Weekend in Paris

It's been a while since our last visit to Paris - in fact almost exactly one year (we came about the same time of the year last year). So I was rather looking forward to visiting Paris, a city we truly love.

Like last time, we booked a flat for the weekend via Airbnb, this time in the 15th Arrondisement, at Rue de Commerce. As I'd taken the afternoon off from work, we arrived quite early in Paris. The area where we were staying was rather nice - a busy commercial street (obviously, given the name!) with plenty of cafés and restaurants. The flat was basic, but suited our needs perfectly. We could even see the top of the Eiffel tower from one of the windows.

After having a walk around the area, we made our way to Le Table Libanaise, where we're meeting our dear friend Isabelle for dinner. Great restaurant, with excellent, friendly service and great food (well, I'll have to trust Mathilde and Isa on that, as I was suffering from a bad cold, so my taste buds were not up to the job of assessing the quality of the food). Great to catch up with Isabelle as well, as always!

The next morning, after a breakfast at the flat, we headed off towards Petit Palais, where the plan was to check out an exhibition. We took the metro to Hotel des Invalides, and crossed the Seigne to the Petit Palais (quite a scenic walk, it has to be said!).

Naturally, the exhibition we were checking out had a connection with Japan - the exhibition covered the art of a certain Kuniyoshi, a master of Ukiyo-e (woodblock prints). I loved the exhibition - even more than Hokusai exhibition we checked out one year ago in the Grand Palais! The emphasis of the exhibition was on his depictions of the Japanese legends - so plenty of samurais, legendary monsters and so forth - cool! There was also a second exhibition about fantasy art in Europe, to make the connection between the West and the East, which was pretty cool as well.

We then made our way over to Montparnasse, where the plan was to pay a visit to Muriel and Mathilde's nieces and nephews. We stopped by for lunch at a local favourite of ours -le cantine de Trouquet, which features Parisian/Basque bistrot type food signed by  Christian Etchebest (e chef who's made numerous appearances on various cooking shows on telly).

Our appetites sated, rendez-vous at Muriel's flat, where we spent a rather intensive hour or so with Muriel and the kids (for a moment, I thought Paul and Lucas had calmed down - for a while they seemed to be more interested to play on their tablets/phones than messing with me, but in the end they proved me wrong). Great to see the kids and Muriel, as always!

After that, we decided to do what we love most to do in Paris, kind of stroll around randomly. Well, the plan was to check out a furniture shop (we're planning to buy a sofa!) but that was kind of just an excuse for strolling about. We started our stroll, by crossing the Montparnasse graveyard (a bit less famous than Pere Lechaise, but still, quite a few famous people buried here). From there, we strolled towards Saint-Michel and the Latin quarter, where we crossed the River Seigne, and found ourselves at the Louvre. 

We then made our way to the Opera, and then to Gallerie LaFayette (the big one, in Paris), where we finally checked out some sofas. No luck finding what we were looking for, though. The shopping bit done, we made our way down Boulevard Montmartre to le BAT, where we were meeting up with our good friend CoCo for dinner. Excellent venue, excellent company. Le BAT specialize in tapas, and they were really excellent (if a bit pricey, but that's Paris for you I suppose). I still felt a bit hungry, so went for a main course - excellent as well. Afterwards, we went to a nearby bar for a drink. Great night out - as it always is with CoCo!

The next day (sadly our last day in Paris), we had a rendez-vous at our friend Sarah's place in the 16th arrondisment (la classe - the 16th arrondisment is a rather posh part of Paris!). Being avid walkers, we decided to go by foot. As we were meeting for lunch, we had quite a bit of time to explore Paris in the morning. 

We decided to start with the Parc Andre Citron (yes, that would be the car manufacturint pioneer). This was actually the site of the original Citroen manufacturing plant, which was torn down after production ended in the 1970's. The park is very modern (dating back to 1992), but didn't really impress us. It feels somehow cold and not like a particularly inviting place, with a big lawn in the midlde (with a panoramic balloon being the main attraction. Plenty of joggers having a run around the concrete corridors that line the central lawn. 

We then crossed the Seigne and ended up in the 16th arrondisment. We still had an hour and a bit to kill, so decided to do part of a walk I'd found on the internet. Quite a pleasant stroll, we particularly enjoyed Rue Boileau, with its various Art Nouveau buildings. There are some quite cosy little private (gated) cobble-stoned streets as well, where one could almost imagine being in a village. All in all, I didn't get the feeling of a particularly posh part of town, appearances can be deceiving, I suppose...

Time for lunch, then! Sarah, an ex-colleague of Mathilde whom we often met in the port of Nice for great dinners & nights out, moved to Paris this autumn. Present were also Julie and Aurelien, who just arrived in Paris, and were planning to stay for a week. 

So, pretty much like a standard night out in Nice, then... The lunch Sarah had prepared for us was predictably delicious - she'd prepared a Dal Bhat, a traditional Indian/Nepalese recipe. Actually, it's been a while since my last Dal Bhat (I had plenty of Dal Bhat during my 3 week hiking trip in Nepal - in fact that's about the only thing I ate for 2 weeks during the amazing Annapurna trek I did). 

So a great finale for a great weekend in Paris then! Felt rather sad to head back to Nice, especially as Mathilde was off to La Rochelle for a week.