La Ville des Lumières - Partie Un

After last weeks interesting twist of blogmanship it's back to regular viewing readers. It's fair time that I share with you the unbelievable time I had in Paris (Yes I am tooting that horn so loud, you probably should step back a little, this will be one of those love love love posts... What can I say? Paris was pretty awesome).

My bestie Tiffany of Six Six Sick told me she would we be in Paris for a few days coinciding with my trip to London (she, being the amazing bloggette she is, has already written a post about her time there). Somehow in her madcap way she convinced me to go and buy a Eurostar ticket for a quick visit (oh who am I kidding me I wanted to go anyway). So a few Fridays ago I woke up suuuper early to take the Underground to St Pancras and my first ride on the Eurostar.

I must say I really enjoy the interior architecture of the Eurostar, especially these light-fixtures in the dining car.

Once I arrived in Paris I wormed my way through the bowels of the city (i.e. The Paris Metro) to a stop known as George V. My lovely friend Fatima (whom I'd met whilst working at the Soho Grand last year) had come to my rescue, after my www.airbnb.com booking had gone kaput. by helping me find new residence at the beautiful and soon to be renovated Prince de Galles hotel. Now, I'd been to Paris before, but only for 6 days: so my neighbourhood geography wasn't terrific. I didn't quite understand what a hotel on Avenue George V meant. Until I got out at that metro station and was confronted by an enormous Louis Vuitton complete with Zebras in LV harnesses. If you aren't catching my drift, it's basically a cross between Madison Ave and 5th Ave...

The hotel is pure french glamour and set in an old palace. Marvelous! Everyone who worked there was lovely. The front desk agent couldn't have been more helpful (down to her infinite patience with my inability to understand using my room phone to call Tiffany and meet up (Yes I had to get someone to dial for me, at the front desk don't worry I didn't call room service haha)).

The charming mini-elevators/faux-libraries.

The room was MASSIVE. Almost the size of my apartment in New York haha. I wish I had taken a photo as soon as I arrived but by the time I got around to it I had defiled my lovely room with my stuff. But, you know me, I'm all about the details anyway...

I was most excited about the wallpaper (Yes wallpaper can excite me...). Growing up I've always had willow pattern blue and white china and loved dutch delftware. So you can imagine how much I enjoyed it in my room. Hell I even bought a lovely Liberty print shirt with a similar pattern, which I broke in for the occasion.

[Vintage poncho jacket I got at one of my favourite London vintage stores, Liberty London dual-delft shirt (the front has a herringbone print and the back a more traditional floral) (I picked it up on sale for £25), Issey Miyake organza bow tie, Paul Smith x Lola raffia brooch, Flea Market seahorse necklace (I got on my last trip to Paris), Uniqlo wool herringbone pants and Yohji Docs] (apologies for the blurry photo)

Closeup of the slim collared shirt

Classic Liberty florals

As you can see I matched perfectly with my room :)

Once I had dropped off my stuff I was back on the move again to meet Tiffany at the tried and tested Les Philosophes in Le Marais. I had a date with THE perfect Sandwich Mixte. I could have easily ordered some delicious main course, but you know what I miss most about Europe? The bread, the cheese the dairy and the meats. In it's most basic form the sandwich is quint-Essential. Of course everyone else knows this restaurant. Or at least they do now... one side we had Kiwis and the other Canadians and our waiter was of course: Irish...

Seriously having trouble not eating my screen on this one.

Tiff had a French Onion Soup that would have been charming. If: it were a person (yeah food's driving me nuts)

Afterwards we walked around everyone's favourite Parisian nabe: Le Marais

This photo is sort of funny. I was actually trying to take a photo of the doorway and this lady opened it at just the right moment for me to capture her. Liitttttle creepy too.

If you've never been to Merci, imagine the au courant Brooklyn aesthetic in a french mini-department store.

Yes filament bulbs are huge over here too. I've always admired them but does nobody realize how terrible they are for the environment?

I wanted to include this photo because to me it looks like a very strange optical illusion with the giant chandelier right in the faces of these fashionable french ladies...

Tiffany playing around in the gift wrapping section

Oh hello Margiela!

Wabi Sabi goodness above, and below...

IDeal bedding (Hector take note!)

They even had a charming cafe/library combo (Is everything cool in France also a library?)

We also checked out the cutting edge Le Claireur (no photos allowed, ever. Understandably so!) mens and womens stores. The Womens store has video monitors all over the place, a table which reads whatever product you put on it and explains that product no matter how avant-garde or crazy.

Had to go visit Damir Doma too where the man of the hour came to let us in!

Tiffany looking smart at a fancy French dessert place that has slipped my mind (maybe because by this point I was exhausted having been up since 5am...).

Fatima and I had arranged to meet for dinner with a couple of her wonderful friends in St Germain at Le Comptoir. A restaurant where everyone knows Fatima's name (actually to be honest I think my friend may be the unofficial queen of Paris. There wasn't a store or restaurant where the staff didn't know her) and it takes months to get a reservation. Literally people would book a reservation and go to the restaurant straight from Charles de Gaulle! Quite rightly so! The food we experienced was beyond anything I have ever tasted before. This was the real deal French food. Unfortunately I didn't bring my DSLR but I had my cameraphone so I can still look back and salivate.

Le Menu (Yes that is a five course meal, I don't think I've had so many courses in my life!)

Naturally the bread was perfection, but unlike my lunch, this was full on decadence.

The first course was a difficult to photograph and easy to eat Lobster Ravioli

Next up was the best clams I have ever eaten (in fact the first clams I had eaten)

Fatima had the lobster course

Main was a delectable lamb cutlet. Lamb, as you probably know, is a tricky one. Easy to do wrong. This was done better than right, with just a smear of mashed potato, shitake mushroom, balsamic soaked onion. Every bite was heaven.

Now you may be able to understand the small courses (this is aimed at my American readers). The Amazonion cheese platter with some of the best cheese in Paris (god I was in heaven). The trick was to eat it with jam and honey. DE-VINE!

Last but not least was the sculpted (elliptically scooped!) fresh that day vanilla ice cream with praline cream-puffs...

and poured molten chocolate!

It was so lovely to see Fatima again after maybe 6 months? and meet and make new friends. Stay tuned for my next Paris Post! I'm off to make mac and cheese. Of course I'm hungry...