Day 32 - Paris By Day, Paris By Night

It was a rainy Monday morning in Paris, but with only a few days in town and so much to see and do - shops, monuments, museums, parks, churches, and much more - there was no time for weather to be a deterrent.  Paris has a stellar metro system, but exploring the city on foot is the true way to do it.  Fortunately, by the time I left the hotel the rain had let up a bit, so walking wasn't going to result in me getting soaked.

Having walked around the city just about all day on Sunday I have a few intial opinions on Paris that I'd like to share.  First of all, it's an absolutely beautiful city.  Clean, elegant, fast, but chill, historic and modern, and a ton of character.  It has tight narrow streets, but it also has its open and spacious plazas, gardens and parks.  It's very active and lively, but not overly crowded and congested.  It has a strong tourist presence, but also heavy on the local scene.  Basically, it's the right balance across the board. 

Also, despite the reputation of French people being rude and unkind to visitors, I haven't found that to be the case at all.   Quite the opposite in fact.  At each of the places I've eaten at the staff and locals have been friendly and kind and actually gone out of their way to assist with the menu as needed.  Granted, I've learned some simple French and make my best effort to converse with them using the little I know.   Plus, the places I've been have a younger, more connected and more understanding staff and clientel.  

And finally, Paris is a lot more international than I thought.  I knew visitors came from all over the world, but I've really been impressed by the amount of internationsals that come here to live, work and raise families.  It's similar to New York in that respect.  I've met an Aussie, Brit and American - all around my age - who all live and work here in Paris.  Other than London, I really haven't seen that in any of the other cities I've visited.  It's fantastic.

I had built up a few free nights via Hotels.com so I was able to splurge a bit on my Paris hotel. It's not Four Seasons or anything, but nicer than most of the places I've stayed.

On my walk I stopped off for a couple chocolate-filled crossiants and a cappuccino.

First stop was the Notre Dame de Paris, or "Our Lady of Paris" in French. The famous Gothic church is located on the "islands" in the middle of Paris' Seine River.

A view from a bridge across the river gives a good perspective on the Gothic design and architecture.

Notre Dame is considered to be one of the first structures to use flying buttresses. The support beams weren't originally part of the design, but as the walls of the church got higher they needed exterior support and they added the buttresses.

The church was constructed between 1163 to 1334 and was considered complete in 1345.

 

The front of Notre Dame continues to be a high point of Gothic design with its balanced towers, rose window and three entry doors.

Almost as impressive as the flying buttreses and interior archs were Notre Dame's giant rose windows and stained glass. It was a perfect day to enjoy the effects of the stained glass because the cloud cover would allow the sunshine to come and go so the church would get really bright and then really dark in a matter of seconds.

The city of Paris has the Seine River running through the middle of it and a river means bridges.  There are 37 bridges around Paris, each of them unique and with their own history and design. 

The Pont Neuf, which despite its name, is the oldest bridge in Paris. You can also see the serene river walk path. You can walk just about the whole way around the islands on this path.

Relaxing on the Pont Neuf bridge. By early afternoon the clouds had cleared and it was a beautiful day.

 

As a sign of committed and definite love, couples secure a lock to the chain-link gate rail of the Pont des Arts bridge and then toss the key into the river. As you can see, there are thousands of locks stringed on the rails.

 

 

Arguably the most famous museum in Europe, the Louvre, is located in Paris, so I had to stop by to see a few exhibits.  It is massive, so I didn't take in all the sites, but a few paintings and sculptures.  I was most fascinated with the iconic glass pyramid on the outside.  However, my walk there had a few small detours as I stopped for a quick bite as well at the world-renowned tea and chocolate shop Angelina.

 

On my way to the Louvre I stopped off at a little cafe called Le Piano for a quick lunch. I went with the prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella, and melon salad.

The plaza outside the Louvre looks onto the Jardin des Tuileries, the Obelisque and way in the background the Arc de Triomphe.

