Paris, Day 2

The second day we decided to explore the Le Madeleine area and tour the Louvre. One of the first things that came to our attentions was Christmas decorations were already up around town, this was the first week in November. It occurred to us that France doesn't have Thanksgiving so they really don't have a "mark" of when to decorate, I guess they just wait for Halloween to be over.
The first pastry shop we visited this day was Fauchon....oh boy! We were lucky they allowed us to take photos, so I took a lot! I was so excited to go to Fauchon, up there way above the Louvre or Eiffel Tower.
After looking over every single thing they offered with a fine toothed eye, I finally make my choice, we ordered and sat down to some of the most tasty treats and amazing chocolat chaud (hot chocolate)ever. The hot chocolate in Paris is more like chocolate with a little cream in it...so thick, so chocolaty, so rich and soooo yummy....


We moved on to pass the Place de Concord and over to Michel Cluizel's chocolate shop...wow!
And here is another chocolate shop I can't remember the name...but the caramels here were outstanding!
On to the Louvre! The line wasn't as long as I thought it would be and we were in in no time. Why is everything in Paris blowing my mind! It was one of the most beautiful museums I've ever been to.
I won't go overboard with all the art pics I took, just a few highlights.
Mona Lisa herself...and just look at the enormity of this painting. I had Young stand next to it to show proportion.

After a few hours of educating ourselves in art that I won't ever be able to remember, we had an early dinner at the museum cafe, Cafe Marly. On our walk back to the hotel, along the Seine River, the Eiffel Tower started it's "sparkle show". It has sparkly lights for 5 mins every hour on the hour...so sparkly! A beautiful way to end our evening.

Paris, Day 1--First Full Day

Believe or not, our first full day was the best weather we had the whole 10 days! I woke up so excited to get out and see Paris, I was like a kid at Christmas!! After breakfast we headed out. A few blocks from our hotel was the Arch de Triomphe.
I have to first say, I love the history of this city...or rather how historic Paris is. Everything seems to have a story dating back to 15th century or beyond. This Arc is a tribute to the French revolution and the Napoleon wars and also contains the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

We had lunch reservations at Pierre Gagnaire, not far from the Arc, so we wandered the streets as we walked over...seeing one of the many food/candy art displays around the city.
Our 3 1/2 hour lunch at Pierre Gagnaire was AMAZING. Easily in our top 5 best meals! All together we had 23 courses!! I'll spare you all 23 photos but here are some highlights...One is the two different butters they served with the bread (salted and a Normandy butter) and the other is the 5 course amuse, after the three course amuse we had already had.

Chef Gagnaire sighting in the dining room...I was so star stuck! There is a two month waiting list for reservations here. I contacted our concierge at our hotel a few months out from our stay and ask him to make reservations for us and he was able to secure us a spot...so lucky!
My appetizer, a tasting of "farmyard" consisting of pheasant, duck, pork, etc... And our waiter deboning Young's lamb entree. Really, the amount of food was unbelievable but so good...intricate and detailed. The whole meal, top to bottom, was perfect. Not one detail left out.
This was the pre-dessert before our five different desserts arrived on the table. Some desserts got eaten before I could snap a pic but here are a few...

After lunch we need a nice walk around so we headed over to the Eiffel Tower..arriving just at sunset, perfect timing.
The line was WAY too long to ride to the top, we decided to just walk around and enjoy the view from below.
The view was so beautiful, we must have taken 25 pictures of the same view...but this one stands out most.

It was nearing dinner time but we were still so full from lunch, we decided to stop at a small patissier for a snack...the first of 10000 patissiers we walked into...Dalloyau.
One last look of the Eiffel Tower as we walk back over Pont des Invalides toward our hotel. Guess this is why Paris is known as the "city of lights".

Paris, Day 1

When my big 4-0 birthday was approaching, Young asked what I would like to do...have a big party, nice dinner with my friends, a small get together at a wine bar? I thought of a few options but then decided for my 40th that I wanted to do something/go somewhere I've never been...Paris! Paris is every chef/pastry chef's "mother land" and I had yet to go. My amazing husband quickly sprang into action and had the trip planed in a matter of days...what a guy! We were able to use his hotel points for our entire stay and airline miles to upgrade our seats!

