What I learned from the Parisians

One of my favorite things about traveling are all of the lessons you get to take back home with you. I always leave countries inspired by different things – but Paris really got to me.  I don’t know if I was more in need of a refocus, of if the lifestyle there just really spoke to me, but Joel and I came home with a list of things we needed to change in our current day-to-day life.

Dress up – Aside from actually working out, the Parisian men and women dress up and look good. They’re not necessarily fancy, but they’ve thrown together an effortless and comfortable outfit. I always feel better about myself when I like the outfit I’m in – and you never know who you are going to bump into. 

Slow Down – I am constantly rushing. Rushing to get out of work, rushing to walk the dog around the block, to rush to make dinner, to rush to eat it, to rush for the TV show I want to watch, to rush to the bathroom during the commercial, to rush my bath so that I can rush to bed and rush to wake up to do it all over again the next day.

How stupid?

What the hell am I rushing for? The faster I move, the faster time slips through my fingers – and I don’t want to live that way. I need to move slower, talk slower, do slower, and just be slower in order to enjoy so, so much more.

Eat Bread – Me, like most American woman, have basically created bread to be the god damned devil. Well, we’ve got something wrong here because every person in the streets of France walks with a foot long baguette every hour of the day.

It’s not bread that’s bad. It’s sitting, and eating yogurt covered almonds that were preserved fifty times over.

Stay up later – I felt like I had so many more hours of my day when we were in Paris. Granted, the sun stayed out until almost ten oclock, but we also just enjoyed more of the day. I didn’t worry about not getting the ideal 8.23 hours of sleep, I just enjoyed having fun. There’s a lot of life to be lived after 9pm.

Turn off the TV – You know who isn’t going to rub your back and bring you soup when you feel like shit? The Real Housewives of anywhere. So why am I investing all of my time into these people who don’t know or care about me at all? My friends, community, dog, husband, parents, neighbors, and strangers deserve a lot more of my time than my TV does. We didn’t turn the TV on once while we were abroad and I didn’t miss it at all.

Play cards – I really love the romance of playing cards and I have so much fun doing it. We brought our pack of cards everywhere we went and it was such a nice way to pass the time and have fun doing it.            

Touch – The Parisians were always touching. Friends were holding hands on the street and couples were basically joined at the hip at all times of the day. And, yes, at times it might be a little much, but I don’t think couples and friends are touching enough. Touch is the way to express how much you love someone – and kids show their love through touch all the time – so I’m not sure when we stopped, and I don’t want to be a cold, touchless person.

No phones allowed- I never saw a phone on a dinner table once. No one was texting underneath the table while trying to pretend they were listening to their friends, no one was updating Instagram every 13 minutes, and no one was staging their coffee cups for the perfect shot.

Rain doesn’t matter – In LA, the place that has sun 348 days a year, you should hear the complaints if we get rain for an hour. It’s actually embarrassing. In Paris, if it rained, life continued on as usual with just the quick pop of an umbrella. No need to change your plans, or your outfit, it was just part of the beautiful backdrop and was enjoyed for its beauty.

Always have a scarf – Scarves are on “your person” at all times. Whether they’re thrown across your shoulder or stuffed in your bag, scarves are like the most important tool in the entire world, and save the day with almost any emergency.

Walk everywhere – We walked miles and miles every day. Sometimes as much as 15 in a day. And it was fun. I felt light and efficient, and really enjoyed being outside and being able to go from one place to another without ever even thinking about getting in a cab. Here in LA, I have a grocery store 2 blocks away, and every other kind of store I would need within a mile. And I never walk – anywhere. It’s one of the many things that is changing, but it was eye opening how LAZY we are being!

Really Greet your friends – I love the intimate embrace you receive from your friends in Paris. The double kiss on the check is so sincere and kind, and I feel like it really warms up your interaction with another person. I really want to practice giving real hugs to friends and family.

Go to the park – Seriously, parks are so much fun. Why haven’t I been spending time in more parks? Where are the parks in LA? I loved going to the park in Paris, just to sit, and watch, and be outside, and walk around. It’s simple but it’s lovely, and we should be going to more parks.

