na§tee
11-23-2006, 05:47 PM
yo, so I went to paris last weekend! I am going to share some pictures with you all. no, it’s not as bad as being forced to see your family’s tourist snaps because it’s on the interweb and I will have readable commentary that may be interesting on its lonesome. and hey, some people may be genuinely intrigued. some of you fools have never even been to europe before! le shock! oh, and to make it even more special i am going to punctuate it with the same pidgin french ranald and I had to communicate in when we got there.
okeydokey. so, ranald told me where we were going on the Friday night so I could, like, spend the evening googling and finding somewhere good to eat. you know, all the important things. we left glasgow at 5am or something ridonkulous and flew to birmingham and then arrived at paris charles de gaulle round lunchtime.
oh yeah, this is the channel and the english coast. goodbye england, bonjour france!
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c361/nastee/IMG_3358.jpg
the passport guy said bonjour to us and I was instantly charmed! my previous experience of france has been mostly spent in petrol stations and driving in a car to various ferry terminals so I was really pleased to be there.
anyway, we managed to get on to the RER and navigate the metro really easily, and found our hotel in a snap. btw, we stayed at l'hôtel auteuil tour eiffel which I would not hesitate to recommend to anyone – it’s in the roland garros quarter which is just a short stroll away from the eiffel tower! BONUS!
so we checked in and we went for a stroll to the eiffel tower. here it is. I have many more pictures in about 50 different angles and orientations but this should suffice:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c361/nastee/IMG_3370.jpg
ummm we didn’t go up it that day cos there was muchos queues. so we walked up the palais de chaillot/trocadero and went umm, up some street that would lead to the arc de triomphe and the champs elysées, which I didn’t take any pictures of because I was too busy gawping at the people with money shopping at louis vuitton and chanel and what not. we walked down this and ordered a crazy baguette with crazy french ingredients and went to various shops and got to the end near the place de la concorde and generally suffered severe leg fatigue.
anyway, yadda yadda, we walked and walked that afternoon. my googling the night previous I had decided to eat at this famous brasserie in the bastille area called bofinger. ranald, the ABSOLUTE DARLING he is even attempted to book a table over the phone in french but the lady said to just try coming in off the street, no reservations being taken, so we did and we succeeded! let me tell you this, it was one of the finest dining experiences of my life! I had read about 5 billions guardian and observer reviews raving about it and it certainly did not disappoint. I didn’t take any pictures because I was absolutely shitting myself with fear but the inside is gorgeous with a fabulous art deco ceiling (see here (http://data1.blog.de/blog/s/sommer/img/bofinger.jpg))
I will tell you about eating in france because someone might still be interested and – shock – even read to this point in my holiday tale (thanks to anyone who is taking the time to read this btw). wow, they certainly know how to do their history justice. ranald was absolutely bricking himself with fear too because we were sat almost shoulder to shoulder with locals on either side, the whole floor (which is surely a sign of a good restaurant) absolutely packed. it’s strange what they say about “career waiters” here. it’s so true. the waiters are waiters because it is their career, their profession, not to get a quick buck. and they were fantastique!
well, the menu was in french so we couldn’t understand it all and I almost ordered the steak tartare. and they I remembered what, um, steak tartare was and what “froide” (cold) was so it was like PASS! anyway, there are three things with french origins that I am a big fan of so I thought “why not try these dishes in their home country?” so I ordered the french onion soup, steak au poivre and the crème brulee. oh man. now I will never be able to have these dishes again without being disappointed. absolutely DIVINE french soup with a thick crust of cheese and melt in your mouth steak with potatoes dauphinoise and superb crème brulee. ranald had the fois gras, steak and sorbets. we had a 35 euro bottle of côtes du rhône and that was fantastic, too. and coffee and meringues and ohhh lovely. the french people next to us did stare. a lot. I heard that the parisiens were haughty and arrogant and they weren’t in our experience, but they did stare. which was slightly disconcerting but hey. and they were eating quite scary things like this (http://data1.blog.de/blog/s/sommer/img/3gbofinger-2.jpg) that i would have loved to of tried but, yeah, we were scared and couldn’t read all of the menu. but I am really proud that we overcame our fear and had a great time. beautiful restaurant. you really should seek it out. I love being called mademoiselle.
sooo yeah that’s about it for the first day. the next day, however!
we had a tres magnifique breakfast and got to the eiffel tower early to avoid the queues. the lifts were sorta old school. there were a couple of americans in the same bit as us who were all like “LOL these lifts are only about 100 years old and break only about once a month, HOHOHO!” not cool. this is us and my forehead wrinkles going up. ranald wasn’t up for posing for a picture:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c361/nastee/IMG_3386.jpg
but then I dragged him closer:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c361/nastee/IMG_3387.jpg
okeydokey. so, ranald told me where we were going on the Friday night so I could, like, spend the evening googling and finding somewhere good to eat. you know, all the important things. we left glasgow at 5am or something ridonkulous and flew to birmingham and then arrived at paris charles de gaulle round lunchtime.
oh yeah, this is the channel and the english coast. goodbye england, bonjour france!
