Reflections on my time in Paris

My trip to Paris this time is the third time I have visited this beautiful city. The first trip was about 22 years ago and my second trip was about 4 years ago. Every time I visit, there is always something that I haven't seen or experienced before. Even the familiar seems to have a different perspective for me. I am always delighted to be here.

So here are some images of my time in Paris in 2012.

Printemps and Galleries Lafayette (GL) - beautiful buildings. What a fantastic dome in GL. Loved the food hall in GL, it reminded me a little of the DJ's food halls but just a slightly different focus on the range of products. I laughed internally at the queues to get in to the Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Longchamp stores in GL. Just looking at the queues you would not be able to imagine that there is even an economic crisis in Europe.

A beautiful block of private apartments filled with green trees. Such a peaceful environment behind large doors right in the middle of busy Paris. Who would have guessed this when walking outside on the main streets?!?

At night I found some interesting things to take photos of. As I was walking down Boulevard Haussmann, I saw a group of dancers just outside GL. They were ballroom dancing on the sidewalk. There were no cameras so it could not have been for any publicity. How enchanting!

The United Colours of Benetton windows were so fascinating. The images were constantly changing. There were some images of cherries being dropped into a window of water. Fascinating! And it looked so real too!

Paris - thanks for constantly being so interesting and never boring!!


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Dinners in Paris

Even though I have been travelling solo in Paris, I have been fortunate enough to catch up with some friends from the very recent Gourmet Safaris tour. So here is a snapshot of my two dinners I have had with my lovely friends. It is always nice to be able to have a meal with someone rather than having to eat on your own.

So, to those of you who had a meal with me in Paris, thank you for your company! Bear in mind that these are not Michelin starred restaurants.  They were just a couple of cafes we found along the way. Nothing fancy but they were hearty meals.

For my first dinner, two of us had Steak frites and one other had the Roast chicken with frites. We also ordered some mixed salad and beans as sides.

Thought I would take a photo of this drink - haven't' seen one of this in a while!

For the second dinner, I decided to switch to chicken and had free range roast chicken with frites, and my friend had the ribsteak with butter and garlic sauce. We even decided to have dessert and I chose the Creme brûlée and she chose Chocolate and Vanilla ice cream with whipped cream! Going all out I say!?!?!?? Boy, we were sure full after our desserts.

Paris Food Walking Tour

I joined an organised food walking tour in the Latin Quarter area of Paris. The tour guide’s name was Marie-Cecile. She spoke quite fluent English and she has a connection to Australia. Her sister lives in Australia and is married to an Australian. Another couple I met on the walking tour hailed from Adelaide and the husband has been a baker for the past 30 odd years. What a small world to meet another Australian couple in Paris.

During the tour, we visited a fromager called Laurent Dubois. There were so many cheeses to see and I so seriously was tempted to try them all (if I could). On top of that, I could not believe how much cheaper in price good quality cheese is in France compared to Australia.  One of the cheeses I tasted was an Alpage cheese from Switzerland. It was about 33 euro per kg and converted to AUD based on recent rates would be approximately $43 per kg. For the same brand of cheese, I have paid $120 per kg in Sydney.

We stopped by a butcher, looked at the stalls in the fresh food markets, a lot of the fruits and vegetable stalls were certified organic. These markets have been going on since the first millennium. Amazing! We visited a rather famous Boulanger ‘Eric Kayser”. Apparently, he has about 16 stores in Paris.  I had the almond croissant; it was delicious. The baguette was really good. Lovely crusty exterior but soft on the inside. We had the baguette with goose pate and duck foie gras. Yummy! We tasted Comte cheese and goat’s cheese. I wasn’t too keen on the goat’s cheese but I did like the Comte.

As we were walking around the area, Marie-Cecile also gave us a bit of a history tour and a bit of information on the architecture of the buildings. I thought it was nice of her to do that.

When we were tasting the pate and foie gras, we were offered a glass of wine. The wine was paired for eating foie gras and pate. I must say it was a lovely wine and it did go very well with the foie gras. It was from Bordeaux and is called Cadillac.

Goose pate with baguette 

Duck foie gras with baguette

The lovely Cadillac wine 

Comte cheese

Well, it was a pleasant walking tour and I did get to see a part of Paris I had not seen before. What I did not mention before was it was a rainy morning but that did not deter us. So some of the photos will show quite a grey background.

Bonifacio

Our guide for the morning was Pierre. He was extremely knowledgeable about the history of Bonifacio and Corsica per se. Pierre is a local and based on the information he provided I have surmised that Corsica is more Italian than French.

My intention is not to get too heavy into the political history of Corsica but in a nutshell, the Italians ruled Corsica for 600 years and the French rule only started in 1768. So it is quite obvious that there is a lot more Italian influence in Bonifacio than there is the French influence. In fact, the city of Genoa has a strong bond with Bonifacio as the Italians who ruled then were from Genoa. The local dialect in the old town is called Genoese.

The King of Aragon Steps - built in 1 day

The street signs typically have 2 signs per street. The smaller sign is the local dialect. The larger sign is in Italian but pronounced in French. This town is quite fascinating to me. There is so much history here, I see so much of the Italian influence and yet there is a mix of the French too.

Till today, there is a lot of resentment towards France. Corsica is an interesting island rich in history. When the French took over the island, a lot of the autonomy that Corsica was used to were taken away from them. I can see why there is still  a fierce independent spirit in Corsica.

Napoleon Bonaparte's résidence while in Bonifacio

The drawbridge 

Arriving in Bonifacio by Ferry

After saying our goodbyes to Pietro and to Ignacio (our Sardinian bus driver), we got on the ferry to Bonifacio. This ferry also transports cars so it is quite large in size.

The trip takes about an hour from Santa Teresa Gallura to Bonifacio. As we entered Bonifacio, we could see the tall rocks surrounding the town and it is quite a spectacular way to firstly enter the city and secondly see the views of the surrounding terrain. The photos I captured with the camera cannot do justice to the height and breadth of the rocks surrounding the ferry as we entered the city port.

There are two sections to this town, the harbour section and the old town. The old town is located at the top of the town and is guarded by high walls and there is a drawbridge that links the top to the lower part of the town.

The harbour section

The old section of the town