Voilà Paris
Every once in a while you need to break out a little. In order to do so what could be better than a short trip to Paris in order to recharge and focus again. Thanks to National Express you don’t have to pay a fortune to get there! A return ticket from Victoria Coach Station to Paris - Gallieni (both with good connections via Tube/ Metro to the city centre) costs as little as GBP 33,- and I believe that isn’t even the lowest fare.
To be honest I am not much of a Coach-Trip person, but having to watch my money a little at the time, it seemed like a good option. It’s quite an experience too! For starters now I know that you need to check in to a coach just like on a plane…
The trip went surprisingly smooth and with a good book the seven hour drive was bareable. In any case when doing such a short trip: travel light! On the way back we had to go through customs and they made us take out all the luggage. I was very glad to just have my handbag to hold on to and didn’t have to worry about large suitcases.
I was less lucky with my hotel though and therefore I can’t give you any recommendations. However, this is a good search page.
One of the reasons why I was keen to visit Paris is the fact that I am a delighted reader of Chocolate and Zucchini, a blog by a young French woman living in Paris. I wanted to see a few of the places she mentioned in her blog for myself:
E. Dehillerin an outlet store for cooking utensils. It’s absolutely amazing what they stock and you see straight away that they normally target professionals. However they are open to individuals as well and I couldn’t resist and bought two small tarte-forms.
G. Detou is a wonderful store full of everything you might need for baking. I was almost a bit sad that I didn’t have a recipe at hand with some unbelievable ingredient I might find nowhere but there. Maybe next time, for now I just enjoyed to have a look around.
For a Café Crème I turned to a small restaurant/café near Jardin du Luxembourg. Mostly for it’s likable name Au Petit Suisse:
It turned out that having only one whole day in Paris is just not enough… Well I should have known! I can definitely advise you though to return home either early in the morning or in the evening. My bus left at 1 pm and once you leave the hotel with your luggage in the morning it is a very uncomfortable way to kill time. You hardly manage to do anything fun or useful.
I was happy to return to London with a few of my favourite French products:
Bonne Maman: Galettes au beurre frais, for afternoon tea
Le Petit Suisse, for breakfast
Taillefine Equilibre, as a snack
Nestlé Dessert Chocolat Noir and Corsé, for Mousse and Fondant au Chocolat
We’ll see how long they last…