Anyone who knows Rebekah will know that she has a distinct partiality towards macarons, or in Mikes words a seasoned connoisseur! This itinerary of this trip was built around the location and opening times of three macaron establishments.
The first macaron purveyor we visited was Carette. Rebekah is looking a little apprehensive here as she knows she is about to go up the Tour Eiffel! These macarons were delicious but they ranked third in the ratings. More on that to come.
For anyone who knows Rebekah they will know that she is TERRIFIED of heights! That really is an understatement! She was somewhat apprehensive before going up the Tour Eiffel, especially having seen that the lifts had windows in. After we had eaten a lovely meal at a small restaurant on Avenue Kleber, we walked back down towards the Tour Eiffel. Here she is before the ascent! There was no getting out of it as we had pre-booked our tickets online. BEST decision as we only had to wait 15 minutes to get through security and into a lift whereas those who went on the day to buy tickets had to wait nearly two hours!
Here is Rebekah at the TOP just about to go outside! She did a lap (albeit clinging in a limpet like fashion to the inside). Mike was VERY proud of her! The trick is is to go straight to the top, just get in one lift after the other and DO NOT look out!
Here are the happy couple at the top, inside!
After our successful ascent of the Tour Eiffel we went for a ten mile walk up Avenue Kleber to the Arc de Triomphe, down the Champs Elysees ALL the way to The Louvre, at a celebratory macaron, then headed back to our hotel. Suffice it to say that the next day we took the metro everywhere!
The next morning we had a late breakfast and headed up to the Sacre Coeur. The metro goes most of the way to the top but not all the way. We laughed at people waiting to get into the lift as we took the stairs but it was they who would have been laughing if they had seen us walking up 150 steps! We then had a further three sets of steep stairs to ascend before we got to the base of the Sacre Coeur and there was one more set of steps to climb! From thereon it was ALL downhill!
Next stop-Laduree!!! These came in second and were ethereal delictatious delights!
We stopped off to have a quick look at the opera house and Mike just about managed to get the opera house in the frame without too many vans! It was tricky as you can see!
This Tiffany's horse and carriage was riding the streets of Paris, probably to drum up Christmas business!
The final macaron stop was at Pierre Herme's. These ranked number one in the macaron tasting stakes. They were AMAZING!!!!! Some of them had foie gras in and, though Rebekah thought this was an unusual ingredient for sweet macarons, it enhanced the flavour of the macaron. We will definitely be going back there on future visits.
On the Saturday evening we went out to the Christmas market on the Champs Elysees for dinner as we wanted to sample a variety of the edible goods for sale! Mike was thrilled to find a gyro stand and Rebekah had a nutella crepe with chantilly cream. Thus just about finished her off as it was VERY sweet and she has been dieting! We bought a cone of churros to finish off our dinner and headed back to the hotel.
On the Sunday, our actual anniversary, we left the hotel around 11am and caught the metro to Notre Dam. There was a MASSIVE queue to enter and we could not take our bags so we just looked at it and headed off for a walk around the island.
We walked around the west side of the island and it was very picturesque!
These locks are where people lock their love for eternity. If only we had known about this, we would have brought a lock with us! Good job this is already taken care of for us.
