Should We Stay Or Should We Go?

One sign it may be time to leave Paris: in the Parc des Buttes Chaumont today, we saw a mom encouraging her child to poop on the grass next to some bushes. She did not heed the message of the signs placed all over the city.

This is much, much more disgusting than the several times we've witnessed parents educating their children in the joys and conveniences of public urination. Just gross.

On the other hand, we've had 5 days of gorgeous weather, which is helping us remember why we fell in love with Paris in the first place. There are things you do in fine weather that beat all the museums, tea rooms, and restaurants in Paris. Yesterday, for instance, we indulged in a cherished summertime ritual: savoring a cone of Berthillon glace on the banks of the Seine.

(The Paris) Life is good. Maybe we'll stick around after all.

Two Days with Moritz and Rebecca

After a glorious, five-day romp in Paris, Becky flew back to the States yesterday (sad times Panda). Now that she and Gladis have come and gone, we only have one remaining visitor coming up - Maggie's mom. But before we get too ahead of ourselves, we're super late in gushing about two visitors we had in early April, when the ash cloud was still just a bit of indigestion in the belly of the Eyjafjallajökull Volcano.

Rebecca (Maggie's 2nd cousin) and Moritz (Rebecca's partner) had previously been our hosts when we visited Munich for Thanksgiving. We were excited to return the favor during their trip to Paris, and we hope we showed them as good of a time as they showed us.

Since neither Rebecca nor Moritz cared too much about hitting all the major sites of Paris, we were free to meander through our favorite areas, stopping by places both familiar and completely new. For example: the Maison de Victor Hugo (the apartment where he lived between 1832-48 is now a free museum run by the City of Paris) . . .


 . . . the Berthillon salon de thé . . .

 . . . La Grande Épicerie du Bon Marché, where all kinds of Easter-related delights could be found  . . .

 . . . and the Pont des Arts, where couples recently began leaving small padlocks attached to the bridge as a sign of their undying love (the City of Paris just announced it will soon begin removing said padlocks).

But the big event of the weekend had nothing to do with where we went or what we did. It started when Moritz emailed us several weeks before the visit, asking for restaurant recommendations for a "special celebration." Maggie came up with Les Ombres, the restaurant on top of the Musée du Quai Branly with close-up views of the Eiffel Tower. Here's the happy pair before dinner:

When they got home, we found out that Moritz and Rebecca had had the "best meal of their lives," followed by a short walk to the Eiffel Tower, where Moritz proposed, and where Rebecca accepted. Hooray! and congratulations!

It turned out Moritz and Rebecca showed themselves a good time in Paris. We're just glad we got to go along for the ride.

Afternoon Tea in Paris with Joy and Cathy (Part II)

Louis already posted about two of the salons de thé we visited when Joy and Cathy were here, and I'm going to tell you about a few more.

Mariage Frères is probably the most famous tea seller in Paris, with a menu of hundreds and hundreds of teas from all over the world. They have three salons de thé and we visited the original one on Rue Bourg-Tibourg. The salon is just as unabashedly exoticist as Ladurée's, with posters from various Colonial Expositions throughout French history. But we didn't go for the décor - we went for the tea and the dessert. Tea is served in a specially insulated pot (see below left) first designed in the 1920s and arrives already perfectly steeped by one of the white-tux-clad waitstaff. We ordered a single pot of Vanilla Imperial tea which was delicious (but which was not quite enough for three people, in case you're thinking about sharing to cut costs). We also had a crème brulée made with Marco Polo tea (a fruity blend), which was beautiful as well as tasty. As far as looks go, this salon de thé wasn't at the top of our list, and in terms of food/drink, we'll probably stick with buying the dry kind of tea in the future. But we're still glad we went, and we might be investing in one of those théières (teapots) very soon!


Berthillon Glacier is probably the most famous purveyor of ice creams and sorbets in Paris, and you can buy their products at many locations around the city. (Our favorite place happens to be right around the corner from the Berthillon Glace salon de thé - right at the point of the Île-St.-Louis, just across from Notre Dame.) But you have to go to their salon de thé to try their tarte tatin (upside-down apple tart), and so go there we did. Louis had a scoop of raspberry sorbet with his tarte tatin (below left) while Joy ordered a moelleux au chocolat (a chocolate pastry shell surrounding melted chocolate) with a scoop of vanilla. While vanilla might sound boring, consider that this vanilla tastes nothing like that watered-down stuff we get in the US. This is real (strong) vanilla. The room in which we ate was beautiful in a distinctive, indescribable way. (Luckily there's a picture.) Final verdict? We can't wait to go back.

Our final salon de thé for the week was Angelina, on the Rue de Rivoli. We first learned about Angelina through a December New York Times article (NYT hearts Paris so, so much), and later found out it's in just about every guidebook. The place was incredibly busy and loud, and when we go back we'll ask to be seated in the back section of the salon, which seemed quieter and more private. But we didn't care too much about the noise, at least not once our hot chocolate arrived. Called "L'Africaine" (what is up with salons de thé and imperial nostalgia?), this was hands-down the best we'd had all week, and it didn't hurt that it came with a big bowl of whipped cream just waiting to enrich an already dense liquid (you can see the deadly combination below left). We also ordered some of the house pastries, which embodied tradition with a twist. Cathy's St. Honoré (below right) was particularly photogenic, and the others were fancy-looking too. Angelina sells its hot chocolate in glass bottles so you can relive the artery-clogging experience in the comfort of your own home and without having to wait for a table. 

After five salons de thé in less than a week, we were ready to be finished for a while. At least, until our next tea- and pastry-loving visitors arrive . . .