Winning London: "Paris is always a good idea"

- Audrey Hepburn, Sabrina

Taking Aunt Audrey's advice, this past weekend my friend Anna and I went to Paris to channel our inner Julia Child and eat our weight in crepes. We had the pleasure of staying with some cousins on my Dad's side of the family, who 30 years ago pulled a Hemingway and decided to settle in Paris, which made the trip really fun - their home was in a great part of the city, backing up onto the Ecole Militaire and about a 10 minute walk from the Eiffel Tower along the Left Bank of the Seine. They were wonderful hosts and were nice enough to show us around the first day we were there, as well as treating us to some delicious French food during our stay with them. The first day, Danielle took us to the Musee Cluny, which had remnants from Roman walls and baths, medieval tapestries, stained glass windows, and a plethora of other medieval items. From there we went to the Musee de Arts et Metiers, which shows different technologies as they've developed over time, so they had a lot of really cool old airplane models, some of the original cameras, typewriters, and computers, and a bunch of funky automatons that were slightly terrifying, but fun to check out nonetheless!

The next day was filled with wandering around Paris and checking out some of the more touristy sights - it was great because Anna and I had already been to Paris once before, so we could sort of pick and choose what we really wanted to do and didn't feel as much pressure to see all of the more famous sights. We did fit in visits to the Museum of Modern Art, Latin Quarter, Montmatre, Notre Dame, and the Eiffel Tower though, which was a lot of fun. Luckily Anna was there more recently than I was, so she was able to guide us around parts of the city, which was a huge help. We had initially planned to check out some flea markets, but on Sunday we woke up to heavy snowfall - so we got the full range of Parisian weather! Being from New England we thought that the weather wouldn't be a big deal.. but boy did we underestimate how cold it would be out. We were both absolutely freezing, but we just put on almost every item of clothing that we brought with us, filled up on tea and coffee, and didn't let the cold deter us from having a great time. Early that morning, we walked to the Eiffel Tower eating our pain au chocolats and croissants we had just purchased from the boulangerie, getting dusted by a light snowfall, and as we saw the Eiffel Tower emerge in front of us, I thought to myself 'This scene probably couldn't get more French right now.' At that exact moment, a dog ran past us with an entire baguette in it's mouth. Touché, universe.

(And yes, we did miss the Superbowl.. which was probably for the best considering that it didn't work out too favourably for the Pats!)

Some sour candies with the same name as the town right next to Acton, seemed like a good way to start off the trip

First night in Paris!

Some shots of the room we were staying in - apparently these separate apartments used to be the maid's quarters back in the day

Good morning Paris!

The street we stayed on, Avenue Emile Acollas

Keeping warm with some morning tea

Sundial drawn onto the wall at the Musee Cluny

Courtyard of the museum

View of the tower from the opposite side of the Seine, in the Trocadero

Making our game plan for the next day!

Dick and Danielle were nice enough to take us out to one of their favourite restaurants one night, and the food was absolutely delicious.

Dessert time!

Danielle smoking her cookie cigar

Me, Dick, and Danielle in restaurant Carmine

The next morning, we woke up to.. snow!

We woke up bright and early to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower, waited in the frigid cold for half an hour, only to find out that the tower was closed due to snow.. but at least we got some pretty pictures of the tower in winter

Bonjour!

We needed to go back to the apartment to thaw off for a bit and re-bundle up.. preparing to face the elements again

Moulin Rouge

Sacre Coeur

Cool mural outside of the Museum of Modern Art, right by a delicious crepe restaurant that Anna had been to when she was last in Paris with her family

The escalators going in and out of the Museum were really cool - you could see views of the whole city, plus it felt like you were in a giant hamster tube

Channeling our inner hunchback.. Notre Dame

Anna navigating us around

That night, we went to dinner at a restaurant we had spotted that morning when we stumbled upon some markets near the Metro Station. I went for the steak tartare, figuring I'd be adventurous, and it was actually really good! We also had a crazy French waiter named Philippe, who was amazed that I would a.) order steak tartare, and b.) actually finish it all