Paris!

It was finally time to head to Paris. The night before, I had visions of crusty bread, beautiful people and gorgeous buildings dancing in my head, and Paris did not disappoint. At 9am London time, we boarded a train at the St. Pancreas, and at 12pm Paris time, we arrived at Gare du Nord. Immediately, upon arrival, I realized that Matt had greatly over stated his ability to speak French, so I was glad that we decided to book one of those open air, double decker bus tours. We only had 8 hours to see Paris, so this was the perfect way to optimize our time. Because the food in England was so bland, and I was blown away by French food, I'm bringing you a more food-centric blog today. Imagine that! Food on a food blog.

The thick red line indicates where we rode the open air double decker, and the thick blue lines indicate where we walked. 

We rode the bus from the train station until we decided to get off and find lunch. We walked back towards the Louvre, stopping at a cute bistro (Rouge Saint-Honoré) on the way. They were having a special where, for 15.50 euros ($21.80), you could get an appetizer, entrée and dessert off a set menu. If you didn't like the choices they had, then you could order off the regular menu. 

While we sat and pondered the menu, we ordered a glass of wine. We ended up with Chateau Guillot's Bordeaux Supérieur, which was incredible. We both regretted not buying another bottle to take with us as we couldn't find it in the wine shops we popped in to.

We decided to stick with the set menu, and for my appetizer, I ordered the Terrine de Saumon, as Matt had already claimed the ravioli, and stated that we had to order different items. Basically the dish was salmon layered with spinach (I think) with a salad. It was actually pretty good, and didn't give me that itchy feeling that I get sometimes with fish. The dish seemed to fit perfectly with the beautiful spring weather we had.

Matt's appetizer was Ravioles Tomate Mozza, which was a yummy, cheesy ravioli. The sauce was rich, but not overly sweet, and I wanted to take a big bowl of the raviolis, along with a glass of wine, and curl up in front of a fireplace with a good book. I was glad that I didn't order them, as I would have devoured them and not had room for the rest of the meal, but instead I had my one ravioli and savored it before diving back in to my salad and salmon.

For my main, I ordered the Risotto aux Champignons, which was a mushroom risotto with (of course) mushrooms, pasta sauce, and a ridiculously placed tomato that reminded me of a clown's nose. I swore to myself that I would have a risotto while in Paris, and by god, I kept that promise. I was really glad that the sauce from Matt's ravioli showed up in my risotto as it really added a level of depth to the dish that it would have lacked without it. Also, it kept the dish from being too bland.

Matt ordered the Filet de Sole (don't worry, I warned him it was fish) because he hates mushrooms and every other option had mushrooms included. The sole was well cooked, but I hated the sauce that covered it. The sauce tasted almost tuna based, therefore it was overwhelmingly fishy, which I thought was bizarre. However, Matt didn't seem to mind it at all, as he ate the whole thing, and apparently the potatoes and green beans were tasty.

For dessert, we split the Mousse au Chocolat (Chocolate Mousse) and the Crumble aux Pommes (Apple Crumble). The chocolate mousse came with a light sprinkling of salt on the top, which really brought out the richness in the chocolate. However, while it would delicious, an entire bowl of it eventually became boring. Much to the horror of the other patrons, I added the raspberry sauce from the crumble to my mousse, which seemed to really add a lot of flavor and balance. The crumble was sweet, but rustic, and also really benefited from the raspberry sauce, though truthfully, it was delicious without it.

After lunch we walked to the Louvre, where we stood in awe of the beautiful structures. The main exhibit was closed, as it was a Tuesday, and we weren't interested in any of the special exhibits, so we spent a half hour just taking pictures and gawking. Here are a couple of pictures that I snapped with my phone while we were there:

After the Louvre, we hopped back on the bus (to complete the red path on the left side of the map) and saw Notre-Dame, Musée d’Orsay, Champs-Élysées Clemenceau, Arc de Triomphe, Tour Eiffel and much more. After completing a lap, we walked to Notre-Dame de Paris and eventually back to the train station. The Cathedral was absolutely breathtaking, and even though I was cathedral-ed out at this point, I was glad we went (a feeling repeated the following day at the Abbey). 

On the way back towards the train station, due to being threatened with train food as someone (coughMattcough) wasn't hungry, I popped into a pasta shop where I pretty much just pointed at a picture of pasta (trottole), a sauce (vodka) and a cheese (emmental) and they tossed it in a box for me. Not only convenient, but delicious. Though it didn't photograph well, it was a perfect (and perfectly quick) dinner to have before hopping on the train and heading back to London.

All in all, we easily walked 6 miles, saw many beautiful buildings, spent 8 hours, and had two wonderful meals in Paris. I plan on taking French next semester so we can travel around France exclusively next time. Until then, maybe we'll pick a Spanish speaking country so I can put my language classes to good use.

Here are a couple other pictures (from my phone, again) from the trip to Paris: