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Salut Paris!
On March 5th, I will be heading to Paris to visit for one week! I have not been in ten years, and I’m so so so very excited to go back!
Here I am outside of Avignon, age 18, frolicking through a field of lavender.
Thus far: I have a date set up with the lovely Stella Polaris to have tea and go antiquing, and I think I may try and see Sunny Buick for some ink and of course I will be going on lots of picnics and burlesque shows.
I want to badly to go to Ladurée and press my face up against the windows to look at the fancy macaroons.
This will also be my first time to visit Europe as a vegan, which I am nervous about! I am counting on fresh market food, bread, tea and wine to get me through the trip.
I already have a small list of things to do, but I’m certainly open to suggestions if you have them!
Tell me, what should I see in Paris!?
14 Responses to Salut Paris!
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have fun! I have been spending my nights listening to “how to speak french” tapes with not much luck im afraid.
are you visiting friends or just going for the heck of it?
I hope you get to see Sunny Buick. That would be amazing. That’s one of my dreams. ;]
-Andi x
I have two former roommates from my co-op who live there, so I’m going to visit them for the heck of it. This is technically my last spring break as a college student, so I thought I would take advantage of it!
Oh how exciting!! That’s great for you! I always dream about visiting those lavender fields someday… Hope you have a wonderful time on this trip! Best!
amazing! so exciting. i hope you have a wonderful time. if you’d like, i could send you an email with a bunch of my favourite french songs.
i would definitely recommend visiting montmartre, oscar wilde’s grave, and the philosopher’s walk. well, those are things i would do if i were going this march! i was there when i was quite young and only have foggy smelly memories of my mother covering my eyes when we accidentally wandered into the area where sex workers were propositioning my father.
how perfect: i’m just listening to the radio right now and ta-dah! it is a lovely special about paris and eroticism. here is the podcast if you’d like to hear it: http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/features/pleasures-flesh/index.html
there is some very interesting food for thought so far, and i’m 30 minutes in.
Julia… someday in our future let’s plan a trip to France together!
Yes it’s hard even for vegetarians! I will make you a list of great places I know.
Have a fabulous time and take lots of pictures for all of us who have yet to visit the city!
The lavender fields look positively glorious.
Sunny, please do! I will be with one native Parisian who is vegetarian so perhaps he will know some spots – but I bet he doesn’t know them all!!
oh my lort! Sainte-Chapelle chapel you absolutely have to go to, go upstairs (don’t be sad in the basement/servants prayer room!) and sit in rainbow light that will give you goosebumps. it was a true highlight to my family trip to paris, new year’s 05-06. and we stayed on ile saint louis, which has amazing cafes and is just so small and lovely. i can’t wait to see pictures of you being more classy vintage parisienne then post parisians! xojojo
Hi,
It could be nice to go for a stroll along the canal St. Martin, and it can be a good spot for a picnic too. I think picnics might be your a good bet since you’re vegan. I live here and am vegetarian and so I find that because of that I end up only eating out very rarely… also because restaurants are expensive here! But if you stop into a bakery you can always grab a baguette. The baguettes which are called ‘tradition’ have to strictly adhere to French law about what should be in a baguette and I’m pretty sure you can rely on those to always be vegan. They are slightly more expensive, but only maybe 20c or something. There is a lot of very good quality jam for cheap in France (I like Bonne Mamman brand… you can try one called châtaigne which is chestnut and is good on ice cream (soy based for you, of course). Oh, and the canal St. Martin is nicest on sunny, warm days, otherwise it can be kind of sad and lifeless. The bars along it will sell you carry away beer for picnics and things… but you’d be better off bringing wine!
Another nice place to walk around is the Promenade Plantée which is an old railway line converted into a raised garden walkway. It goes from Bastille to almost the parc de Vincennes which is nice too, with an old castle to visit. The part of the promenade next to Bastille is nice too because it is on top of the Viaduc des Arts.. so there are little galleries and studios underneath which you can look into if you like.
I’d second the Sainte-Chappelle… and I think it may be free to visit on the first Sunday of every month (actually a lot of the museums are). Another nice church, is the big Russian Orthodox St. Alexandre Nevski… though there’s not too much immediately nearby, it’s by the Place des Ternes, which isn’t far from the Arc du Triomphe. There are a lot of nice churches in Paris though!
The Hotel de Cluny, which is the medieval art museum is nice. Mariages Frères, a tea shop in the Marais is a cute place to by some really fancy tea to bring home with you, but it’s a bit expensive. There’s a really good Ethiopian restaurant called Menelik, it has vegetarian things, but I’m not sure about if it has vegan things or not… you could call ahead, their info is here: http://www.menelikrestaurant.com/
I’ve heard of a Buddhist vegetarian restaurant where they make every kind of ‘meat’ or ‘fish’ you could want but it’s all soy based, I think it’s in the 13th… I haven’t been, but maybe your friends will have heard of it too. I know that in Toronto (where I’m from) there is a restaurant like this which is amazing beyond belief. There are lots of couscous places, which could probably be a good option too.
Anyway, have a great trip, and send me an email if you want more info.. I’ll do what I can!
Oh, and if you want to visit a big château type thing, I’d recommend the Château de Fontainebleau over Versailles any day of the week. It still has its furnishings inside it’s surrounded by nice forests, and also there aren’t huge long lines to get inside… though I suppose they did just finish some restoration on Versailles.
OK, that’s probably about enough already! Have fun!
Jodi – thanks for the amazing suggestions! I will try them out!
xoxo
You’re welcome… and one more thing is the Museum of the 1930s, which is inexplicably showing an exhibit on Brigitte Bardot right now, but still. I haven’t been yet (I keep meaning to), but my husband works next to it and says it’s nice.