Linger – And my favorite of all of the lessons I learned was to just linger. Just enjoy sitting. Whether I find myself alone, or with Joel, or with friends – I just want to slow down and linger. Listen and take it all in, and not feel this intense desire to have the funniest story, or spread rumored gossip, I just want to linger, and be. 

The last of our trip in France ::: Days 6, 7, 8

 Wednesday, Day 6 ::: Bordeaux

The problem with staying up until the middle of the night and drinking copious amounts of wine is that you wake up with an aggressive hangover.

We tried to sleep it off, have a pretty bad and greasy lunch, a few cups of coffee and then decided to have a little hair of the dog.

We had booked a half day wine tour through Bordovino (through the tourist office) and it left downtown Bordeaux at 1:30pm.The tour was 3 couples and 1 guide, which we felt was small enough to not feel like we were on a chartered, commercial tour which is what we wanted to avoid.

The first Chateau we went to was Chateau du Sales in St. Emilion, about an hour from Bordeaux.





When we got out of the van at the Chateau , we met the wine maker and were introduced to his family Chateau . His 90-year old Step-mom still lives in the house in the above picture, but all of the kids still work for the vineyard and gather there for holidays.

The Chateau had beautiful grounds, but the rain started to pour down so our outside tour was a little shorter then normal.



After we toured the barrel room we went up to their tasting room to taste two of their first quality wines. We learned a lot about Bordeaux wines, what the colors mean, what good legs should look like, and how to pull aromas out of the wine.

We actually played a little game that the tour guide had brought to help us develop a better nose. She had these little bottles of aromas and we had to guess what kind of smell it was (there are 110 aromas found in wine). I got 1 out 4, Joel with 2 - but it was actually so much fun to see what I thought was vanilla was actually smoke, or so on. Sommeliers at the Bordeaux school need to be able to label every aroma correctly in order to graduate.



After our tasting we went to downtown St. Emilion for a short walking tour. The little town was picturesque and one of the oldest towns I've ever been to.

 

All of the roads were still cobblestone, and not wide enough to let cars travel on, but it was so cool to visit. If you ever find yourself in Bordeaux, you absolutely must make a trip to St. Emilion.



They are also famous for their macaroons - but different from the Paris macaroons, and actually better. I didn't take a picture but they were seriously one of the best cookies I've ever had in my life.

The second, and last Chateau we went to was Chateau Soutard. Unlike the first Chateau, this was a much more corporately run winery, with a much larger budget for everything; labeling, bottling, marketing, decorating, etc.



The rain had paused for a moment, so we got a chance to check out the vines and grapes which were just starting to bloom. The most popular varietals in Bordeaux are Merlot, Cabernet Sauvigon, and Cabernet Franc.





The estate had built a tasting room about 3 or 4 floors underground in a glass elevator so that you could see the limestone they have in the ground. It didn't photograph well, but it was a very James Bond kind of moment. 

We tasted their wines, had some snacks, and just enjoyed being in the little cave that they had built just a few months ago. It was a really cool wine tasting experience.



We hit traffic on our way back to Bordeaux, so my the time we got back to the hotel, it was almost 9pm. We were both pretty hungry by this point, so we wanted to find a restaurant closer to the hotel.

There was a line out the door at this little Italian cafe, so we decided that must be a good sign. We stood in line for 20 minutes and were taken to our table.

When we got to our table, we were waiting for our wine order to be taken, when finally the waitor stopped to explain that we had to go downstairs into their cave to pick it out ourselves. 



Their cave was basically never ending and had thousands of bottles from Italy - and some drying meats and cheeses. 



It was actually so much fun to go down there, pick out our wine - and just added to the overall experience of dining at Peppone. If I had a restaurant, I would totally add this little feature in. 



We had the waiter order dinner for us with his favorites - and he did not disappoint. We started with their dried meats and shaved cheese, and then split a flatbread pizza and homemade pasta. It was divine. 

Thursday, Day 7 ::: Bordeaux

Our last day in Bordeaux we had this grand plan to pack a picnic and rent bikes throughout the city until we found the perfect spot to relax, have lunch, and just enjoy.

We brought our backpack and decided to go to the best shops all through the city to get the goods for our picnic.

