Magical Paris-Day 1 & 2...

So, since I wasn't home to cook last night, I thought I'd post "pre-blog" pictures of our trip to Paris!  We went for our first anniversary last October and it was one of the most magical trips I've EVER been on.  Paris is just ENCHANTING...there's absolutely no other way to describe it.  So I figured instead of just posting pictures of our (delicious!) food, I'd post a few sightseeing pictures to show you what we managed to squeeze into our all-too-short 4 days there!!

We had taken an overnight flight from Newark and hit the ground running!:)  I may have gotten about 45 minutes of sleep on that plane, but I was READY TO ROLL once that plane landed!!  We got in and checked into our lovely, little hotel.  If you ever need a cheap hotel with easy access to the city, "Hotel de la place des Alpes" is the way to go!  It was a perfectly nice and clean hotel within a stones throw of 3 metro lines to take you anywhere you would want to go in the city. (Plus it helped that they spoke English and didn't laugh at our botched attempts at French!!;) And really, what more could you ask for??

We dropped our bags and headed around the neighborhood to a little outdoor cafe for lunch...how Parisian!  We started with the onion soup...

And how else would you begin a gastronomic tour of Paris then with a multi cheese dish??  I had the Croque Mousier, which is basically an open face grilled cheese but with lots of different cheeses on there! I remember there was goat and I believe emmaulter, and one other kind that I can’t remember…maybe camembert???....

After we fueled up...we headed out on our first adventure.  And even though I was tentative, our first stop was to be the underground Catacombes.  I had seen this on an episode of "The Scariest Places on Earth" about 10 years ago, and was always intrigued & petrified!  But I was still willing to give it a whirl.  And I didn't realize how much I had TRULY wanted to seem them, until we got to the catacombes and they were LOCKED!!!!!!!!!  Locked out of the catacombes on our first "adventure" in Paris!  I was bummed....

But we bounced back quickly:)  Our next stop was a sightseeing tour through the town of Montmartre, which is the artist village on top of the hill on the outskirts of the city.  I could have moved there instantly, it was just beautiful.  However, we started in a bit of a "seedier" part of town at the famous Moulin Rouge, home of the can-can!!...

Next we headed up and around the hills & winding streets of Montmartre...and in our travels we stopped past Vincent Van Gogh's old apartment, which I was completely floored to be standing in front of...

This is deemed the "prettiest street in all of Paris"...which this picture does zero justice, but I figured it would give you an idea of the twisting streets...

And we climbed and climbed until we reached the top of the hill, with some amazing views of the city...

...And until we were standing under the Sacre Coeur Basilica.  I remembering just looking up at it and crying...I could NOT believe we had made it all the way to Paris! :)  (No to mention I cried the whole way THROUGH the church...it was just so overwhelming!!:)

Inside, we took our first of MANY winding spiral staircases!!  We must have climbed over 1,500 steps in four days time.  Not to mention, we had to climb up and down these steps TWICE because of a locked door situation...long story:) 

But the views made up for the mix up! ...

For dinner our first night we headed to a little restaurant in the center of the artist square: "Chez Eugene"…the neighborhood was allegedly a tourist trap for restaurants, but we had the BEST meal for the CHEAPEST price out of our whole stay!!

Our appetizer was a puff pastry shell with Roquefort cheese sauce…SOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And of course, they had Beef Bourguignon on the menu, so I knew I HAD to have that (thanks “Julie & Julia!”)  It was TO DIE FOR! SOOO GOOD!!!!

And here's Scott's Pepper Steak and Frites...

For dessert: He had the chocolate mousse and I had the apple tart....

And the second we were done eating, was the second I began to feel the fact that I was awake for almost 38 hours straight;)  We headed back to our hotel and collapsed!! :)

Our first FULL day in Paris began the same way every other day would begin:  At our neighborhood Boulanger...

I could cry just THINKING of the smell inside this place!  I imagine it's what heaven smells like!!...

The croissants were delicious, but as soon as we tried the Pain Au Chocolat….we were in HEAVEN!!!!

And as silly as it was, we were totally addicted to this "Oasis"!  It was orange and mango juice.  The woman at the counter gave us Minute Maid one day and I almost cried;)  Love that Oasis! :)

Our day 2 adventures began with a walk along the seine tooo.....The Notre Dame!!

The inside of the cathedral was just breathtaking and beautiful... 

But afterwards we headed outside to make our trek up the next flight of winding steps to the top of the tower.  While we were FREEZING in line, I had some VERY RICH & DECADENT hot chocolate...

And the views from the top of the tower were just spectacular...

This is quintessential PARIS to me!...

I was completely in love with all of the gargoyles...so medieval...

And then one more level up brought us this view of the seine & the city...

After all of those steps...we needed a snack, right???  And freezing or not, we had to go to the famous Berthillon for ice cream! SOOOO GOOD! The flavors were so intense!

The flavor list:

I had Coconut (of course), Honey Nougat & Butter Salted Caramel….the caramel was SOOOOO strong, to the point that it was ALMOST bitter! But it was sooo buttery! (yummy)…and the honey nougat was GREAT too! (so was the coconutJ) Scott got hazelnut, caramel and vanilla…..the vanilla and hazelnut were AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From there, we were off for to see the Eiffel Tower!!!....it was like a dream to be staring right at it! :)

And then we headed to the Arc de Triomphe...which probably turned out to be one of our best surprises of the whole trip...

We headed inside for, you guessed it, MORE STEPS!! :)

And spectacular views of the 5 streets leading around the circle of the Arc.  The street on the right in this picture is the infamous Champs-Elysees!! ...

Not to mention, at the top:  I got both my favorite picture of the Eiffel tower....

...and THIS doozy!!  I love a sunset...but the sun setting over the city was just mind boggling!!

Our dinner that night was at a place called Café Lateral, near the Arc.  It probably was our best dinner of the whole trip, and the one time we didn't use a Prix Fixed menu.  We split Onion Soup again…

And my dinner was SOOOOOOOOOOOO good…It was duck with a caramel sauce (I think they were just referring to the color) and raspberries with mashed potatoes. I wish they had more raspberries because those with the duck were SO GOOD!!!!

And Scott got a thyme infused chicken with frites…..the chicken was SOOOOO delicious and moist!!!

And of course, Crème Brulee…delicious in any country!

And since we walked 15 miles that day, another dessert was in order…this time to Laudree for the famous macaroons!

I LOVEEED all of the colors!!  (and apparently, so did Sofia Coppola, who used these macaroons in her version of "Marie Antoinette"!)

Here was our box of vanilla, pistachio, caramel, coffee & chocolate….vanilla & pistachio were my favorite!!!

OK...that's enough memories and daydreaming for one day!  I'll post day 3 and 4 one day next week!  Hope you enjoyed & have a great weekend!!