I Only Eat it If It Starts With “C”

During our two days in Paris, I joked with Tom that I only ate foods that started with “c:” croissants, crepes, champagne, croque monsieur…but somehow macarons also found their way into the mix. We started our day with the included breakfast at the hotel where we learned pretty quickly that there’s a major cultural difference between the Dutch and the French. While the Dutch are pleasantly surprised when you attempt to speak their language, the French did not have the patience for my college French and assured me that English was just fine. Works for me!

After breakfast, we attempted to connect with an Uber to take us to Versailles, but the hotel staff called us a cab instead. In addition to this being a peak tourism week, it was also a heat wave, so we thought it’d be best to enjoy  the air conditioning and quiet for the ride in. After about 45 minutes we were dropped off at the gates of Versailles, and, even as someone who loves a purple-prose description, I’m going to struggle to capture the over-the-top opulence and ostentatiousness of the palace. When we saw Buckingham Palace a few days later, it seemed like a quaint second home in comparison to the sheer grandeur and staggering size of Versailles. Everything that glitters is not gold, but there certainly was a lot of gold gleaming and shining both inside and out. I had thought we’d be there 5 hours altogether and have a solid tour of the inside and grounds, but 5 hours had us see only part of the inside and barely scratch the surface of the grounds. Learn from my mistakes and give yourself a full 8 hour day if you want to explore everything without feeling rushed.

The palace was overwhelmingly crowded with school groups, tour groups, and tourists as far as the eye could see. Given the palace’s massive, sprawling size, this was impressive. We did not pay for a tour or audio-guide because I assumed that the exhibits would have English translations and explanations throughout. The vast majority of rooms, if they had an explanation, were purely in French, and seeing as it has been seven years since my last French class, I wasn’t the biggest help with the translations. Room after room after room loomed before us, becoming somehow more and more luxurious as we went. Of course, much of the furniture is a replica of what would have been there because of the country’s tumultuous political history, but you got the idea of what it would have been like to be a royal. In summary, life seemed very, very comfortable.

There was of course the famous hall of mirrors, which, quite frankly, wasn’t the highlight for me. There was a long gallery of paintings depicting every French battle that ended in victory (shout-out to the Battle of Yorktown getting included), a gallery of statues depicting famous historical figures, a series of many rooms with paintings depicting Napoleon and his triumphs, and the apartments of various royal family members. While our breakfast had been substantial, my stomach was growling a couple of hours in after all that walking, so we stopped in a macaron shop/gift shop for a sugary pick-me-up. There is a restaurant inside the palace for a more substantial lunch, but navigating your way to it is like tackling a maze, and the crowds made waiting for a sandwich seem like a waste of our ever-ticking time.

I was amazed by the beauty and artistry of the palace and felt dwarfed by its infinite rooms that carried on and on with paintings and sculptures and glories and triumphs. After about 4 hours inside (it would have been longer if some of the exhibits weren’t closed), we headed to the grounds only to discover that they would be closing early for a special event. Oh no! By this point I was thirsty, I was really hungry, and the idea of speed running acres and acres of sprawling green to reach even more historical sites felt daunting. So we realistically scrapped the idea of seeing the Estate of Trianon and just wandered together. There was a food stand, but it only had sweet treats and drinks. Tom got a beer, I got a crepe, and we took a moment to sit and refuel. We then made our way to the musical fountains, one of the highlights of visiting in the summer, and enjoyed watching the water shoot into the air in time to music.

As closing time rolled around prematurely, we decided to take the train back to the hotel. Everyone else had the exact same idea, and in the sweaty heat of summer in a city known for pickpockets, that was delightful. Tom had a great idea, though, and suggested we get off the train early because we were right by the Eifel Tower! This was a perfect plan.

Pushy street vendors were stationed every few feet outside of the Eifel Tower hawking the same cheap trinkets one after another. A barricade encircles the tower so you can walk its perimeter, but you cannot walk underneath it without passing through a security checkpoint first. The line was short, so we quickly made our way below the iconic monument, and it was perfect. The light was at an ideal angle to capture photographs, it wasn’t too crowded, and there was a snack stand selling champagne and ham and cheese sandwiches. Perfection. We toasted our love story and enjoyed the view. The tickets to actually go up the tower can sell out quickly and be pretty expensive, and we had thought about seeing what was available that afternoon. However, after seeing the expansive line and feeling the afternoon heat not letting up, we decided against it. Honestly, being at its base is magical enough.

We then made our way though beautiful neighborhoods towards our hotel where we stopped, of course, for yet another snack. There was a restaurant dedicated to all things pistachio with a crepe and ice cream station strategically placed outside. There was a liquid pistachio fountain inside that would make pistachio lovers green with envy. I got a cookie butter crepe and Tom went all in with a pistachio crepe with pistachio ice cream. He totally ordered correctly.

By this point it was already almost 8:30PM, and our window for reasonably figuring out dinner had come and gone by the time we made our way  back to the hotel and got much-needed showers. With all of our snacking, we weren’t hungry, but we had a hotel credit we needed to use before checkout the following day. We decided to go down to the historic bar to enjoy their special menu. Because of the hotel’s 100^th anniversary, the CopperBay Bar was serving drinks inspired by 100 years of famous figures who had visited the hotel. The bar was housed in the same space where breakfast was served, but with the evening’s darkness, it had a cool, grown-up feel to it. Tom was enjoying his drinks when, all of a sudden, I saw something in the periphery of my vision. Now, I was probably a little dehydrated and definitely tired, but there it was again! Mice! Multiple mice! They were scampering around the table behind us, which was at least a little reassuring that there was some distance. Wrong! The mice decided it’d be fun to scurry over to the curtains right next to me! I must thank the many geckos that have surprised me in Guam for making it easier for me not to scream at the sight.

Somehow Tom was a lot more calm and collected than I was and went to tell the bartender. There was nothing the hotel could do about it at the moment, and, unfortunately, mice are a fact of life in Paris. However, if we’re paying for a 5 star hotel, I don’t want mice literally right beside my feet. We moved over to the bar where my feet were safely off the floor, and the clock struck midnight. It was officially my 27^th birthday, and I was lucky enough to be celebrating it with my husband in Paris. I don’t think I could have ever imagined that scenario for myself. The bar tender treated us to some sake to celebrate, and we made our way upstairs. I was finally feeling hungry again, so we ordered a croque monsieur for me and pasta carbonara for Tom through room service. I am ruined for all other forms of ham and cheese sandwiches after this. Room service usually gives me ideas of bland, over-priced food, but that sandwich somehow turned simple ham, cheese, and bread into something decadent, rich, and comforting. I won’t even attempt to recreate it. Tom’s pasta was also fantastic and the first of many ordered over the next couple of weeks.

The next day was one of my absolute favorite of the trip. My request for my birthday was to see the Disneyland Paris fireworks, and Tom made the magic happen.