Our first stop: fromagerie

Along our walk, we stopped into a wine store and found a mini-bottle of red wine that would be perfect for our little picnic. The workers at the shop spoke English so we asked them the best place in Bordeaux to get a baguette.

They sent us on a wild goose chase, but by the time we found the little shop, we were so excited - and the baguette was the best one we had our entire time in France. 

 

Then, our last stop, it was finally time to rent bikes. Joel had gone for a run that morning and said that the rental bike machine was super easy to figure out.

We clicked the buttons to rent the bikes for a few hours, inserted the card, and nothing happened. We had literally walked for two hours collecting our picnic goods and we were going on the damn bike ride. 



We asked like 3 people for help, and they couldn't figure out why the machine wasn't accepting our card. Finally, a student told us to walk to the main transportation office and they would be able to take the card without having to use the machine.

We walked another mile to the main office, determined to not let this wreck our plans, and by the time we got there - the damn office was freaking closed. We later learned that it was a Bank Holiday and for some reason "turned off" the credit card machines.

So - no bike adventure for us, but on Joel's run he had found a gated park and decided it would be the perfect place for us to walk to and picnic. 



The Bordeaux Gardens was similar to the Luxembourg gardens - but more lush - and was the perfect place to settle in and relax for a bit.



We played cards for a while and nibbled on the goodies we had collected earlier in the day.

Oh, and the only cups the wine store had were the size of my thumb.

 

Which meant I had like 17 glasses of wine before 5pm ;) 

The other class we had signed up for was a 2 hour wine and cheese class that was hosted at a local restaurant in Bordeaux. 

Again, the group met at the tourist office and walked over to the restaurant with the guide.

 

We went over a lot of the same wine tasting tips that we had the first day, but it was fun to get to practice the skills we had learned from the day before.

For the cheese part of the class, we went down to their cheese room in the basement were there were probably 200 types of cheeses just hanging out.



The room was wet, cold, and drippy - perfect cheese conditions, and one of the wildest things I had ever seen.  We were reallllly in our happy place.

When the class was over we were just about done with wine and cheese - which I know, is a sin to say. We decided to sneak into a bar for a beer and watch a little French Open.

After that, we skipped dinner went straight for the good stuff.

Since it was our last night in Bordeaux, we finished the night off in our hotel's cozy little restaurant with our favorite sommelier Martin. 

Our entire time in Bordeaux was absolutely perfect. We had heard a few mixed opinions about spending our time there during our trip. We found Bordeaux to be amazing. It's a slower pace, so you have to be ready to accept that and find ways to busy your time. Wine tours, bike tours, and classes were really fun - and we didn't do anything like that in Paris - so it was actually kind of nice to be led for a few days. I don't think I would spend more than 3 days there, but it's a beautiful city with great people, food, and amazing wine and if you have the time, I would put it on your list.

Friday, Day 8 ::: Paris

We left Bordeaux early to catch our train back to Paris. The Montparnasse train station in Paris is also connected to the metro, so when the train arrived, we jumped on the metro and headed to our hotel for our last night.

We cashed in points at the Hyatt Regency Madeleine on the right bank, very near the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysee.

When we got to the hotel at 1pm, our room wasn't ready. They said it would be 45 minutes, so we left our luggage and walked across the street to grab a quick lunch. It wasn't ready by the time we got back, and we ended up having to wait another hour in the lobby. Joel and I were not happy campers and we found the staff to be anything but helpful and simply rude. I wouldn't stay there again - the room wasn't all that nice either - and I much preferred St. Germain as well.

Once we freshened up and hit the road, it was closer to 4pm. I had wanted to do a little look-see of the Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Elysee if for nothing else to say that I've been to both.



So, Champs-Elysees is crazy wild. It's basically like Michigan Avenue on steroids and it was overwhelming and packed. Not my favorite.

Thankfully though, once you escape the madness, you are reminded that you are still in this beautiful city.

Since it was our last night in Paris - we wanted to go back to our favorite places, so we walked back to St. Germain and revisited our old friends.

Our first stop was La Cabone for Oysters and champagne to say goodbye to our friend Pascal and cheers to one of the best trips we've ever taken.

