European Voyage Part Sept: Paris

Alright, this is the homestretch! Stick with me. This is the last post on my trip to Europe, promise! We left Aix-en-Provence mid-morning, and took the TGV to Paris. The TGV is a high speed train (Train à Grande Vitesse if you want to get technical) that goes about 170 mph. God, I love train travel. It only took about 3 hours, and it's so relaxing. I love seeing all the different scenery too. Anyway, we arrived in Paris at Gare de Lyon. Good god, it was HUGE, busy, and crowded. Definitely a change of pace from A-e-P.

We arrived at our hotel, Hotel Saint Christophe located in the 5th arrondissement (the Latin Quarter I think), and then headed out. We attempted to take bus # 69, a public transportation bus that runs east-west and goes by a lot of the great sights, but it was the weekend bus schedule, so trying to find it proved to be a task. Eventually we just hopped on the metro and made our way to the Eiffel Tower. Not to be cheesy or touristy, but WOW.




Pictures don't even do it justice. Paris is a pretty low-rise city, no skyscrapers, so the Eiffel Tower stands out even more. After standing with our mouths open for a few minutes, we spotted a crêpe stand and decided to grab a late lunch. Again, crêpe complet for me, crêpe au sucre for my mom. Yummm.

My last crêpe of the trip : ... ( - that's a sad face with a tear running down if you can't tell.

Then we hopped on a bus to take a tour of the city. I won't inundate you with my many typical tourist pictures, but here are a couple of my favorites.







I will say, it was pretty chilly. My extremities were completely frozen by the time we got back to the hotel. The hotel was in a university area, so we just grabbed a quick bite to eat at a little Greek restaurant before completely passing out for the night.

I have to take a moment to give a big shout-out to Moleskin City Notebooks. They are hands down amazing!!!! My best friend got me one for Paris, and then I bought one for Florence. They are unbelievably handy. They have large maps, detailed maps of different neighborhoods, public transportation information, tracing paper to trace different routes, blank paper to make notes, and even a little pocket to store things in. They're small and easily fit in a purse or even a pocket, and for only about $15 each, they are absolutely worth it!


I completely regret not having more time in Paris. The next day was our only full day, and we jam-packed it. In the morning, we went to one of the big antique markets, Marché aux Puces. We could've easily spent our entire day there. It was deceiving at first because the outside of the market is lined with crappy clothing and junk stalls, but if you can find your way into the main building, it's amazing!

Cool floor made out of 2 x 4 slices

If I had had more room in my suitcase, I would've gotten a lot more, but I bought quite a few things as it was. I bought an antique bird print, a Rodin lithograph for my sister (my favorite purchase of the trip), and a first edition Babar poster.

We dragged ourselves away from shopping in order to make it to Versailles before it closed. It was an easy train ride and short walk, and my god was it worth it. Yet again, not to be cheesy tourist, but HOLY LORD. It was STUNNING. Easily the most beautiful part of our trip. Just the scale of the place is MASSIVE. Every direction you looked as far as the eye could see was Versailles. Of all the palaces and grand houses we visited in Europe, Versailles was easily the most liveable, if that were ever even possible.

Front entrance


Around the back towards the gardens.


Grand Canal



View of the palace from below


My favorite sculpture from the entire trip

The Grand Trianon


Gardens everywhere!


One of Louis XVI's coats which was TEENY TINY. I think my 5'2'' tiny skinny mother would've just fit into it.

We spent so much time outside and at the ancillary buildings, that we almost didn't make it back in time to tour the actual palace. We were actually the last ones allowed upstairs to the Hall of Mirrors (whew!).

Yet another surreal moment with all that's happened in that room.

Probably 50 people were crowded into Marie Antoinette's bedroom. It was honestly surreal seeing that much gold and grandeur.

It glowed gold, as you can tell.

Security started scooting everyone out by about 5:30, so reluctantly, we left. I will definitely we going back in the spring or summertime to see all the gardens in bloom.

We leisurely made our way back to our hotel to drop off our many purchases from earlier in the day. We were both starving from trekking all around Versailles, so we headed out for a hearty dinner at a cafe up a couple of blocks. Croque madames and giant Hoegaardens are exactly what the doctor called for.

Good, but nothing touched those from A-e-P.

Paris was a fantastic way to end a fantastic trip. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. You know there are some trips you take, and by the end, you can't wait to get home? Not this one; I wasn't ready to go back to reality. I think I could get used to jet-set (or train-set in my case) life.

European Voyage Part Six: Aix-en-Provence

The trip from Florence to Aix-en-Provence was A-MAZING. The Mediterranean coast is absolutely stunning. Unfortunately I didn't snap any pictures of the train ride, which I really regret. I'd love to do that trip again. It definitely was not short. We started in Florence, then changed trains in Milan and Cannes before arriving in A-e-P, around 12 hours later.

Getting to A-e-P from the train station was a little confusing. Not many signs, but we finally just followed the small crowd to a bus that dropped us off in the town center. Our hotel, Hotel Artea, was nice. It was on Boulevard République only a block or two down from La Rotonde. Very affordable, nothing fancy schmancy, but our room was huge!

