Paris!

We left Dinard early on Wednesday morning to drop the rental car back off at the airport in Paris. By the time we got to our hotel it was already 5 or 6, so we relaxed for a bit and then took the metro to the Marais district to find a restaurant. The Marais is the former Jewish neighborhood of Paris, and is now the gay/lesbian center of Paris. It’s recognized for having lots of unique galleries, boutiques, restaurants, and bars … so it was pretty easy to find a good place to eat. We ended up at a really small restaurant – Les Bourgesses – and we all agree that it was probably the best meal we’ve had here. The food and atmosphere were fantastic – the small, warm dining room was in the lower, stone-walled cellar of a building. The walls were painted deep purple, and they had stained glass/mirrors hanging at an angle from the side walls. I loved it! After dinner Alec and I met up with one of my assistant friends and her Parisian friends. We started off at a fun bar behind Centre Pompidou, continued to another late night bar, and capped off the evening with crepes and fries from a street vendor. We took the metro back to our hotel at 6am and somehow managed to wake up at 10am for breakfast with Mom and Dad. Quite the evening! Unfortunately, the only picts I took were in the Metro, here ya go (and Alec's action-shot above is a 6am'er from the Metro, as well):

My parents walked over to Notre Dame on Thursday and let Alec and I sleep a little bit on Thursday afternoon, luckily! Then all of us went to Les Invalides, the former military hospital that has Napoleon’s tomb, but the museum had already closed for the day. But we were still able to walk around the perimeter of the building and enjoy the large collection of old cannons. Thursday night we ate in the Bastille district, which is supposedly the up-and-coming Montemartre/Boho capital of Paris. We had a really fun meal at Chez Paul, a lively restaurant close to the Place de la Bastille. Everyone was too tired to go out afterwards, but after just walking through the Bastille for a few minutes, it’s clear that this is the area to go to for a long night of partying! There were tons and tons of different types of bars and cafés and it looked really fun over there … will let you know if I get to check it out soon!