Ah, Paris. Surely the most famous of romantic destinations? And of course the ideal choice for me and Mr Coke to spend our first weekend away from the boy... We crept out of Nana's house at 6.30am, drove the 15 minutes to Ebbsfleet and hopped on the Eurostar for our 2 hour journey to Gare du Nord. Now THAT'S what I call civilised!
Whereas for some people, a climb up the Eiffel Tower and cultured browsing in the Louvre would have been on the 'must do' list, my own notes consisted of a list of restaurants, and the word CHEESE at the top in capital letters. On the Friday we had booked to dine at l'Arpège, which I was super excited about. Luckily Rob checked the prices online beforehand and swiftly changed our booking to lunch when he saw that dinner would cost us the price of a small car. We had a splendid tasting menu which consisted of mainly vegetable dishes from their garden - a wonderful gazpacho soup, fresh tomato salad, herb ravioli - plus a monkfish or chicken main course, apple millefeuille and a fascinating cheese selection which included something that tasted like manure. Yes, really.
There was also a selection of rudely shaped marrow and squash table decorations which became much more amusing as my wine intake increased...
The following day we decided we really should make the effort to see some famous sights, so we paid our €26 each for an Open Top bus tour. Two hours later, I knew everything there was to know about Paris (did you know that 'on the Champs Elysees you can buy everything from cars to video tapes' - wow, video tapes!) and I'd also acquired a suntan. Marvellous! We disembarked and fought our way through the shopping tourists at Galleries Lafayette to find a cosy little arcade called Passage de Panoramas where we dined on some fabulous Lyonnaise sausages and goats cheese.
In the evening we climbed up to Sacré Coeur with what seemed like a thousand other people, and sat drinking Carlsberg as the sun went down and teenagers played guitars - it brought back happy memories of sitting in the Sacred Space at Glastonbury Festival!
We had a big night planned for Saturday, a dinner at the 'world's 9th best restaurant' - according to Restaurant magazine - Le Chateaubriand. It's notoriously difficult to get a table there but Mr Coke somehow managed to cajole Sat Bains ('celebrity' chef and fellow Lenton resident) into organising it for us via Twitter. How very modern! When we arrived there at 9pm after a stroll through an area called 'Belleville' - a particularly inappropriate name! - it was heaving and we started to have a small panic. But then Sebastian greeted us with 'Oh you must be Sat's friends!' - well, THAT made us feel very special indeed. The restaurant was small and lively, with an open kitchen and the skinny staff running around like their pants were on fire whilst the queue outside the entrance grew longer. We had a tasting menu which included such delights as duck heart, squid in black ink, tuna, consommé (with coffee beans!) and mushrooms in chocolate - it was certainly unusual. The waiters were charming and the wine was lush... unbelievably though, there was only one loo and people were queuing for it almost into the kitchen...which I found hilarious - again, probably as a result of a bit too much alcohol.
So, our final meal in Paris was Sunday lunch - Sebastian at Chateaubriand had recommended a place called Le Verre Volé in Marais, near the canal. It was teeny, and we enjoyed yet another splendid feast - carpaccio of grey mullet and raspberries, squid, beef, stingray, fine wine and yet more young skinny waiters (honestly, Paris is full of them!).
In terms of tips for Paris, all I can say is - take a lot of Euros with you. Luckily our trip was a prize from Lending Stream, so all we paid for were our expensive meals - but of course, they were worth every penny!
This post is an entry for the Travelizer competition, and below is a blog hop that you can add your entry to, and then copy the code to add to your own blog - I look forward to reading your travel tales...
