Barcelona Part 1

Well it's been quite a whirlwind trip so far so it was nice to sleep in.
Most of the touristy things that you can see in Barcelona focus on one thing... Gaudi. 
I'm not good at describing architectural styles. Gaudi is definitely unique and you recognise his style when you see it. His designs are based a lot on nature and so instead of straight lines and square corners, you see a lot of curviness... That's not a great description but it's the best I can come up with. His work also contains a lot of colourful mosaic.

Decided to go and visit Guell Park today. The park dates back to the early 1900's where Eusebi Guell commissioned Gaudi to help him build a garden city in the outskirts of Barcelona.
The park is built on a hill and Cat and I caught the train to the nearest stop and decided to walk... big mistake... the hike up the hill was so tiring! We actually had bought a 4 day unlimited travel pass so should have just caught the bus up to the entrance as there are about 4 bus routes that go that way...

The park itself is beautiful and full of life. Buskers line corners trying to make a bit of cash from the tourists walking through the park. Barcelona has a lot of unemployment, especially amongst the old and relatively young so it's good to see that these young people aren't being idle. The buskers play and sing all kinds of music from guitar that sounds a bit like Santana to classical violin.

There are also a lot of hawkers selling their wares. I notice that they all seem to be Indian... They sell all kinds of things like scarves, fans, jewelery, fridge magnets and knick nacks.

Walked around the park for a while. We entered from one of the paths up the top so made out way down and eventually ended up at the main entrance where there are two little houses that are now a tourist information and souvenir shop and a Gaudi museum. These two little houses are again Gaudi design. From a distance, they look like little gingerbread houses.

After Guell Park, we decided to wander around the city for a bit doing some shopping. Cat tried an aqua fish spa. I had already done this in Singapore but said it is an experience she should try at least once. You put your feet or hands into these tanks where Garufa fish eat the dead skin. You are left with very smooth hands and feet and it is also quite relaxing once you get past the initial ticklish feeling.

The main tourist street in Barcelona is La Ramblas which is actually quite close to our hotel. Took a stroll down that street. There are always lots and lots of people around. Along the street are lots of stalls selling tourist souvenirs. Actually I noticed that it changes. If you walk down La Ramblas in the morning you will find a lot of flower stalls open and if you walk down it at night then it's more of the tourist souvenir shops and the instant tapas cafes. In the afternoon, instant restaurants pop up as tables, chairs and umbrellas are added to the sidewalk. Owners put up boards of pictures of food and deals to try to get customers to eat at their stall.

Half way down La. Ramblas there is a food market  called 'Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria' that reminds me of Paddy's markets at Central in Sydney. Cat went back to the hotel to rest so I wandered around by myself. The fruit and veg all looked great and I was there at the right time as some of the stalls were closing and they were getting rid of anything they can't keep for cheap. I bought some fruit salad and freshly squeezed juice really cheap!

The market is also very busy with tourists. The central aisle was just packed with people and since I have no patience for crowds, I ducked off to the side of the market which is only a few rows down. I found there were less people. After walking around a bit I also realised that the stalls off to the side were also cheaper as they have less people. It was easier to get service and I bought things cheaper here than the central aisle which I walked through later when I felt brave enough to push throught the crowd.

Made it back to the hotel. Today was a very easy day which was nice to have since it had been a pretty hectic trip so far.
Our hotel is just next to a train station called 'Universitat'. The location is great as it is a short stroll to Catalunya square and La Ramblas. When we checked in, we met the concierge named Oscar. He was really really friendly and helpful. The other staff weren't so nice so we were always pleased to see Oscar at the front desk during our time in Barcelona.

Paris Part 3

Well I only had a morning in Paris before heading off to the airport to catch a flight to Barcelona.

Cat was catching up with a friend so I decided to visit the Louvre as it was close to our hotel. I was keen to see the new wing that has just opened which is the one housing the Islamic art.

So I entered through the pyramid in the middle of the Louvre courtyard. You then take the escalator down to the entrance area to buy a ticket. Probably the most well known exhibition in the museum is the 'Mona Lisa' by Leonardo da Vinci. There are always a lot of people crowded around that display so it is best to go early and do that first and then wander around the rest of the museum.

The museum can be quite overwhelming with so much to see. Luckily the art is categorised into type (paintings, sculptures etc...), country of origin, time period etc.

So I went and saw the 'Mona Lisa' and then just walked around looking and taking photos of whatever I recognised or what I liked.

"Mona Lisa" - Leonardo da Vinci

Nike of Samothrace - winged Victory

Egyptian wing

"Psyché revived by Cupid's kiss " by Canova

The halls are beautiful!

