Day Trip to Paris

Paris is always an adventure, and no two days are ever the same.

My day trip to Paris on Jan 27th was no different, and in a word, amazing! The day started off perfect with the promise of sunshine for the day. Mary and I took the 11:37 train, it was a Friday and I had the day off while Mary had one morning class. I, inspired to be more French-like, bought a baguette and croissant amandes (croissant with almond paste inside, to DIE for!) for the journey. While heading towards Paris we came up with a list of things to see and do.

A building that reminded us of Barcelona.

Our first stop was Montparnasse to do a little shopping, and to see the roof-top garden over the Montparnasse train station. We went into a handful of stores, H&M being the main one we were trying to get to. Sadly I didn't have a great shopping day, but considering how much I had already spent (Soldes were still going on --a nation wide winter sale), I was perfectly happy with one purchase I made that day: a black beret that cost me under 7 Euros from UNITED COLORS OF BENETTON. Mary was finally able to get some new pants and also 2 tops. We spent a little more time shopping than planned (we girls are infamous for that after all...) but when we were done we went in search of the roof-top garden of Gare Montparnasse.
The way to get to the Jardin Atlantique is by an elevator that goes up a floor. The elevator had, however, a very misleading button which pointed down instead of up and it confused Mary and I for a while. Winter is not the best time to go see gardens, though there were some plants and flowers, most had died and been pulled out or trimmed away. But it was still really cool and we spent an hour there exploring it and imagining how much more awesome it would be in the spring or summer time.

This is a shot from when we arrived at the Eiffle Tower while it sparkled

We left hoping to catch the sunset while at the top of the Eiffel Tower, and while heading towards a metro stop we decided to get some Vin Chaud. It was by far the largest cup of vin chaud we had ever seen! It was quite yummy and we were quite rosey-cheeked and cheerful afterwards. As we got close to La Tour we knew we would miss seeing the sunset from the top, but were pleased to see it sparkling upon our arrival. It was the closet I had been to the Eiffel Tower while it sparkled. Once the sparkling was over we got in line with the rest of the tourists. Sadly, after at least half an hour in line we noticed a sign about the very top of the tower being under construction, therefore closed. We were quite déçu :(

A bakery that looked straight out of a fairy tale book.

So we decided that we should find a place to eat dinner at a peaceful pace in order to catch the last train back to Beauvais. My bladder was about to burst so after crossing part of les Champs de Mars, I hopped into a resto to use the washroom. When I came back out Mary had her map laid out, trying to see if we were close to (what we fondly call) Neily's Moroccain resto. Then something extraordinary happened...
I walked over to Mary and at the same moment an older french gentleman was walking by and glanced over at us. He noticed Mary, myself and the map. Being close to the Eiffel Tower made it all the more obvious we were not locals. He immediately asked if we were lost, we assured him we weren't and were simply looking for a place to eat. He began telling us how we shouldn't eat in that area because all the restaurants were unnecessarily expensive and that he could suggest some places to eat that were not too far. This man spoke to us entirely in French when he realized we could understand. He had a grocery bag with a baguette sticking out (a demi-baguette actually) and a hat, so french! He explained how to get to le Café du Marché then asked where we were from. He had traveled through Canada (''C'est un pays pour les jeunes'' he said) and when Mary said she was from NY he began speaking in English howhe had worked in New York for many years when he was younger. After recapping the directions towards the restaurant, we parted ways. It was a shame we never caught his name, because it was thanks to him that we discovered a wonderfully affordable and delicious little resto where we enjoyed a very lovely dinner indeed.
Sadly we did not have time for dessert as we had to get back to Gare du Nord to catch the train. The trip back home involved some reminicing of the day and both Mary and I agreed that we had experienced, yet another, magical day in Paris.

~ Cheers!