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.