Du Soleil Dans La Nuit

Bonsoir!

I think we all agreed that Tuesday was our favourite day in Paris. Possibly because it was the only full day that all four of us were in the city together. We did a lot of walking, saw a lot of amazing things and we were lucky that we had a beautiful sunny day for it!

We started off the day taking the Metro over to the far side of the city to where our apartment was with the intention of working our way back gradually over the day. We began at the Sacre Coeur which is somewhere I've always wanted to go in Paris. The building itself is on a big hill beside Montmartre so once you get up all the steps the views are incredible! We were so lucky to have such a beautiful day and clear skies to see the views of Paris. We walked around inside the church and then ate our packed lunches on the steps whilst listening to a Spanish busker. 

After lunch we wandered around Montmartre and visited the Moulin Rouge and Les Deux Moulins, the café featured in Amélie. Notre Dame was next, followed by the Comic Book shop street, buying and eating pastries, Jardins du Luxembourg, a twilight stroll along the river to Pont des Arts, Pont Neuf and then home again. 

The pastry in the photo above is called Religieuse au Café. They are seriously so amazing, it's like a giant profiterole filled with coffee flavoured creamy mousse stuff. You might also have noticed Beemo in a little boat up there. Donnacha asked a little French boy if he could borrow his boat for a minute to put Beemo in, I don't think the boy quite knew what was going on!

I hope you're enjoying these posts. I can't wait to write my post on my tips for visiting Paris.

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that my brother was having health issues. He was in hospital last week and thankfully is now at home, although he still has a while to go until he's better. We were out visiting at the hospital every day which is why I haven't been commenting on your blogs (although I have kept up reading them!) and why I haven't posted all week. It's so heartbreaking to see someone you love so much in pain. We went to Skerries yesterday to see him and put up the Christmas tree. Everyone is very exhausted and upset over it but we're hoping the medication will work and he'll be back to normal soon.  

In other sad news, my grandad is also having health issues. It doesn't look good so we're all waiting to hear news about him. Needless to say, there's been a lot of tears and stress this past week and a half. We're all just trying to concentrate on the positives and hoping that this Christmas is a happy one for the family. 

How are you all doing? 

Emma x

Ce Matin-La

Two and a half weeks ago my sister, her husband, Donnacha and I got a 7am plane to Paris. Here are some photos from our first day exploring the city.

We arrived in Paris in the morning and dropped our things at the two bedroom apartment we rented for four nights in the 13th arrondissement. We went to buy food and supplies at a local shopping centre and afterwards we hopped on the Metro to La Tour Eiffel. Luckily it was the only day that it rained, unfortunately that meant queuing for quite a bit in the rain to go up the tower. 

Because we were queuing for so long we got to see the view from the top as it started to get dark and all the lights around the city began to turn on which was pretty amazing. I've been to Paris twice before, once when I was 9 and again for a day when I was 15 but I had never seen the view from the Eiffel Tower at night. You can see from one of the photos above that there are lights all over the tower and they twinkle every hour on the hour which is such a pretty sight. 

After that we got some dinner in a little Italian restaurant we just happened upon nearby. We all had pizzas and an €8 bottle of still water between us! Yes, €8 for a litre of water! 

We decided to end our first day strolling down the Champs-Élysées. It is so gorgeous at night, especially the Arc de Triomphe all lit up. 

There were two things I really wanted to do on the Champs- Élysées, one was to visit the Ladurée café and the second was to buy a little something in Sephora. Luckily the guys indulged me and because everything is open quite late we got to do both! If you ever get to visit Paris I encourage you to visit Ladurée, it's worth the extortionate prices just to see the inside of the café. The photos above could never do it justice. Kate was so impresed even though she wasn't crazy about her thick dark hot chocolate (which cost €6.90). She said it was one of her favourite things we did there. I got a Café Creme which was unbelievable and we shared 4 mini macarons (I had Pistache, my favourite flavour). 

Before getting the Metro back to the apartment, I quickly ran into Sephora to grab a Chanel lipstick. I could have gotten it a few Euro cheaper in the duty Free but like the sap that I am I really wanted to buy my first Chanel lipstick on the Champs-Élysées. I'll be showing it to you soon!

As you can see from the photos we may have smuggled some extra guests on the plane with us. Beemo from Adventure time and Doctor Who himself Matt Smith came along for some fun. You should see what they got up to! 

More Paris posts coming next week, I hope it wasn't too boring but I do love seeing what other people do when they visit places so I thought some of you might find it interesting. I'm also writing a post with my advice about/ a guide to an inexpensive stay in Paris. 

Emma x