Paris Day One

We finally landed in Paris. Yay for summer and hot weather. We stepped off the plane and realised how it was not so. In fact, I needed to wear a jacket everywhere, of which I only brought one, and also needed to buy an umbrella as well. Guess we somehow brought Sydney weather with us.

Tired and starving, we wandered around the neighbourhood in search for something Parisian. Nothing looked more so than this bakery that was hidden behind some construction work. We wandered in and was greeted with no english but I'm surprised how far we got through Europe with both parties only using a non standard sign language system.

So we tried a quiche and an orange flavoured drink

For dessert, we tried the chocolate croissant... which seems to be the sweet pastry of choice by many. This one lacked chocolate. The outer chocolate was deceiving as the inside was completely hollow.

For lunch I found this burger joint that got raving reviews. Lines outside the door they say. And that really made it easy to spot walking up the street. The place was booming and we were greeted in line by someone who was fluent in english (though the rest of the staff wasn't).

We placed our order, choosing from a small burger menu, and luckily found a two seater in front of the serving station.

We ordered two burgers, shared some fries and a drink. The bill still came out to around 40 AUD. This was my first realisation that this honeymoon budget might not be enough... especially when things are going to be this expensive.

Being the first leg of the trip, our cashflow was still at a peak and we felt we like ballin'.

The burgers were decent but nothing better than a Grill'd burger or even the one at Mary's @ Newtown.

Finding the dinner venue itself was an adventure. I believe it took us over an hour to locate this place. This was us with a paper map and an address I wrote down. The most deceiving part of the journey was that street names changed halfway down sometimes and not all street names were written on this map we had. 

We rocked up at Pouic Pouic 30 minutes past our booking and quoted my booking reference to which the waiter joked "That was for 30 minutes ago." Tired and hungry, I gave a half-ass smile and he sat us by the door and popped a basket of bread on our table.

That's what I loved about Paris. Every meal comes with bread. Not just any bread, good bread. Bread you don't serve with olive oil and balsamic vinegar because it didn't need it. My wife eventually felt so sick of bread and craved the carbohydrates of rice instead.

The restaurant was a recommendation from my wife's work colleague who boasts about dining here everytime they are in Paris. My expectations were high.

The food was decent. Though the serving sizes weren't massive, we found that two entrees, two mains, and a shared dessert was over ordering already. Plus the two glasses of wine and all that free bread we kept wolfing down.

To me, the service was ok. She wasn't overly intrusive, nor did they check up often as they tried not to get involved in a communication struggle.

I really should have learnt some French before I went. Though along the way you will pick up some basics and eventually just assume that if they speak French right in front of you to someone else and then laugh... they probably just made fun of you.