The Last Day in Paris

We spent alot of time outside during our last day in Paris. We spent some time sitting in a park near the apartment we stayed at:

 This is the sky that day. Very clear with some clouds here and there. Very serene.

A picture of the trees and the sky with some buildings behind them.

Next we went to get some food and hang around the area by the train station. We put up one of our birds.

 I think the bird's hat is befitting of Paris! Don't you?

After this, we went for a walk.

We started to get hungry but none of the places around had food that we were looking for. Specifically, quiches and sandwiches! We finally found some and ate them with some pineapple juice before heading to the train station.

This was our last view of Paris.

A perfectly pleasant ending to a marvelous stay.

Birthday Fun Pt. 2

Today, we just walked around Paris and did some sight seeing. All the lights are beautiful at this time of year! 

We came across this beautiful fountain!

We also saw some cool lights:

Happy Holidays from Notre Dame! We saw that Notre Dame was open so we decided to go in for a look!

 A service was going on but it was also open for tourism as long as you stayed really quiet so you didn't disturb the ceremony.

 This was the only good shot I got of the nativity and surrounding area. This isn't the nativity but the kings/ wise men making the trek to see Jesus. The nativity was to the right of this and was very realistic looking. It was on a hillside and surrounded by beautiful flowers. I really wish that picture had come out. It was beyond gorgeous. The whole area was about 20 feet long and 5 feet wide. These figurines were about a foot tall. 

Here are some votives. Besides the nativity, I really, really liked that they had a hope box or love box or peace box. Something like that. I forgot what they called it. It was a 3D cube made of plexiglass with a slot in the top. The cube was almost as tall as me and filled halfway with papers! There were pencils, pens and paper for you to write words of love, peace, joy, etc. on. People were writing things like "I wish happiness for the world." "I wish peace for our nations." "Love will be with everyone." "The upcoming year will bring more people together in unity for good.", etc. etc. There were many languages including English, Spanish and French. It was incredibly moving to see people lining up to send these good thoughts up and out into the world. 


After I wrote my words we headed out. We passed this nice house. I tried to get good pictures of it because it was so pretty on the inside! I really like these rounded corner houses. I know you can't see what I could see. The camera didn't grab the shots like I wanted but at least you can admire the architecture :)

We saw this on the street around the corner from our place. We pass over this spot almost every day and we hadn't seen it until today! It says "Joyeux Anniversaire" which means Happy Birthday :D Neat, huh? Coincidence? I think not!

That's all folks!

Birthday fun Pt.1

First of all, before I forget, we think this is one of the best food combinations we've ever come across. It's eggplant, some sort of cheese, and red and yellow bellpeppers. We eat this quite a bit. It's absolutely wonderful, very healthy and really cheap. I am hoping delicious, cheap frozen veggie entrees like this catch on in the US! There is a ratatouille that you can find here too that's awesome!

I wanted to start celebrating a night early(since it was our last weekend in Paris) so we found some yummies at different shops around town and put everything together. We had our main courses, drinks and dessert!! Everything was awesome! As it always in Paris! Seriously, I don't recall having anything I disliked. 

 J had some sauteed noodles, honey chicken and some of my vegetarian rice.

 I forgot to mention the yummy drink and raspberry tart!

I had vegetarian Vietnamese rice and some veggie dumplings :) I really wanted to ask for the recipe of the rice. It didn't have any sauce or spices. Somehow the inherent flavors of the vegetables were used to create a symphony of smell and taste! Quite excellent! I won't be eating greasy fried rice again in the states, that's for sure. lol My strawberry tart was great!


The next day we decided to try for the dinosaur museum once more! This is our view down one of the streets we take quite a bit, which is quite picturesque. We both tried to take pictures and by the time we remembered, the weather and lighting weren't in our favor. We still wanted to take a picture to remember it nonetheless.

Later on, the weather was in our favor. This is an alley off of our street!

The dinosaur museum was open!

We ate nearby at a cafe that seemed promising and did not disappoint! We each had a croque. J had a croque monsieur and I had a croque madame, or the other way around. I don't remember. Mine did have ham, so I gave it to J. I decided when I get back home I will be making these sandwiches for breakfast, lunch or dinner. They are so yummy! They were so good we forgot to take pics. So, here we are instead!

I do believe this picture sums our dinner up quite well! :)


And this concludes part 1! Part 2 coming shortly!

A Game of Ball and the Dinosaur Museum

The park around the corner has many purposes. It's for families to spend time together. It also serves as a dog park. Today, it's a place for the older gentlemen to partake in a game of ball!

It looks like they are using oversized metal marbles. I don't know the name of this game.

By the time we got to the dinosaur museum, it was closed. That didn't stop us from enjoying the surrounding parks and snapping some pictures of the building!

I just love the way this building looks. Just marvelous.

The sky was doing magnificent things. It was as if all of the clouds were being drawn to one point far off in the distance. You can kind of see the straight lines of clouds going from the left of the picture to the right. We both tried to get a good shot. This was the result. Not a great shot but hopefully you get the idea.

Afterwards we ate at a Tex-Mex restaurant. We were both pleasantly surprised at how good the food was.

The restaurant inside was really neat to look at.

Most people are outside!

After we enjoyed our meal, we went home. It's really nice to eat at these restaurants or even just enjoy some coffee outside!

Haircut day!!

I found a salon owned by a lady from California. She also happens to be great at doing hair! I made my appointment with her and couldn't wait to go! J did some sightseeing while I had the best haircut experience of my life. Whoo hoo ;)


These are from the sightseeing. I think this was inside the mall somewhere.

Some time spent at the cafe:

Note that there are quite a few ingredients compared to back home.

A nice outside shot.

The salon was VERY hard to find. I found the address where it was supposed to be, only to be facing the the outside of a shopping mall!  The salon was inside a mall and, not only that, but up a not-so-noticeable-staircase. After going up the stairs it seemed that I was into residential/hotel room areas. I went back down and had to ask for directions. I was going the right way, they said. 
I went back up the stairs, feeling that there was a mistake because when I looked to my left, there was a tiny room(about the size of a closet) that said it was for mailing and to my right there was a door that said gynocology. There was a lady inside the mailing room and she told me that I was going the right way, just to head through the gynocologist's office door and I'd see the salon. I thought that was a weird location for a salon, but I did as she said. After I went through the door, I saw that it simply lead to a hallway where I could then choose to go straight into the doctors office or go right to the salon. I was about 20 minutes late but it didn't matter. My haircut lady was late too! :D


As I'm writing this, I realize that the pictures I took of the interior of the salon have been lost :( It was beautiful! An excellent mix of ornate, old architecture with modern touches. This is the website for the salon: http://polishedhaircare.blogspot.com/p/profile.html This is a picture of the salon: https://picasaweb.google.com/112059210432352396481/Slide02#5502989235561841794
Let me tell you about the salon experience I had!


First off, the music playing was relaxing but not typical salon/massage type music. It was more like soul music! Maybe it was soul, I really have no idea. Before my hairdresser arrived(Nicole, the owner) I was treated to a shampoo and conditioner in a massaging chair! The chairs massage your back. It was great! Then, I got a head massage and oil brushed into my hair, from roots to tips. I was placed under the heat machine thing(can't believe I forgot the name!). Afterwards, I got another wash and condition in the massage chair. Next, I got my head brushed. I don't really know what it's called but the salon person takes two brushes and strokes your scalp vigorously with one brush, then the other, in a clockwise motion, all around your scalp and head. That was the most amazing part of the whole thing!(Besides my haircut :D) Afterwards, my head tingled and I felt rejuvinated. Pretty neat! 


I was sad because I wasn't able to print my picture out of the haircut I wanted. I looked down at the various haircut/hairstyle magazines/books and right off the bat, I knew my haircut picture was in the first one. I picked it up, and sure enough, near the back, was the exact picture I tried printing out before! YAY!!! Then, Nicole arrived and cut my hair! Pictures are below, in different outfits, doing my hair in different ways :) I went for an asymmetrical cut. The right side of my head has shorter hair than the left side. My bangs also curve around my right eyebrow and then slant across my face, getting longer. I can't ever get them to work the way Nicole did but you can kind of see what I'm talking about in the second picture.

No hair straightener.

I can't say enough wonderful things about Nicole! She is nice and cool, talented. Her salon is awesome and her staff know what they are doing! I will definitely see her again, next time I'm in Paris, no matter how far down the line that may be! :D TOTALLY worth it!