Babs Does Britain, Brussels, and Berets: PARIS WEEKEND! Oooh la la!

Before you read this, be sure you have a napkin or something of the sort to wipe your drool. Many delicious food pics are about to make your tummy growl!

We left for Paris on Thursday night. Hopped a train to London and then to Paris. We finally found our hostel after wandering around for awhile (this is becoming our speciality...) and conked out. Our room was great though... 3 beds with a bathroom inside. That is luxury, baby! We woke up around 9:00 or so the next morning and headed to breakfast. I had croque monsieur, which is toast with eggs, ham, and a special cheese sauce. The salad was somewhat wilted, but the dressing was good. And the French fries were great (duhhh because we were in France... kidding, I am going to the french fry origin next weekend).

We then headed on over to the Eiffel Tower to see about climbing to the tippy top. But beforehand, we had to take solo shots in front of it! We have been learning some really cool poses from Asian tour groups that we have seen all over Europe. So vogue, no?

GO TEAM EIFFEL TOWER!

We waited, and we waited, and then we waited some more. Then we finally climbed in the elevator to get about 2/3 of the way up and this was our view:

rain, rain, go away

Well, we wanted to go all the way up. So we waited, and we waited, and then we waited some more. Only to get to the ticket lady and have her turn us away because we had the wrong ticket :( But we just laughed about it and headed to the gift shop. In the gift shop, I encountered the one and only rude Parisian from the entire weekend. Basically, she asked me a really long French question, and my response was "durrrrr uhhhhhh." Miss Madame at The Cathedral School did not prepare me for this... sure, I can rattle off a ton of Christmas Carols in French, but I don't know how to say, "How much?"

The Eiffel Tower turned into a 3-hour ordeal, so we decided we needed to reward our patience with some crepes! Our waiter liked us and just jumped right in our picture!

found myself a cute French man!

itty bitty table

first time to eat chocolate crepes! ya droolin' yet?

Anyway, after that, we headed to get some essential things I had somehow forgotten to pack. I'll let you guess what that might have been. On our way, we saw Laduree! It is an AMAZING macaroon store we had heard about from one of Sidney's friends. How cute is this place?!

And how yummy do these macaroons look?? Yes, to answer your question, we were fat pigs all weekend.

vanilla, raspberry, and chocolate macaroons! no, i didn't eat them all in one sitting

Next, we skiddadled on over to Notre Dame. Gorgeous. It was beautiful because the rain had finally let up. Yes, it had been raining pretty much the whole day, starting when we were on top of the Eiffel Tower. Great timing, huh? Look how gorgeous Notre Dame is- such intricate and beautiful details.

After Notre Dame, we headed back to our hostel to get ready for dinner. We wandered around searching high and low for our dinner spot, but we never found it. Finally at oh... 11:00 pm, we were directed to go to Cafe Louise. Thank you to whoever told us to go there- yummmmmy! Our waitress was great, and she didn't even laugh at us when Sidney and I ordered a second order of escargot. This was my first time to try escargot... definitely not the last. I did have trouble with the utensils though.

mmmm green garlicky snails

For my main dish, I had an old favorite... ratatouille! I had first tried ratatouille a few weeks ago in Bath. Zucchini and eggplant, what could be better? Oh wait, I know! Add 3 GIANT prawns on top- that makes it wayyy better.

We were exhausted, so we cabbed it home and called it a night. The next day, we headed to brunch. Lucky for us, we found the restaurant we had been searching for the night before! It was called Cinq Mars- another Gwyneth Paltrow recommendation (thanks, girl! BFF). I ordered an omelette with mushrooms and a side salad. Heavenly!

French bread and Diet Coke. I love you.

For dessert (gotta get it at every meal in Paris!), I tried profiteroles. I had never had them, but I have always been a sucker for Shipley's cream puffs. They were amazing. Love me some pastry, chocolate, AND ice cream.

We then wandered on over to Musee Dorsay. Like I have mentioned and will probably continue to mention, I am not one for museums. However, this place was great. It had Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Degas, and many more I can't think of off the top of my head. And when my legs got tired, it made for a great people watching spot. Pictures weren't allowed... sorry guys. Next was L'Orangerie. Another great museum. It houses Monet's Water Lillies. I also wandered around and found 2 paintings that I have in my house in LR.

these are my favorite types of pictures... thanks, dude!

now that's mo' betta

look familiar, parents? can't remember which one of y'all has this painting

and does this look familiar, mom and bebe? great taste, ladies!

this is what the sky looked like when we left the museum. creeepy

We then wrapped up the day with a visit to Sacre Couer. We took a tram/elevator thing up this super steep hill and we were there! What a beautiful sight- everyone was in such a great mood while we were there. The sun was out, the church was beautiful, and some dude was playing every Beatles song he could think of on the guitar. Good times were had by all.

the crowd jammin' out

That was our last touristy thing of the day, so we went and freshened up and headed out to ANOTHER awesome dinner. This dinner was at yet another Gwyneth-recommended spot called Brasserie Balzar. The maitre'd was great and was rockin' one sweet mustache. I mean it would have probably poked anyone that walked within 2 feet of him. I had French Onion soup for my appetizer, a french staple called chateaubriand (a filet + fries and bernaise sauce), and chocolate mousse for dessert! Didn't feel guilty at all though, because we had been walking our booties off allll weekend.

French onion soup. Cheesy goodness

chocolate mousse!

The next morning, we headed to brunch one last time at a cafe right beside the Pantheon. I had a croque monsiuer with goat cheese, ham, and tomato. I also had NUTELLA CREPES as my dessert. Perfect way to end my Paris trip! Until we realized we were late for every single train so we had to run through the town like chickens with our heads cut off. Oh well! We made it back in one piece. Good thing I brought things with an elastic waste :)