Bringing Down the White Picket Fence
A Couple's Quest to Live Globally
This summer we headed up to Brantford, Ontario to visit Paul’s favorite cousin Mark. Along the way, we visited the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, then made a pit stop in Syracuse for a bite to eat and a place to rest our heads, spent the night on a sailboat in Port Dover, and eventually made our way up to Toronto for some sightseeing. It was a quick, but fun trip, with the added bonus of dinner at the Brantford Golf Club, a serious bout of seasickness, and a tour of the Rogers Centre, the home of the Toronto Blue Jays. The photo above features Mark’s dog, who is ten times the sailor I’ll ever be. He even wears his own doggie life jacket, which is pretty stylish in comparison to our human line of life preservers.
Cooperstown, a beautiful little town in upstate New York, is a baseball lover’s vacation destination. Home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, your visit is only complete after a tour of the museum and a walk through the downtown, a main street lined with shops filled to the brim with baseball memorabilia.
Make sure to walk down to the water to check out the beautiful views of the bay.
After Cooperstown, we drove up to Syracuse for the night.
We ate a delicious lunch downtown at the Empire Brewing Company before spending the rest of our evening at the Sheraton Syracuse, a Starwood hotel located just steps from the Syracuse University campus. Our decision to stop here was completely due to our desire to achieve Platinum Starwood status. We love being Gold, but we are well on our way to accumulating enough stays to get the ultimate experience as Starwood Preferred Guests. Whenever we travel anywhere, we first locate the nearest Starwood hotels and try our best to plan our trip around getting stays. We love the way it gives us the opportunity to see places we may never have stopped. We may never have traveled to Syracuse for any other reason, but it’s a good halfway point, and Starwood stay, on the way up to Canada.
Here is my personal photographer, experimenting with light, on our evening walk through the college campus. It was a gorgeous evening for strolling, and we took advantage of the absence of people, since it was early August and school was not yet in session.
After Syracuse, we made our way to Brantford. Upon our arrival, Mark and Paul enjoyed an afternoon of golf while Mark’s wife Robin and I visited family in Simcoe. We later met up with the boys for a delicious dinner at the Brantford Golf Club. The next day, I went on my first sailing adventure on Mark and Robin’s sailboat. It was supposed to be a lovely evening of sailing, complete with dinner on the boat. Unfortunately, after about ten minutes into the trip, I got terribly seasick, resulting in us having to abort all of our adventurous plans and turn around and head back to the dock. It was the most miserable feeling I’ve ever had, partially because I always pictured sailing as being this amazingly perfect experience now ruined by a terrible case of vertigo. Despite wanting to just jump off the side of the boat to escape embarassment, I was honored to hear that I was completely polite about the whole thing, and handled my seasickness with the proper amount of grace and tact. I owe this all to Robin, who played the motherly role of trying to keep my mind off the endless rocking of the boat, while also being the keeper of the bucket. I owe her, big time.
Since we didn’t actually get to sail anywhere, we still got to enjoy dinner on the boat after it was securely docked and without motion. Due to the circumstances, photos were not a priority on this part of the trip.
One of the things I just had to do on this vacation was take a trip up to Toronto. I’ve always heard so many wonderful things about this beautiful city and it didn’t disappoint. In fact, it was the cleanest city I’ve ever been to and I cannot wait to take another trip back.
This is the CN Tower. Paul wanted to take a trip up in this, and I unwillingly agreed. Luckily, he spotted the advertisement for the Rogers Centre Tour while standing in the long line of eager daredevils at this tower. He gave me a choice of this or that, and of course, I chose that. I’m not scared of heights or anything, but after getting evacuated from the Eiffel Tower, I’m a little sensitive to “going up in things”, if you know what I mean.
The Rogers Centre Tour was great. We love taking tours of baseball stadiums and we highly recommend these tours in any city. You get behind-the-scenes looks at some of the places fans aren’t allowed to roam and learn all about the history of the stadium and team.