Since we got in a bit on the late side, we ate at a bar/cafe just down the block from our hotel. They had a couple of glasses of Kriek and THE MOST delicious croque-madames everrrrrr. I tried ordering them at a few other places in a few different cities, and nothing touched this tiny bar's. Of course, I didn't get a picture of it....I know, I started slacking. Here's a good recipe from Nancy Silverton's Sandwich Book:

• 8 slices white or whole-wheat sourdough bread
• 8 ounces Gruyère cheese, sliced into 24-32 1/16-inch-thick slices
• 12 ounces smoked ham, such as Black Forest, sliced into 12-16 1/16-inch-thick slices
• 4 extra-large eggs
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• Fleur de sel or kosher salt, to taste
• Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

To assemble the sandwiches:
Set half of the slices of bread buttered side down, and cover them with the cheese slices, folding them back in toward the middle if they extend past the edges of the bread. Place 3 or 4 slices of the ham in an even layer over the cheese, and place the top slice of bread over the ham, buttered side up.

Grill the sandwiches in a two-sided grill or on a heavy-bottomed pan, using clarified butter and turning once. Place on serving plates.

To fry the eggs:
Crack two eggs into two separate bowls to check that the yolks aren’t broken. In 2 6-inch non-stick skillets, melt half of the butter over medium-high heat, until it starts to bubble. Pour 1 egg into each pan, being careful not to break the yolks. Add a teaspoon of water to each pan, sprinkle the eggs with fleur de sel, and cover the pans with lids. Cook the eggs for about 3 minutes for a soft-cooked egg and 5-6 minutes if you like your eggs firm. Wipe out the skillets, and fry the other 2 eggs in the remaining butter in the same manner. Center a fried egg over each of the grilled sandwiches and sprinkle with pepper.

We woke up the next morning, and headed to a little street cart for crêpes. Dear god...they were absolutely fantastic, so good that I had them again lunch. My favorite crêpe was the crêpe complet: egg, cheese, and ham. My mom's was crêpe au sucre: crêpe with granulated sugar. We also stopped and got a baguette. I don't think the Adkins diet exists in Europe....

A-e-P is very very walkable, so we spent the rest of our day exploring the city. It was a little rainy and brisk (to put it nicely), but all the more excuse to stop in at all the little shops. If I'm ever able to go back, I'd love to go during spring or summer to visit the lavender fields.

These little Cezanne tiles were all over the streets. I think they lead to the museum or some kind of path.

We came upon these old hot mineral baths. They were sooooo tempting after our damp chilly day. Had we stayed another day, I think spending time there definitely would have been on our agenda.

About 91 F

We made a stop at Les Deux Garcons for a couple of drinks on our way to the grocery store. Pretty expensive (a tourist trap, I'm sure), but the the decor is cool, and it was fun to go to a place that's been open since 1792. For dinner we decided to go to Monoprix to pick up some cheese for dinner. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I love cheese. Monoprix was a lot of fun to explore; it had everything from food to clothes to housewares to cosmetics to sporting goods. The rest of our night was spending warming up and watching the French versions of "Deal or No Deal" and "Wheel of Fortune." So weird how different they were!

The next morning, we woke up early and tried to go have those heavenly croque madames before we left for Paris, but the bar was out of eggs. It was very upsetting. I have to say that it was really nice to spend some time in a small town before heading off the Paris. After a couple of days though, I was ready to hop back on a train and keep on going.

European Voyage Part Une: The Jura

What started out as a one week trip turned into two weeks turned into, "Well...might as well make it three." Our first stop was France. My sister and her boyfriend Victor were nice enough to let my mom and I invite ourselves on their trip to Victor's family home in the Jura region.

We actually flew into Geneva, Switzerland which was cheaper and actually more convenient than Paris. The drive to Victor's house was a couple of hours. I awakened out of my Tylenol P.M. induced coma long enough to take a few pictures of Lake Geneva and the Alps.

The Alps and Lake Geneva (hidden underneath the fog)

Oh about 5 minutes after this pictures was taken, I was passed out in the backseat of the car. I was told the drive took around 2 hours.

Victor had talked about his family's house, how it was from the 11th century and how his family restored it, but my god, I was not prepared. It was AMAZING. My jaw dropped.

Front gate

Front of the house (I couldn't stand back far enough to get the whole thing)


Side garden

GIGANTIC fireplace which my 5'4'' frame easily cleared

You can't go to France without going wine tasting. We went a place not too far from the house. It was super foggy, so we couldn't see much of the actual vineyards. We were there for the wine anyway. We tasted 5 wines that ranged from dry to very sweet. The sparkling was definitely my favorite. We bought a couple bottles, one for dinner and one to take back to the states. Had it not been the beginning of the trip, I would have liked to have bought a few more bottles to take home.

After we finished up the winery, we drove an area where a glacier crashed through god only knows how many thousands of years ago. Beautiful steep cliffs and waterfalls.

We definitely ate well during this leg of the trip. I wish I had gotten pictures of everything, but I slacked a little. I think my favorite meal was our lunch of cheese. If I could eat cheese and bread everyday, I would. My version of hell includes lactose intolerance. We got all of these cheeses at a grocery store.

Crazy brocoli-like vegetable we found at the grocery store.

Another fun meal was when we used the raclette. It's this cool griddle looking thing that you plug in, and underneath the griddle, everyone has their own little pan to melt their cheese (yes, even more cheese...be still my heart!). You can heat meat or cook vegetables on top, and then pour melted cheese over them. We had some brussels sprouts, potatoes, cold cuts, bread, and fruit. The best was definitely the classic French combo: cheese, a potato, and a cornichon.

We spent the last day with my sister and her boyfriend at this neat museum that used to be a church hospital. The roofs of the buildings had really cool tile patterns.

Crawfish eyes

Our train for the next leg of the trip left from Dijon, so we stopped for dinner and then walked around for a bit. Such a cute town! I wish we could've spent more time there, but we had to catch the train to Italy. Such a tough life....