Hello again everyone! Today I am wrapping up my trip posts with a final post about Paris. If you missed the South Africa Safari posts, go here:
If you missed the previous Paris posts, go here:
Before getting to the final day, I just want to quickly say I forgot to mention in my last post that during our “shopping day” Dad and I stopped to eat lunch at Les Philosophes, a cafe in Le Marais and one of only 2 restaurants (the other being Le Petit Fer a Cheval) to serve literally the best Tarte Tatin in all of Paris (possibly all of France). It is, I think, a local secret that every day these 2 restaurants receive only one Tarte Tatin apiece (who makes them is a mystery) and they usually sell out by early afternoon. So, if you want to have the best Tarte Tatin in Paris (I had it and I can tell you all that OMG it was AMAZING) I recommend planning to eat lunch at one of those two restaurants.
On our last full day in Paris, Dad and I went to the Catacombs! I think, besides eating at as many cafes as possible and going to the Shakespeare and Company bookstore, going to the Catacombs was number one on my list of things I wanted to do in Paris, so I am super excited that we went and they did not disappoint.
So the Catacombs were originally a dumping ground for old skeletons that at one time were buried in cemeteries, but the cemeteries got too full, and so the skeletons were dug up and thrown down shafts into old quarries. There are a bunch of famous folk’s skeletons down there, but they all got jumbled up when they were thrown down there so now no one knows which skeleton belongs to whom. Then, in the 1810s, a quarry inspector Hericart de Thury decided to have the bones artfully arranged to make a sort of museum. They even added an inscribed stone over one of the entrances to the ossuary (where the bones are kept) that reads “Arrête, c’est ici l’empire de la mort” or, “Stop, this is the empire of the dead.”
Macabre you say? I suppose, but the results (which are kept up to this day by periodic dismantling and reassembly) are stunning:
For our last evening in Paris, Dad and I walked from our hotel to St. Germaine des Pres, an area well known for it’s cafe culture (I cannot stress enough how awesome the hotel was were Dad and I stayed….it was within easy walking distance of so. much. food!). We ended up eating at Cafe de Paris where, I kid you not, we had the best food I had eaten so far in Paris (not including the aforementioned Tarte Tatin). It was rather lively there too, since a large group was celebrating someone’s birthday, and the street it is on has a lot of cafes where people like to go and get a drink, so the atmosphere was great! OMG the food though, the beef bourguignon and crème brûlée were to die for!!
Cafe de Paris is across the street from this cafe:
So, it should be easy to find if you decide to go and try it out.
The next day we flew back to America. Dad had a heck of a time with security at the Philadelphia airport (we had to go through customs and immigration there, and then re-check our bags since we had connecting flights)….but I have heard horror stories about that airport so I wasn’t particularly surprised.
I am so thankful to my dad for taking me on this incredible trip! It was amazing, and I am so glad I got to spend so much one on one time with him. I enjoy our family trips, but these father-daughter trips are special to me. Love you Dad!
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed hearing about my trip and looking at the pictures, and maybe even have some new ideas for your next trip? Bon voyage, everyone!
The Bibliobibuli on Bookbinder Way 