Off_She_Goes

Falafels for Stephanie

Paris, Day 4

We spend today in the Marais district of Paris, which has lots of interesting boutiques, cafes, and shops. I twas fun to stroll around and look into all of the stores, which had some really hip, design oriented merchandise. I was tempted to buy many things ( a pantone color chip mug, a ceramic crate of six eggs that were salt and pepper shakers, creamer, sugar, and toothpick holders...so cute) but had to content myself with just pictures, as those are the easiest things to carry with me for the next two weeks in a backpack! Below are pictures from a few of the shops in the following order:

1) Fleux on 39 rue Sainte Croix de la Bretonnerie (visit them online at www.fleux.com, their online catalouge is awesome!)

2)Pylonnes shop on 13 Rue Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie (We used to carry alo tof their stuff at Toy Joy - they have very colorful, cute household accessories)

3)Izrael Spice Shop on 30 rue Francois-Miron ( an amazing spice and condiment store that is like an outdoor market inside - my favorite thing was these giant candied clemintines! Yum!)

4) I didnt remember to get the name of this awesome vintage design shop, but they sold wonderful kitchy vintage home decor/objects, including a sweet snow white and the seven dwarves tea set and two large, beautiful white peacocks that stood on a golden bar (i dont think they were real, but it would be awesome if they were) They were a bit prickly about pictures so I took one from outside of this fancy lady and some vintage fruit cookie jars.

We then ate lunch at L'As Falafel, which had been recommended to me by my friends Stephanie and David. The spot was super packed with a line that stetched down the block! It was totally worth it though - my brother and I both agreed it was the best falfel we had ever had! The pita comes stuffed with salad, cabbage, and sauce, and there was a delicious red sauce that I also poled onto my pita. Thanks for the great recommendation!

After lunch we stopped for tea at my favorite place in all of Paris, Mariage Freres. This wonderful tea shop has been around since 1854, and offers over 600 varities of tea. When you step inside you are overwhelmed by the delicious odor of tea, and the servers there measure looseleaf tea out of giant jars lining the wall for you to purchase. In the tea room, the waiters contunue the tradition of wearing two piece white linen suits, and present you with a thick menu of all the hundreds of teas you can choose from. It is so, so wonderful.If you ever find yourself in Paris, this is the #1 thing I would do! I went many times when I was studying aborad in Paris and really enjoyed it - unfortunately it was super packed today so I had to content myself with just the shop and not the salon du the.

 

Last stop of the day was the Palais du Tokyo, a very avant garde art museum. the Current exhibit was titled "Chasing Napoleon" and "brings together eighteen artists whose works also read as instruction manuals on how to withdraw into seclusion and take refuge in the limits of the visible." (quote taken from the Palais du Tokyo website)
Some of the most interesting pieces on display were a wooden cabin built in a room (that you could not enter, I wish you could, I think that would have been a really interesting experience space wise) a pile of euros eternally on fire, a photo series of over 33,000 pictures cataloging all of the houses from one city in Iceland (forgive me I cant remember the name) in two separate two year periods set 20 years apart (but done by the same artist) and finally, my favorite piece, titled "For the Dogs", a musical piece first composed in the 1910s by a musician, and then recorded in 2002 by an artist, who then was able to create a new recording of the piece at a certain pitch frequency that is audible to humans but able to be heard by dogs.

Oh! and one last thing! i had my first crepe today! but i am getting kicked out of the internet room so pictures later....

Many Strange Meats

I have eaten so many new foods today that I thought they deserved their own post. To the vegan or weak at heart for meat, perhaps skip this post...

We had a delicious lunch at a place called Le petit Zinc, which was an amazingly beautiful art nouveau style building, with lots of flowing, organic wood rails and staircases inside, with tables on little lillypads at different levels. I couldnt get a good picture of the inside, but here is a shot of the exit door - so lovely! I wish part of my house looked like this!

So for lunch I had a chicken liver terrine and beef bourginoun (I dont know if I spelled that correctly). I had to order the beef dish after watching "Julie and Julia " last week, where the dish is referenced quite a bit. The beef was delicious - a rich, thick stew with huge fresh carrots - nummers.

Later after the Louvre we ate dinner at Chez Ferdinand on the recommendation of my brothers girlfriend Lily, and while delicious, it was quite...meaty.

We all tried two appetizers, duck foie gras (or meat butter, as Emma calls it) with Mango Chutney, and bone marrow, which I was very curious to try after hearing so much about the dish from Stephanie and David. Unfortunately, this is a dish that is definitely NOT for me - I dont think I will eat it again - its just too meaty tasting. ~Sorry guys.

