In December 2006, Greg had the chance to attend a conference in Paris and so we both went and took the opportunity to enjoy the city a little while we were there! Since we'd both been to Paris before we didn't feel the need to rush around and see all the attractions so, although we did do several "tourist" activities, we also took time to just walk around the city, enjoy the good food, and take in the beauty and charms of Paris.
We typically started our mornings there with breakfast and coffee (or the rich hot chocolate!) at a local cafe
While Greg attended the conference, Louise went shopping! Since it was right before Christmas, all the stores were decorated with beautiful window displays and sparkling Christmas trees.
We enjoyed taking walks alongside the River Seine.
At night the monuments were illuminated and we visited the Cathedral of Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower. We had always wanted to go up the Eiffel Tower at night to see all the city lights (having only done it in the daytime before) so that was really fun for us. We were the last ones down from the tower that night!
One of our culinary highlights were the Parisien Macarons that we purchased from Laduree. They are a delicious "sandwich cookie" made of light meringue-like layers with a layer of ganache or compote in between. As you can see, they came in a wide variety of flavours and colours so we had fun finding our favourites!
One day the sun came out and we took the opportunity to have lunch (sandwiches on French baguettes!) outdoors in the lovely Luxembourg gardens.
We also visited the church of Saint Chapelle which is full of amazing stained glass windows. It felt like being inside a jewel box.
On our last night in Paris we took a sunset river cruise on the Seine. We drifted past lots of Paris landmarks and it was a really nice way to finish off our quick visit to Paris.
