Joe and Mich visit Paris

Wednesday: I met Joe at Cadet, we got him a crepe, and went to sleep.

Thursday (Thanksgiving!!): We started the day with pastries from La Maison Landemain, my favorite bakery. Then we went to Musee d'Orsay, where we saw Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Cezanne, and others. I was expecting the museum to be bigger, but I guess it's all relative after the Louvre. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but I snuck one on my phone while Joe guarded me.

When we got outside of the museum, I realized my camera was broken. Ugh. It had just been sitting in my purse, and the screen broke. But the Seine was so pretty, so I took pics with my phone.

So I made Joe come on a camera repair mission with me near Repubique.

Two camera stores told me that it would cost 150 euros to repair the camera, so I was better off just buying a new one. Ugh. Joe and I continued on to the Marais -- vintage shopping, bookstore browsing, and a glass of wine at La Belle Hortense to warm up because it was SO cold. It was this terrible sleet/cold rain/almost hail.

At night we went to Thanksgiving dinner, sponsored by NYU. It was a free dinner at Cafe Bibliotheque, in the 13th. Joe and I got a table all to ourselves. It wasn't a perfect Thanksgiving dinner (they served us duck and no turkey, and no pumpkin pie), but it was free and there was tons of wine and it was still pretty delicious. I was sad not to be in Palo Alto though. Would have loved to be there for the bajillion people over at my house and the annual Thanksgiving reunions. :( It was so nice to have Joe though! We had a cute Thanksgiving all the same.

Pumpkin/squash soup

Duck, sweet potatoes, cranberry, peas and onions

The dessert was the best part. Probably one of the best ones I've had in Paris. Some sort of creme brulee/caramel/cheesecake/ginger deliciousness. Joe and I got an extra!

Then we went back to my 'hood to meet Mich. We waited for her with a glass of wine at Syphax cafe. Then we took her back to my place, where we drank some more wine and had a nice reunion. Mich and I went out to Grands Boulevards until like 2:30, dancing and drinking beer. This one bouncer wouldn't let me in because I was too drunk (even though I really wasn't), wtf. Joe slept because he wanted to get up for a movie the next day. 

Friday: We made it out of the house just before noon (planning to leave at 10...woops.). I started Mich at the Eiffel Tower, then we did the front of the Louvre, and went inside quite briefly. I ran into Liz and her family outside, which was so random. Then Mich and I went to Starbucks, because she really wanted a holiday coffee haha. Turns out they have different ones in France -- she got Mocha Praline, which was pretty good. Then we met up with Joe after his movie. 

We went to Notre Dame, and right as we were walking along the Seine, it started SNOWING. The first snow in Paris. It was magical -- softly falling, big flakes. I wish I had Mich's pics. Notre Dame was gorgeous, but we didn't have time to go to the top.

Then we went to the Arc de Triomphe at the top of the Champs, which is gorgeous because of all the lights. We walked all the way down, and at the end there were these adorable holiday markets. Mich got a present for her mom, I got some vin chaud (hot wine), and we stared, practically drooling, at all the food stands because we were starving. 

At the bottom of the Champs is the ferris wheel at Concorde, which is SO pretty at night that I had to take more pictures.

Then we went to Les Pates Vivantes, a spicy Chinese noodle place I'd been wanting to try. We got there at 5 of 7, and they said they opened at 7 and we had to come back. We stopped for a glass of wine at a cafe. 

We went back to the restaurant at 7:20, and it was already packed! Amazing. The food was delicious and spicy, which I hadn't had in a long time. Joe kept playing with a toy cat next to us.

 

You can see them making the pasta in the window:

Then we went home, changed, pre-gamed with some champagne, and went to Rue Princesse. We started at Temple, which was quiet when we got there and busy when we left. Then we were going to go to Frog, but it was under construction until the next day!! So sad. Then Eden Park told me we were too drunk (even though we really weren't! Bouncers are bitchy here.) So we went to Malabar Princesse, and had some amazing cocktails. Mine was "Babe": amaretto, vodka, cranberry, grenadine. Mich has all the pics because we were using her camera (so weird to not have one).