The new wing is actually a little ugly compared to the other halls. The entrance to the Islamic Art exhibition had what looked like brown mesh sails as roofing. It was interesting to walk around this exhibition as it is new but there were a lot of people here too as it is new.

Elaborate door and window frames

Qur'an

Versailles

Decided to go to Versailles today. The weather wasn't great but since time in France is short, it had to be today. There were also lots and lots of other tourists heading to Versailles. The trip time from where we were staying was actually around an hour which surprised me. I hadn't expected it to take that long to get there.

Versailles used to be a country town but is now considered to be on the outskirts of Paris. It is a very quiet place and it doesn’t seem like a lot of people live there. The shops probably owe a lot of their patronage to tourists. The palace named ‘Château de Versailles’ is about a 5 minute walk from the station.

The first thing you notice when you get to Château de Versailles is the sheer number of people. We went on a day when the weather wasn’t great and it was still about a half hour wait to get in after buying tickets. The palace itself is surrounded by golden gates. 

Once inside, there is an audio tour that takes you around the palace into the various rooms and tells you a little of the history of the palace. Most of it centres around Louis XIV who built this massive palace as an expansion of his father’s palace. I don’t actually know French history well so my visit was really just admiring the architecture and room decoration of the palace and the grounds. 

The grounds are absolutely huge! It takes a long time to walk around. If I was to do this over again, I would probably hire one of the little golf carts they have and drive around in that. 

The grounds are huge. It takes ages to walk around.

Are we there yet?...

What I enjoyed more than the main palace was seeing Mary Antoinette’s little palaces. There is a Grand Trianon and a Petite Trianon. The furnishings were not as elaborate as the main palace but the ambience seemed warmer and I liked the furnishings a lot more. It seemed as if the decorations had more of a feminine touch.

Grand Trianon

Small chapel in the Petite Trianon

Our little expedition to Versailles and tour of the Château de Versailles and Mary Antoinette’s palaces actually took longer than expected. Visiting definitely takes a whole day and even then we did just rush around as we tried to see everything. The grounds shut around 7:30pm and you get shooed out around 7pm. We didn’t stay that long but it definitely was a whole day trip and we got back to the hotel absolutely knackered from all the walking.

Walking Gastronomical Tour of Paris

The Trip Advisor travel guide has a "Foodie Tour: East" option in the suggested itineraries.
We ended up doing bits of that plus a bit more. This is going to be pictorial account with a bit of commentary. I have added the details of the street just incase anybody wants to follow this in the future.

looks like a flower

The unofficial start of the food tour (unofficial because Cat did not join me...) started near the Pantheon at Amorino Gelato. This is a French gelato chain store. Instead of scoops, the gelato is sculpted into the shape of a flower with petals on the cone. The petite cone turned out to be huge and I was able to pick 3 flavours to go on it.


We started our food sampling tour at the corner of Rue de Medicis and Boulevard Saint-Michael at a shop called 'Dalloyau'. Charles Dalloyau baked for Louis XIV and is credited with the creation of the popular chocolate/coffee pastry named 'opera'.

We bought a couple of small macaroons to try. They were nice but quite heavy and a little crunchy.

The cakes in the window looked amazing but we have heaps more places to go so don't want to go into a diabetic coma after visiting only one shop.

top shelf: macaroons, bottom display: cakes... they all look great!

Just around the corner from Dalloyau and up Rue Souffet, there is a little pub called LaGueuze. We did not sample the beer but it apparently has a very impressive beer list with a lot of imports.

We continued up Rue Gay-Lussac and visited another couple of bakeries.

The nicer macaroons (or so both Cat and I thought) were to be found at Franc Kestener & Meilleur Ouvrier de France Chocolatier. The macaroons were larger and cheaper than Dalloyau and these ones just seemed to be lighter and just melted in your mouth.
We later rated these macaroons as the best ones we tasted all day.

There is also a selection of chocolates on offer here and we bought some samples. These too were very good. I would rate this shop as the best one we visited on our food tour.

The next stop was a shop a couple of doors down called La Petite Chocolatiere.
Well the shop was large enough but the selection of chocolates was indeed petite.
The person who served us - a young boy named Nathaniel, was probably the most friendly of all the bakery people we met. His kind and smiling manner made you want to buy his chocolates.
There were also macaroons but they did not look that appealing so we stuck to sampling some of the chocolates.

this is half of the display so it was a small selection

A little further up the road at the corner of Rue Gay-Lussac and Rue Saint-Jacques, there is a little deli/fruit shop. The fruit looks great but is slightly expensive. Strawberries are a great accompaniment to chocolates (and of course wine or champagne). We didn't buy any as we were so full but they can be bought here.
When you enter the fruit shop, the aisle loops around to take you out towards the deli and the checkout.
At the back of the deli is a cold display of cheeses. We decided to pick a cheese to try. The good thing is that they are quite small and one cheese cost less than €3.

we only picked one but we did pick a nice cheese

There is a street in the Fifth Arrondissement called 'Rue Mouffetard'. It is a cobbled stoned pedestrian street with food stores all along it. There are butcheries, bakeries, cheese and wine stores. Apparently in the movie 'Amelie', one of the characters - Monsieur Dominique Bretodeau purchased his beloved rotisserie chicken in a store on this street. We didn't recognise the shop though.

