Ep III: Paris, The Bunny and Louis the XIV
March 4th, 2016
So we arrive in Paris and promptly get our bags stuck in the train ticket doors. Lucky for us it's the ticket entrances and not the train doors - that would not be fun. The trains have a laissez-faire attitude to door opening - the door pops open before the train stops moving.
Paris is not like I expected; and it's much better. A deli shop attendant on Rue Cler tells us it's holiday season and everyone is off skiing, and the bad weather (plus recent terror events) seems to have thinned the crowds at major attractions.
The place we're staying at is small yet very serviceable. Very central, walking distance to most things; and most importantly very warm. I'm not quite prepared for just how cold we're talking - this is way beyond Melbourne levels. We promptly both get some gloves. I carefully select mine so I look like James Bond about to shoot some mofo.
So we have an exciting few days filled with cheese and bread. Coffee is serviceable - its not the art that it is back home; but it's generally very consistent, especially when milk is involved. Jen is not one for the espresso bar type coffee, but I really enjoy it - Australia would do well to learn from this kind of shot-and-go culture - it is more social, cleaner and better for the environment.
We're up at late night cafes; eating way too much. Jennifer has some kind of major cutie powers - everyone likes her (little do they know she hogs the bed, despite being a little girl - with outstretched leg and immobile sleeping stance).
She's overjoyed to see little toy dogs every few blocks or so; all in little outfits due to the rain and cold. Jen is also a super well organised booking machine - she books us lunch at the Eiffel Tower restaurant "Jules Verne", a host of other restaurants, and works out exactly when we need to hit the Louvre, d'Orsay, when we need to climb the Arc De Triomphe in time for the late night Eiffel tower "pretty sparklies" (her words : D ) on the hour.
Poor thing has more willingness to engage in the idea of stuff than sometimes the physical fitness reality. She got super dizzy climbing up the Arc De Triomphe, but it was 5 minutes until 10pm when it shut down; so she powered through it and got up there despite tiredness, cold, elevation and way too many steps, she got her Eiffel tower 'sparklies'.
Jen is a darling and my best friend. Not many people can tolerate going into the Louvre and me actually spending time looking at all the paintings up and down that fricken Palace instead of just hanging out near the Mona Lisa for 10 minutes and going home. We gave it 6-7 solid hours, and still only did the Italian/French wing, a whole lot of Marie Antoinette bling-bling interiors, some greek and Italian sculptures and the Egyptian artefacts. To be a completionist would require three days - something for next time. : )
I gave her a mini art history class at the Musee d'Orsay, talking through my favourite impressionists (Monet, in case you were wondering - actually my favourite painter full stop) and Van Gogh. We take a walk on the riverbank after our lunch at the Eiffel - about 45 min walk to the Louvre. Check out this sexy snap, titled "the sun is in my eeeeeeyes!"
Here's a 'mini' mini buses that blew Jen's mind, along with some food porn:
I note that price is no indicator of quality in restaurants (a general rule, but perhaps even more true in Paris). Very fine restaurants have subtle use of salt and sugar, balancing these elements with grace; whereas terrible ones way over salt the soup and sugar up the cakes and patisserie. I guess it is doing a lot with just two profiles given that Western cuisine for the longest time didn't really make use of the signature south-east asian salt-and-sugar together combo; lacked real spicy chilli, curry and peppers as an angle and don't really understand umami.
Last but certainly not least. Today was a Versailles day. So much bling. If our tour guide was to be believed Louis the XIV, the sun king, is like a 16th century Kanye West. I’m pretty sure he’s famous for more things than just being smelly and building bling everywhere - as wikipedia will attest to.
