Tales from Paris - Best Bits

After a quick tidy up of my desk this afternoon I came across some tickets, business cards and maps from various places I went to when I was in Paris, I thought I’d share some of my favourites.

Eating/drinking. Each night we’d get the metro to ABBESSES in Montmartre, which was great because not only was it easy to get to from our hotel but there were plenty of restaurants and bars with reasonably priced, yummy food. We ate and drank in several places across the week including a bar that did good food and amazing mojitos (decent sized glasses for about €6) two minutes down the road from the station. But the best place was Le Durer. It was so good we went back for a second night.

Le Durer

Le Durer, about 100m from the metro on rue Yvonne-le-Tac, is a fabulous little restaurant with a warm and friendly atmosphere. The owner and waiters did everything they could to make us feel welcome and the food was delicious. There were three set menus priced at €16, €23 or €31 available in French, German and English. Each menu got you a three course meal with a choice of between four and seven options per course, a bowl of nibbles to start and the obligatory basket of French bread. Eating there for two nights gave us a chance to try a lot of the options between the two of us and highlights for me were the French onion soup, steak in blue cheese sauce and lime sorbet. It was such a good find and I highly recommend it.

Of course when in Paris you have to sample the crepes and baguettes which are pretty much everywhere. We had a delicious crepe under the Eiffel Tower and we found a brilliant little boulangerie on the second island.  

Shopping. I did a lot of shopping. I think I might have spent more money on shopping than on food. Montmartre was a brilliant place to shop, the day we spent there ended with us struggling up the spiral staircase to our room with a ridiculous amount of bags.

Diwali

The Île Saint-Louis was another place where Euros quickly disappeared, mostly on jewellery. There were several places on the main street that were full of gorgeous things and because the island is very much in the shadow of the Île de la Cité it was much less crowded. The jewellery shop Diwali was a favourite of mine, lots of brightly coloured jewellery and scarves that were a little different.

Another place where I could have spent a fortune was Shakespeare & Company, the most famous English-language bookshop in Paris. I’d read about it in the Lonely Planet and knew we had to go there. It was worth it. It was amazing. The place is crammed floor to ceiling with bookshelves full of books; they even have those sliding ladders. I must admit that I was very restrained and only bought three books, the sensible side of me won... I kind of wished it hadn’t. However those three books I did buy got the official Shakespeare & Company stamp. And I got a bookmark.

Shakespeare & Company

And Voila! Some of my favourite places that we found when we were in Paris.