Giverny.

We debated for a long time between visiting Giverny or Versailles. I went through an obsessive Monet phase when I was 10-13 so I pushed for Giverny in the end and I'm so glad I did! The day we went was on yet another strike day for the TGV, so the train situation was a bit tricky but we made it in the end. It's an easy 45 minute train ride outside Paris. Once you get out of the station, you take a shuttle to the gardens and to Monet's home!

I can hardly believe the photo I took above is actually real. Walking through the gardens was incredibly surreal after spending most of my life thinking of Monet in a more abstract sense. It pretty much looks like the painting itself in person. If you love flowers, then visiting Giverny is an absolute must. The gardens were absolutely exploding with flowers. Summer is the perfect time of year to come, but be ready for the crowds and the heat!

Angelina | 1er

There are some reliable chains that you can count on when traveling through Paris. Paul was my favorite place to grab a quick bite and of course the above, Angelina. We went to the one next to the Tuileries. Between the two of us we just had the breakfast which included four croissants and two pieces of bread with an assortment of jams to share between two people. Andrew tried their famous hot chocolate--which was delicious but a bit too heavy after the first few minutes. I had orange juice and coffee. All in all, a comparable experience to brunch at Ladurée and surprisingly filling too! The macarons were really good but I'm still ever faithful to Chantal Guillon macarons in Hayes Valley!

Angelina

226 rue de Rivoli

75001 Paris

France

Concorde/Madeleine, 1er

Les Cocottes | 7ème

Our first dinner in Paris was in the 7ème arrondisement at Les Cocottes. We wanted to eat nearby the Eiffel Tower so that we could walk over afterwards to see the lights turn on and sparkle.

This was a really modern establishment compared to all of the other places we had eaten in France at that point. It's run by Christian Constant, who is something like the head judge of the French version of Top Chef. There was swag from his cookbooks behind the bar of the restaurant which made me a little weary. But, all in all it was a wonderful experience--and a really American one at that.

We didn't have to ask for une carafe d'eau; it came automatically. That was the most common mistake I made while traveling--failing to specify what kind of water I wanted. We ended up paying for bottled water needlessly on several occasions. The waiters also come back to check on you and ask how you're doing which is basically unheard of in most French restaurants.

We shared the foie gras to start with. I had the beef bavette for my main dish (pictured above) and it was delicious! Very tender...although it wasn't hot enough in my opinion. For dessert we shared the creme brulee, pretty conventional but it was really well done.

This was a really easy dinner night--no waiting for a table or dealing with grumpy waiters muttering putains under their breath. We walked in around 6 PM (which is extremely early for dinner in France) and were seated immediately at the bar. I'd easily recommend it to another friend.

Les Cocottes

135 rue Saint Dominique

75007 Paris

France

Tour Eiffel/Champ de Mars, 7ème

Paris, at last.

We left Lyon and its oppressive heat and escaped to Paris via the TGV. I visited Paris for the first time back in March for a weekend when I was in London for work. But here's the thing--I didn't love it the first time.

Paris might not be for everyone, but for nearly half of my life I was a staunch Francophile. I took French language classes for 8 years, read Le Clézio, studied French culture, became deeply fixated by its immigration problems, their penchant for les gréves and complaining for the sake of complaining. I loved all things French yet had never gone until this past year.

Perhaps it was too much of my idealization of France clashing with the realities of arriving for the first time as an American. Heck, it was my first time out of the country back in March as an adult. Needless to say, I felt like an outsider. Despite all its charms, Paris greeted me with indifference in the end. This time around, I ended my two week vacation in Paris. There's always a comfort in returning to a place even if it spit you out the first time around. We were elated to just have been out of Lyon. We were beginning to go a little stir crazy, especially because of the heat wave.

This time around, Paris revealed herself to me for the first time ever. I fell in love with how beautiful it was. The light truly is different. But I had amazing experiences as well. The food this time around was far better than the first. The people were not quite as friendly as the Spanish, but welcoming still.

When we got off the train, it was pouring. We checked into our hotel looking like wet dogs, but were elated nonetheless. Promptly after cleaning ourselves up, the sun came out and we went outside for a stroll. We walked from our hotel near Sacré Coeur over to the Tuileries and just walked and walked. We stopped by the Eiffel Tower and snapped photos before heading over to Les Cocottes for an early dinner. After dinner we just kept...walking and talking. Walking and talking.

Revenir.

"...I fell in love with Paris. Paris--and this is the tricky thing--though it is always and indubitably itself, is also in its nature a difficult city to love for itself alone. What truly makes Paris beautiful is the intermingling of the monumental and the personal, the abstract and the footsore particular, it and you. A city of vast and impersonal set piece architecture, it is also a city of the small and intricate, improvised experience." ~ Adam Gopnik, Paris to the Moon

Beaujolais & Perouges

If you're ever in Lyon, you must make it out to wine country. It's an easy thirty minute drive out of the city. We booked a small tour in advance so we could avoid the hassle of renting and driving a car in a foreign country. If Lyon has one thing over all of the other cities we visited, it is the wine. We did a wine tasting at Dominique Guillard's winery and it was amazing. Everything was delicious. I especially liked the gamay rosé and some of the lighter reds that were perfect for drinking on hotter summer days. Each bottle was only 5 EUROS. I wanted to walk away with an entire crate full, but you can only drink so much wine between two people. We ended up choosing to drink in moderation and purchased two bottles.

I learned that the Beaujolais wine isn't aged in oak here. They actually use vines that can go up to 100 years old. It was really interesting to see the flower covered fields that were left out to lay fallow until it was time to replant again. I also learned that the quality of the wine is largely determined by the soil--soil that is best suited when the terrain is very hilly--hence all of the dramatic views as seen below.