We walked around "our" little neighborhood, pretended for one last time that we lived there, and soaked in as much of it as we could. 

We had dinner at Chez Fernand, the same place we had dinner our first night in France. 

We went out with a bang and ordered whatever our little hearts desired; escargot, pasta, wine, and scrumptious beef bourguignon that would've brought tears to your eyes - and I don't even like beef bourguignon!

We took a cab back to our hotel with a bottle of wine that we bought from the restaurant and went back to the room to wash are sorrows away that our trip had some how come to a close.

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Our time in Paris was beyond precious. The trip grounded Joel and I - reconnected us to each other, to what we want in life, and reminded us how and who we want to be.  It was really ten of the best days of my entire life.

Packing Tips for 10 days in Europe - using a carry-on

I wanted to share a few ways I got away with packing for our trip - since I managed to look and feel good most of the time, and I know carrying on can seem like a daunting task when you are traveling for ten days in Europe.

What I wore: 

 

 

 

  

What I Packed: 

3 shoes: sandals, converse sneakers, Toms wedges

3 dresses: daytime and nighttime

4 pairs of pants: Black leggings/Pixie pants, silk drawstring pants, gray jeans, white jeans

5 Layering pieces: black cardigan, denim button down, jean jacket, tweed sweater, trench coat

6 neutral tops

scarves, hats, belts and jewelry

umbrella

cross-body day bag and big tote bag 

I easily fit all of that into my carry-on and honestly felt like I packed just enough without over-doing it and felt well dressed and comfortable for most every occasion.

Most Important Tips:

-You've got to be okay with re-wearing your clothes. My biggest hang up about re-wearing my clothes was the picture aspect. I felt like it would look weird in pictures - but really, no one will notice that except for you.

-Day and night clothes need to become one. The outfit I wore during the day was the outfit I was going to wear at night. I sometimes changed shoes, or maybe added a necklace, but for the most part, there was no changing allowed from day to night.

-3 pairs of shoes and that's it. I brought decent walking sandals that could be dressed up, white converse, and black Toms wedges. 

-1 pajama option only. I brought one nighty that was really light weight and comfortable and just rocked it every night.

-Stick with neutrals. All of your clothes should be able to be worn multiple ways (and times), and if you bring neutrals, it's much easier to play with them. Plus, in France, I felt like I fit in much better wearing blacks, tans, grays and lots of stripes!

-On a trip like this, I just had to commit to not working out. Another pair of gym shoes and all of my workout clothes wouldn't work, so I just had to give it up.

-Bring a lot of outerwear accessories. For me, this meant, lots of scarves, coats, and hats. It was much colder in Paris than I expected, so I was so thankful that I brought 3 different types of scarves, bought one while I was there too.

Don't Bring:

-Fancy clothes: I brought one really nice dress and one really nice blouse and didn't wear either of them. We didn't have plans for a 5 star restaurant, so I should've known better, but I just didn't have the need.

-White jeans:  For us, it was too cold, and I never felt like I wanted to wear white jeans all day traveling. There is just too much walking, riding public transit, and sitting on the ground to be comfortable in white jeans. Total waste of space.

-American Hair Straightener: Brought it, it doesn't work even with an adapter, and I killed it.

-Statement necklaces: I thought for sure I would wear a lot of jewelry, but swap the space out for scarves. Scarves are much lighter, much more versatile, and much more European.

-Evening clutch : No point. I was hauling way too many things; maps, cameras, keys, band-aids, almonds, you name it....and there was no point to switching out my purse every night.

Paris ::: day 3

Our third day in Paris, was a Sunday, a day where most of Paris closes down.

Sunday was a beautiful morning - so we decided to soak it up for a long breakfast in St. Germain. There was a great little cafe, just off of the main streets called Le Hibou that served a great breakfast. 

We split the fluffiest of all omelets, and Joel tried their cafe au chocolat - which, is literally one of the best things that I've ever tasted. Straight up warm, melted chocolate goodness.

We decided to walk to Le Marais from St. Germain, which was just under 2 miles - and was the perfect way to start the day. We spent our days eating and drinking, but because we were walking 10-15 miles a day, we did so without guilt. 

