I love Paris (in the summer)

June 23-27, 2014

If you remember from our first visit to Paris in December, you know that a second trip has been on our schedule for a long time. Just a week before leaving London for good, we finally made good on that plan. This vacation came so late mostly because we have been so busy that there was no other time to fit it in, but also so that we could meet up with Joe and Erin Rojas on their honeymoon (more on that later).

We booked the Hotel Marquis Eiffel so we could explore a different area of Paris from our first trip when we stayed across from Tuileries Garden and the Louvre. One of the best things about Paris is the ease of the metro system - it's cheap and easy and got us all around the city on both visits. Staying where we did this time meant that we could say hello to our favorite Paris landmark, the Eiffel Tower, every day.

Between our hotel and the tower were two restaurants we'd recommend, Firmine for pizza and Villa Verdi for pasta. Yes, we ate Italian twice in Paris. Forgive us.

Day 1, about 10:30 pm

On Tuesday we joined our fave bike company, Fat Tire, for a cycle ride to Claude Monet's residence in Giverny. There was an electrical failure on the train out of Paris that stalled two trains inside a tunnel and caused us a 2 hour delay and the abandonment of our Siene-side afternoon picnic, which was disappointing, but once we'd gotten to our bikes and started the straight-shot ride on a country path, everything was good again.

my bike's name was #Hashtag

The ride was smooth, flat, and straight for about 4 km and took about 40 minutes. It was beautiful and warm and the exercise felt exhilarating, especially after sitting on a stationary train for hours.

Monet's residence includes the house and flower garden, but the real sight to see is the Japanese garden. Monet lived the last half of his life here and many of his most recognizable paintings were done with a portable easel outside in the open air.

the famous water lily pond

the opposite of an impressionist painting: a focused picture

willow reflections

cloud reflections and lily pads

the Japanese bridge

Bert and Charlie: birds in paradise

the ride back

Dinner after our bike tour was well earned. We'd looked up a few restaurants and headed across the river toward them, but ended up L'Ogre instead. This meal was more expensive than we'd wanted to spend, but was completely delicious (which is the only way to justify it).

midnight light show on day 2 from across the Siene

Wednesday was our day to sleep in. We headed out in the afternoon toward the Louvre with plans to stay out for the France-Ecuador World Cup match.

Remember these shots of Tuileries Garden from December?

Well, this is what is looks like in June!

The Louvre was a must. We'd missed it on our first trip when we were staying in a hotel named for the attraction and Joe has never been. The bonus was that we'd expected it to cost about twice as much per person AND I got in free on my student ID.

this guy was jaunty and looked like a Disney character

 These statues look like they're taking selfies.

inside the entrance pyramid

After the Louvre we had time to kill before the game. We ended up Les Halles near the Pompidou Center, a fun and lively area to hang out, eat, or people watch. We picked up a Nutella and speculoos crepe from a street vendor and then got dinner at Ozo, and interesting concept restaurant in the area that is worth checking out. Then Joe found his way to an open front bar with a huge screen set up outside and settled in with locals to root for France.

Thursday had two big events on the schedule: the Maurice Ravel Museum and the USA-Germany World Cup match with Joe and Erin. Months ago, when we were researching some of the items on our London List, we discovered that the home of French impressionist composer Maurice Ravel has been maintained exactly as it was during his life and turned into a museum. Ravel composed pieces that were inspired by impressionists paintings and his friends, who were artists, dancers, and musicians.

Tours are limited to six people and can only be arranged by phone, but we got lucky and had a private tour just for us. We took a suburban train from Paris to the small town of Montfort-L'Amoury, where we had to ask the owner of the train station restaurant to call us a taxi since we had no idea how to get to the museum on foot. The town was so tiny we wouldn't have been surprised if they'd told us the cabbie had to come out from Paris.