The views were incredible. We drove throughout the Beaujolais region and made pitstops in Perouges and Oingt--old towns that contained buildings all made from yellow stones from the quarries in the region. It was cherry season at the time as well. We passed by trees swollen with cherries ready for picking. I wanted to just stick my arm out the window and grab a fist full as we passed by on those rolling hills.

There were a lot of castles in the area as well; many which are still occupied and remain private residences. Doesn't that sound nice? There are of course newer buildings as well, but they must all be painted yellow to follow the regional yellow stone tradition. I thought the funniest bit on the tour was when we learned that in the past, vinters were forced to pay taxes to the churches in the form of wine grapes. Of course, they would only hand over the crap grapes which angered authorities. So they demanded wine next, which produced the same result: crap wine. Eventually, the churches were allowed to determine which time of year and exactly when they could go and choose the grapes themselves. Those tricky vinters, I like them. All in all, I had a blast that day sightseeing and sipping wine with Andrew.

Next stop, Lyon.

Arriving to Lyon was a bit disheartening at first. The side of town we were staying in vaguely recalled Los Angeles with its modern structures and congested roads. But I grew to love Lyon in a way. It was the part of our trip where I started to feel as if I were living in France rather than just passing through on stolen time. Shopping at the open air market for supplies for dinner, browsing aimlessly at Monoprix to escape the heat briefly, and watching dubbed American shows like Friends in the early evening hours. This is what I imagined an alternative life to be like if I were Lyonnais.

We flew into Lyon from Barcelona and took the train to our AIRBNB on Rue Vauban. This was the first time we had ever rented out an entire unit through AIRBNB. The apartment was really quaint and quiet compared to the place we stayed at in Barri Gotic in Barcelona.  A quiet student welcomed us into the apartment with a neat set of directions and a basket of pre-packaged croissants.I let out a sigh of relief when we arrived because it was exactly what we needed at that point. A place to recharge and take it a bit slow, especially since Andrew came down with something of a summer cold. 

With the sweltering heat, we moved a bit more slowly throughout our stay. Days were spent walking rather listlessly across the bridge to the main part of town. This is what I imagined summer to be like for residents--enjoying the sights around as much as possible while bearing with the heat. It would be 90 degrees even after sunset...easily 100 or over at noon.

I liked how carefree everyone seemed around the river. Students would be lounging on the grass amongst friends, half emptied bottles of wine with baguettes and saucisson aplenty. After our dinner at a bouchon (one of many to come), we walked along the Rhone and returned home. The sun doesn't set in the summer easily until past 10 PM. There was an eccentric older man doing his evening exercise. Every time he ran through, the crowd would hilariously (and I hope not mockingly, because that kind of breaks my heart) cheer along like fans at a soccer match. 

In Lyon, we started establishing some rituals. Walking through those quiet streets back to Rue Vauban. Stopping by the little market to buy some fruit or ice cold cans of Coca Cola. Browsing Les Halles de Lyon for groceries. Padding around the apartment barefoot. Watching random segments on the television (like this strangely engrossing French fry documentary) and hastily attempting to translate so Andrew could follow along. I think that's what ultimately made me appreciate Lyon more. Dublin too. It made me nostalgic for the time when we weren't in a long distance relationship. Not to say that Lyon was god awful and that you should never visit. But it just didn't resonate with me as a vacation spot as much as Barcelona and Paris--I guess, for the very reasons I listed above for appreciating it for what it was. In any case, more updates to come.

2 Days in Paris.

I've never truly experienced something quite so surreal as arriving in Paris for the first time--especially after having studied French for almost 10 years. I kept telling Andrew that nothing felt real. And it's such a shame, because the reality that I was in the City of Light for two days didn't hit me until I returned to San Francisco!

I went to the UK for business recently, and had the opportunity to spend the weekend out of town. And what a wonderful weekend it was. Absolutely gorgeous weather for two days spent marveling at how beautiful a city could be.

It was interesting observing Parisians carrying on with their day to day lives. I just have to believe that there is so much more appreciation for art and design when you live in it! There is beauty to be found everywhere in the city. It's no wonder that there are so many more European-based websites and design publications than there are stateside.

So we took the Eurostar from St Pancras International in London into Gare du Nord Friday night. After checking into our hotel in Montparnasse, we walked around in search for a very late night dinner and ended up at a somewhat mediocre place called Au pied de cochon. They open 24 hours. In California, that conjures up images of poorly lit and dingy diners. But the restaurant was still really something else. Quite lively in fact considering it was nearly 2 AM when we left.

The following day was spent in pursuit of the perfect croissant, which is pretty much available anywhere. Bread in Paris is incomparable to what we have back home. I fear what might happen to me if I had access to such great breads all year round!

We started at the Eiffel Tower and made our way down the Seine on one of those hop on hop off boats over to Notre Dame. But most importantly, we made a pit stop at Shakespeare & Company! I am a total Before Sunrise/Before Sunset devotee and naturally an indie bookstore nutcase, so this was at the top of my list for this weekend. What a privilege to have a bookstore like this one at your disposal for studying in! I saw someone quietly working at a table on the top floor in one of the reading rooms. I am sighing to myself right now just thinking of it.

The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring Montmartre. Sacre Coeur was predictably overrun with tourists, so we didn't spend too much time there. We ventured into Le Pigalle by accident and ran into an active protest. I kind of chuckled to myself thinking how very French that was.

The rest of the weekend was a bit of a whirwind. We were totally beat by the end of each day after all of the walking. Sunday was spent mostly relaxing in various courtyards and gardens after visiting the Bastille Sunday Market. Needless to say, I am aching to return. But until my next visit, I'll leave you with more photos of my weekend.