When we got to Le Marias, the Catholic church in town was starting service, so we made the split second decision to just sneak in and watch them begin service.

It was a really cool experience, and to see all of the nuns in their habits and deacons in their robes, you instantly felt like you were in a church from hundreds of years ago. 

From there we made our way to Place de Vosges, the main square in Le Marais. Laura put it the best and said, the square is just perfectly Paris - and it really was. 

We walked the square, and creeped hard on the cute Parisian kids in their darling little jackets and ballet flats, and just watched the morning start from the best seat in town. And - in all honestly, I probably could have watched the cute French kids play for like two hours. 

You can't read about Le Marais without hearing some mention of the amazing fallafel shop that is L'as Du Fallafel. 

We were told to expect a long, long line but we're assured that it would be well worth it. However, we got there early - around 12:30pm, and there were maybe 5 or 6 people ahead of us. We laughed at the clear over exaggeration of the blog reviews before us, ordered the standard fallafel and basically had our minds blown. 

You guys. 

This fallafel was not only the best I've ever tasted in my entire life - and probably ever will - and it was one of the best things we had our entire time in Paris. It is SO freaking outstanding. 

You eat it like street food, and it's pretty messy, so try to remember to grab extra napkins. It also fills you up like a brick, so go early enough so you have enough time to walk it off.

We had decided the day before to snag tickets to the French Open for Sunday. It was not in our original plan - because all of the opening day tickets were sold out when we had tried months earlier - but the tournament opens grounds passes for $15 euro the day before, and so with the weather not looking good for our original tickets (Monday), we decided to go for it. 

We took the metro from Le Marais to Roland Garros - and Joel was just about as giddy as a kid on Christmas.

Also side note- on our walk to the metro (about 2:30), the line for L'as Du Fallafel. was easily 3 city blocks long. The blogs were right - so our take away - go early, or expect a really, really long line...but like they said, it will still be worth it. 

When we arrived at Roland Garros, the afternoon games hadn't started up yet. We watched a few practice matches and decided to grab a beer in Roland Garros' one and only beer tent. 

The grounds passes that we bought did allow access to the the top 3 courts, but it didn't matter because the one guy we really wanted to see - Sam Quarry, our favorite California player, was played on a court we had access to.

It was so much fun to root for Sam as Americans - and some of the only few Americans that were there - and we like to think that we helped him pull in a victory - even though Joel kept telling me I was getting in his head. 

This American can't contain my inner Texas football coach at sporting events. 

Sam was our only full match, and we left Roland Garros around 7pm to head to our last activity of the day - happy hour at the Eiffel Tower.

Joel and I have been to two Grand Slams now (US and French) and we're really hoping to get a few more on our list, with Wimbledon being our next plan of attack next summer. 

We took the metro to the Eiffel Tower - and as soon as the tower was in my full view - it just took my breath away. 

I couldn't keep my eyes off of it, and just wanted to capture every angle I could. It really is such a beautiful monument, and after dreaming of Paris for so long, to have it in the background was just mind blowing.

We picked up a mini-bottle of champagne and some plastic glasses, found a piece of grass in the park in front of the Eiffel Tower, and jsut fell over in its beauty. 

  

I had wanted to see the tower light up - but since we were there in summer, it wasn't getting dark until 9:30/10ish, and by that point we were starving.

On Sunday, after are seriously full day, we decided to indulge in Paris pizza - to the recommendation of the Oyster shop owner from Saturday - and we were not disappointed.

Anytime our restaurant was full of Parisians - we took it as a good sign. By day 3, we didn't want to go to places were tourists had taken over, and this pizza spot in St. Germain hit the mark. 

By some stroke of bliss and adrenaline, we just didn't want the day to end. It was one of those days that I wish I could repeat every single week. Everything worked, Joel and I felt thankful and humble and just excited to be alive, and I think Sunday was the day we both truly fell in love with Paris.

To cap off our perfect day - we stumbled into a cafe that served creme brulee - we ordered a bottle of wine, played more cards, and then after 1am - closed down the cafe and slept like freaking babies.

Just another really, really amazing day in Paris.