 Ravel on his balcony, looking out toward the church.

balcony looking the other direction

a secret room to protect unfinished compositions

Probably the most exciting feature of the museum house is (obviously) Ravel's piano. Unlike so many other house museums, here you can open doors, sit on chairs, go in closets, and even play the piano. Ravel is one of Joe's favorite composer, so sitting in Ravel's chair playing Ravel's piano in the same room where he'd composed some of his most famous pieces was a really cool experience for him.

Ravel at his piano

Joe playing a bit from memory

We were only in the museum for an hour, maybe less, but we really enjoyed this off-the-beaten-path attraction that most visitors to Paris would not have spent the time on. The train rides were relaxing and the house museum was a new kind of experience from what we normally do. Also, the walk back to the train station was perfectly French. We even ate a citron tart on the way.

Joe has known Joe and Erin for over ten years since they all attended UCI together. The weekend before Paris they got married back in California and, sadly, we couldn't attend. Instead, we crashed their honeymoon! As soon as we found out that they were coming to Paris in June, we knew we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to get together. Luckily, they were all for it!

The first part of our evening was spent watching USA play Germany in Brazil while sitting in a Canadian bar in France. Quite strange. We were having so much fun that our evening continued into dinner and then across town for the midnight light show at the Eiffel Tower. We had a blast and we're so glad that these newlyweds were willing to interrupt their honeymooning to hang out with us.

friends, a bottle of wine, and a spot on the grass on the Champs de Mars: a perfect end to the evening

Day 4: Midnight light show

On Friday we started with one last visit to the ever-enchanting Eiffel Tower before running several errands in the Latin Quarter. This day is not very exciting since it was mostly about finding the last edition for our International Harry Potter Collection (3 bookstores and we still failed) and picking up some other items for our summer travel.

Our Top 10 book recommended the Latin Quarter for picnic supplies, and it would definitely be a great area if you wanted to find bread, meat, cheese, and fresh fruits. We were tempted by a 13 euro, 3-course prix fixe menu, however, because it offered all of our favorite dishes for so much less than we'd seen everywhere else. Goat cheese salad, French onion soup, boeuf bourguignon, duck confit, green beans, and creme brulee: the best French lunch ever! We mostly walked down Rue Monge between Cardinal Limoine and Place Monge metro stations - it was lovely, French, smelled delicious, cheaper than most places we'd been, and just off-the-beaten-path enough to feel local: the icing on the cake of our second trip to Paris.

Mexican Food a la London

The cardinal rule of Mexican food in London (and possibly in Europe in general): Don't get your hopes up.

From what I'd read before we moved here, I knew that Mexican food and good, American-style pizza would be hard gets around here. We gave up on pizza a couple months back. We can find tasty pizza, it's just not American pizza. Mexican food is another story. We keep hearing about great places and getting recommendations from friends and getting REALLY excited to finally get a taste of our SoCal home, only to be sorely disappointed when we realize that our non-SoCal friends have no idea what they're talking about when it come to good Mexican food.

We have spent almost ten months in London. Here is what we have found (from worst to best):

6. Lupita
Visited in March 2014
Don't be fooled by the claim that Lupita is an "authentic Mexican taqueria in London." It's awful. We were so excited about this place that we traveled 45 minutes by bus just for dinner. Before our food arrived, we were already planning what items we wanted to try on our second visit. Oh, how foolish that seems now. Maybe we should have taken the guy at the next table eating his street tacos with a knife and fork as a sign that this was not the place we were looking for. Alas, we were too excited to recognize the signs.

Positives: On the way, we discovered Tortilla, a Chipotle-style taco shop (see #2).

Negatives: chips were too thick, guacamole and salsa were flavorless, cheese was disgusting (and smelled like feet), and every single ingredient just felt OFF

bean tacos that had about half a cup of flavorless refried black beans on them

See that? That's a triangle of English cheddar in a quesadilla. It was so gross I couldn't even eat it.

5. Cafe Chula
Visited in April 2014
Cafe Chula was significantly better than Lupita. Located in Camden, it was only a fifteen minute bus ride for us, which was a plus. However, halfway through our meal Joe gave me the saddest look of defeat and just said, "I think we should give up."

