29 November - The farewell to Paree eating tour!

Today was our last full day in Paris. So much food and so little time. We decided that we needed to make sure we got some more yummy treats in before we depart. Of course we are only going to Belgium, home of chocolate, waffles and beer, so we aren't going to starve!

Despite both her parents being up late (yet again), Astrid had a decentish nights sleep and was happier in the morning than her parents were pre-coffee!  We are currently using up items in our fridge and pantry so have run out of a few essential ingredients like pepper. Breakfast was rather salty eggs, but still with nice French butter and bread.

We headed out of the apartment into a cool (OK, pretty cold) Paris morning and walked down to La Conciergerie, which is a former Royal Paris and prison (that housed Marie-Antoinette). During the French Revolution hundreds of prisoners were taken from La Conciergerie to be executed via guillotine at locations around Paris.  La Conciergerie was originally a Medieval Palace and has some impressive guard halls. Kings continued to improve upon the palace until the 14th Century, when Charles V moved across the river to the Louvre. However, the Conciergerie is most famous for being 'the antechamber to the guillotine' due to the number of it's prisoners that were executed during the French Revolution.

The building now houses a museum and many parts of it are used as Paris law courts.  The part that is open to the public had an extensive collection of art, which seemed to include a lot of castles, including castle models (and Lego ones)! They were fun to look at, even though Astrid thought she should be let loose to run around.  Then we toured the display of the prison area which showed the size of the cells and how the cells available to prisoners that could 'pay' were larger and more comfortable. Marie Antoinette's was significantly bigger than those for regular prisoners but still tiny by Versailles palace standards.



Once we finished at the Conciergerie we headed over to Ile de la Cite for another visit to Berthillon. Astrid was refusing to keep her mittens on and it was very cold. We weren't inclined to get her her own icecream since she was being rather petulant. In the end we walked briskly, enjoying going over some different bridges and found our desired icecream and grabbed some cones to eat on the run.  I had to go for the salted caramel again but I also tried the pear, so Astrid could have some. She enjoyed the pear until she discovered her dad had dark chocolate and chocolate-orange-praline and decided instead to eat his.  Looking like a chocolate monster, but now keeping her mittens on with the promise of more bites of icecream, we walked back towards our apartment, stopping to admire some more Christmas decorations and savour our last views of an area we have become very familiar with.



Of course Astrid fell asleep and didn't want to be woken... again. Annoying, when we wanted her to have a proper sleep today before some hectic days ahead.  We hit our street and collected some fresh bread and today's patisserie item and woke the sleeping munchkin, hoping she hadn't slept for too long.

Once back in the warm apartment, and Astrid was again full of bread and cheese, she had a play while her dad was trying to rest but when put down for a sleep she actively resisted sleep for a very long time.  Apparently today we weren't the winners.  However, while she was thinking about sleeping we ate our last patisserie item from our street, the ideale pistache. We had this one a few weeks back and it was so good that we had to try it again.  Still so many things to try but this one was worthy of a second go.



Giving up on the concept of sleep for anyone, we did a bit of tidying for our afternoon rental inspection and headed out for one last walk around Paris. It was still pretty cold but we enjoyed our walk down to the Les Halles shopping centre.  We had a bit of a walk around and made some last minute PJ purchases..... the lingerie and PJs available here are fantastic so had to go back and buy some things for Astrid to put under the Christmas tree for me.  Of course she flirted outrageously with a group of young people shopping in the store and then found the stuffed cat and dog PJ holders and tried to escape with about 30 of them. They were very cute (and not expensive) but we are already carting a heap of her toys around that we forgot to include in the luggage for London so she was out of luck today!



We headed back out and decided not to go to the park as it was too darn cold (mostly for us, as we didn't want to stand around in the cold).  Instead we took Astrid out for crepes......... Yes more food! We were cramming it all in today.  We went to a crepe place not too far from our apartment (well the other end of the adjoining street), we have had lovely icecream there before.  Normally we get take away but today we decided to sit and eat at the cafe, since it was our last chance. Take away is always much cheaper and usually our preferred option but it was nice sitting out on the street, watching the Christmas lights come on, being warmed by the heaters and eating our freshly cooked crepes. I had sugar and Grand Marnier (Astrid did not get to try this). Luckily for her Anto had nutella and banana. She is still a fan of crepe! We  then wandered back up our street, bidding farewell to many of the lovely and yummy shops.



 While we will miss our many patisseries, fromageries, boulangeries and other assorted shops on our street. We will not miss our staircase up to our apartment. Two flights of twisty, worn stairs. Not so bad except when trooping up and down with luggage and babies who are getting bigger by the second!
 

 On the way back we grabbed last minute dinner groceries and headed back upstairs in time for our inspection. Keen to get Astrid fed and to bed at a decent hour we were annoyed by their lack of promptness. They were 'supposed' to be here at 5pm. At 5.20pm we started making Astrid's dinner.  This kind of thing wouldn't happen in Switzerland.....  Post-dinner we decided to just go ahead with showers and bedtime as we had last minute washing that needed doing.  At almost 6.30pm the Real Estate agent informed us the agent had gone home and wouldn't be coming. So typically French and very annoying!