After that came lamb with a mushroom cream sauce and mashed potatoes, as well as black truffle ravioli. It was all so delicious, but by that point I was all meated out, and although I throughly enjoyed my meal, I forced my family to walk back home instead of taking the subway so we could walk off part of our feast. I was quite content to spend the next two hours walking, getting (very) lost, walking some more, and then finally getting back to our hotel, but I am not sure if everyone was that enthused. Especially after the getting lost part (we accidentally walked the opposite direction of our hotel for 30 minutes...ooops.)

but now we are all home and full and happy, so I am off to sleep, and swearing off eating any meats for at least a week now...oy vey. At least it was all in the name of adventure!

Sweet Dreams,

HK

The Louvre has my sweater...

AND I WANT IT BACK. but more about that later.

Today was really a super packed day. We woke up early today to walk to the Ille de la cite, and island on the seine in between the right and left banks. On the Island past Notre Dame there is an AMAZING flower market, which bursts full of color with the most fragrant, beautiful, and exotic flowers in all of france - or so Frommers guidebook says. When we arrived, it was sadly closed. I suppose it makes sense that a drizzly 35 degree day in December would not be the best day for the flower market. Oh well.

We spent the rest of the morning walking around the island and visited the really interesting Concierge,  first built in the 6th century and then changed and added to over time. The main hall is this really azing somewhat underground gothic hall, with really cool spiral stircases and giant fireplaces. Then as you walk through you discover the part that was used as a prison during the reign of terror to hold prosoners before they went to the guillotine. This is where Marie Antoinette was held before her execution, and you can visit her holding cell and a period accurate furnished replica that they created...there is a lifelize mannequin of marie antoinette in the cell dressed in all black, and her back is to you and she is bent over like she is praying...it is SUPER creepy.

After that we headed to Notre Dame, where I saw more tourists in a given area than I have ever seen in my whole life. My favorite thing about the church is not actually inside but on the outside...outside above all the doors are lots and lots of sculptures of various saints and religious figures. Each is holding or wearing something special to identify themself... my favorite is St. Denis, who is holding his head - he was beheaded in 250 A.D. on the highest hill in Paris (Montmarte) for his many conversions. According to legend (or Wikipedia) he then picked up his head and carried it for two miles while continuing to preach a sermon. In the picture I took, he is third to the left.

The real highlight of the day was our trip to Shakespeare & Co. bookstore, and english bookstore at 37 rue butcherie along the left bank of the Seine. I feel as though this bookstore is alot liek toy joy in many ways - it was jam packed and had lots of littel nooks and crannies to discover. Outside of teh shop books were displayed in vintage suitcases. inside they were everywhere, on shelves, in stacks on the floor, lining staircases, etc. there were also lots of cozy reading nooks and old movie theatre chairs to rest in under the staircase! Here is the front counter:

Upstairs there was a tiny nook/hutch with a typewriter in it, where you can type a little note and tack it to the wall! If you want to see what I wrote you will have to come to paris and find it here:

(me at the typewriter)

After the bookstore we went and met up with my brother, who had been hot air ballooning with his girlfriend Lily in the south of France. Together, we all went to the Louvre, which was super huge and super awesome. My brother and I toured The rooms of Napoleon's apartments, which look like this:

not too shabby, eh? We then decided to see if we could get from one end of the Louvre (Napoleons apts) to the opposite side to see the Mona Lisa before the closing of the museum in 30 mins. Lesson learned - it is possible, but it takes 20 minutes of seriously brisk walking, stairclimbing, and crowd weaving. After journeying so far, I was so hot I had to take off my coat, sweater, and hat. Only on my way out of the italian painting exhibit did I realize that my beloved sweater was gone! I think it slipped out of my jacket when I stopped to take a picture of this goon:

Sadly, guards at the Louvre are super hardcore, and there was no going back to look for this well dressed marble man or my wooly black sweater...so for now I am cold but hoping that my sweater will turn up when I call the lost and found Wednesday.
  
 
 
 

Museums and Macaroons

So, today I had a great idea to take pic on my iphone and not my digital camera so I can email them to myself and post them from the internet, rather than waiting until I get home and find my computer camera.

Unfortunately, I was so excited about this that I took too many pictures and my iphone died before I could send any pictures to myself. it is in the room recharging now...oh well. perhaps pictures tomorrow?

Here is a quick rundown of the day:

Woke up early and set out for the Musee d'Orsay, a beautiful museum of artwork (mostly from 1840s-1920s, I would saw) that is housed in a an old rail station. The layout of the museum is really interesting and there were some amazing works of art there. I will try to post my favorites tomorrow.

