Croissants et Pain au Chocolat!

What a joy in the mornings to walk outside my front door and get fresh hot croissants! It is a little pleasure I have after a long stressful work week, to pop down in my pyjamas masked with a jacket and sprint right back up to go to enjoy my goodies with a lovely cappuccino.

Many frenchies eat this every morning... But as I'm not a big bread person it makes the weekends special. OH! The odeur, the flakiness, the sweet almond, or chocolate tastes… its just soooo good!I'm a very lucky girl to have a great Boulanger at the foot of my door... very lucky indeed!

outside my front door...

I have this lovely view when I walk outside my door...

the street "chevallier de la barre" is this a little winding cobblestone street that leads directly up to the back of the Sacre Coeur. There I find a lovely hidden park, known it seems to only locals, when in the summertime you'll find a grassy ground pitterpattered with sun seeking parisiens. The views are amazing, there is a fountain that can , if we close our eyes, make one believe we are in the middle of a forrest, right in the center of the city!

Best moment, when the bells of the church chime. Its really quite a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

Sweets for the Sweet (dedication to my mom)

One of the best things about France is the food.

If you have a sweet tooth... this is the place to be. Pastries have multitude of flavors, you can find them on almost every block and for about 2.50 euros you can buy any one of them.

Not only are these little gems beautiful to look at & make you feel bad to destroy their perfect form and color, but the harmony of flavours is simply magical. My personal favorite is the Opera.. with its creme au beurrre, chocolate ganache & layer of biscuit that melts in your mouth.

I'm someone who prefers salty to sugary... but sometimes it just hits the spot!

Each morning I pass through the streets of Montmartre on my way to work. I tend to take this route not only because it's a shortcut but also for the serenity of starting my day calmly with cobblestone windy streets, seeing neighbors walking their dogs, boutiques opening and the sun lifting over the building tops... i FEEL the beginning of each day.

(p.s. thats me on my scooter)

La Tour Eiffel

The first 10 minutes of every hour after dusk the Eiffel Tower sparkles with lights. 20, 000 little bulbs that make a big hunk of metal even more cool that it already is. I went to the top once and popped open a bottle of champagne with my sister. I think we even took the stairs down. I've also enjoyed take-out sushi under it with my mom... she had never seen it sparkle before. It’s definitely something to do if you come here even if you don't want to do 'touristy' things. I think it’s romantic that Tom proposed to Katie up there, sometimes it’s nice to be kitschy. It WAS romantic!

They say it was saved from being torn down by having antenna installed at the top since of course the French found it an eyesore. They love to complain or snub their noses at anything they can. I found the episode of Sex in the City when SJP was in Paris very real-to-life as the French girl’s comments towards it were so negative. But well, it helps to make Paris very wealthy and to fund many of the social programs that the French can take advantage of.

This photo was taken outside a friends apartment, I walked outside and Bam! It was right there & sparkling… enchanting.

City of Lights

I'm still enchanted with Paris. Its just one of those cities that sucks you up and you never want to be spat out. I had a friend staying at a lovely hotel in front of the Louvre. This photo, her view from the window on to rue de Rivoli was enchanting. One can understand why it is called the

City of Lights.

If you stand on one of the bridges crossing the Seine at 1am, you can see the lights of the monuments turn off consecutively. It starts in the direction of La Bibliothèque Nationale de France (13 arr.) and one by one, each area is switched off, each bridge, one by one, ending towards where the little Statue of Liberty next to the Pont de Grenelle bridge(16 arr.).
It’s like being in a football stadium

and the crowd is doing a wave...

favorite past time

funny how Parisians love to go "apero's" (drinks) after work. They do this social thing to meet up with friends but always stay within their own group (heavens forbid we talk to someone else!!). It’s kind of a "see & be seen" type of thing.

I’ve found it funny as a foreigner as I tend talk more easily to the people around. I’ve had frenchies say to me, “with you I always end up meeting someone new”. Is it the fact I’m a foreigner, or the fact that I give out more open vibes, smile, or my accent (which seems to be a good pick-up tool- but that’s another story) or just that I take the chance to actually talk to someone after making eye contact. A normal thing is to do is to look at a person but not acknowledge that you’ve ‘seen’ them. You look then look-through or away. A very French thing. I’ve noticed I’ve started to do it… I am fighting against it. Anyway, off to an “apero”…