Astrid was relegated to bed so we could finish our packing and cleaning and enjoy our last bit of French dessert.  Tonight we had located the really nice supermarket creme brulees again (the ones that are better than most restaurant ones).  We really didn't need any more food but it was the last day in Paris, so we figured why not spend it eating!

21 November - Icecream and shopping in Paris!

For some reason Nic and Anto stayed up late to catch up on blogging and forgot to go to bed at a reasonable hour, despite being deathly tired. Astrid woke up at 7.30am and a 12.5 hour sleep is great, but we had been up late and wanted an extra hour at least.  Sadly, she was convinced it was getting up time. At least the bunny bag is still a hit and kept her amused for awhile, along with wearing her dad's hat.


Getting into the Parisian spirit we had scrambled egg in crepe for breakfast (you can have crepes with anything right?) and headed out for a walk and in search of icecream. Of course we hadn't checked the weather and discovered it was raining..... back for an umbrella. Then Anto forgot his GPS, back again. Then after 5 minutes of walking we decided it was actually cold and Astrid was getting wet so back to get one of her snowsuits on. About half an hour later we finally were on our way and off the Ile de Louis, one of the islands in the Seine, we had yet to thoroughly explore.

It was a wet and grey day, but still pleasant walking along the Seine and through the Autumn leaves.  In typical style Astrid fell asleep in the pram and we decided to let her sleep given how tired she was.  We arrived at the Ile and decided to do a lap to check out the stores while she was sleeping.  Lots of cute souvenirs stores, bakeries and restaurants and we picked up a few nice things. I hear our suitcases bulging at the thought of all our shopping. While we were in a shop Astrid woke up so we took her next door to Berthillon, who were actually open today (unlike our previous attempt)!

In my random internet readings I'd read that Berthillon is fantastic icecream and it gets really busy at their store and you can end up lining up outside. When we got there it was 11.20am, raining, a Wednesday and Winter. There were about 5 people inside. Lucky since it isn't big. As to whether it's good icecream..... hell yes! We weren't disappointed. We were both thinking it might be good, but how good can it be? Pretty damn good it would seem.

Anto ordered the French toast with poached pear and salted butter caramel icecream.  I was going to have the salted butter caramel icecream but since he was trying it I went for a scoop of Pistache and the Choc-orange praline icecream. It came with whipped cream, praline and chocolate sauce and a wafer. Anto had a cafe express but I thought I'd try my luck at a hot chocolate and it was delicous. A jug of rich chocolate and hot milk to mix to taste. I could have just drunk the chocolate but milked it down a bit so Astrid could try some.

The icecream was divine. They weren't at all sweet and they were really creamy (not at all icy) just how we love our icecream. The salted butter caramel was salty and rich and caramely and divine. The pistache was lovely and nutty but the chocolate one was a winner. Rich and chocolaty with bits of praline and orange peel throughout. Surprisingly Astrid wasn't a fan of any of the icecreams. I don't think they were sweet enough for her. She did love the french toast with cream from my icecream and the wafer. She also devoured the hot chocolate.

Full to the brim, we walked back to our apartment and picked up Astrid a croissant on the way for a snack, as she hadn't eaten much icecream. When we first arrived in Paris we used to scoff at the babies being pushed around in strollers as they munched on whole croissants..... now we are 'those' parents :)

Once back in our apartment Astrid refused a nap.  We tried for 2 hours but her hour sleep in the pram was enough..... apparently. Her parents were less than impressed since we were tired. Figuring staying inside with her was a bad idea we headed to Galeries Lafayette for some shopping.  We had been to Galeries before, a few weeks back and given it was a grey and misty afternoon we decided to head back. Of course we did end up seeing the sun briefly during our walk up there but it still would have been too wet for the park as it rained all morning. Walking up to Galeries, which is in the 9th arrondisement (our apartment in in the 2nd) is a pleasant walk, through Rue Montmarte and Rue Lafayette and down the Grand Boulevards.

On our walk about a million people got in our way. It's like it's Paris and they think they can casually stroll about without a care in the world. We walk, stroller and all, like we are on a mission, so we weren't impressed. More of the same when we got to Galeries. People were everywhere and generally being in our way. We finally got up to the 5th an 6th floors and looked through the children's sections and browsed the souvenirs and tea areas and purchased some tea we had been eyeing off. Astrid then caused havoc in the lingerie section where she was being cute and got kissed by shop assistants. We finished our shopping trip with a visit to their gourmet and produce section and marvelled at the array of delicious things....... even if many of them were meaty and not to my liking. The display of duck offerings 'Le boutique du canard' alone was impressive.

with a tired and grumpy bub we decided to head back to the apartment. In the last few days a lot of Christmas decorations have gone up and we stopped to let Astrid look at the display windows outside Galeries Lafayette. They were impressive, with dancing pandas, penguins, polar bears and various other creatures.  The French really know how to do Christmas displays. Kids were milling around everywhere trying to get a look!

Walking back to our apartment seeing all the Christmas lights come on and the displays was very pleasant. We won't talk about how Astrid fell asleep in the pram and then after dinner decided that she would chat for 45 minutes before actually going to bed!

Once in bed her parents enjoyed some wine, some left over savoury crepes and too weary to wander to one of the patisseries on our street for dessert, we settled for some supermarket vanilla bourbon creme brulee which was still better than I have had in even the nicest restaurants at home.  So good, we should get more.......