After spending 4 (!) hours there, we crossed the Seine and meandered around the area north of the Louvre until we found a place to eat lunch. After lunch we headed to the Musee Orangerie, where Monet's large scale water lily paintings are housed.

Looking at the waterlilies was really wonderful ,but what I enjoyed the most was actually the temporary exhibit they had downstairs, Les Enfants Modeles, which featured paintings, sketches, and sculptures created by famous artists of their children. There were some really stunning portraits, and there was also stories from the subjects about what it was like to be a model for their parents. Unfortunately they were in French so I couldnt really read them. I really want the book for the exhibition, but will have to find one in English.

After that museum, we walked down the Champs Elysees which was really amazing because they had a super bustling christmas market set up in the park and it was packed packed packed with people. After weaving through countless crepe, hat, and hot wine stands, we finally reached the final desitnation of the evening  - Laduree, a famous pastry shop that makes what I would agree are the worlds best macaroon. In case you are wondering, these are not the little coconut balls. These macaroons are two delicious cake like wafers held together with a delicious middle layer of buttercream...mmm.

(image found at Le Petit Monde D'Oiseau's  blog at blogspot.com)
 

Ladree's macaroons are reputed to be the most delicious in the world, and their tea room on the Champs Elysees is nothing shortof fabulous - there are heavy curatins, ornate china, and little trees made of macaroons everywhere!

(picture from donutstodelirium.com)

I ordered four flavors of macaroons for tasting - coffee, caramel with sea salt (so good), rose with rosewater cream (even better) and my favorite, violet with blackcurrant cream. To die for! So my mom and I bought a dox of 12 to take back to the hotel.

With a tum full of sugar and happiness, we marched to the arch d'triumph and took a subway home from there. And now: to shower. Tomorrow: the Louvre!

Sweet Dreams,

HK
 

Posting new adventures daily to www.offshegoes.typepad.com ! Please visit me and leave a message!

Paris, Day 1

We arrived in Paris this morning after a very long flight ( for those of you concerned with the status of the inflight movies, it didnt matter much because my seats tv was broken anyway,hmph.)

After an additional long RER ride, I was quite happy to arrive at our hotel and have a nap to recover!

We spent the rest of the day exploring the 5th and 13th arrondissments, which is the area of the left bank where our hotel is located. We spent most of the day exploring on foot, and saw several interesting things, including the Institut du Monde Arab (look it up; the design of the building is awesome) and then walked through a lovely modern art outdoor sculpture garden along the seine as the sun set. We also spent quite a few hour meandering down neighborhood streets, getting lost and popping in and out of cafes to keep warm.

The highlight of the day was our dinner at the Mosque de Paris, a beautiful building that houses a mosque, baths, and a beautiful restaurant with AMAZING food. Unfortunately I cant post any pictures now because I dont have the computer card that goes with my camera, but if you would like to see the beautiful interior; follow the link bellow and click "see pictures":

http://www.la-mosquee.com/htmluk/entreeuk.htm

The restaurant serves tagines and couscous dishes, I ordered a sort of lamb stew with sweet pickled lemons, olives, and golden raisins - delicious. My mom ordered a couscous stew with beef and parsely meetballs and veggies in a hot tomatoey broth, it was also very tasty. The meal came with hot strong mint tea sweetened with honey, and for dessert I tried a dish of honey, nougat, and mint tea ice cream with pine nuts sprinkled on top. The whole meal was really magical, and we were all sad to leave the warm restaraunt, but grateful for the walk home, which hopefully burned off some of the feast!

Tomorrow we start with a visit to the Musee d'Orsay (!) and then a walk around the ile de la cite and st louis en l'ile, and then I am on a special mission to visit Shakespeare and Co. bookstore.

If anyone out there has any suggesstions for favorite places to visit, eat, or drink in Paris, please let me know! You can send me a text or post suggesstions to the blog - I plan to check it daily. (hem hem stephanie and david this means you....where is that falafel place?)

Until then, Happy winter wishes, I hope you are staying warm wherever you are!

Sweet Dreams,

HK

Damn.

Super crappy inflight movies. Grr.

Tummy Butterflies

Rather excited to begin my first blog, as well as to begin my trip abroad. 

As of now I am quite nervous - too nervous to put anything into the nice backpackers bag I bought, too nervous to sleep, and I have quite the case of tummy butterflies! 

It is also storming outside and I can hear all the crashing of debris from the construction site next door as I lay in bed typing. The power also keeps going on and off and I am too nervous to sleep!

Hopefully I will get my act together tomorrow and not forget anything (too) important before I head home to Houston. 

Sweet Dreams

HK