Romancing Paris the Last Time

Having stayed here for a year, we've taken Paris for granted. Whenever I suggested going to Paris for the weekend, the Student will find some excuses somehow and suggest other towns in the area to explore. Now that we are leaving the city, I felt that we should bid the city goodbye...Happy Easter Holidays Paris!

This is a landscape that we've been taking for granted too, Le Guichet is the station where we take the train to Paris city...the houses on the slope are always a delight especially during fair weather.

The train station nearest to Supélec.

I was surprised to see the open air skating rink still in service in March!

Open-air skating rink in front of Hotel de Ville

Reminisced buckwheat crepes with a flavour from Bretagne. France in general has a very high quality of butter, which rolls down to excellent pastries and anything butter related. But butter from Bretagne is heavenly! Especially Bordier butter, which Briezh Cafe in Paris also carries. 

I prefer the traditional sweet crepes over the savoury buckwheat types.

Banana caramel with Chantilly crème on the side. Paired with Marco Polo tea from Mariage Freres.

We stopped by Puyricard, hand made artisan chocolates from Provence. The brand usually makes their chocolates every Thursday, without preservatives. And here they are, all prepared for Easter holidays. These are considered average sized, there is another egg by the window that is half my height (pity we couldn't get a good shot due to the reflections of the window).

We've tried their traditional macaroons, which are delicious! These are nothing like those from the pastry shops, when there are 2 macaroon cookies sandwiching some garnishes. These from Puyricard are just the cookie, but are made from almond powder from Provence. Very fragrant and soft in the inside.

Mariage Freres is a tea house that specialises in a humongous variety of tea blends, they even have a tea museum at their basement for visitors. But their display of pastries weren't that appealing...If only there is a tea salon that serves pastries from Lenotre, macaroons from Pierre Hermé, hot chocolate from Angelina and tea from Mariage Freres.

Price for the tea is indicated/person, so we had to get one pot each....a little too much for our bladder to take though.

Last stop for the day - L'orangerie, the museum that is showcasing the last works of Claude Monet, the panoramic view of his lotus pond. 

A Day with Claude Monet at Giverny & Vernon

A day well-spent at Giverny to take a peep at the places that have inspired the guru of Impressionism. This charming village is nothing less touristy, owing to Monet's house and garden. The village is very easy to explore by foot, with an archaeology site in the woods nearby. There is also a romantic restaurant housed in a moulin at Fourges, a town 15 mins away from Giverny. However, it is so popular that reservation at least 3 days in advance is required.

Monet's garden has a very good collection of exotic flowers, and the flora are really very well grown. Here is a short list of the pretty petals we took.

I remembered seeing a painting that looks exactly like this photo, but I just can't retrieve it from the gallery.

The water lily pond and the Japanese bridge. Monet couldn't get enough of his pond, and have a number of paintings of water lilies in different seasons and time of the day. Clearly, the painting was in a different season as our photo.

The artist's garden on paper without the girl...

Haystack summer effect versus haystack winter effect....

Pictures of paintings extracted from http://www.claudemonetgallery.org/

This is the legendary Moulin de Fourges. Prices are really very reasonable for a gastronomy fare, the place seems like they can accommodate a lot of people, but they still weren't able to accommodate the 2 of us who gate-crashed without any reservations. Dommage!

And so, we settled for a restaurant with a view of Le Vieux Moulin de Vernon. Unlike most restaurants in France, restaurant Coté Marine opens beyond 2 pm for lunch, and is pretty value for money in terms of quality and ambience.  http://www.restaurant-cote-marine.fr/

We would not come all the way to Vernon to see just this, in fact, this moulin is a private property now, and is not allowed for public visits. However, one can get a close up view from a small park and recreation centre for youths. The amazing thing about this building is that it is already warping, but still standing on it's supports till now. Perhaps it is for safety reasons that it is denied entry for the public.

This is all of château de Vernon. Just 3 towers of the keep, and the rest of the compound  is for recreation and sports.

The cathedral in Vernon is very normal, but they do conduct small group commentaries on the organ at specified timings.

This is the most amazing half-timbered house we've seen. This building is warped vertically and horizontally, yet it is still inhabited!

Cite de l'architecture

The civil engineer in me just cannot miss the chance to get into anything related to architecture, this museum is located at Trocadero, with a great view of the Eiffel Tower outside and inside the building. 

http://www.citechaillot.fr/en/

I would say that I was more impressed with their website than the museum. Attributing to the fact that there isn't as much information on architecture and building techniques etc on site. Rather, the museum focuses more on displaying art pieces recreated from buildings around France and other countries on other levels. Not a museum to visit if not for Free Sunday.

We were strolling along the river on a side that we have never seen, I just love the feel this estate gives, serene and overlooking over the Seine and Eiffel.

The Thinker & The Shaman

It was a bright and sunny Sunday morning in summer, what else to do except to loiter around Paris?

Alrighty...we have ran out of ideas to take the Eiffel with.

We were supposed to visit the architecture museum at Trocedero, but was informed that the museum will be closed for a period of 2 weeks. There were no notices on their website, just at the entrance... brilliant. And so, this is all we did with the museum.

Les Invalides certainly shine under the summer sky

Les Invalides is not within the list of museums participating in Free Sundays, so we opted for some museum hopping in the region instead. We started off with Musée Rodin located just round the corner of Les Invalides.

The iconic Thinker

The Thinker and The Stoner

The Gate of Hell

I was in an adventurous mood that day, I didn't know what got into me to want to try tartare de bœuf. I remembered that I did have a good impressive of raw minced beef on toast as an entrée. When the waitress pressurized us for our order, I found my brain hovering around tartare...and before I knew it, I blurted tartare de bœuf. When I saw the dish, it was like a big can of raw minced beef topped with a raw egg yolk, with 4 types of condiments (onions, pepper, mustard and pickles) at the side. This was the Fear Factor moment for me, I felt that everyone around was waiting for me to "embrace" the dish.

I would say that it is not as bad as it looks, just that perhaps there are too much raw beef in one dish and kinda makes one sick of finishing the whole dish. This is the time when I really appreciate the Student, the "rubbish bin" who can eat anything...:)

Musée du Quai Branly is of course along Quai Branly, along the Seine River. This is the place whereby there is a fancy restaurant at the terrace for some great views of the Eiffel Tower. The museum displays collections from Asian, African, American and Oceania civilisations. A little eerie to visit on a wet and rainy day with the spiritual and religious displays I think.