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.