Monday, May 18, 2009

one more day in Paris, s'il vou please.

Lyon Perrache Station.
8am 4/12/09 Easter Sunday


Nursing the worst dessert hangover in known history, Dan and I head back to Paris for our last night in France.

Trapped in the TGV!

We arrived in Paris at around 10 in the morning...Our hotel was in the 9th arrondissement, Pigale. We exited the metro station turned a corner and this chicken shop was next door to our hotel. can I tell you how good it smelled?? nope.

Our room, it came with chocolates. and fancy soap in the bathroom. Frenchy shower had no door, watch your step. wet floor....

We got settled, and headed out. First stop was Les Invalides. It was built to be a resting home and hospital for wounded solders. It's also the french war museum, and last home to the biggest little guy in the world! Napoleon! Let's check it out!

Fancy bushes.
The eglise du dome. It has a real gold dome. biggie smalls is buried in there.

This is the solder's church. The cathedral saint louis de invalides.

The man himself! homeboy is encased in 6 coffins, like a Russian nesting doll.
The statues around him symbolise all his wins in battle..... sheesh.




Ferdinand Foch's tomb. WWI commander, it's a really cool statue.

The altar
Napoleon Jr. His dad in full coronation get up, standing over him.

We left Le Invalides, and walked towards the Grand Palais. On the Champs Elysee. This statue of Lafayette was there, apparently donated to the people of France, by the children of America. aren't we nice?
From far away, we thought this was Teddy Roosevelt. it's no,t it's Georges Clemenceu a prime minister of france in the early 1900's, cool statue, fake Teddy Roosevelt guy!
Before I left, my mom told me I should take a picture on the tip of the ile de cite. The island that the notre dame is on. It's a little park and she said there was a bench at the end. Here's a picture of the spot.
Soooooo here ya go mom! we took these pictures, I have no makeup on.( ugggggg ) so please be kind.. If I had taken this picture with sunglasses my mom would've skinned me when I got home. Dan looks great in both. me notsomuch. it's all for you mom!


We headed back to our hotel rested for a bit, dan found another cool restaurant he had to check out. we got ready and walked to Chartier. In Montmarte.

There was a line. No reservations. Built in 1896. It's a working class restaurant. The food is cheap and filling. Nothing too amazing. But the ambiance is really great and the servers are the show. ( see that old man in the picture looking at you? Dan and I end up sitting with him and his wife)


It's loud and overwhelming. Our dinner partners ( dennis the dutchman and his dutchwife) Didn't speak english, hell, they didn't speak period. They ordered the prix fixe menu, which came with a bottle of house wine. We ordered a lardon frisee salad, asparagus with hollandaise, as a starter. Steak with pomme frites, Dan ordered a hamburger patty with peppercorn sauce. green beans. and a pot de creme for dessert.
Like I said the servers are the show. This guy is walking with 13 plates of food! I normally hate this stuff, I was in the restaurant biz remember? But here it felt right.


We clapped when he made it.

Side note: The steak knives must have been original to the opening of the restaurant, a glorified letter opener. I couldn't cut my steak! Luckily I had a pocketknife we were using for picnics. When I took it out of my purse and used it the dutch lady across from me started laughing. ol' stoneface. our bonding moment.
This place is so great! so cheap and loud and fun.

Our order/ tablecloth/ bill.

Chartier!! the line was soooo long when we left. People stare at you when you're leaving. they want in!!


After dinner, We headed to the Eiffel tower. Finally making the journey to the top.

The line was about an hour long. It went pretty fast. There was some annoying italian teenage group in line with us... you think teenage girls are bad in groups. check out italian ones... mamma mia. ( I bumped into some on purpose, c'mon i'm 5'11 whatta they gonna do?)

Eiffel tower crotch.
The foundation.
Beautiful Paris..
Your american representatives.

beautiful and scary. I'm not normally scared of heights. but this? fuggedaboutit.
We took the stairs down. Better then wait in a lift line again. with the italians!! and anyway i'm faster going downstairs.
The gears for the elevators.



The elevators coming down!


Arty pictures from the eiffel tower.

Last night in Paris and we're finally blending in.


