A Day in Versailles
After spending a day in Paris, we decided to snag a last-minute hotel in Versailles, just outside the city. We found an awesome deal at the Waldorf-Astoria (!!!) right off the actual grounds of the stunning palace of Versailles and planned spending Saturday night and Sunday morning there. Before dinner, we worked up an appetite by walking around the charming city streets-- bike rentals had just closed for the day when we arrived :( . We loved exploring the streets of this city and seeing the gorgeous architecture and lovely restaurants. We enjoyed a delicious pizza dinner and then for the piece de resistance, we wandered over to the most delicious bakery ever, the Boulangerie Guinon. Seriously, this place is incredible-- best pastries and bread of my life. We had been here once before when we did a bike tour of Versailles with some of our best friends, the Dardanos, a couple of years ago. But, this time we invested in more sugary fare, specifically the eclairs and tarts. Amazing. Before we even finished satiating our appetites, we were planning a trip back tomorrow before we left Versailles.
The next morning we woke up, worked out together, showered, and then went to indulge again in the hotel's breakfast for Mother's Day! Per expectation when traveling in France, it was incredible. The croissants, cheese, yogurt and fruit were top-rate. Almost as good was the beautiful setting as we dined outside under a tent on a gorgeous morning. Such a happy memory! After finishing up, we rented bikes and started our self-guided tour of the grounds of Versailles. We rode all around the Grand Canal, stopping to go down less-traveled roads as well as soaking it all in as we went along.
Here are those less-traveled roads...so so so beautiful.
After parking our bikes and wandering the gardens for a bit, we decided to go into the Palace and see what all of the fuss is about. ;) I'm sure its incredibly busy in the summer, during high tourist season, but it still felt a general crowded push at all times to see the most popular things. We visited the bedrooms and the Hall of Mirrors, where we tried to wrap our heads around the kind of lives the French royalty lived back then. Nuts.
One of my favorite parts was this room full of important French portraits and events in French history. I recognized a lot of scenes and people from our favorite broadway, "Alexander Hamilton", which was really fun.
We biked back out of the grounds and continued our tour of the actual city. After discovering our favorite bakery was closed today (so sad!!), we found a disappointing replacement and sat on these church steps to eat.
We rode around the market and surrounding areas and then rode to the Paris LDS temple, which is actually right in Versailles. It was so cool to walk around and learn a little about the construction and the LDS history in the region. The temple and grounds were immaculate and beautiful and it was so fun to see in real life. We LOVED every second of our time in Versailles and were so glad we decided to get out of the big city for just one night. Totally and completely worth it.
A Weekend in Paris
We took the red-eye on Thursday night and arrived in the City of Lights early Friday morning. Did we get business-class upgrades?? Yes!!! Makes a red-eye a teeny bit exciting and ALLLL of the traveling Brian does seem okay for just those few cushy hours up in the air. I could totally (but won't ever get the chance in this life) get used to flying like that. ;) . Our friend, Dallin had a room at the Marriott by the Champs Elysees, where we unloaded our luggage and grabbed a quick breakfast before he and Brian headed out for work meetings together. I snuck in a quick nap and shower and then headed out to explore by myself for the day. Naturally, I did some things that I could never do when we traveled here with our kids....museum hopping! I visited the Musee de l'Orangerie to see Monet's famous Water Lilies first. Stunning. I loved sitting quietly and soaking in the massive impressionist panels in the rooms dedicated solely to this work. I loved walking all over the Tuilerie Gardens and seeing the famous Louvre, which I passed on this time, having seen it when we visited a couple of years ago. I snuck in a few shops and even took a few minutes to sit down and enjoy an almond croissant, my favorite! Then I wandered back to meet Brian as he finished up his meetings.
And, that is why you will see actual photos of what we did next. Wishing I was a talented photographer is just that, a wish. So, until Brian tags along, there will not be many pictures of what I did before we met up. We walked through the Tuileries again and along the Seine River and over to the Latin Quarter, where we ate a traditional French dinner in the most cozy and charming corner. I totally fell in love with French architecture on this trip. I don't know why I wasn't so enamored with it when we've gone here before, but on this trip I simply could not get enough! I love this city so so so much.
Quick walk-by of Notre Dame- still can't get over how beautiful and HUGE this church is. Love the pop-up shops (the original pop-ups!) all along the Seine.
We slept in way too late the next morning, but still managed to sneak in a run through the streets and gardens where we stayed, near the Place de la Concorde. The weather on this trip was something else- perfection that just solidified my new-found love for this city. We showered, grabbed a quick lunch and headed to a macaron class in Montmarte that we were able to get reservations in by the "skin of our teeth", as my mom would say :). The pictures above, are from our walk around Montmarte and we happened to run into this wall (which appeared to be insta-famous because there were TONS of people there) which has "I Love You" written in every language.
Back to that macaron class...this was seriously the best!! I love baking, so to be able to do it in Paris whilst making their specialty macarons=highlight of the trip! It was a small class and we learned a ton and were able to make and take home 3 kinds of flavored chocolate varieties as well as the almond cookies that adorn the tops and bottoms of those sugary delicacies. It was the coolest thing and I hope I can recreate it some day. Lauren is way into macarons right now and was so excited to see what we had done, especially when some of our leftovers actually made it home to the USA!
It was such an intense and delicate process. Our chef was amazing and helped us perfect what we'd made- so all of our little cookies grew their "feet" and none cracked in the oven! Brian and I chose purple for our color and they turned out so beautiful!
On our last night in Paris, we stayed in a hotel near the Eiffel Tower. I didn't think I would enjoy switching hotels every night as much as I did on this trip. It was so cool to see a different part of the city every time we moved because there are just so many awesome areas- I left feeling like we only saw a small sliver of what there is to explore here (and thats after having visited 4 times!)
We walked all over on our last night- seeing the Eiffel Tower up close as well as the streets near our hotel. We looked up some delicious Michelin-starred restaurants for our final dinner and ate at the most delicious cafe. I had melt-in-your-mouth pasta that I'm still honestly wondering how they made it so flavorful. We gathered some souvenirs (in the form of sugar) for the kids and got ready to head home early the next morning. This weekend in Paris was just what we needed after having spent so little time together in the last few months...everything about it was perfect!