Founded in 1686, this is the oldest café in Paris and the world’s first literary cafe – where Voltaire, Rousseau, Hugo and La Fontaine used to meet. At the entrance, on a glass case, is Napoleon Bonaparte’s hat. Legend has it that it was left as a collateral for the bill he could not pay.
On the table:
- Royal Procope which is a platter of oysters, clams, prawns, crab, langoustines, whelks and shrimps
- Calf’s Head Casserole, 1686-style
Food was great. Oysters were ultra fresh. Atmosphere was lovely. Definitely worth a visit!
Little Guy was asleep when we went to the Eiffel Tower the day before. So we tried one more time. He was awake and excited while we were walking to St. Lazare station, but then halfway to Havre-Caumartin he started to drowse off. It was a very looong walk so by the time we got to the train platform, he was asleep and was totally knocked out when we hopped off at the Trocadero station. Despite that, we still managed to capture some nice shots…
While at La Flotille, we saw couples, families and a group of teenagers hopping onto the boats.
Growing up, it was our favorite past time during nap time… sneaking on the boat of our neighbor. So when husband said, “it looks like fun.” I said, “let’s do it.”
So now we’re in the middle of the lake trying to figure out how to maneuver the boat. Should we paddle to the left? Should we paddle to the right? Should we paddle together?
Then the rain came pouring down -- goodness gracious! We tried so hard to paddle toward the edge of the lake. Then I hopped off, ran to the station, told the crew while pointing to my husband, “he needs to be rescued.” LOL!
What a perfect place to spend a lovely afternoon in Versailles.
A UNESCO World Heritage site visited by 7 million tourists a year, the opulent estate of King Louis XIV, used to be the envy of other European monarchs, is the greatest and grandest of them all.
We’re not here to visit the palace, we’ve seen it before. What we would like to see this time around is the Queen's Hamlet near the Petit Trianon which unfortunately was closed for lunch break when we got there. So we walked back to the tram and then got off at The Grand Canal.
Little Guy was taking a nap, or most likely asleep and still in Los Angeles time zone, so we carried him to mom’s room and then off we go to St. Lazare station. Took the metro to Invalides then hop on RER C to Château / Rive-Gauche.
We shopped at Carrefour for our little picnic at the hotel -- wine, cheese, baguette, duck mousse and apricot sauce.
I was leafing through travel tips for Paris when I found out that queue for the elevator to the top could take up to 2 hours or even longer. Line was way shorter during our first visit… from what I remember. But the good news is… you could now buy tickets online to skip the line. So I bought the tickets online right away… although not the time that I planned to be there. So I had to move things around on our itinerary and had to cancel a dinner reservation.
So here we are walking from Le Suffren to the Eiffel Tower on Champ de Mars when suddenly it rained with snowdrops. It would have been really pretty on the pictures with the Eiffel Tower backdrop had it not been too windy. Too windy that our umbrellas folded and broke.
With the pre-purchased tickets on hand, we were able to hop on the elevator without having to fall in line.
Up, up, and… voila! One of the best places to see Paris from above.
Here we are at a randomly chosen restaurant on Avenue de Suffren close to the La Motte-Picquet metro station where we got off on the way to the Eiffel Tower. This was a great random pick – food was surprisingly good and everyone was very friendly and accommodating. Crowd was a mix of locals and tourists – considering its proximity to the Eiffel Tower.
On beef tartare, I would eat half a spoon (max) as the thought of eating raw beef with raw egg still doesn’t appeal to me – slightly horrifies me actually, but then I saw this little Parisian girl seated next to us, she’s probably 8 - 10 years old, enjoying a plate of beef tartare. Wow!
... provided the perfect backdrop.
The Little Guy posed and said, “take my picture mommy.”
Located in the 6th arrondissement, Le Jardin du Luxembourg is said to be the most beautiful garden in Paris and very kid friendly. Who says Paris is only for grown-ups?
So here is our little traveler chasing the ducks.
At Le Renoir on Rue Vaugirard savoring a cup of hot chocolate, croissant and baguette with butter like a Parisien.
Dinner time! I have been dreaming about French food for a long time… foie gras, duck confit, profiteroles… oh, yum!
So I had Bourgogne Sud on my list – a highly rated bistro close to our hotel, about 3-minute walk according to Google Map. However, we headed the other way and ended up there 20 minutes later at around 9:00 pm. The place is small and packed. The hostess/owner is nice and friendly. She told us to come back another day as they could no longer accommodate us for the night. Parisians take the time to enjoy dinner. They usually stay until almost closing time. It is a 3-4 hour love affair with food.
The owner grabbed a piece of paper, wrote down another bistro and sketched the direction. And that’s how we ended up here… at Le Bistro des Deux Theatres… for our first dinner in Paris this time around.
Food was mind-blowing good. I had foie gras for appetizer, pan-roasted duck breast with gratin dauphinoise in morel mushroom cream sauce for the main course and dessert was Suzette crepes that were flambéed table-side with grand marnier. Yum-O! Husband had oysters, scallops & prawns and pineapple carpaccio with mint leaves and coconut ice cream. Mom had fish soup from Cote d’Azur, griddled sea bass in lemon butter sauce and ice cream.
We stayed in the 9th arrondissement located on the right bank of Paris --- where Opera, Boulevard Haussmann, St. Lazare station and department stores Galeries Lafayette and Printemps are within walking distance.
