Every year we get our pictures taken as a little momento to celebrate another year together. Since we celebrated our anniversary in Europe I thought it might be fun to try and find a photographer in Paris. I thought it would be extra special because we were celebrating our fifth anniversary and Dusty proposed in front of the Eiffel Tower. I researched photographers in Paris who had our kind of style and also spoke English. I searched for testimonials and contacted a few that I thought might be good. We were lucky enough to find Pierre Torset. A few weeks before our actual anniversary we met Pierre very early in the morning at the Eiffel Tower. We took pictures at the Eiffel Tower, then went down to the Champ de Mars and finally hopped in a taxi to Pont des Arts and the Louvre. He took absolutely beautiful pictures and wish I could share them all. Here are just a few.
- Archives
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Anniversary Pictures in Paris
December 6, 2012 -
Inside Our Paris Home {Part 2}
November 21, 2012Now that you’ve seen the outside of our place and our view from the balcony here are a few pictures of the inside. Of course, I decided that we needed to take pictures as we were rushing out the door very early in the morning to catch a plane for Italy. So Dusty was kind enough to take a few pictures with his iPhone. Pictures include: (1) Left: View of the kitchen taken from the living room; Right: Picture of door is toilet and to the right behind the wall is the entrance (2) Living Room; To the right is the door to the bedroom (3) Close up of kitchen (4) Bedroom; To the right is the bathtub and sink (5) Left: Bathtub & sink in bedroom; Right: Lift.
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Our Home in Paris {Part 1}
November 20, 2012I spent hours trying to find the perfect place in Paris that we could live in for five weeks. What was nice is that we had an idea of what we needed and wanted because of our experience last summer in Lyon, France. We were looking for a place that had some space and had good WIFI so Dusty could work from the apartment, that was conducive for cooking meals, that was in a decent location and close to the necessities, that had some type of second bed or couch for my friend to sleep on when she was visiting, and if possible, a good view. I was also looking for a lift (elevator or didn’t have too many steps), we don’t mind walking up stairs but when you’re walking up six flights of winding stairs with two very large pieces of luggage and then walking up and down them in high heels on a regular basis, you’ll think twice about it. And of course, I wanted a washing machine and dryer. I didn’t want to have to go to a Laundromat every time I needed to do laundry. We also preferred a place that didn’t have a lot of personal belongings and had space that we could really “move in” while we were there. I think we would also need to make spare keys, as usually they give just one, and it is not enough. I believe they should have a reliable locksmith service just as our local locksmith (check out Liberty Locksmith of Calgary website if you are struggling to find good services).
I started looking for apartments on websites such as VRBO and ParisStay.com that had a great listing of vacation homes in Paris in January. I also did a little searching on Airbnb and others but ended up finding a place using ParisStay.com. After finding some places I had to email the agency to see if they were available. After several emails back letting us know apartments were available for the entire five weeks we needed it, we finally found one that met all of our needs. Then came the renters agreement, rental deposits, downpayment, and renters insurance. Here are a few pictures of the outside of our apartment building and our view from the balconies. Pictures include: (1) Our place was on the top floor with two balconies off of the living room and bedroom (2) View of the Eiffel Tower (3) Left: Our door; Right: Close up of our view of the Eiffel Tower (4) Our view of Place de la Bastille (5) View of our balcony from inside.
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Tour de Fromage
October 10, 2012Dusty and I found a lovely Paris blog, Paris by Mouth that also has a variety of tours they do around Paris. I’m in love with cheese and saw they had a cheese tour. I learned so much about cheese including how different cheeses are produced, why French cheesemakers use raw unpasteurized milk in their cheese, and what the impact of seasonality and aging are on cheese.
Top Left & Right: Two fromageries (cheese shops); Middle Left & Right: Display of cheeses; Bottom Left: Cheeses we sampled with wine; Bottom Right: Display of cheeses.
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Monet’s Garden
August 4, 2012While we were in Paris this summer I took a day trip to Giverny to see Monet’s garden. I took four years of french in high school and because of this I’m in love with French impressionists including Claude Monet and Edgar Degas. Monet is famous for his waterlilies and his garden at Giverny.
Above are two paintings by Monet of his garden and water lilies. And below are some of the pictures I captured while mesmerized by the beautiful surroundings.
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Le Chateaubriand
June 14, 2012Le Chateaubriand is one of the cool places to go if you’re a foodie in Paris, at least that’s what we’ve read and what some of our foodie friends say. Dusty was able to get us reservations last night and the chef, Iñaki Aizpitarte, was did a superb job. The word we came up with to describe the food was “interesting”. Dinner was unique, even for a bid city where there are an abundant number of creative chefs. They served a prix-fixe menu and we selected to have the wine pairings to match. We had several amuse-bouches along with our courses, including two desserts.
The staff was very friendly. We were shown our menu and given an excellent description of each dish. The dishes had an interesting combination of ingredients that somehow went well together. There were a couple of times that we had no idea what something was, even after asking our waiter. Our wine pairings, I do believe, made the dishes so much more. They paired well with the dishes and were very much like the dishes, interesting.
Dusty’s favorite dish was the green one. It was describe as “risotto of samphire”. I had no idea what samphire was but Dusty did a little researching and found out that there are two different kinds, we had marsh samphire. Marsh samphire has “vibrant green stalks, similar to baby asparagus, with a distinctively crisp and salty taste”. The dish was most definitely salty. The green stuff on top tasted like seaweed but other than that, I have now idea what the green liquid was or how it was even made. Many of the other dishes were much the same, we knew what one or two ingredients were but couldn’t tell you any more than that. My favorite dish was the second dessert, which was a caramelized egg yolk on a cookie. The cookie reminded me of a macaroon but when we tasted it alone it was almost like cotton candy, both in taste and texture. You were supposed to eat it in one bit and it was amazing!