The plan was to have my parents come out to watch the kids while we took the birthday trip. We had to do a little rearranging to fit with my parents schedule, Young's work schedule and of course, my actual birthday. We were so wrapped up in the planning and scheduling, it didn't occur to me, until about two weeks before we left, that we would be leaving our 3 year old children for 10 whole days!! What were we thinking?? All my worry was for nothing...the kids did great, my parents loved every minute with them and we had an amazing trip...the trip of a lifetime!

So, here we go...I have about 300 pics from the trip but I'll try to edit that number down for the blog (lucky you). Just be prepared for a lot of food photos!

We left on my actual birthday (Nov. 2) and Young had us booked First Class on this sweet double decker airplane. (As hard as it is that Young travels so much, the benefits sure are nice...)
Our seats were upstairs and we basically had our own stewardess the whole time. I think there were 10 of us upstairs. They greeted us with champagne and we settled in for our 9 hour overnight flight. We had a full dinner, able to catch some zzzzs in the fully reclining seats and awoke to a wonderful breakfast the next morning. Happy Birthday to Me!!

We flew non-stop to London and then took the Chunnel over to Paris. We owe a million thank-yous to our stewardess...she gave us so many pointers on how to get to the train station from the airport, we would have been so lost! The train ride was so lovely. We had a nice lunch on the train and saw so much of the French countryside. But after traveling for almost 24hours, we were ready to get to our hotel, shower and rest!

Once we got to Paris it was pouring down rain, dark outside and packed with rush hour traffic. We finally made it to our hotel, Marriott on the Champs-Elysees, and they had us in a horrible hotel room. After calling various managers, they found another room for us but wouldn't be ready until the following day. Even thought my Paris experience was a little dampened to start off with, we made our way to dinner and I remembered why I wanted to come to Paris...the food!

Our fist meal was at a bistro called JosAphine "Chez Dumonet". It. Was. Amazing! Such simple, great bistro food, everything I had expected and more. The pate and foie gras apps we had were huge...I've never seen a foie torchon cut so thick! Young couldn't even finish it all...and that's saying alot. And my steak with sauce bearnaise was cooked perfect with the most yummy garlic roasted potatoes on the side. Perfection!
We were so full by the end but we just had to order dessert. The Grand Marnier souffle was the obvious choice and it did not disappoint. Eating it just took me back to my early pastry chef days in NYC, whipping up souffles ever so carefully...ahhhh. Young could only eat a bite or two while I finished off the whole thing! It was so good. What an amazing first meal in Paris and what a standard it set for our entire trip!

Halloween 2011

This year my parents were here for Halloween and it was great to have a few extra hands keeping everyone together and on agenda! Timo was just happy being in his costume and didn't want any candy. I kept asking him over and over to take his bucket and he kept saying I don't want candy, Mommy! But once he saw his buddies getting candy, he wanted his bucket ASAP. We met our friends Caleb and Evan on the corer and off we went..
We picked up two more friends along the way...Lucia (Heidi) and Jasper (policeman)
We had a hard time teaching trick or treating "edict"...Saying "Trick or Treat", waiting till they give you candy and then make sure to say thank you. But somehow, once the door was opened and the kids saw the candy..all manners went out the door! I felt sorry for some of the folks opening the door. It was a frenzy of toddlers snatching candy! And Timo would just walk into houses!!
But a good time was being had by all...


It was starting to get dark and we were about to call it a night when we came upon this one house that was really scary for the kids. They had a big black cat blow up, scary noise that played as you walked up the steps and skeletons in the yard. Cameron and Jasper were too scared to go, Timo was kinda frozen with fear yet wanted to know how it all worked, and the others were trying to get the cat to move...
We tried to get a group picture but the scary house upset most of the kids and no one was happy at this point...
I let the kids eat once piece of candy on the way home...and of course Cameron chose the full-sized Kit Kat bar she got...and she ate almost every bite! That's my girl!