Another Trip to Paris
by Céleste | March 31, 2015 — April 1, 2015
When we heard our friends Mireille* and Jean* were going to be in Paris for about a week, Vincent and I decided to look into the possibility of visiting. I wasn’t keen on visiting Paris itself, as I’ve been three times and didn’t really feel the need to see it again, especially since we’ll be going again in April with American friends and again in June with my family. However, Mireille and Jean are wonderful friends and they brought their new baby Phillippe* with them, and we had never met him before. We figured this would be a great time to get to see them before we return to the US for good!
Vincent and I took the Ouigo up to Paris straight from Aix. Ouigo is basically the Ryan Air of French trains, meaning that it is a cheapo form of transportation. It’s almost like third class on the train, but it was great for us. Vincent will be detailing it more in a later post. Anyway, we went straight to the Marne la Vallée-Chessy stop, which if you weren’t aware, is the stop for Euro Disney. Which means, of course, that it was full of children and tourists and tourists’ children. We waited in line for metro tickets for about an hour (!) and then got onto the RER A in order to get into Paris proper. At this point, it was about lunch time, so when we finally made it to Jean and Mireille’s splended AirBnB apartment, we were famished. Our two hip and trendy friends took us to Frenchie’s, which is probably the most hipster-ish dining spot in all of Paris. Jean and Mireille must have some kind of radar for hipster. It definitely fit their personalities.
After we ate and Phillippe was fed, with much cooing and cuddling from both parents and Vincent and I, we headed out into the streets of Paris. One thing that differs between Jean and Mireille and myself is that these two don’t seem to do much planning ahead of time, and seem perfectly content to just walk around, mostly aimlessly, but sometimes with intention. I’m more of a planner, so this was a good exercise for me in letting things go and just going with the flow.
We walked to the Jardin du Luxembourg and got coffee. The barista, who was on the phone, enjoying several seconds of wiping his nose with his bare hand before serving us. He then had me repeat the order 3 times. Such is Paris, I guess.
It was a windy day, and a bit cold, so poor little Phillippe was crying. He apparently also doesn’t like to sleep, so he fought his naps throughout. I liked spending time with him though, because aside from the nap refusal, he is chill and cool, like his parents.
We continued walking all the way to Place d’Italie, where we visited Chez Yong, which is our favorite Parisian restaurant. This was the third time we had been there, and definitely this was the best time. We had chef’s chicken, some weird beef with what looked like octopus suction cups, and lemon chicken.
Here’s some other scenery we saw on our walk.
We headed back to the apartment we got through AirBnB. It was pretty cool, as it had a loft and a skylight. It was small but it did the trick.
The next day, April 1, we slept in and then went to a crêpe restaurant. We each had a savory crêpe (crêpe salée) and a sweet crêpe (crêpe sucrée). Mine was a salted caramel crêpe. Yum!
We then walked to the Père Lachaise cemetery, which is a very famous cemetery in Paris, housing the likes of Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison, and several writers, artists, and musicians. We walked around at a leisurely pace, seeking out the graves of the famous people we were interested in. I had been to Père Lachaise before in 2006, though due to time restrictions, I had only been able to find Jim Morrison’s grave (I was a weird high school student, I liked the Doors a lot). This time, we sought out Frédéric Chopin, whose music I had played a lot when I took piano lessons, Oscar Wilde, who I enjoy reading, and we just walked around randomly, looking at the other occupants.
The photos below are as follows, top row, left to right: a man chiseling a name onto a gravestone, Chopin’s grave, a grave of a photographer with a camera in it; and second row, left to right: Oscar Wilde’s grave, which has had to be cleaned many times at the expense of the family, due to the tradition of leaving lipstick kisses on the grave (you can see the remains of enterprising fans on the right side of the grave), and the grave of a painter and sculptor, who had a violin on the stone.
We briefly stopped by Mr. Mojo Risin’s grave, but it was surrounded by students, with someone telling them stories about the Doors and the grave itself.
After that, we stopped at a little café for coffee, and headed on our way back to Aix-en-Provence. It was really nice to spend time with such valued friends, even though it made me really heartsick for Minnesota. Even though I love being in France, and I’m having the time of my life, I miss the everyday life of Minneapolis, and I can’t wait to be stateside again, hanging out with baby Phillipe, and Jean and Mireille. I’m sure we’ll have a big homecoming party when we get back, so Vincent and I definitely have something to look forward to!
*Names have been changed, as usual. We like to give French monikers to our American friends.
