I'm about to overload you with photos...

This blog post is full of photos!!  What an excellent weekend I have had in Paris!  Friday I was welcomed by a package full of goodies from my mom, which included Seinfeld Seasons 1 & 2.  Instant movie night!  Saturday morning I woke up and met a big group of au pairs out at the end of line 9 for some flea-marketing.  I wasn't so impressed, as digging for used clothes that may or not have been around since 1964 is not really my cup of tea.  Rozy was the only lucky one and found a cute tweed blazer for 1 euro in pretty good shape.  So, we left to go find something to eat and check out a huge vintage shop in the 16th that Taylor had discovered.  We stumbled upon a tiny crêperie with a delicious menu.  The walls were covered with black and red wallpaper with black booths and tables and red highlights.  Elevator/jazzy music was playing in the background and you could hear the chatter of everyone around you considering there were only 7 tables.  This wasn't a nutella crêpe kinda place, but more of an inventive crêpe/galette restaurant.  After a good 15 minutes of salivating over which to choose:  caramel/apple, nuts/brie, salmon/crème fraîche, strawberry/homemade chocolate sauce I settled on sautéed spinach/tomato coulis/crème fraîche/and an egg.  YUM.  

A nice, pretty, before picture:

And, after I mixed it into a plate of yummy goodness:

Taylor and Rozy both chose honey/walnuts/goat cheese.  Holy filling.  

We left with full stomachs in tow, en pleine forme to check out really expensive secondhand Chanel, Lanvin, and Roberto Cavalli.  Can only imagine if you buy these items at the actual store.  Don't get me wrong there were some absolutely beautiful things, but I had rather spend my hard earned euros on travel!!!!  I had promised Chloé and Franck I would babysit Saturday night so Estelle, Laura and I wandered a bit around the area killing time stumbling upon, surprise surprise the Eiffel Tower.  I decided to take advantage of the bit of fall coloring left and snap a few shots.  

Marie-Césare was an angel and we were in the middle of playing with pâte à modeler when she picks up and says she is tired and she wanted to go to bed.  Well...I have never heard such a thing from a kid in my life.  But, alas, we went directly into bed as I feared her changing her mind!  I spent the evening doing a small fraction of the amount of homework I have due for next week and helping Chloé by proofreading a presentation that she had to do for work.  (In English of course...)  By reading all those marketing statistics and facts and figures it made me realize I am just not ready for the real world.  ha!! Although it is quickly approaching....

This morning I met Laura for church and afterwards headed to meet Estelle at the Arc de Triomphe for today was the day that we were going to brave the stairs to the top!  It was a beautiful and a bit warmer as we waited in line for our ticket and then walked around the corner.  You know what?  There were only 284 stairs!  There are 187 or so to the top of my stairs so what's another hundred?  Leaning Tower of Pisa was 430-something....It was a piece of cake.  And so worth it.  I have enjoyed every "best view of Paris" I have encountered including Sacre-Coeur, Panthéon, Tour Montparnasse, Tour Eiffel, and the pavilion at Parc des Buttes Chaumont but this was by far my absolute favorite.  The Panthéon is so far away from everything and you can't see the Eiffel Tower from the Sacre-Coeur...but from the Arc de Triomphe its incredible!  You can get the lay of the land and the beautiful structure in the same picture, its breathtaking.  

You can also get a birds eye view of the Champs Élysées and all the people scurrying about spending money they don't have.  

And you can't forget about Sacre-Coeur...although I'm not sure you can even notice it in this photo now that I've posted it....

And, you can discover truly the horizontal axis of Paris.  If it weren't for all the smog, you could really tell this was the Louvre and the arc in front of the Louvre, the obelisk on Place de la Concorde, and Tuileries gardens.  

And then of course on the other side you have La Défense.  You can stand right in the middle of the horizontal axis and see how exact everything is.  Pretty impressive.  

The twelve avenues that radiate from Place Charles-de-Gaulle are all named after battles and famous people related to the military history of Revolutionary and Imperial France.  In 1806 after the Battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon told his soldiers that they will "march home through arches of victory."  The arch was suppose to be the single most dominating structure in Paris and was originally suppose to be on the Bastille side of Paris but Avenue Champs Élysées was chosen as a more appropriate location.  

Needing something to warm us up a bit, we met Flora and Alison at Angelina's for a cup of chocolat chaud.  The line wasn't long at all so we took advantage and decided to actually go in and have a proper hot chocolate and an authentic Angelina's experience.  They were prepared for the masses today as every pastry was in stock and the towers filled with warmed chocolate were full to the brim.  

*Mouth watering photos ahead*

Toni, these are for you! 

Pecan Brioche, Strawberry/Pistachio Religieuse and Saori

Tartelette Eva, Verrine Fraises, and Green Tea Cake with Raspberry filling

Chocolat Eclair, Mango/Passion Fruit Eclair, and Apricot Verrine

Religieuse, Saori, and Olympe

I have never actually taken the time to read the description of each pastry, because in the "to-go" line it is rather hurried.  If the way each pastry is presented isn't enough, you should read the descriptions in the menu.    

Unfortunately the room where our table was ended up being rather warm, so my wallet thanked me as I ordered only a pastry and skipped on the hot chocolate today.  What did I choose after all of those delicious descriptions?  

The Saori:  

A lime cheese cake on top of homemade vanilla pastry (a good half inch thick by the way), with a strawberry gelée filling.  A thin layer of white chocolate was draped over the top with flecks of lime zest, 4 tiny strawberry marshmallows, a strawberry, and a little gold leaf for color and luxuriousness I suppose.  Sound overwhelming?  Yes, it was but surprisingly everything worked together in harmony for a refreshing snack.  

Jealous?  You should be.  Sometimes I think that pastries are overrated for their price here in France and I go months without eating a tart, pain au chocolat, or macaron.  But I am here to tell you that in fact, they are not overrated.  They are delicious little slices of heaven and the Saori was worth every bit of 7 euros and the afternoon spent getting to know good friends.  

Tomorrow we are having proper English tea at my friend Alison's house (I seem to have encountered lots and lots of English friends this year) and the early Tuesday we leave for Budapest!!!!  I haven't had nearly enough time to get excited about the fact that I will be spending 4 days in Hungary, so I better catch up.  Spending my Sunday evening deleting old photos on my memory card, packing, hopefully chatting with my parents, and a warm cup of tea.  

Life is good excellent.