Positives: Location, drinks.

Negatives: Again, the flavors were just off. The cheese and peppers aren't right, and the seasonings are just not as intense as they should be.

4. Benito's Hat
Visited in June 2014
This is a Chipotle-style restaurant that we found in King's Cross station, though I believe there are several locations in London. The chips were good and so was the burrita (a smaller version of a burrito). The braised pork I had was tasty, though the bland rice and raw white onions somewhat interrupted that. They did serve Jarritos sodas, though. If we were staying longer, this one would rate a second attempt wherein I order tacos or something that doesn't come with rice inside.

Positives: Meat flavors

Negatives: One of my go-to salt beef sandwich places is about 50 yards away and the KERB street market is around the corner on most weekdays at lunch. In other words, there are better options a Kings Cross.


3. Home-Cooked
This is possibly unfair to include since I brought my taco seasoning packets from California and have not tried what is available at my London grocery.

shredded pork tacos (that I didn't cook long enough, so they didn't shred)

ground beef tacos

Positives: Bringing the seasonings from home means it tastes the way I think it should. Mission tortillas are available in the store, but good tortilla chips are difficult to find and nothing comes close to the fresh tortillas from Casa de Bandini in Carlsbad.

Negatives: the "Mexican orange cheese" at Sainsbury's is a bit weird but is our best option. Also, condiements such as sour(ed) cream, salsa, and guacamole are hard to come by in pre-made form, unless you're up for the squeezee bottles they sell (unrefrigerated) next to the taco shells.

2. Tortilla
Visited in April 2014
Located just across from Trafalgar Square, Tortilla is a great stop if you're going to the National Gallery or the National Portrait Gallery. You can see Big Ben down the street and it's near Charing Cross tube station. Basically, this California-style taco shop scores aces in the location department. Joe and I smelled this place on our way to Lupita and vowed to come back for it, even (and maybe especially) after that attempt was such a disaster. Notice that Tortilla advertises itself as "Real California burritos and tacos," which, let's be honest, is what we're really looking for.

The restaurant is casual, a Chipotle or Pei Wei-esque system of ordering at a counter and then having the food delivered to your table is in operation, which works. I got carnitas soft tacos and they were delicious, if a little too juicy. In fact, they smelled so good that I forgot to take a picture.

stolen from the website but still surprisingly accurate

Positives: All the flavors were spot on and the location is great for touristy things.

Negatives: Too far from our flat to be a regular place and the order-at-the-counter system means we're still lacking a good sit-down Mexican restaurant. Also, like Chipotle, the menu is very limited.


1. Wahaca
First visit in November 2013
Wahaca is good enough that Joe and I have actually taken other Southern Californians out there. I had read about this restaurant before coming to London and knew we'd try it at some point, though I was a bit reluctant to go somewhere that completely bastardized the spelling of "Oaxaca." Our first try was at the location in Southbank near the BFI IMAX theatre, but mostly we frequent Charlotte Street since it's near my school and is one of our favorite parts of London.

Positives: The menu is varied enough and it's a real, sit-down restaurant. The drinks are good, and the tapas-sized dishes mean you can try several items without feeling like you're making a big commitment to just one flavor. We love the chicken taquitos, pork pibil tacos, and the black beans especially.

perfectly crispy shells and flavorful filling

Negatives: None really. I don't necessarily approve of British-y items like herring or sweet potatoes on a Mexican food menu, but I don't have to order them.


Of course, there is still Chipotle here in London as well and we have visited more than a couple times. We made a trek to the one on Baker Street during our first few days in London when we were desperately craving a taste of home, and we've visited the ones in Leicester Square and Covent Garden as well. I think there are 6 total (or at least there were when the first Mexican food craving hit me when we were in Prague and hadn't yet arrived in London).

#mexicanamericanembassy

Let it suffice to say that I am excited about getting home to some real SoCal-style Mexican food. Miguel's is high on my list of must-visits when we get back, but there has been many a-time this year when I would have been equally as excited for El Torito.