Along the street is a chocolate shop called 'Jeff de Bruges'. The window on the right has little chocolate bears which I thought were really cute.
Inside there is a large selection of chocolates.
The guy who served us did not seem particularly friendly and we noted throughout the day that French people are polite but rarely smile.

lots and lots of chocolates!

In Europe, a lot of the museums close on Mondays. Similarly, there are some shops closed on Mondays too. We were hoping to visit this cheese shop along Rue Mouffetard but alas it was closed.

 On the corner of Rue Mouffetard and Rue Censier there is another fruit shop that looks absolutely delicious.

After purchasing so many samples of macroons and chocolates and a cheese, we needed something to go with it all... so off to a liquor shop to try to find a nice bottle of wine.

We didn't end up getting any wine as Cat and I aren't big drinkers and couldn't find just a small bottle of wine. Our accommodation has no fridge and no space at all really and we didn't have long in Paris so we just decided not to get wine. I did, however, buy a small bottle of an apricot mixer drink that was really nice.

Here ends our afternoon gastronomical tour...

However, in the evening we happened to come across another couple of chocolate shops that were just irresistable.


In the evening, we decided to visit Sacre Coeur which is in the Montmartre area. I can't quite remember the address of these shops but they were just along the way as we were walking around Montmartre.

window display

The most beautiful display for chocolates and macaroons belongs to a shop called 'Christophe Roussel, duo creatif avec Julie'.

There is a beautiful macaroon display in the window. Inside there is a display of many flavours. The colouring of the macaroons makes the display look very very good.

They do sell macaroons individually but will only sell the chocolates by the box. Bought a macaroon to try and it was not as good as Kestener but was close.
The presentation really does look great but the immaculate presentation was not accompanied by good service. The guy who served me had a sour expression and was very rude.

beautifully sculptured chocolates!

We came across another chocolate place in Montmartre called 'Milson Georges Larnicol'. This store was huge and the doors indicated that it was also a small museum of chocolate.

Walking in the front door and to the left there is a massive pile of meringues of all different colours and flavours. Next to that there is a whole wall of pick-and-mix sweets.

To the right, there is a display shelf of chocolate sculptures that you can also purchase.

Straight infront there is an Eiffel tower display and it is made of chocolate. It looked quite impressive.

Inside there is a display window with a lot of different flavoured macaroons. And to the left of that and around the corner there is a selection of chocolates as well.

chocolate Eiffel tower

I thought this little sculpture was cute... and he only costs  €57.29

meringues of different colours and flavours

I was impressed with the intricate detail of this ship made of chocolate

mmm macaroons

So here ends our Gastronomical splurge in Paris. I don't think we will come back to Australia diabetics as we only sampled a little from each store. However, there were quite a few macaroons and chocolates consumed as it is Paris and you definitely need to try these things in Paris....

Paris Part 2

Woke up and decided to go to see Notre Dame Cathedral. The cathedral stands on an island in the middle of the Seine river. The day was a bit overcast and a little rainy which was a contrast to the previous day. Entry to the cathedral itself it free. You can pay a fee and go up to the top of the towers and have a look at the view of Paris. We decided not to go up the towers due to the weather. The cathedral was built over 100 or so years and is an example of Gothic architecture. The interior of the cathedral is something to see as it is very elaborate. There are beautiful stained glass windows and statues everywhere. As a Catholic church, every nook and cranny contains some shrine to some saint that you can light a candle and pray to. 

Outside the cathedral there are heaps of sparrows.

In the afternoon, we walked around a bit and also decided to just do a bit of a gastronomical tour that I will write about in a separate post.

The Pantheon

At night, we decided to go see another mammoth Catholic church – Sacré Coeur. It is in the Montmartre district and its hilltop setting is great for viewing the city. Entry is free but you aren’t allowed to take photos inside the church. I think I liked it better than Notre Dame. It’s not Gothic in its architecture, not sure what it is possibly Roman? Again, as a Catholic church, there are lots of shrines and places to light candles and pray to certain saints. 

Sacré Coeur