A boat cruise in Paris

Bonjour!  This is me, Katelyn, blogging to you from Paris.  And, this is a week of firsts for me.  First time in Paris.  First time running a marathon.  And first time writing a blog after drinking a bottle of wine.  I mean, wait, what?  Umm...

So, today is Wednesday and it has been a really wonderful couple of days in Paris.  Yesterday Jess and I had a great day exploring Paris, and we put a good amount of mileage in exploring the city.  Before we started the real bulk of the day though, we began, as any good French day does, with a pastry.  For me, it was a chocolate almond pastry.  And, oh my gosh, yum.

We started by heading to the Champ Elysees and walking towards the Louvre.  We passed by the Grande Palace and the Petit Palace, and sat for a moment at the end of Champ Elysees and took in the location where we would soon be running down.

From there, we headed over to Notre Dame. Which, I had done the day the before, but it was still just as nice seeing it again.  I sat outside this time while Jess went in and just admired the building.  It is insanely beautiful.

Following that we had lunch at a cute place overlooking Notre Dame and then meandered our way back to our apartment.  One of the things I love about being on vacation is not having anywhere to go or any time to be anywhere.  Which allows you to really, really enjoy your time.  We did so with a meal option that included a starter, entree, and some wine.  I forgot to take a picture of my entree, but that's okay because I really think the highlight of the show was the starter.  I had a delicious salad that included beets and goat cheese.  I had never eaten a beet before this summer when I began the CSA I was a part of and then I sort of overdosed on beets eating them week after week.  This light amount of beets was PERFECT.

On the way back to our apartment, as we "meandered" we stopped at some really incredible stores at well.  There was an incredible clothing store that I splurged at (woops!) and an amazing chocolate shop where I showed incredible restraint.

And also, a bakery that had the most incredible display of meringue I have ever seen, along with the biggest loaf of bread I have EVER seen in my life.  I didn't snap a picture of the bread, but rest assured, it probably would have taken up half of our apartment.  I couldn't stop myself from buying a small bag of the amazingly diverse colored meringue and we've been munching on it nonstop (editor's note: Jess just literally took a piece of meringue and ate it out of my hands with her mouth as I was holding it and contemplating my next thought.  It's that good!)

We hung out for a bit and then ventured back out to sit by the Eiffel Tower as the sun set.  It was gorgeous!

We made our plans for the next day and then returned back to have a dinner similar to the one that we had the night before.  Full of bread, cheese, wine, some fruit, some meat, and just all around deliciousness.  I don't know why I don't eat like this all the time at home, because it is so enjoyable and delicious.  I've definitely been a part of the clean plate club as of late!

We did venture out a bit later in the evening to see the Eiffel Tower and then stumbled into a bar to watch the Machester U. vs. Bayern Munich soccer game, which was fun to do.

This morning Jess and I got up to do our 4 mile run, which was really nice and then we drank some coffee and hung out a bit at our apartment before going out for out boat cruise.

The boat cruise is something that Jess and I had decided to do after yesterday.  We walked A LOT yesterday and we are really trying to be conservative of our feet.  So, we tried to figure out what we could do in Paris that did not require us to be walking around.  And beyond hiring a peddy cab to cart us around, our best option was to do a lunch boat cruise today.

It was a little expensive but we figured with the cost of a one hour boat cruise and then a lunch and wine and yada yada... we just went for it.  And it turned out to be a really great choice!  The boat cruise was awesome!

We had a really, really delicious meal that consisted of a starter, entree, dessert, bread, and rose, white wine, and red wine.  It was a full throttle meal and we enjoyed every moment of it.  We were able to boat past many moments while enjoying the food and wine.

Me with Eiffel Tower

Jess and Eiffel Tower

Jess under Pont Alexandre III

We met some really cool people and seriously... the boat cruise was just awesome.  I mean, we may have decided in the cruise that we should probably take the most of it.  And I mean, we MAY have taken a half drunk bottle of wine from the table next to us after they departed the boat.  And, like, I'm not saying that this did happen for sure, BUT we MAY have been the last people off the boat cruise.

Yet, it was awesome and I am so glad we did it. I started my meal with the snails.  I felt like I needed to eat snails while I was in France, although it's not something that would normally be a choice for me, I went with it on the menu.  And turns out, snails taste sort of like mussels and are sort of delicious.

From there, I had the veal for my main course.  It was fall apart tender, so delicious, and served with some roasted carrots and artichoke that was to die for.

And for dessert, it was strawberries in a red berry sauce and a small scoop of dessert.  Pretty much perfection if you ask me!

One of the funniest parts of the boat cruise was that they had a photographer come around and take your photos, print them out, and try to sell them to you at the end of the ride.  We did not opt to buy the pictures but some of our photos came out really FUNNY.  It felt like school photo day.

We walked back from the boat cruise/lunch thing to regroup and figure out how we should spend the rest of the day.  So, I am going to go off and enjoy the rest of my day.  It's almost 5:00 p.m. but hey, the day is young.  If this post felt weird and random and was disjointed then, well, go read the first line please.  Wine, oh wine, you are so fine.  I love Paris and today is amazing, au revoir for now!!!  Goodbye!