Paris, je t'aime

I think the best part of living in the NL, is that other countries are within arm's reach. It's so easy to have the feeling you're on holiday, without having to travel very far. To enjoy other architectural styles and cultures and food and people.. You can drive anywhere, or take the train to wherever. I mean, that's why we're in the UK so often, or in Belgium, or Germany. And last Easter weekend, we spent some time in Paris...

^This is one of my favourite places in Paris, probably. It's the area between Tuileries and les Halles. It's beautiful here, and they have the best restaurants/bakeries/hotels.

First order of business was to try the hot chocolate at the gorgeous Dalí room at le Meurice.

The furniture is dainty and so wonderfully Dalí-esque. This chair is awesome.

Oh.My.God. Amazing chocolat chaud^. It's a blend of Guanaja and Caraïbes chocolate, and it is so good. Not too sweet, and very rich. Oh la la. If it wasn't so expensive or high in calories, I could drink this every day.

Pretty tartelettes and Easter decorations next door at Angelina (pretty incredible hot chocolates they have there too)

C'est moi!!

It seems like we only go to Paris for the food and drinks haha. We went to Aux Castelblangeois for some treats. It's an award winning bakery and their chouquettes are supposedly one of the best in Paris. A chouquette is a choux pastry (cream puff) with pearl sugar sprinkled on top. And yes. I have to admit the chouquettes at Aux Castelblangeois are quite good. Especially the chouquettes with chocolate chips. I didn't need to know these existed. Hehe.

And while I was ordering some goodies to take home, the lady at the counter pointed to a tray of croissants and said 'these croissants JUST came out of the oven. they are still HOT. do you want one? they JUST came out of the oven!!!'. So of course, I went for a croissant. When a French lady in a bakery says you have to have a croissant, you have a croissant. And it was even better than the chouquettes. I didn't even share with anyone. Let me tell you: there's nothing better than having a fresh croissant straight from the oven in Paris. Perfect.

Then we walked to Les Halles (which is unfortunately under construction atm). This is l'Église st Eustache. Isn't it pretty?

Supposedly this is the largest organ in France, made by a Dutch (ha!!) firm.

Hungry from our walk, we had some crêpes. Omnomnom. I had a crêpe with oeufs and jambon.

I didn't like this building in the first place (not Piano's best work, I think), but now that they've painted it white, it's even uglier. It has lost its charm, if you ask me.

These are love padlocks affixed to a bridge near the Notre Dame, to symbolize the everlasting love of couples.

Then went all the way up to the Sacré-Coeur.

And then there's this. It's a huuuuge and very impressive building, and on the top floor you have this amazing view of Paris. So we wanted to go, and I checked their website for opening hours and stuff, and even downloaded a discount voucher from the website...
One thing they forgot to mention on the website...
They're CLOSED. For good.
Apparently there was this incident with the elevators, three years ago. So emmm.. why not update the website, lazy mofo's?

But this made it all better.
Perfect ending to a perfect day.
(except for the Grande Arche. That was a total disappointment haha)

I was SO sad when we got back home, because it was SO much fun. Luckily, I had a bunch of chouquettes left which made me happier. And for Easter breakfast we had excellent pains aux chocolat from Aux Castelblangeois. A bit squished, but still soooo good.

Paris, je t'aime. Tu me manques...