Paris Cheese

We arrived in Paris in the late afternoon, after being delayed and missing our initial train. Eleonore and Moon Sook, our good friends from London were waiting for us a Eleonore's apartment in the Riquet area of Paris. We were going to have a little apartment party so we could meet Eleonore's friends from Paris. If you have been following this blog, we met Eleonore on a horse back riding weekend in Wales and Moon Sook was my London co-worker at LSBU. I introduced them both and we all became great friends. Eleonore was studying in London when I met her but she lives in Paris full-time and now she is doing an internship there.


Eleonore on the left and her two best friends from Paris

Eleonore had tons of wine and snacks and we got to meet her friends before we made an attempt to go out in the rain to a bar that we were denied access to because two of Eleonore's guy friends were underdressed. So we ended up at a pub, late into the night, drinking away and then came back to Eleonore's and a bunch of us passed out to sleep. The next morning, we woke up late and went to the grocery store and Eleonore bought us all the most amazing breakfast spread. We got to try real Frnech cheese finally and it was better than I even expected.

Moon waiting for our breakfast to be done.

(This pretty much made my day. It's French sugar company called Daddy!)

We had a feast on her balcony before we headed out to see the Marais district, walking around and eating ice cream and we walked to Notre Dame which was beautiful. The Marais district is the gay district and it is so cute. It is also the trendy fashion district. While we were visiting it, we came across a designer wedding dress store. They let us in to look around and the dresses made American dresses look dowdy and square. These dresses were works of arts and if I could afford the price tag, I would never get married in anything else.


Us on the River Seine! Ellie, behind the camera as per usual.

A street performer


Ellie at Notre Dame


We came back to Eleonore's apartment and made a feast for dinner with some left-overs and guacamole and then sat next to the river, enjoying our picnic with all of the other young people. Eleonore's neighborhood is really cool and very up and coming. Every evening in the summer the whole river is just lined with beautiful groups of friends, enjoying wine and each other's company. We sat around until late evening before it started to rain and we came back to Eleonore's. The next day, we went to brunch at this amazing Parisian cafe in the Marais.



The food was honestly unbelieveable. It was such an authentic experience enjoying brunch at this great little (and expensive!) place with other Parisian people. It was something I will never forget. The baguette's and hot tea, my amazing gourmet breakfast.



Afterwards, we walked around Montemartre, enjoying the view. I ordered a coke at a bar where we stopped to rest and paid 7 euros for it, which was pretty much an $11.00 usd bottle of coke. Only in Paris! We also just spent the day walking through all sorts of places.

The view from Montemartre


Eleonore and I, in front of the Museum of Modern Art


Ellie, in front of this amazingly cute fountain near the museum


Sitting on some Parisian stairs, notice the bird! Weird photo.



Right across the street from Eleonore's apartment in the summer, they have misters and trampolines and paddle boats.

Afterwards, we headed back to Eleonore's to have another picnic by the river.



What a little French girl.


That night we went to the Eiffel tower, with a few bottles of red wine and just sat below it, like all the tourists, enjoying the ambience and the iconic tower.





The tower was blue and yellow because France was the head of the European union at the time. It's so funny how many men walk around this area and try to sell you a bottle of wine because it seems like a tragedy to be sitting under the eiffel tower without one. We had to beg Eleonore to come with us since she is all too familiar with Paris and it's tourism. It's sort of like someone having to twist my arm to go sit with them next to the Southernmost Point or something. She actually admittedly did end up enjoying herself. We almost got locked in the underground though which was a little scary and men kept hitting on Moon Sook throughout our whole Parisian adventure, trying to sing Japanese songs to her and saying "Arigato" even though she is from South Korea. It was rather annoying actually.

We hung out the following day and Moon made us Korean food and we went across the street and ate a creme brulee. Otherwise we just lay around, napping and relaxing. That night, we went back to Marais for one final time and had falafel.

Korean food

The next day, we said good-bye to both of them, as Moon Sook was staying in Paris for a while longer and we went on one of those free walking tours so we could see all of the tourist sites that we couldn't miss on our first visit to Paris.


The Louvre


The tour was good but we had to cut out early to catch our train to Lyon, France to go visit our other London friend, Gaelle! Overall, we enjoyed Paris and it was a lot different than we thought. It was romantic, expensive, dirty, tasty and slow all in one. I think the more time you spend in Paris the better because walking around the different neighborhoods and just relaxing is the most important thing when visiting.