Category Archives: Travel

And we’re back in Paris. One more day and we head home. We arrived Sunday afternoon and have spent the days wandering around Paris, doing a few touristy things as well as shopping.

Monday we actually went inside Notre Dame. When we were in Paris last year, we went to the cathedral but it was Good Friday so the queue to get in was massive. This time it wasn’t as bad and moving swiftly. But not swiftly enough for us to avoid getting caught in a sudden and heavy downpour. Oh well… Autumn in Paris seems to be all about sudden, unexpected rain.

Walked past this on the way to the cathedral. Government buildings are much more impressive in France. Well, in Paris anyway.

Notre Dame Cathedral.

My candle for Joan d’Arc. After what they did to her, she deserves them.

Joan d’Arc.

It’s worth visiting Notre Dame just for the stained glass windows.

Baptismal font.

By the time we got out of the cathedral it was all blue skies again so we wandered around looking for somewhere to have lunch and stumbled across a great bistro called Le Bouledogue. (They have a website but it’s awful so I’m not linking to it.) The food was great. I’ve discovered that I do actually like duck so I had their filet of duck in pepper sauce and wow! Soooo good!! We’ll definitely be heading back there (if we can find it again!) on any return trips to Paris. Straight after lunch we meet up with Richard’s cousin and his wife. We did the very Parisian thing of sitting at a cafe and drinking the afternoon away.

Tuesday was all about shopping. We shopped. Or rather I shopped and Richard got to watch. I finally bought myself a pair of black heels and a pair of ballet flats from Repetto. Spent a lot of money but the shoes are so pretty I think it’s worth it. The ballet flats I bought actually look like ballet shoes! Except they’re black and they sparkle! Proof I am a proper girl – going shoe shopping made me happy! I was also determined to not leave Paris without buying a stripy top. I now own three. And there’s a pair of new sneakers that also have to be squeezed into my luggage. What? There’s an Onitsuka Tiger shop in Paris and I happen to know exactly where it is! I might’ve persuaded Richard to buy a pair as well.

Today we visited Versailles. It’s big, really big but the part of the palace you can visit is only a fraction of it. Still, it does contain the Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors) and that’s worth the visit alone. Impossible to get a good photo of it though when it’s full of people but it’s still immensely grand. Anyhoo… photos!

The chapel inside the main building.

The roof the chapel.

I loved this hall. It was just astonishing to look at and it looked about a million miles long! Well, I loved it anyway!

The key to the king’s bed chamber.

I think this is Louis the XIV. Or it could’ve been Louis XV. I can’t remember!

I wish this photo captured the sheer size of this fireplace. It was massive! The pieces of wood in it are about a metre to a metre and a half long.

We had lunch at the restaurant inside the palace. These are the desserts on offer.

And we’re outside in the gardens!

I think we walked around the gardens for about two and a half hours. We got rained on. It was cold. But it was still stunningly beautiful and we’ll be back because we didn’t get to the Petit Trianon, Marie Antoinette’s retreat (but originally design for Madame de Pompadour). And we didn’t see all of the garden either.

Tomorrow is our last day in Paris. Then it’s back home and back to reality. Well, we have another week off before we have to return to work. I’m actually looking forward to being home. Can’t wait to sleep in my own bed!

I probably shouldn’t have eaten the absolutely delicious but loaded with dairy eclair. And the enormous meal last night…

The day started okay. Lazed about in bed for a bit, wrote a blog post and eventually got up to go visit the Maison Européenne de la Photographie before the day got too hot. It didn’t work. The day got really hot really quickly.

As we were walking back to the hotel, I started to feel sick. At first I thought it was me reacting to the heat – which I really wasn’t prepared for. But then my stomach started hurting like it did when I first developed listeria poisoning two weeks before the wedding. (Yes, you too can lose 2.5kg in a week! All you need to do is eat something tainted with listeria and enjoy a trip to hospital where they pump you full of 2ltr of IV fluid cos you’re so dehydrated you can barely stand!) Cue internal panic! We made it back to the hotel at about 2pm and I crawled into bed. Where I stayed until about 9pm.

Yes, I know. I shouldn’t be sleeping that much during the day but I was utterly exhausted and feeling very poorly. I definitely over-did the food. I had trouble on the flight over after eating a spicy chicken pastry on the flight to KL and the Malaysia Airline lounge at KL was dosed with a very sickly sweet fragrance whilst being what I felt was unpleasantly warm. Not a good combination for someone with a grumbly belly who was already feeling sick. It wasn’t a good lay-over and I was really glad to get back on the plane were at least it there was air conditioning.

I felt okay yesterday. The baguette I had for lunch was exactly what I needed – simple food with lots of flavour. The dinner last night was extraordinary but I probably over-did it and I did order an entree that was raw fish (some of the most delicious tuna I’ve ever eaten). I don’t regret the experience but I probably shouldn’t have eaten so much.

Same with the vanilla eclair. So delicious! But I definitely shouldn’t have eaten it. My body was already taxed with the long flight and if I’m honest, I still haven’t fully recovered from the listeria poisoning. It’s also been a stressful couple of weeks with the wedding and all.

It has been a stressful few weeks (whilst also being exciting). I wasn’t sleeping so well before the wedding and I guess I’m a bit emotionally drained. Which is coming out as physical tiredness. But isn’t that the point of a honeymoon? To recover from the stress of organising a wedding? It’s just a pity mine decided to come out as it did, ruining a day in Paris. After my massive afternoon nap, the nausea has gone away and I can feel my eyes getting heavy so more sleep is on the cards.

So I’m thinking a good night’s sleep, easy on the dairy, no more raw fish and she’ll be apples 🙂