We stayed in two different hotels in Toronto: the Westin Harbour Castle and the Soho Metropolitan. Both hotels were lovely, but the Soho Metropolitan was super trendy and an added treat to our little getaway. We scored an incredibly affordable room using the Hotel Tonight app. The Soho is also home to the Wahlburgers Toronto, a hamburger chain owned by the famous Wahlberg family. While we didn’t eat there, we stopped in for a drink and to check the place out. We’d never been to a Wahlburgers before so we found it a fun place to enjoy a drink, and instead of watching sports at the bar, catch some episode highlights of the Wahlburgers A&E reality show. This helped us gain some insight into the Wahlberg family tree and how they wound up in the business of running hamburger shops.
We couldn’t leave Toronto without going to a Blue Jay’s game. Luckily, the weather was nice enough to open the dome.
I found this rather large bat all alone in a stairwell and couldn’t resist stopping for a photo op.
Toronto, I can’t wait to see you again. I was pleasantly surprised by your cleanliness, your sense of style, and your love of veggies. I also have a thing for your Montreal-style bagels. We will be back to stroll your streets and eat at the plethora of delicious restaurants we didn’t have nearly enough time to explore.
O’ Canada! You’re on our list. We’ll be back!
This July, Paul and I celebrated 5 years of marriage in Aix-en-Provence. After a week of city living in an apartment in Paris, we boarded a train at Gare de Lyon and headed for the more relaxing part of our vacation: a smaller city in the south of France and a hotel with a pool.
Before I begin, I would like to thank Julie, author of the The Provence Post, for all of her help in arranging our Tastes of Provence tour and for her assistance in helping us find some answers to some transportation questions we had about getting from the train station to our hotel. If you are even thinking about planning a trip to the south of France, Julie’s blog is one of the best resources you can find about everything Provence. We highly recommend checking out her website and we advise you bookmark it right away because, if you are like us, you will utilize her site again and again.
Getting to Aix-en-Provence from Paris is an easy and relaxing three and half hour high-speed train ride from Gare de Lyon to Gare Aix-en-Provence. Once you arrive to the TGV station in Aix, simply make your way to the basement of the station and hop the bus into town. For 4 Euros a person, Bus #40 will take you straight to Gare routiere d’Aix-en-Provence, the central bus station of the city.
From the bus station, we had an easy walk to Hotel Roi René, an MGallery Collection property that is part of the Accor Hotel chain. We picked this hotel for both its location and its pool. The hotel is situated just a few blocks from the Cours Mirabeau, the most popular and most beautiful street in town.
Many people often ask us how we find and decide upon places to stay when we travel. The answer to this question is that we do a lot of research. One of the websites I always head to first when we are looking for a hotel is Jetsetter. Since the hotels listed on Jetsetter must be Jetsetter approved, you won’t find any hotels that the company themselves haven’t already visited and verified. Plus, their website is appealing to the eye with gorgeous photographs and tidbits about each property. I especially love the “What We Love” and “What to Know” sections as they provide practical details that are helpful to any traveler looking for a comfortable stay. Of course, Jetsetter doesn’t have every great hotel listed on their website so it is important to keep your options open and look around. On this trip, we found our hotel using Jetsetter, but got a better deal by booking it straight through the hotel website. Take a look at the Jetsetter listing of the Hotel Roi Rene by clicking on this link:Hotel Roi Rene Jetsetter
Aix-en-Provence looks and feels like a smaller version of Paris. The city streets are clean and walkable, with markets taking place almost every day somewhere in the city. From our hotel, we could walk across the street to a little boulangerie for a croissant for breakfast or a sandwich for lunch.
At dinnertime, we could walk up to the Cours Mirabeau, stroll past the vendors selling everything from lavender soap to black and white photographs, then cross over to the busier side of town to the bustling cafes and restaurants.
While most people travel to Provence and move around from town to town, we spent the entire week in Aix. We spent a great deal of time reading our books, sipping Perrier by the pool, and dipping in the water at five-minute intervals due to the extreme heat. We would venture into town for meals and a little bit of sightseeing, but essentially, this part of our vacation was specifically designed for complete and utter laziness. It was divine.
