Parisian Adventures: The Final Farewell & Angelina

With only a few short hours left to soak up as much of Paris as we could, I polished off my breakfast and headed to the bridge that is the pinnacle of Paris.

Pont de l'Archevêché more commonly known as Lovelock Bridge has always fascinated me. 

Whether it’s a love of life or the romantic sort, the notion of cementing your passion with a lock and throwing away the key is definitely a good one in my opinion!

With a love of living on my mind, I purchased my lock from a sweet little tourist shop near the bridge, scribed it and went on a hunt to find my designated space on the bridge to keep my love locked down...

Unfortunately this was seemingly difficult as the bridge is literally bursting with people who have had the same sort of idea.

 Deciding to not be so “status-quo” [that and there really wasn’t any space AT ALL on the bridge]- we headed to Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor to do the honors-

 definitely recommended as there’s just so much more space!

Love successfully locked down, we headed across the bridge to partake in a few more touristy endeavors before our flight.

 Notre Dame de Paris happened to be our first encounter. The epitome of French gothic architecture dating back to 1163- there had to be a selfie somewhere in there...

Jacket from here, Tshirt from here, Jeans from here, Bag from here.

With just a few precious hours to spare, I couldn’t leave one of my favourite cities in the world without visiting the one and only Angelina for some naughty treats.

Now warning readers- usually there’s a minimum of a half an hour Que to get into Angelina but I promise you persistence will definitely pay off!

We lucked out and managed to only Que for around 5 minutes before being seated- and it took us less than that to decide exactly what we wanted.

One last glass of Bordeaux and the carrot tagliatelle to warm us up

And then came the main event.

For my Angelina first-timers; to get or not to get the hot-chocolate is not an option. Get it- and get it with extra whipped cream [if you’re going to do it, do it right!]

The thickest, richest, sweetest yet bitter hot chocolate that you could imagine with an iceberg of whipped cream sinking fast into a sea made of chocolate.

Have another look...

Accompanied by the signature Angelina’s Mont Blanc; a snow topped mountain made of a meringue base piled high with extrusions of chestnut puree and filled to the brim with whipped cream.

Delicious.

Angelina is just as much of a necessity when in Paris as seeing The Eiffel Tower; go, order the hot chocolate and live in glorious sin!

Parisian Adventures: Day Deux

There’s no feeling comparable to waking up to the realization that you're in Paris.

Gone are the sleepy eyes and the nonchalant approach to switching off your alarm- you literally bounce out of bed, race to the shower and are raring to go at the speed of light- Paris was calling, that’s not someone you screen!

Beret on head and a spring in my step- we meandered on down to The Louvre to culturally enrich ourselves and be all touristy. Having been about a gazillion times, the Que was unfortunately too long for me to bear- so we obviously took the opportunity to do a bit of exploring.

Paris is full of little jewels- turn the corner and you’re likely to bump into something that you never knew was there

 like this little gem of an archway

What a beauty!

Enticed by the authentic Parisian coffee fumes on the street, we were swayed into a mid morning coffee at La Brasserie du Louvre.

Due to our obscure timing, the place was pretty empty- but I’m told come 5pm it’s bursting at the seams!

It’s the ideal place for nattering about worldy issues with friends...or more accurately who wore it better over some coffee which is exactly what we did!

I refuse to take taxi’s during the day in Paris, everything is a walk away and gives you the chance to soak up all that amazing atmosphere that’s flying around in the air especially during the festive season.

Before we knew it, darkness had fallen and the city was lit up in all its festive glory. 

At the end of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées there’s a huge Ferris Wheel not hugely dissimilar to the London Eye.

It claims to offer tourists some of the best views in Paris, and boy does it...

You are battling against gale force winds and frost bite [ok it wasn’t THAT bad] but it is chilly so if you plan on doing it in the winter definitely bundle up!

Back to Mon Hotel to get scrubbed up and clean and off for my favourite time of the day- Dinner time!

I’d heard a lot about L’Avenue from friends who live in Paris and was gaped at in horror when I proclaimed at dinner tables that I hadn't yet been- but for some reason or another it just never worked out! Determined to not miss out on this occasion, it was the first thing I’d booked upon touching down in Paris.

Parisian chic oozes out of L’Avenue. The lighting is dim, the maitre d’ is well dressed and uber efficient and tables are well spaced to ensure this eateries exclusive visitor list receives ample gossiping space.

Suffering from my indecisiveness upon being presented the menu, I decided to play dish roulette and asked the maitre d’ to bring me whatever she thought was best for the day. She did well.

Absolutely divine Sol accompanied by butter mash potatoes and greens were the flavor of the day and yes you may assume that it lasted all of 5 minutes on my plate.

Well fed and watered...

Ahem.

We said our goodnights and goodbyes and fell into a deep, food induced sleep- bliss!

Parisian Adventures: Day 1

When the clock struck midnight on 31^st December 2013 after sipping what felt like a gallon of the bubbles- I made myself a promise. Alongside the standard eat healthier, attempt the adventurous and be better – a quick trip jet setter was next on the list.

As the year drew to a close for 2013, I threw caution to the wind and decided to take a quick hop, skip and an elegant pirouette across the pond to meander the winter streets of Paris while sipping chocolat chaud and being very Parisian- naturally as you can imagine only one of those things were achieved.

Having frequently visited Paris during the winter months I knew what to expect. I usually end up absolutely drenched with rain, freezing my tail off with a mild version of frost bite. But I was pleasantly surprised...

Bounds of winter sun rushed in through our window, which only made my excitement to drop our bags and scurry out onto the streets even greater.

I stayed at the Mon Hotel Paris located on Rue d'Argentine mostly because it’s only a stone’s throw away from The Arc de Triomphe and The Champs-Élysées [easier with the shopping bags]

 but I ended up being seriously impressed by the place.

The staff were beyond amazing & went out of their way to ensure that we were comfortable and nothing was too much trouble. And the breakfast

Oh the breakfast.

But more about that later.

The Christmas markets on the Champs-Élysées were in full swing.

 Framing a colossal sized ice-rink outside of the Eiffel Tower.

Markets tantalized passers with the aroma of roasted chestnuts, delicious food

 and fresh Nutella douzed brioche buns...

 Naughty.

Grabbing two tumblers of Vin Chaud [mulled wine for my Londonists] we began to meander the streets of Paris with no real destination in mind but Paris does that to you- you can walk for hours and discover beautiful buildings or picturesque sites at every corner.

Paris in winter is truly beautiful- the streets are lined with wooden festive huts, a large santa sleigh hangs over the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and if you time it right- fake snow falls and gives you that tingly Christmassy feeling.

We meandered on down to the Grand Palais

The Eiffel Tower

Truly the most Romantic City in the world. 

And aimlessly continued down the river banks of The Seine.

8 hours and 1 generous glass of Vin Chaud later- our stomachs began to growl. So we jumped in a cab and headed to the Champs-Élysées for lunch at Laduree.

Fast forward a few hours and we were scrubbed up clean ready for The Moulin Rouge.

Fur is mandatory for a night at The Moulin Rouge- so I hear. 

A fanfare of elaborate costumes, extravagant routines and lots of boobies- to say there were a significant amount of men scraping their jaws off the flaw at the final curtain call would be an understatement.

Unfortunately cameras aren't allowed into the Moulin Rouge, but I snuck a few cheeky one's in for you... 

Positively pooped from a day of marathon walks and indulging on one too many macaroons, we retired to Mon Hotel to recharge for Paris Day 2!