Paris with the parents

So in the midst of all the riot madness I decided to risk it and book a trip to Paris to see my parents one last time before they headed back to Oz. I left bright and early on Saturday morning for my 7am TGV to Paris. I even went first class, since it was only 2 euro extra and I wanted to see what it's like. I sat down with my book and some work I had been meaning to get round to and was wondering why no one else seemed to have brought anything to occupy themselves. As soon as we pulled away from the platform I realised why, the majority of my carriage feel quickly asleep. Just to fit in I thought I should do the same and in no time at all I was in Paris and navigating the metro system like a pro. I made my way to Mum and Dad's apartment near Trocadero in the 16th. When I arrived Martine (Canberra Alpine Club friend who moved back to France a couple of years ago) was there, and raring to go, and Mum and Dad were feasting on cereal, pastries, bread and jam. I joined them and we made plans for the day.

We split up for the morning so I could do some shopping while Martine gave the parents a tour similar to the one she gave me when I was last in Paris. I went to Le Marais and took refuge from the rain in a few shops, some of my favourites: American Vintage, Zadig & Voltaire, The Kooples, Les Petites, A.P.C.; and I found some new favourites: Royal cheese; and picked up a few good things from American Apparel. I attempted to have lunch at L'As de la Falafel but it's closed on Saturday, luckily there are a whole strip of falafel places along rue des rosiers to make up for the fact. As I was looking through the Burberrys at an op-shop by Centre Pompidou I got a call from Dad asking if I wanted to meet them at a chocolate shop. I hopped on the next metro to Odéon to go to Patrick Roger, where we got a (large) sample of the best chocolates to keep us going for the rest of the day. Next up on Martine's whirlwind tour was the musée Cluny aka musée national du Moyen Age. The mseum is housed in a Gallo-Roman bath house and a 15th century abbey, the Cluny Abbey. Recently renovated, the most impressive display is the rotunda of the Lady and the Unicorn, which houses the series of tapestries, with a lady and a unicorn, depicting the 6 senses ... Yes, I meant 6 aparently the sixth one is love or understanding (noone's too sure). The final stop of the day was Bon Marché, an upmarket French department store. Martine toured us around the food hall and I toured everyone around the fashion and accessories. But by this point (it was about 8pm) Dad was tired, and I was hungry so we went on the hunt for somewhere to have dinner. Once we decided that the Montparnasse area was too touristy Martine took us to Café d'Enfer, where she has quite a rapport with the staff who were all happy to have us. With our 3 course set menu (where there was even a vegetarian MAIN!!!) the head owner didn't let us pick desert because he had prepared the house speciality for us, which was an excellent chocolate fondant thing with icecream called le P'tit d'Enfer. We could not have been more satisfied with our day!

We weren't about to slow down (well not if Martine had anything to do with it) and met at the Porte de Vanves flea markets at 9 Sunday morning. It was a good flea market with all kinds of weird and wonderful and dingy things. Dad found enough instruments to form a band, and I found a fur and haggled for it. It's just a little vest, very tasteful I assure you. Next it was back to Martine's suggested itinerary so we went to the Parc Albert Kahn to have a look around before going for a balloon ride. The Eutelsat Balloon in Parc André Citroën is a tethered gas balloon which ascends to 150 metres for a great view of Paris.


By then it was getting on to lunch time so we made our case to Martine and she alowed us to stop and eat, at the Salon Bio. It just so happened that we were in Paris the weekend of thefair for all things Organic. I probably would've preferred going to the chocolate fair that's on in Pris this weekend, but I still got my fair share of free samples, and we had excellent Indian for lunch. Our afternoon museum visit was to the musée Nissim de Camondo. It's part of the musée des arts décoratifs, and was the private home of a rich Parisien banker and collector of furniture and art objects (he was good mates with the curator at the Louvre and quite a few local auctioneers). Moïse de Camondo had planned to leave the house to his son, but he died fighting in World War I, so he bequeathed it to the Arts Décoratifs. The family died out when his daughter and her children died in Nazi concentration camps in World War II. So a very tragic story goes along with this incredible property - you couldn't call it a house because it's modelled on the Petit Trianon at Versailles. On Emily's recommendation I requested we spend the rest of the afternoon at Angelina's, famous for its hot chocolate, but it being school holidays and cold, there was a huge queue and we ended up at Mariage Frères instead for tea and cakes. Not a bad way to end the day. We went back to the apartment and I picked up my stuff and caught the TGV home to Lyon. Luckily I wasn't one of the people in the crowd at Paris Gare de Lyon who had had their train cancelled due to strikes, so I got home with no fuss. All in all an excellent weekend, and my last weekend trip for a least a couple of weeks while I actually do some uni work, you know, unless anything comes up.