Promenade à travers Paris

Paris has been a beautiful whirlwind of color, smells and aching feet… Oh how my feet ache at the end of a long day of walking up cobblestones. We have had a week to see it all in Paris: museums, monuments, neighborhoods, jardins, chateaux, ruins, boutiques, boulangeries and metro stations.

My mom and I stayed in a little apartment at the foot of Montmartre, courtesy of AirBnB. The weekend we were in Paris, Montmartre just happened to be hosting its Fête des Vendages, a wine tasting festival! Locals and tourists alike found themselves mingling on the steps of the Sacré Coeur, wine bottle in hand. We went from one stall to the next with our reusable plastic cup, which had handy cl. measurements on the side. I tried a Côte de Rhône, Bordeaux and Beaujolais. Despite the name, there was only one vendor selling wine from the Montmartre region. In fact, Montmartre used to be quite a large producer of wine before it was swallowed up by the city. The festival is a tradition that embraces this heritage. Luckily, food vendors were also apart of this party, and we were able to stop here for a picnic dinner of creole tuna sandwich on baguette and a potato and cheese dish cooked in one giant pot. Our entertainment of the night was varied between street performers and artists. One in particular impressed with his superhuman ball juggling skills while balanced on the balcony overlooking the bright lights of the city.

Perhaps my favorite night, however, was when my mom and I took the bus from the Eiffel Tower all the way to Canal St. Martin. The bus took us through glitzy neighborhoods and passed important monuments, such as Le Bastille. Getting off in Le Marais, we walked along the Canal, admiring the creative and colorful houseboats. For dinner, we found a jolie little pizza stand called The Pink Flamingo. It was not much more than a pale pink storefront with a cashier at the window, a small kitchen in the back and a table for two set up outside. What was unique about this place was that you could order your pizza and wine and wander down to the canal to drink amongst the young crowd that gathers after dark. The Pink Flamingo gives you a pink balloon to keep with you. When your pizza is ready, one of the cooks bikes down to the canal, which is only a block or two away, and delivers your pizza hot from the wood-fired oven. It was such a clever idea. Now I just need to figure out how this might work in Walla Walla… The pizza itself was delicious. We ordered The Ghandi, which was a thin crust pizza topped with Indian curry and saag paneer. Italian meets Indian food may be my new favorite fusion.

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On a side note, apparently Taylor Swift is in Paris too! I saw that we posted virtually the same photo of the Eiffel Tower on Instagram—hers from inside a limousine. First Katy Perry in Melbourne and now Taylor Swift in Paris! Oh la la…

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