Abroad Bites: Paris, France

Okay, Paris recap. Let’s do this!

Paris, France is just one of those places people dream about. A city of magic, love, food, and beauty. And it is so all of those things. This trip to Paris was the third time I had been in the City of Lights, and I was lucky enough to spend it with my lovely aunt, uncle, and cousin. My aunt and uncle both had work in Paris, and brought my cousin along with them. I jumped on the train to go meet them (only two and a half hours from London!) and we had such a good weekend. It was absolutely wonderful to see some family after three months without them.

We explored, walked, shopped, and ate our way through the city, and of course I documented the highlights to share with you all!

I arrived in Paris right around dinnertime, so of course the first thing that we did was eat. We went to a little Italian restaurant right near our hotel, and devoured some pizza and pasta. My cousin Sami and I decided to share an alfredo penne pasta with mushrooms and a pizza with prosciutto (that took an embarrassingly long time to spell) and arugula. Both were delicious, but we both agreed the pizza trumped the pasta for sure. After dinner, we needed chocolate, so we headed into the grocery store. The chocolate aisle was highly overwhelming and full of choices we had never seen before, so we chose an assortment. Some gummy candies (because we needed something fruity), a speculoos white chocolate bar (because we needed to know if it tasted like cookie butter!!), a creme brûlée chocolate bar (OMG. Find this, and eat it all.), and a Kinder chocolate assortment (because we’re beyond indecisive). We went to bed with major chocolate stomaches, but it was all wonderfully delicious. Also, we ate that chocolate throughout the trip, not all in one night. We’re not that gluttonous.

The next day, we walked around a ton and explored the city! We ate lunch on the Champs Elysees, and wandered through gorgeous stores. We also had it hit up Laduree, what kind of pastry lover would I be if we didn’t?!
This was part of our lunch at the cafe on the Champs Elysees. It was a bruchetta with prosciutto, mozzarella, basil, pesto, and all sorts of good stuff. Absolutely amazing!

The pictures below are of our trip to the Laduree. OMG, not only was it the most gorgeous store, but the pastries were all beautifully decorated and presented. We got a box of macarons and a palmier, all of which were phenomenal. Our favorite macarons were the caramel and vanilla – so classic and simply delicious.

Seriously though, can we note the layers in that palmier? Pastry heaven!
Some shots of the Champs Elysees. Isn’t it gorgeous?! We were so lucky to get such great weather as well.

The next day, we explored the city some more! We grabbed lunch (you’ll see our Croque Monsieur below), and just walked around, with a majorly necessary stop for gelato (speculoos flavored – yum!). We also bought a lock to put on the lock bridge, which is a definitely must-do when in Paris :)

My uncle Brian is a basketball agent, so that night we went to go see his player, Elton, play! We watched the game from great seats and cheered from the Paris Levallois team, trying to figure out what the heck the people were saying in their cheers.
After the game we went to dinner, and despite the bad pictures, it was delicious! I got veal milanese, and it was wonderful! Super crispy, and perfect with a squeeze of lemon. Sami got GIANT prawns – they were really huge. We got a creme custard dessert, but it was seriously disappointing, so we just ate some more chocolate when we got back to the hotel room. :)
On my last day in Paris, we did what every tourist needs to do – go to the Eiffel Tower! We had a great ole time taking selfies in front of the tower :)
We also stumbled upon another, smaller Laduree. We couldn’t resist getting a big vanilla macaron. Too good! We also grabbed a shortcake with creme in the middle, which we brought back to the hotel. No pictures, because it ended up super battered from being carried around all day, and because it wasn’t very fresh, it also wasn’t very good by the time we got around to eating it. Major bummer.
Oh Paris, I miss your delicious pastries already! I hope you all enjoyed seeing my trip to Paris, I’d love to hear what your favorite things are about this amazing city (or what you’d love to experience when if you were to visit!). Hope you’re all wonderful! xoxo