Tastes of Provence
If there is one thing you just have to do when visiting Aix-en-Provence, it is to go on a Tastes of Provence tour with Mathilde. We did the Savouring Aix-en-Provence tour and when I tell you it was worth every Euro we spent, I mean it. For 60 Euros a person, we took a slow stroll through the streets of Aix, stopping to learn the history of the city while sampling traditional treats from the local food purveyors. Mathilde takes you on an incredible journey through the farmer’s market, introducing you to the local farmers and giving you the opportunity to taste everything from fresh fruit to homemade jams and chutney.
Mathilde even carries her own bag of sliced baguette for you to have a hearty sample of many varieties of olive tapenade.
At the conclusion of the tour, Mathilde welcomes you into her very own cooking school for a wine and cheese tasting in her beautiful kitchen. Here she will provide you with a copy of her Foodie’s Guide to Aix-en-Provence, a spiral bound booklet filled with information about Aix, restaurant recommendations, and traditional recipes.
We booked this tour with the help of Julie from The Provence Post, but you can also book directly through the Tastes of Provence website. There is also a Shopping the Markets Tour offered that I’m sure is just as amazing and worthwhile as the Savoring Aix tour.
We ate our first pain au chocolat here!
Our Moment with Marc de Passorio
Paul and I have been very lucky to spend each of our 5 wedding anniversaries in a very special place. Year 1 was celebrated in Florence, Italy, year 2 in St. Remy de Provence, year 3 in Napa Valley, year 4 in London, and year 5 in Aix. While we are very grateful to have the opportunity to travel the way that we do and celebrate in these grand places, it was year 2, as I’m sure Paul agrees, that always stood out as the most memorable anniversary we’d ever had. Some may think it was because Le Vallon de Valrugues unexpectedly upgraded us to their nicest room in the hotel, a massive suite complete with a private infinity swimming pool. Yes, that would have been enough to make it unforgettable, but it was dinner at the hotel’s restaurant where we learned the name of a Michelin star chef, Marc de Passorio, and we ate the best meal of our entire lives. We had the tasting menu with the wine to match each course and while the whole dinner cost way more than we’d ever fathomed, it was the most delicious and eloquently prepared food that we’ve ever had.
Of course, when we decided to return to Provence, the first place I wanted to return to was Le Vallon de Valrugues, but there was a part of me that knew it was important to travel to new places and experience new things. So you can imagine how excited I was when I realized Marc de Passorio left the hotel and opened a new restaurant in-you guessed it-Aix-en-Provence!
It was like it was meant to be. When we originally started planning our 5th anniversary trip, we went back and forth about where we would go. But, Marc de Passorio’s new restaurant sealed the deal on our Aix-en-Provence vacation, and as a result, our 5th wedding anniversary was spent dining at the gorgeous and incredible l’Esprit de la Violette.
We even got to meet Marc de Passorio and his wife!
The story goes like this: our hotel only had one iron and ironing board, and so getting your hands on the thing pre-dinner time was a bit of a struggle. We’d requested the iron early, around 4:30pm, after learning on a previous night about the limited availability of this precious and well sought after iron. The iron finally arrived around 6:45pm and after quickly passing it over Paul’s clothes, we headed downstairs to have the front desk call us a taxi to take us to the restaurant. We were told it was going to be a bit of a wait since everyone wanted a taxi at the same time. Was there only one taxi as well? Luckily, no, but the demand was high and we were going to have to wait. I got a little nervous since our reservation was at 7:30 and I kept telling Paul that Marc de Passorio was waiting for us and that he was going to surprise us at the restaurant. Paul insisted that I was dreaming and convinced me that the restaurant probably just bears his name and that there is absolutely no way that we are going to meet a Michelin star chef at his restaurant on a Saturday night. When 7:30 rolled around and there was still no taxi in sight, Paul called the restaurant and told them we would be late. I continued to tease Paul that we weren’t going to meet Marc de Passorio now because we didn’t get there on time. He may have rolled his eyes at me countless times, but eventually the taxi did arrive and once we were seated at our table for two on the lovely terrace of l’Esprit de la Violette, he couldn’t believe his eyes when Marc de Passorio came walking up to our table to shake our hands. I was in awe and Paul was wondering just how I could have predicted the future so clearly. It was simply a twist of fate. We had the Summer flavours menu of 5 courses with a lovely bottle of local rosé to accompany it. Click here to view the menu. While everything was superb, I was most impressed with the dessert, a poached strawberry (it looked just like a red egg yolk) and a strawberry/basil cake topped with popcorn. We were both amazed by this magical creation and how perfect popcorn goes with strawberries!