Saturday: Started the day by trying to find Joe some more vintage shops, but we couldn't find them. Then we did holiday present shopping at Galaries Lafayette. We were planning to go inside Opera, but it turns out you have to pay 5 euros to go in. Definitely not worth it, especially because I'm seeing a show there on Monday. After lunch, we started our trek up the hill to Montmartre. We finally found one of the vintage shops, but they didn't have any men's stuff for Joe :( We went to the Moulin Rouge on our way up the huge hill. As we're passing by all the strip clubs that advertise buffets, Joe says, "I bet they have a nice spread." Haha.

We finally make it up to Montmarte in the freezing cold. We tried to time it for sunset, but it was so cloudy, you couldn't see it. There was a cool guy doing soccer tricks though.

We went home, napped, changed, and warmed up a bit. Our plan was to start at Al Taglio for dinner, a pizza restaurant I'd heard about, and then work our way through Oberkampf. When we got to Al Taglio, they didn't have any tables free, so while we waited we had caipirinhas at this bar/restaurant the host recommended, Ave Maria. It was awesome, very Day of the Dead hispanic type decorations, and good music. The food looked amazing too.

After about half an hour, the pizza place still hadn't called. We went back there to check, because we were SO hungry, and the guy was like "oh, I tried to call you! But I got some guy in Normandy so I didn't know what to do." Turns out he had the wrong number. We ended up waiting another 20 minutes for a table. He could have just seated us in all the two-people spots that were available, but he refused and decided to wait for a full table for the three of us. But once we sat down, it was totally worth the wait. They do pizza by the kilo, and we had mushroom, 4 cheese, and asparagus truffle. I had 4 slices and a couple glasses of wine, and the total came out to like 12 euros. And it was amazing. 

From there, we walked to Pop In, where we danced for a bit. Then we met this really drunk Swedish girl, who was talking to us for a bit, but kept spilling so much beer on Joe's shoes.

Then we went to Panic Room, where we totally crashed some girl's birthday party. The theme appeared to be Where's Waldo or something, because everyone was wearing red and white striped shirts. Michelle ended up dancing with/having a dance off with these black people, and totally showing them up. It was SO funny. I wish I had the pictures, but they're all on her camera. We went downstairs, and ate their buffet, hahah. It was like crackers and peanuts and chips and shit. And danced to 80s music. There was cool writing on the wall.

And people were passing out marshmallows.

We decided to move on to Zero Zero, but it turns out they'd gotten shut down by the police 3 days ago. Terrible luck this weekend. We were too tired at that point, so Joe ran back into Panic Room, stole some more crackers (it took him exactly 30 seconds!!), and then we got crepes and went home. 

Sunday: We said goodbye to Joe, and then Mich and I got brunch at Cafe M. Croissants, bread, butter, jam, orange juice, coffee, fruit salad, eggs, spinach, chicken kebab, and champagne all for 21 euros. I was so full afterwards. And it was weirdly cold in the restaurant.

Then I had to say bye to Mich, and I went to Musee d'art moderne de la ville de Paris for a Basquiat exhibit for my convo class. I waited, but no one from our class showed up, and the teacher already said he couldn't come. I tried to find the man who was supposed to give us the group tickets, but the staff of the museum felt bad for me and let me in anyways (the line was like 2 hours.) It's not really my thing, so I rushed through the exhibit and just wrote down stuff so I would have something to say in class. His art is really childlike/graffiti-like and chaotic. It's not very aesthetically pleasing. I guess I get it, but I would never want it in my home. Plus it was hard to look at for so long. Very violent and overwhelming.

Good weekend. Also now there's some terrible trumpet playing going on in my building. Some shitty music student or something. Painful.