I love Paris in the fall

I just got back from a weekend in Paris with Row and her friend Tara. They stopped by Paris on their way home from a trip through southern France (so so lucky).  I haven't been to Paris since I studied abroad there in 2003, which feels like centuries ago.  I was a little worried to go back, as we had so much fun during study abroad, but the weekend ended up being fantastic.

I got in Friday night and took the train to our apartment, near Chatelet (close to, but much less sketchy than Chatelet-Les Halles).  I got there, but could not get a hold of Row.  On top of that, my work blackberry wasn't working, so I started imagining that they e-mailed me asking me to meet them somewhere.  Luckily, just before I was about to start thinking of a back up plan, they arrived (I had only been there 10 minutes, but sometimes, I just worry).  They had just come back from an evening jaunt to the Louvre.

We cleaned up and headed out around 11:30 for dinner.  Not surprisingly, nothing was still serving food, so we ended up at an "American bar" around the corner from our apartment, eating quesadillas and other not very french food.  Post dinner, we were all pretty full and tired, so we headed home.

Saturday, we started off for the Eiffel Tower.  It was a gorgeous day, so we figured we'd try to go all the way to the top.  WRONG.  It took us 2.5 hours all in to wait in line, go to the top, and then get back down.  The view was absolutely gorgeous though.  It was fun trying to remember what all the building were and where they were relative to each other.  All i really remembered/recognized was Invalides.

The rest of the day was spent walking and eating.  We ended up at a cafe with a fantastic concentration of very attractive men.  We wandered down the left bank of the Seine, and into La Duree.  I may or may not have gotten a box of eight macarons - 3 salted caramel, coffee, pistachio, chocolate, rose, and gingerbread.  They were unbelievable, except for the rose, which was a little too true to its name.

After that and some window shopping, we headed to one of my favorite places from study abroad, Rue Mouffetard.  We used to just call it the rue and I remember walking up and down the rue eating crepes like whoa.  It was just as cute as I remembered!  By this point, having walked from the Eiffel Tower to the Rue, we were exhausted, so we headed home to get ready.

After trying a few places that were fully booked, we ended up at a restaurant called Le Robe et Le Palais right by the apartment for dinner.  The food was great and we found a new favorite dessert - Paris Brest - which is like a croissant filled with coffee cream.

Today, we mostly wandered around ile de la cite and ile st louis, eating more glace and crepes.  After Row and Tara left, I meandered to the Musee D'Orsay.  Sadly, all of the Monets were missing as they are doing an exhibit in the Royal Palais.  Then, back the Eurostar for London.

Big week for me as I'm finally scheduled to move into an apartment on Tuesday!  Fingers crossed that all the lease stuff goes through tomorrow.