Eh! Sank ew for reading my france blog! That's it folks! We left the following morning back to Los Angeles, slept the whole way. Glad to be back, but can't wait to go back again. This time I'll find those damn chicken chips!


Dan and I thank you for checking out our trip, Next trip coming soon! (Money permitting) xoxoxoxoxo cris.

Extra bonus dan footage!!!

here ya go folks...vintage footage found in the men's bathroom of the lourvre.

Secret Footage Reel


Friday, May 15, 2009

lyon, france. day deux

There is probably tons of things to do in Lyon, but honestly we were touristed out. We slept in till 10am. Finally hit the bricks around 2. There was a huge shopping center across the street from our hotel. We went inside to see what a frenchy mall looked like.


Micky d's? I haven't had McDonald's in years. Grosses me out. But in france? we were in the red zone hangry wise so we went in. Dan had the royal deluxe ( Le big mac) I had mcnuggets. I couldn't figure out how to say sweet and sour in french. turns out it's classic chinois. duh.We walked to the Notre dame de fourviere. The church on the top of the mountain. Locals say it looks like an upside down elephant. it's true. The patron saint of lyon is the virgin mary. so the church was built for her. It's actually two churches there's a church to joseph in the basement. it's not so gilded and fancy.




Instead of walking a gazillion stairs to the church, we took the funicular.

Inside the church. gold gold gold, and mosaics. virgin mary everywhere. it's her church after all....
no Walkman?

Outside of the church looking over the city of Lyon. looking north
East. that building is nicknamed "the pencil"
And south.
I'm faster going downstairs...
So we headed back into town. walked around. it started to rain. we sat and had a drink. Dan found an old restaurant on tripadvisor that sounded fun. we walked to the south end of town to....

Score!!! we arrived around 6:30, no reservations. We were seated right away. but then it got packed. built in 1836.
Seats 650! totally art deco, they make their own beer. Jazz band in the corner! killer lyon cuisine. which is pork, pork, pork! potatoes, sauerkraut, sausages. Cote-Rhone wines. I had a kir to start, and we had a bottle of 2006 pouilly fume. nice!

For the starter we split a calves feet and herring salad with lentils, potatoes and olive oil. oh baby. And a nice jar of country dijon on the table? forget it!

above is a very happy cristina.
You want to win in my world? give me pickled cabbage of some sort. Weird right?

They placed some tea light under the charcroute to keep my sauerkraut warm. gangster right? this is living! I had ordered the smoked belly, pork loin, frankfurters and sausages, came with a POUND of sauerkraut and steamed potatoes.



Dan's dinner came in a skillet with a chicken thigh, some smoked pork belly potatoes, turnips and carrots. with a little broth. like a shallow stew. it was gooood.

For dessert. Dan had a baba rum, a little cake soaked in rum with whipped cream. When they brought it, they placed a BOTTLE OF RUM on the table. FREE rum? no portion rationing? these people are crazy. this is dan showing you the viewer how boozy this thing was. it was flammable!!!(not really, but close). We snuck shots when the wait staff wasn't looking. (don't judge!)



Here's a lil' video I made. sorry it's sideways. I was drunk off of dessert. There's an old guy that's giving me shade. whatever!

Since I had just devoured half a pig, 4 heads of pickled cabbage and some baby cow feet, i figures some sorbet would be nice. I ordered a lemon sorbet with a french kind of lemoncello poured on top. well.... it was lemon flavored fire water!! it came with a straw. it should have come with a stretcher and an accident waiver.

Nothing screams easter like a 100 lb chocolate egg with accompanying choc cock.


Dan had me place my hand, so you, the viewer could get a scale idea on how large these things were.

Fresh air!!!! here's the elephant shaped church at night.

Walking towards the hotel.
One of the bridges back home.
I'm having a mary tyler moment here..
The rhone river in Lyon at night.

slides down to the river front. some drunk guys were sliding down.
Lyonnaisians?
Walk don't run to the nearest hotel. we tried going out but that dinner practically killed us. We got so lost walking back! our sense of direction was gone and my phone had died , so no GPS to save us. passed out at the hotel. Thanks lyon! i'd go back to that restaurant in a second. tomorrow! Easter in Paris!