Le Jules Verne

Day 1: After gearing up for the cold weather, we were off into the streets of Paris.  We had reservations at Le Jules Verne, a fancy restaurant in the Tour de Eiffel on the second floor.  Ha, the second floor. It's about 38 stories up!! We started the walk, but after a mile or so decided we should take a taxi and walk after lunch. We arrive at the tower, and boy is it magnificent! One cannot simply describe how it feels to be standing in front of such an iconic building.  We take a few photos and then head to the entrance.  We get to skip the line (hundreds of people) because we have reservations at La Jules Verne.  Aren't we just special?  So, we go to our entrance and go through a small security check.  As directed, we enter a lift to start the trek up.  It's surely an experience.  Of course the questions of "um how old is this lift?" run through my mind. I quickly stop those thoughts and take it in.  The Tower is actually a brown-ish color for our visit. We arrive at the restaurant and are seated right next to a window! It was beautiful. ( I don't think I know enough adjectives for these blog posts about our trip!!)

We then are "greeted" by a "lovely" waitress who clearly favored French couples over American couples.  She wasn't the most kind waitress, but, she brought us water, when we flagged her down :-) There were several people "assigned" to our table. Someone else took our order, another gentleman brought our food, etc.  We had no idea what to order. All the food was for sure fancy and for true foodies.  So, we decided we would try the duck as an appetizer and the fish for our meal.



We are presented with a strange shooter filled with... a creamy substance? and chunks of what we guessed was duck?..we still don't know.  ------->



They then brought our appetizer...pictured below. It was strangely textured and the flavor was...different. We each had one plate like this.  Brendan pretty much finished his, I left a good portion on my plate. The veggies were really good though!!

 Side note: About four days later, while talking to a lovely Parisian, we realize this "duck" we had was really duck or goose LIVER. Yup. Liver. For a once vegetarian, still picky about meat person, this was maybe the most awful part of the entire trip. I ate an organ? I ate the organ that filters all the bad stuff...gross. I can't even think about it anymore. But, it was worth mentioning.

 The picture above is the fish.  I wish I could remember what kind of white fish it was, but honestly, it's nothing to ask for again. It was alright. It was served with some sort of veggies and potatoes.  Eh, it was nothing like what we can get on the coast of Florida.

Then came the good stuff....Delicious desserts! If Parisians know anything, it's how to make desserts!  I tell ya, that was by far my favorite food group in Paris.
Each of us had a delicious chocolate concoction --------------------->
And then shared the rest. There is something about marshmellows in Europe and the UK.  They are really big into making home-made marshmellows.  That's what the cubes of white and black are below. They were fine, but the rest was the best.  The orange macaroons were my first taste of this dessert.  They were very very tasty.  
I did like it, but I still think I'd pick cookies or chocolate over them :-) Also we had some sort of peanut ice cream and of course espresso. I think the price was overrated for this restruant, but the view was amazing and the desserts were one of a kind!  (Maybe the meal was one of a kind, but not a good kind that's for sure ;-) )

After almost two hours in the restaurant, we embarked on our journey of the tower.  We walked around the second floor platform and then walked down to the first floor. It was an insane amount of steps!!  We decided to take the lift down to the ground. 

 

I'm off to take a run with Renny now... I have to get my exercise in now because I'm meeting up with some friends for a wine night...need to burn off the calories ahead of time ;-)  More on day one and the rest of Paris soon!!!! 

Arrival in Paris

Paris, the city of love. 

We arrived very early in the morning, about 7:30am Paris time. Now is the time to mention that Paris is 6 hours ahead of Florida time (which we had adjusted to when there for the holidays).  Neither of us slept on the flight.  We arrive at baggage claim and were so happy to see our bags! We then realize we didn't plan on how to get to the apartment from the airport. So, we found out there was a bus that could take us from the airport to the center of Paris.  Before we left the airport, we thought we needed to have the rest of the rent for the apartment in Euros, so we tried to pull out some money.  After buying the bus tickets our bank put a hold on our account.  We hoped for the best and got on the bus.

Once we get to the bus stop, we realized we didn't know where we were!! So, we hailed a taxi and got to the apartment.  We could've walked, but considering we couldn't tell east from west and had all of our luggage, we just paid the fare and didn't think twice about it.

We arrive to our apartment, which presents to us as a huge door with a code box out front.  I pull out the reservation and contract and find the code. 

One hurdle down.  Then we walk in through a hallway and find our selves in a courtyard with many doors.  We felt like Alice.  We looked again at the contract and followed the instructions.    

Into door B we go.  Hurdle two down.  We have to make it to the sixth floor with four suitcases, a backpack, and a satchel. We enter door B and see a TINY elevator surrounded by a circular staircase.

