odense until half past ten in the evening, so I was very tired, but I arrived to a nice milkfree batter for pancakes prepared by my wonderful boyfriend and that’s always good for lifting your spirit!

On Saturday we picked up some photos from the photo store from our holiday because I wanted to get them back with me to Paris. We had ordered one enlargement and I think maybe 15 normal size photos and that’s what we paid for, however when we saw the photos on Sunday all of them were enlargements so we had made a great bargain! In the early afternoon we went to the Zoo to say hello to all the animals who have been missing me for these last couple of months, or at least I have been missing them!

Late in the afternoon we drove along with Jacobs parents to the birthday party venue (his moms 70th), which was really lovely. The food was alright – not usually so when I haven’t cooked myself. Eating has turned very complicated for me having discovered that I am lactose intolerant and can only ocassionally eat very small amounts of dairy products. This spring I ate 100 % vegan and now I have returned to eating a bit of egg and chicken. But I suspect it will only be a matter of time until I become 100 % vegan (for specific health reasons). The birthday party was lovely, however I’m just not that much into the formal-dinner-party-followed-by-dancing. On Sunday we had afternoon coffe at Jacobs parents’ place (her real birthday) and when his dad said that he hoped I had realised I wanted my future wedding celebration to be like that I thought to myself: there is no way I’m doing that. Ever! I want to go to Vegas! However, boyfriend is not buying into that plan!

On Monday I took the train to visit my parents and we had a late celebration of my moms 50th with a nice lunch and lots of gifts imported straight from Paris. Also nice to go for a walk in the forrest with the dogs. Tuesday I flew back to Paris and then had to go to work on Wednesday.

African Footprint

On the 5th of November I was going to the Casino de Paris to watch African Footprint. The metro wasn’t running as it should, so I was the one who ended up (almost) running in order to catch the show. And in heels I might add! The intro to the show was a bit boring, however once the real show began it became anything but boring. In contrast to the show at the Moulin Rouge some of these guys did not have that much clothing on and that really revealed their impressive muscles. Lovely! I really recommend that you and see this show if you get the chance somewhere. It’s awesome!

The Casino is a lovely venue for a show like this. I’ve actually been to the Casino once before and eaten a nice lunch in their restaurant and I think doing a before-show or after-show dinner there would be lovely. They have a very beautiful mosaic window in the restaurant which really adds something special to the room.

Tour Eiffel

On Sunday (2nd of November) we headed for the Catacombs once more and once more we gave up! The lines were exceptionally long and since there can only be 200 people inside at any given time and there were already 175 in there at that point, we estimated that it would take at least a couple of hours of waiting – something we did not desire at all.

We decided to go to the Eiffel tower instead and walked up to the second floor from where you have to take the elevator to the third, which of course we did. However, I like the second floor more than the third because the third always seems so crowded due to its small size. Of course it’s fascinating being so high up and all, but I like to have some space around me!

We ended up going home already in the middle of the afternoon because I wanted to get a little downtime to get some energy for going back to work the next day. We watched the last episodes of the first season of Dirt on dvd and cooked at home. So the last day of our wonderful holiday was spent very leisurely.

Sartre & Le Train Bleu

On Saturday (1st of November) we wanted to go and visit the Catacombs however they were closed (I had suspected this since it was a national holiday) but we decided to give it a shot anyway. It rained pretty much cats and dogs, however we decided to go to Cemetiere Montparnasse, which is very close. So we sort of got our sightseeing in the land of the dead anyway. How is that for weird? Well actually I don’t think that’s weird at all. At home we often cross the cemetery when we are out walking and in my mind I think it must be nice for the people buried there to hear actual living people speaking. I know it’s sort of stupid, but from an emotional point of view I find it comforting. From a realistic point of view I find it very comforting that when you’re dead you’re not the one who is sorry about it. You’re just gone and that’s it.

We found Sartres grave which was our goal, even though none of us are great fans of Sarte. To me he was one of these pretend-to-be-philosophers. Or maybe I’m just not smart enough to understand him. You decide what you think ;-) But I’ll prefer Descartes or Rousseau anytime when speaking of French philosophers.

We got take away food from a great eco bakery at the end of Rue Mouffetard and then headed over to the Museum of Natural History because we wanted to see the Musee d’Homme which has Descartes brain on display. However when we got there there was a huge line, since it was autumn holiday in France during that week, and a warning posted outside that there could be lines after the ticket office to get into the exhibition as well so we gave up on it and we’ll go another time. Actually we didn’t really do anymore during the day as it was raining so heavily, we just walked through the Jardin des Plantes and took the metro back and relaxed for a couple of hours before dressing up for dinner.

And dinner was just awesome. We had reservations for 8 o’clock at Le Train Bleu which is just the most beautiful restaurant I’ve ever dined in and the most expensive I think! But well worth it. Le Train Bleu is a historical monument. It opened in 1901 and was renamed Le Train Bleu in 1963 after the legendary train service that brought the Parisian upper class to the Riviera in summer. It has had guests such as Coco Chanel, Jean Cocteau, Dali, Brigitte Bardot and last but not least the lovely Jean Gabin (whom I just adore in La Grande Illusion from 1937). We ordered a great salad for entré, Jacob ordered the beef fillet and I ordered the grilled vegetables, both dishes were outstanding. For dessert I tried the rhum baba, which was very “rhummy” meaning that I think I would have gotten drunk had I eaten all of it (it was huge and they poored a lot of rum on it). Jacob got the profiteroles, which I think are a bit wrong when served with ice cream in them but apart from that I love profiteroles very much! All in all one more very lovely evening ending, with the short walk back in the crisp cold Parisian November night.