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c361/nastee/IMG_3358.jpg
the passport guy said bonjour to us and I was instantly charmed! my previous experience of france has been mostly spent in petrol stations and driving in a car to various ferry terminals so I was really pleased to be there.
anyway, we managed to get on to the RER and navigate the metro really easily, and found our hotel in a snap. btw, we stayed at l'hôtel auteuil tour eiffel which I would not hesitate to recommend to anyone – it’s in the roland garros quarter which is just a short stroll away from the eiffel tower! BONUS!
so we checked in and we went for a stroll to the eiffel tower. here it is. I have many more pictures in about 50 different angles and orientations but this should suffice:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c361/nastee/IMG_3370.jpg
ummm we didn’t go up it that day cos there was muchos queues. so we walked up the palais de chaillot/trocadero and went umm, up some street that would lead to the arc de triomphe and the champs elysées, which I didn’t take any pictures of because I was too busy gawping at the people with money shopping at louis vuitton and chanel and what not. we walked down this and ordered a crazy baguette with crazy french ingredients and went to various shops and got to the end near the place de la concorde and generally suffered severe leg fatigue.
anyway, yadda yadda, we walked and walked that afternoon. my googling the night previous I had decided to eat at this famous brasserie in the bastille area called bofinger. ranald, the ABSOLUTE DARLING he is even attempted to book a table over the phone in french but the lady said to just try coming in off the street, no reservations being taken, so we did and we succeeded! let me tell you this, it was one of the finest dining experiences of my life! I had read about 5 billions guardian and observer reviews raving about it and it certainly did not disappoint. I didn’t take any pictures because I was absolutely shitting myself with fear but the inside is gorgeous with a fabulous art deco ceiling (see here (http://data1.blog.de/blog/s/sommer/img/bofinger.jpg))
I will tell you about eating in france because someone might still be interested and – shock – even read to this point in my holiday tale (thanks to anyone who is taking the time to read this btw). wow, they certainly know how to do their history justice. ranald was absolutely bricking himself with fear too because we were sat almost shoulder to shoulder with locals on either side, the whole floor (which is surely a sign of a good restaurant) absolutely packed. it’s strange what they say about “career waiters” here. it’s so true. the waiters are waiters because it is their career, their profession, not to get a quick buck. and they were fantastique!
well, the menu was in french so we couldn’t understand it all and I almost ordered the steak tartare. and they I remembered what, um, steak tartare was and what “froide” (cold) was so it was like PASS! anyway, there are three things with french origins that I am a big fan of so I thought “why not try these dishes in their home country?” so I ordered the french onion soup, steak au poivre and the crème brulee. oh man. now I will never be able to have these dishes again without being disappointed. absolutely DIVINE french soup with a thick crust of cheese and melt in your mouth steak with potatoes dauphinoise and superb crème brulee. ranald had the fois gras, steak and sorbets. we had a 35 euro bottle of côtes du rhône and that was fantastic, too. and coffee and meringues and ohhh lovely. the french people next to us did stare. a lot. I heard that the parisiens were haughty and arrogant and they weren’t in our experience, but they did stare. which was slightly disconcerting but hey. and they were eating quite scary things like this (http://data1.blog.de/blog/s/sommer/img/3gbofinger-2.jpg) that i would have loved to of tried but, yeah, we were scared and couldn’t read all of the menu. but I am really proud that we overcame our fear and had a great time. beautiful restaurant. you really should seek it out. I love being called mademoiselle.
sooo yeah that’s about it for the first day. the next day, however!
we had a tres magnifique breakfast and got to the eiffel tower early to avoid the queues. the lifts were sorta old school. there were a couple of americans in the same bit as us who were all like “LOL these lifts are only about 100 years old and break only about once a month, HOHOHO!” not cool. this is us and my forehead wrinkles going up. ranald wasn’t up for posing for a picture:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c361/nastee/IMG_3386.jpg
but then I dragged him closer:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c361/nastee/IMG_3387.jpg