We can't read the instructions on the side of the elevator because of course it is in French.  All I could make out, from my little bit of French training in high school,  was that it didn't seem to say anything about "do not ride" or "do not use." Brendan says he will go first, with his suitcases. After he manages to squeeze in the elevator, by stacking his suitcases upright on each other, he closes the door and pushes floor 5.

 (This photo is actually of the LARGER elevator we used the rest of the trip).

Hurdle 3 down? Not quite.  As he ascends, there is a small window in the elevator door, and I see him and the elevator go up a few inches, down a few inches, up a few inches, down a few inches, up....clanking the entire way up.  I was terrified for him!  I wait about 15 minutes, and nothing.  No Brendan coming back down to get me or to tell me to take the elevator up.  So, I yell "Brendan?" about 5 times.  I hear suitcases rolling around above my head, but no answer from Brendan. Ok, that's it...I decide to climb the stairs with all my luggage. I was sure Brendan was abducted and somehow I was going to get him out of it.  Now I am clink clanging the entire way up the staircase.  I get to the top, and a few seconds later, I see Brendan's smiling face.  " I found Patrick!"  Patrick is who we were renting the place from.  I was terrified and just walked 5 flights of stairs with 80 pounds. But, all is well, because we now know where we are going....or so I thought. Brendan then says he doesn't know how to get back to the apartment. I had to just laugh!  Eventually we start walking down a hall and Patrick arrives.  Brendan and Patrick help carry my luggage up the last flight of stairs to the sixth floor (which was only accessible in one hallway).  Yay, we've arrived at the apartment. Whew!!!

Our apartment was so wonderful....TINY, but wonderful. We had all we needed.  Patrick gave us some tips about Paris, accepted credit card (which I got working after calling the bank) and then left. We spent a few minutes there wrapping our heads around the fact we were in Paris.  Then we hit the streets!

We have returned!

We have returned from our dream vacation!!! I (Mandy) have decided to blog our vacation details because we weren't able to keep everyone informed of what we were up to! We'd love to share our journey and give a little detail to our days abroad.  I'm going to try to include the little stories, but some may end up being long! So hang in there, or just skip those posts! They'll come in every day or so, and I'll include photos, too. 

First, we have arrived back in Texas and are just about done unpacking and doing laundry.  Brendan said to me "wow, we are home!" when we walked in the door on Monday. We've been gone for over a month! It's nice to be back in our own home.

We returned and the girls adjusted very well. Renny and Molly were even left alone in the house for about 10 minutes and they didn't destroy anything! Quite surprising.  But, (there is always a BUT..), Renny did manage to get some near-by clothes when she was in her crate. I guess it was about time I got rid of that Holister cardigan anyway...

I talked to our neighbor Sarah (Renny's boyfriends mom, who is also becoming one of my close friends) and I was so excited to get the dogs together. BUT (see what I mean about those but's!) CJ isn't feeling well and hurt his hip, so they won't be able to play until next week. Bummer.  Renny will just have to deal with walks with mom or dad.  Maybe a dog park visit is in the plans...or should be at least! Poor thing gets so car sick I hate to put her back in there, and she will not want to get in.

Brendan started classes yesterday, so far so good. He has two late nights, which might stink when I go back to being in the clinic, but it's only temporary!  He also has classes Monday-Friday, no weekday off this semester, which is different for him.  He seems to be excited for this semester and is looking forward to his internship this summer.  He's moving right along with his degree and doing so wonderful. He's also getting an idea of what part of electrical engineering he likes, so that will help him with his job search!  I am so proud of him.

I am on my "professional development" month, so I have online work to do.  Hence why I am going to try my best to blog about our trip now.  Next month is Women's health, and then is Pediatrics. I'll be spending time the next couple weeks brushing up on that so I am prepared. I can also start the application for my license. That is crazy. But it takes awhile to process, and they encouraged us to get all the information we could in as soon as we can.  I'll be starting to look for jobs in the next few months as well. I haven't decided exactly what I want to do, but time will tell!

Brendan and I are trying to do our own version of the Paleo diet.  I say our own version because I do not see Brendan NOT drinking milk! He loves milk. And also, I already made turkey meatballs, which sound healthy but have oats in them, and those are a no no on the Paleo diet. So, we are basing our new lifestyle off the Paleo ways, but we aren't going to be ridiculous about it!  I'm even eating eggs again so I can have a non-carb breakfast.  I was shocked to find that my grocery bill was under budget after purchasing the fruit, veggies and meat for the week. This lifestyle may just work!  We are also going to get back in the gym.  I don't have clearance to work out from the cardiologist but walking and weights should be fine. I have to get moving! 

That's our update for now. Stay tuned for the first post about our trip!!!