So in terms of some general things. I am absolutely in love with this city and do not ever want to leave. I’ve been to Paris once before for a few days while traveling around Western Europe and did all the typical sightseeing and all, and it was cool to see the Eiffel Tower and the Mona Lisa, and walk down the Champs Elysées and all that. Yet at the same time I felt very disconnected from the city. And now, living here it is much, much different. We haven’t even done much sightseeing yet, but the city itself is worth to marvel at, and I love being able to do it without being in a touristic rush.
Some of the great things about living in Paris:
-The architecture. Holy shit. It’s impossible to walk down virtually any street in Paris without it being a visually stimulating experience. Every single building on the thousands of Paris’s narrow streets is unique and different. Every single door is giant, beautiful and different from the next one. The entranceways are decked with intricate, breath-taking façades. And the other cool thing, many of the buildings have the architect’s name engraved on them.
-French children speaking French. Cutest thing ever. That’s all.
-The food. Oh my god the food. From the thousands of boulangeries with the most amazing baguettes and pastries, to the crêpe stands sprinkled all over the city, to the open-air markets – it is all amazing and delicious. It’s also really cool having so many different kinds of stores all around you, and being able to go when you have the need and stock up on fresh ingredients that you can use that day, instead of going to Meijers and buying weeks’ worth of food. Going out to eat at a restaurant, however, is pretty damn expensive.
-The public transportation is great. Especially the buses. They work really efficiently and it’s really easy to get around and to know where you’re going. Each bus stop has a map of its route, as well as an electronic display telling you when the next bus is going to arrive and what direction it is heading. It’s really great. Plus we bought the Pass Navigo (57 euros) that allows us unlimited use of the RER, metro, and buses for a month. They also have this amazing Vélib system of public bikes with stations throughout the city, where you can rent out a bike and then drop it off at another location. I’ve yet to try this out, but it’s a really cool concept and I’ve heard great things about it. I am a little apprehensive, however, because the drivers here can be a little nuts.
Some of the highlights of the stuff we’ve done over the past week:
-Saturday we walked around the Marais district, which was absolutely amazing. It’s a very pedestrian area and the roads are mostly blocked off to cars so people just spill out into the streets. There’s tons of shops around, most of which are way out of my price range, but it was still very cool to walk around, and it’s SO beautiful – the buildings, the cobblestone streets, the people. Le Marais also houses the Jewish Quarter which of course we visited, in search of some falafel. It being Saturday, however, a lot the places were closed for Shabbat, but one was open. And I am so glad it was. It's called Chez Hanna and there I had the most wonderfully delicious falafel of my life. Mingling among the deep-fried falafel in a scrumptious pita bread was: eggplant, hummus, red cabbage, sauerkraut, horseradish, a delicious tomato paste, carrots, and probably some other stuff as well. YUM.
-Sunday, Phoebe and I went to Marché Bastille, which is an amazing open-air market, and conveniently a 10-minute walk from our apartment [have I mentioned how much I love living here??]. It was an awesome atmosphere, and everything looked delicious. We bought some radishes, zucchini, eggplant, eggs, fromage, and DELICIOUS butter (the butter in France is so much better than anything ever). After that we had our first home-cooked meal in which Phoebe made a really good Ratatouille-style sauce for the cheese ravioli that we bought. Later in the week we made awesome zucchini fritters.
Well I’m going to go to sleep now, because we have a long day of sightseeing tomorrow! I still haven’t fully catched up yet, but I’ll try to this weekend!
My delicious falafel from Chez Hanna
Marché Bastille
Phoebe cooking in our kitchen
No comments:
Post a Comment