Amuse-bouches
top left: fish broth; top right: risotto of samphire; bottom left: cod, mushrooms & asparagus; bottom right: lady lamb 6 ways with a shredded white vegetable and mascarpone cheese (or something similar to it)
top left: fluffy whipped marshmallow or cheese with berries; top right: caramelized egg yolk on cookie;
bottom left: seeds on melon; bottom right: people standing in line when we left -
French Open – Roland Garros
June 14, 2012The French Open, also known as Roland Garros, is one of the major international tennis matches. It’s held in Paris for two weeks at the end of May and beginning of June each year. The stadium where the tournament is hosted is also called Roland Garros and is located in the southwest part of Paris. I’m a novice to tennis, although I was on the tennis team in high school for one short season. I’m pretty sure that I didn’t even know how to play tennis before I joined. Dusty and I were lucky enough to get tickets from a friend of Dusty’s who works for ESPN and attend a few weekends ago.
I don’t think I realized how lucky we were until that evening when we were out for drinks and we started talking to some gentlemen from Czech Republic who were trying to figure out how to get tickets.
It was super easy to get to Roland Garros using the Metro. The gates opened at 10am and matches started at 11am. We arrived early enough that we could get our bearings and figure out which courts we needed to be at and when.
I think just as much fun as watching the star athletes is watching the “ball boys” and yes, there were girls too. You can tell this must be a huge honor for the kids and they take their jobs very seriously. There’s lots of unspoken communication between them to make sure the balls stay off the court and in the right place. My other favorite part of the event was people watching.
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Photoshop Tutorials
June 11, 2012We love taking pictures and being in Paris means we take even more pictures than normal. More pictures doesn’t mean better pictures though. Last summer I took a photography lesson from our neighbor (who’s a professional photographer) and continue to research how to use our camera. I’ve also been reading up on how to enhance our pictures using Photoshop. I know there are many different kinds of software to use but I own Photoshop and am familiar with it just enough to make me dangerous. I’ve followed many design blogs, photographers, and others who enjoy taking pictures for a long time and have decided it’s time for me to start taking advantage of all the free information, tutorials, and advice out there.
Well, here’s my first attempt at enhancing a picture (and understanding what I’m doing). I took this picture at the Bastille market. There’s a subtle difference but just enough to make the vegetables look even more enticing.
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Frenchie
June 6, 2012One of the differences between our trip last summer in Lyon and this summer in Paris is the food. For many reasons, the food for us has been different. I’d say it’s because of one or more of the following reasons 1) Paris has more food options, 2) we feel more comfortable going to restaurants, 3) we’re here a week longer giving us more time to schedule dinners, 4) we’re better acquainted with the food scene, and 5) we have a working iPhone (that has a map, making it easier to find places).
Dusty has been researching the Paris food scene for months and has a lengthy list of places we need to eat. They range from a food truck (which we ate at today) to some of the highly rated restaurants in the world. Some you must make reservations for months in advance and others you can’t even make reservations for but must stand in line with other food-loving patrons (while drinking wine to keep you busy).
We’ve went to several restaurants since we’ve arrived including a couple in London but here’s one of my favorites so far. Gregory Marchand is the chef and owner of Frenchie, a small place with just a few tables that serves a three course prix fix. Here’s a picture of the window to the kitchen and a picture of me sitting by the window. We had a perfect seat that enabled us to see the entire place including what was happening in the kitchen window. The window spot also allowed us to see and hear people trying to get a table, making it even more special that we were one of the lucky ones (and confirming how much we loved the food).
left: Dusty’s lamb dish; right: My amazing fish dish
right: Dusty’s carrot cake for dessert and my rhubarb tart -
Daily Life in Paris: Laundry
June 5, 2012Laundry in Paris (and I’m sure in most parts of Europe) is an event. It’s even more of an event when it’s just a little bit cold and rainy outside and it takes twice as long to dry anything. I actually don’t mind doing laundry. My routine at home is to do laundry once a week or even once every two weeks on a Friday when I have the day or afternoon off. I sort our clothes into three to four piles and then begin washing. Before putting things in the dryer I sort out what should be hung up. Then I do the ironing, hanging and folding part of the process. It’s a little bit different in Paris because our washing machine (and dryer) is half the size and we don’t have an endless supply of clothes. We probably enough clothes for 2 weeks, if the weather worked in our favor every day. Once you’ve worn your two pairs of jeans or two pairs of capris you need to wash them.
(left: washing machine/dryer in kitchen; middle: drying rack; right: clothes to be ironed)I started the laundry this morning and I’ll be finishing it tomorrow (and maybe the next). Our washer and dryer is all-in-one. It still amazes me that a machine can both wash your clothes and dry them (in theory). The thing about this two-in-one contraption is that it doesn’t really dry anything. Which means you have to hang dry everything and that means finding places to hang all of our clothes around our very small apartment. We not only use the drying rack but chairs, bath tubs, etc. That also means very still clothes and having to iron everything.
And ironing, I actually like ironing or at least don’t hate it. Ironing always gives me a good reason to listen to my audiobooks but lately I’m despising ironing. One reason being that there’s more ironing to do because I have to iron everything. Second, I only have a miniature ironing board and third, the iron trips the circuit breaker every so often and after realizing my iron has gone cold I have to switch the circuit breaker back on. One thing that baffles me is how all the beautiful French women’s clothes always look so pristine with no wrinkles. Even with my very skillful ironing I still find wrinkles!
