Dreaming of Paris...

I was thinking about our trip to Paris in 2010 and wishing we could go again.  I happened to find this blog post on Gwyneth Paltrow's blog Goop where she talks about a trip to Paris that she took with her father.  The post includes places to eat and places to stay.  I'm not sure we could afford to stay at The Ritz but I can dream can't I? I would also love to stay at the Plaza.

I would love to return to London again someday as well.  I really enjoyed our time there.


http://goop.com/newsletter/23/?utm_source=Goop+Newsletter&utm_campaign=554390499f-Goop_Newsletter_182_06_14_2012&utm_medium=email

The Plaza Athenee

My photos

I want to give my husband the credit for all the beautiful pictures he took on our trip to Europe.  Most of the pictures you see here were taken by him. :)

Paris Museums

One of the best museums we visited in Paris was the Musee d'Orsay (Museum d'Orsay).  This museum is in a beautiful former train station in the heart of Paris along the Seine.  The museum itself is a work of art.  The museum houses the largest collection of Impressionist art in Europe, featuring artists such as Monet, Manet, Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh and Cezanne.  I love Impressionist art.  You will also see works from such artists as Gauguin, Seurat and Toulouse-Lautrec.  The famous painting Portrait of the Artist's Mother (Whistler's Mother) is also at the d'Orsay but I don't remember seeing it.

Another favorite museum in Paris is the Musee de l'Orangerie which houses Monet's Water Lilies on eight hugh curved panels in four rooms.  The water lilies are in the pond at Monet's famous garden in Giverney.

The Plaza

I wanted to see the Hotel Plaza Athenee while we were in Paris.  This was mostly because of the series finale of Sex and the City.  They filmed the final two episodes there and I love to see beautiful hotels. In An American Girl in Paris, Carrie Bradshaw went to Paris to live with her boyfriend Aleksandr Petrovsky played by Mikhail Baryshnikov.  It doesn't work out with them and Carrie reunites with Mr. Big (Chris Noth) who had gone to Paris to find her.

It took us awhile to find the Plaza but it truly was beautiful.  Here's the website -

http://www.plaza-athenee-paris.com/

Here I am in front of the hotel -

An American Girl in Paris

Eiffel Tower

It was great to see the Eiffel Tower in person after having seen it in countless movies and on TV.  It looked especially beautiful at night when it's lit up with a golden glow and sparkling strobe lights.  We could see it from our hotel room, which was the nicest feature of our otherwise small and ordinary room.  Not one of Rick Steves' best hotel recommendations except it was in a great and convenient neighborhood. 

Here is one of the few photos of the two of us taken by a passerby -

American Tourists in Paris

She didn't get all of the Tower in the shot but I still like the picture.  Here is another view of the Tower -

Jackson and the Eiffel Tower

Bon appetit!

My favorite dinner in Paris was at the restaurant called Mon Vieil Ami (my old friend) which we found by accident.  We had been shopping at a fancy bath store called Durance - http://www.durance.fr/.  It was time to eat so we asked the clerk if she knew of a good place for dinner nearby.  She told us about Mon Vieil Ami and after some searching we found it.  It is a beautiful restaurant and the food was tres magnifique! 

I had a delicious pork dish but unfortunately I didn't have the presence of mind to take a picture of our meals.  We started doing that later on during this trip.  The dessert I had was wonderful too.  We sat next to some friendly people on holiday from South Africa.  We talked about the upcoming World Cup. 

Here is the website for Mon Vieil Ami - http://www.mon-vieil-ami.com/uk. I highly recommend it!  To paraphrase Father Intintola from The Sopranos, "This meal is beyond reproach!  Word up!"

Rue Cler, Paris

We stayed in the Rue Cler neighborhood when we were in Paris. It was a great area and very convenient. Recently Jackson and I bought a large photographic print (at the Bellevue Art Fair) of a scene in Rue Cler. We are having it framed now but I got the description of the photograph from the photographer the other day. Josh Trefethen wrote wonderfully about each photograph. Here is his description of Rue Cler:

"Rue Cler, just southeast of the Eiffel Tower in downtown Paris, is a beautiful, pedestrian only street. The cobblestone street is eclectic, lined with neat little shops. As my wife and I were strolling down an older woman stopped next to us and parked her bicycle in front of the flower shop as she went inside to fulfill her errands. The bicycle provided the perfect subject to go with the colorful backdrop of the flower shop.


Located in the 7th arrondissement on the left bank of the Seine, the Rue Cler is just blocks away from the Eiffel Tower and Invilades and is a true Parisian market street. Traffic free since 1984, the shops that line this picturesque cobble stoned street overflow onto the sidewalk and street. There are flower shops and bakeries, as well as chocolate, wine, and cheese shops, along with restaurants, hotels, a bank and post office - everything you need to survive."
 
Here is the photograph called Rue Cler Fleur from Josh's website:
 
http://galleries.joshtrefethen.com/Travel/France/Cler-Fleurs-Paris/759632693_oUXXj-M-2.jpg

He has some great pictures on the site.  Here's another one I love:

http://galleries.joshtrefethen.com/Travel/France/DSC9902-New-Years-Eve-Paris/790693892_xFAoG-L.jpg