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
the falafel place is in the (for lack of a better description) gay/jewish district. Its the one where the sign reads "Lenny Kravitz
recommends" GO THERE!
Posted by: Steph | 12/28/2009 at 10:54 AM