Hello, bonjour, hola!
Last weekend I had my first visitor in Paris - my gran! We had such a lovely weekend, so I thought I'd share what we did.
Gran arrived on Friday afternoon, around 4pm, I found her at a little café just outside Gare du Nord with a glass of wine (watch out for the recurring theme) after having a bit of a palava involving her arriving earlier than expected and my phone not working! So we drank some wine and caught up, and discussed what our plans were for the weekend ahead. I then took her on the métro to her hotel, Hotel Aramis, which was the same one mum and I had stayed in during the apartment hunt which feels like a lifetime ago!
Once she had dropped her bag off, we decided to go to a restaurant called Il Pescatore for dinner. Il Pescatore is a lovely Italian restaurant in the fifth arrondissement which mum, Sam and I discovered last month, the waiters are so friendly and the food is absolutely delicious. Gran and I shared Serrano ham and mozzarella to start, we then both had the lasagne for our main course, and we managed to squeeze in dessert too - I had panna cotta and it was gorgeous! One thing I really appreciated was our waiter speaking to me in French, only speaking English when my gran needed to understand too (e.g. when he told us the day's specials); we had a great chat and it gave me the chance to show my gran that I can in fact speak French! I don't know about anyone else learning a language, but my family very, very rarely hear me speak French or Spanish!
On the Saturday, I went and picked Gran up from her hotel and we headed straight to the Louvre to be cultured and whatnot. When we arrived we got straight in the queue, only to be tapped on the shoulder and given a ticket by a total stranger! So on top of me getting in for free because I'm European and under 26 years old, my gran didn't have to pay either, which was a juicy little bonus - la cerise sur le gâteau, if you please!
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| Inside the Louvre |
[Tip for year abroaders: it seems that if you're under 26 and from Europe, you can get in for free at a lot of tourist spots in Paris, so be sure to take your driver's licence or passport if you're out being a tourist for the day!]
Anyway, we wandered round the Louvre for a couple of hours, saw some headless statues and some Monet and then we decided we needed some fresh air. So we hopped on the metro to the gardens of Luxembourg, which really are beautiful and definitely worth a visit. We sat and had a chocolat viennois (hot choc with whipped cream on top) and Gran studied her map for a while (she loves maps, not sure why, she's a funny thing), then we wandered around the gardens and enjoyed the gorgeous October sunshine.
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| Palais du Luxembourg |
After the gardens we went for a drink at Le Rousseau, a restaurant and bar on Rue du Cherche-Midi in the sixth arrondissement, very near to the hotel Gran was staying in, and discussed where to go for dinner that night. We decided on Café Saint Placide, which is a very casual restaurant on Rue de Rennes, I had tagliatelle carbonara, and Gran had salmon, both were delicious!
On the Sunday, I decided it was time we did some shopping, so we went to the shopping mall that Alex, Alice and I had found the weekend before. We shopped till we dropped - I got a really lovely, soft scarf from Zara and Gran bought some warm clothes for golf - and then we headed to the Tuileries gardens for another wander round, before heading to a café for some food. Once we'd eaten it was time for Gran to go home, so I made sure she got on the right train on the metro, and we parted ways. I was really sad to see her leave after such a wonderful weekend, but thankfully my parents are coming to visit in two weeks and then I'm going home for a week!
À bientôt!
Bean xx
