Alison's Visit

My good friend Alison (you may remember her from her role as 'maid of honor' at Erik and Torie's wedding) was here visiting for four very short days this week.

It was great to see her, and catch up with her, as I don't think we'd actually seen each other since the wedding. She arrived on Sunday, and her stop here was a four day layover en route to Bangladesh where she is now doing some internship for med school. Anyway, she was a good sport, and we made the most of Sunday by heading up to Montmartre. It was a beautiful sunny day, and although it kept raining in spurts, it didn't detract from any of our favorite sights. We went up to Sacre Coeur and enjoyed the views, both inside and out. We wandered through Place du Tertre, and along rue des Abesses before stopping for a drink. We waited in line for bread at my all time favorite bakery, and bought wine and an apricot tart from other favorites stores (such a great neighbourhood!) before heading home for a much needed nap.

That evening we opened another bottle of Champagne, and Erik cooked up his amazing gigot d'agneau (recipe from the Barefoot Contessa), and we had the tart for dessert. Then Alison and I headed out for another walk down the the Eiffel tower, and having stupidly forgotten our umbrellas, got soaking wet. Alison did get some great pictures though, and I think she took great pride in trying to embarrass me by taking as many pictures as possible. Unfortunately, being the fabulous host that I am, excessive picture taking no longer bothers me at all. :)

On Monday, Alison and I got up relatively early and headed out to the Hotel de Ville to see the Doisneau photography exhibit. Erik and I have been meaning to see this exhibit for months, but there is always a ridiculously long line up by the time we get there. Luckily the line wasn't too bad, and the exhibit was certainly worth the wait. The exhibit was comprised of photos that Doisneau had taken in Paris over the years, all in black and white. The photographs were wonderful, and it was a nice insight into Parisian life, from the 30s through to the 90s.

Any trip to the Hotel de Ville, or anything else in that neighbourhood warrants a trip to L'As de Falafel for lunch, and we headed straight there, for some of the 'best' falafel in the city. While we ate, we wandered around the Marais, did some window shopping, and impulse purchasing, before stopping for dessert at Amorino's. It's always fun to have a visitor who enjoys eating as much as I do!

Then we made our way to the Champs Elysee, to do some shopping. We walked all the way there, and shopped all the way there, visiting every single Minelli store on the way (I believe there were five), in search of a particular pair of shoes (which we didn't find). By the time we got the the Champs Elysee, we were exhausted. Not too tired to check out Sephora, though, and I was surprised to hear that Ottawa doesn't have one yet (or a Zara, or H and M. So sad). We sniffed almost all the perfumes, in search of a wedding scent for Alison, who also got her make up done. We strolled the rest of the way up to see the Arc de Triomphe before heading home. It was a great day. We polished it off with dinner at the Raspail Vert before calling it a night.

After that it was back to work for me, and although we did manage to check out the GrandeEpicerie on Wednesday night, the rest of the visit was pretty quiet. I was sad to see her go, but maybe she and James will consider Paris for their honeymoon. Apparently it's tres romantique!