On Mondays, many markets and businesses are still closed (to "ease" back into the work week). How inconvenient for us. Note to self: the next Paris trip I take will be from Tuesday through Sunday, avoiding May 1st (or come to think of it, ANY national French holiday!) and including the 1st Sunday of each month (so to enter museums for free)
As a result, our researching and planning turned up Places des Vosges and Bastille as basically the only sights we could see today... of which, one is a public square and the other is a monument in the middle of a busy traffic intersection :T
We took the metro for the first time today! As both Places des Vosges and Bastille are pretty far away, we braved the metro. It is cleaner than NYC's metro, but a lot grungier looking than Taiwan's. It was rush hour, so the trains were packed, but people were pretty respectful of personal space, etc. My one big complaint is that there are certain stops where the metro will stop and wait 5-7 minutes for people to get off and on the train. Is that really necessary?
But the day turned out pleasantly well, because many bakeries were open. You could really say that today was our croissant day! ^.^
We started at Boulangerie Malineau, known for their chocolate-raspberry croissants and chocolate-banana croissants. Absolutely fantastic! I think I am a fan for life! The topmost layer was crunchy yet light, the middle layers were flaky but moist, and the stuffing did not weigh the dough down (as in mushy layering) but was still plenty so you could get the taste of what stuffing is in the croissant.
We soon realized that walking down the Rue de Rivoli, there are lots of patisseries. And since it is morning, many croissants are featured (they usually sell out by afternoon). We crossed the street specifically because Aux Desirs de Manon looked like it had a tempting display:
We bought a pain au amandes (almond croissant) that was DAMN GOOD. Just look at the texture! And the frangipan!
We also bought a croissant with chocolate and custard inside (very interesting! I've never seen that combination before!) which was incredibly delicious as well.
C'est la, Bastille. It was a freezing cold day! Not good to be outdoors! The original prison was destroyed, with nothing of the original left but a wall. They erected this monument on the sight of the destroyed prison, with (can't see with my picture) names written all around the monument in gold.
We passed by a bakery with croissant au jambon. Since we don't see it at many bakeries, whenever we come across one, we HAVE to get it. This was an even better deal, for 6.10 euros, you get a croissant au jambon, a boissons (drink of your choice) and dessert of your choice.
For dessert, we chose a strawberry custard tart (I think it has a thin layer of frangipan on a short dough crust). Angel insists that when we went to Chinese school, you guys would buy this for us from Grain D'or. I don't remember but Angel says we even bought it for our birthdays?
It was delicious as well. I loved the strawberries! I bit into one strawberry and set aside half of it because I could not fit everything into my mouth in one go, but a second later, that half was gone. Angel snatched it from me! She said she didn't think I liked strawberries so she might as well eat it... without even asking me! Tsktsk.
Places des Vosges is known for its distinctive brick architectural style.
It's supposedly one of the prettiest planned residential squares in all of Europe. Victor Hugo lived here. His house is open to the public, but unfortunately closed on Mondays.
Now, it is home to many different art galleries. In the back, there is a door that enters into Hotel Sully, that the Duke of Sully designed for his family.
It is under renovation, so no visitors allowed inside.
Bibi told us the other day that Pierre Herme just opened up a new shop across from the Louvre, on rue Cambon. I was craving Angelina's hot chocolate, so we stopped by there to pick one up to-go (it is 1.2 euros cheaper to buy to-go than it is to sit in the salon to drink it! The Mont Blanc is 1.8 euros cheaper to-go as well!). They sell macarons too, and since we didn't try any of them yesterday, we bought some today.
Herme is a 2-minute walk from Angelina's, so we stopped by to see the fuss. There was nobody there... maybe the store is too new and nobody knows of it yet? The store didn't show up in any of the guide books and not online searches either. Supposedly he does a foie gras macaron, as well as a white truffle. Unfortunately (I seem to be saying that word a LOT in France), the foie gras flavor (we were told by the store clerk) is sold only in winter. Nevertheless, we selected 6 flavors to try and Angel was extremely happy... reminded me of a 6-year child proudly showing his parents the gold fish he caught (you remember that Taiwanese game?). Such a child....
Yikes, 1:30 already! I better get to sleep... will post macaron pictures later!
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