On my walk to the Louvre I stopped off at Angelina. Honestly, I hadn't heard of it before, but I walked by and saw some amazing looking pastries in the window and decided to give it a look - as I said, I've made desserts part of the norm this trip and where better to enjoy desserts and pastries than in Paris. When I walked inside I quickly saw the tables were packed and there was a line to order the pastries, so I knew I stumbled onto something. I did a bit of research when I got back to my hotel and this place is world-renowned for its pastries and hot chocolate.

 

The selection ranged from fruit tarts and eclairs to macaroons and chocolate bars...and a wide assortment of hot chocolate.

I wanted to see what all the fuss was about so I went with the strawberry tart. It was so delicious. The strawberries were juicy and fresh; the custard was creamy and light; and perhaps the best part was the tart pastry base, which was dense and soft, not crumbly and dry like some lower-end tarts.

I finally made it to the Louvre and was able to see it with the gorgeous Paris sunset as a backdrop.

The post-rain whispy clouds were fantastic.

By the time I visited the popular museum the crowds had dissipated a bit so I was able to climb around and snap all sorts of fun photos.

 

After about seven hours of exploring the town, I headed back to the hotel to change for the night out.  For dinner I decided to walk to the Oberkampf district, home to some of Paris' best bars and considered the nightlife hub of the city for the past decade.  I had a few ideas of places to check out and at the top of my list for dinner was Chez Justine, a retro French gastro-bistro.

Chez Justine has been open for about seven years and has been an anchor in the center of the popular Oberkampf district.

 

It was a very traditional style French bistro. This was after dinner around midnight so it was emptying out. When I walked in around 10:30pm all the tables were full.

 

I started with a delicious calamari. The batter was light and flavorful and the thick dark aioli sauce, almost like a tar texture, was a great semi-salty addition. 

For my main I went with the "Confit de Canard," or Duck Confit, which is duck leg. Its seasoned with herbs and cooked in its own fat on low-heat for 5-6hrs. It's served on a bed of fried potatos. I don't regularly eat duck, but if it tasted like this everytime I would definitely eat it more often. It was so flavorful, but simple at the same time. It wasn't overly gamey, just tender and tasty.

For dessert I went with a local favorite, a Millefeuille. The best way to describe it is it's a French dessert lasagna. Instead of cheese it has a rich cream, instead of pasta it has puffy pastry layers, and instead of tomoato sauce its caramel. Divine!

To tie a nice bow on a fantastic French meal, I went with an espresso and a digestif.

 

 

After dinner I continued walking down Rue de Oberkampf and came across a bar with a handful of people hanging outside, so I decided to pop in for a drink. I quickly struck up a conversation with the bartender and the people around me and apparently it was a going away party for a few of the guys who were French journalists heading off to do work in Afghanistan.  Being international journalists, they spoke English so conversation was easy.  In fact, there was an Australian girl and an English guy among the group, both of whom work in Afganistan already and knew the journalists. 

The guy on the left is a French journalist for France 24, the country's biggest TV news station, like our CNN.

Around 2pm the bar "closed," but the group in attendance for the going away party, which included me now, stayed and hung out for another few hours drinking and chatting. I guess they call it "getting locked in" and it's basically where the bar closes to outsiders, but friends stay and keep partying.

Since the bar was "closed" we were okay to serve ourselves, but you still had to pay; it was the honor system.

 

Super-size rally vino. Not really; the bar's menu was printed on the side of these huge wine bottles and the bottles were placed on each table.

We ended up really closing the bar around 4:30am - no doubt the result of having an espresso after dinner at midnight.  On my walk back I saw the produce workers setting up for the daily market that morning. Got to love when people are going to work and you're just heading home.

 

 

A great day and night in Paris.  A lot of site seeing and wandering around the city followed by an authentic French dining experience and getting "locked in" with new friends.  Can't beat that.


I'd like to share an old-time Dianella family favorite Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love" because just as I sat down at dinner tonight the unforgettable guitar riff kicked in and I knew right then it was going to be a great meal.