Here is the happy couple celebrating 5 years! I wanted a photo with the chef, but I was too shy to ask.
Le Patio
This blog post would not be complete without mentioning Le Patio, an adorable little restaurant that we discovered on our first night in Aix. The food at Le Patio was so delicious that we made it a point to dine there twice. While they may not have a Michelin star like Marc de Passorio, the people who work at Le Patio welcome you as if they are inviting you into their home. They are extremely patient with English speakers and they are more than happy to translate the menu. One of my favorite dishes from Le Patio was the Ragout de Coeurs d’Artichauts, en Barigoule, which basically translates to a traditional Provencal dish of braised artichokes and white wine. This dish was so fabulous that I can’t wait to try to replicate it at home.
Picture Us in Provence Again…
We have this habit of planning the next vacation while on vacation. Our conversations always start with, “Next time we’ll make sure to do this…” and then it just goes on and on until we get home and realize how much “this” is going to cost. We’ve decided that on our next trip to Provence we are going to rent a car and drive to all of the smaller villages of southern France. Of course, we are going to have to familiarize ourselves with French road signs and laws before we begin that adventure. Or, we’ll just book a wine tour and let someone else drive us from vineyard to vineyard. Now that’s not a bad idea. If only we could get the Travel Channel to finance all of this, we’d be golden.
After Paris, Paul and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary in the city of Aix-en-Provence. After a week of doing the lazy and relaxing “eat, sleep, pool-shuffle” in the south of France, we returned home to New Jersey only to pack up our Jeep and set off on a road trip to Canada. We were only home one whole week! While we always remain fully equipped to blog during our travels, we don’t always find the time to update in real-time, and perhaps that is a very good thing. We can’t fully understand or experience a place and its people while staring at a computer screen holed up in a hotel room.
So, now that we’ve returned from Canada and the beautiful and ultra clean city of Toronto, I can take a breather and catch up on documenting all of our summer journeys thus far.
Coming soon…a week in Provence.
I’ll never forget the first time we rented an apartment for a month in Paris. In the weeks and days before the trip, I envisioned waking up every morning to the Eiffel Tower out my window and smooth jazz serenading me to sleep each night (think opening track to Woody Allen’s movie “Midnight in Paris”).
Then the taxi dropped us off on a tiny side street leading to our temporary home in the 1st Arrondissement (Les Halles) and reality struck. It was early, around 7am, so the little green men had yet to pick up last night’s garbage, and there were a few remaining party goers from the night before, singing and staggering down the street. This was not the Paris featured in any travel magazine. There would be no view of the Eiffel Tower and the only thing that would wake me up each day and serenade me to sleep each night would be the clatter of cafes opening and closing, the stacking of chairs and dragging of tables, and the banging of construction crews as they began assembling the new Forum des Halles.
Living in an apartment for a month in Paris was one of the most amazing learning experiences I’ve ever had. In truth, it was exhausting at times, city life can be that way, but it was invigorating and real. I wasn’t just sightseeing, but surviving in a city I really knew nothing about. Just buying metro tickets was an endeavor. Would there be a person or a machine? If there was a person, how would I say, in French, that I needed to buy tickets? How many did I need? If there was a machine, would it have an English option? The thinking never ended and it was often a relief to just sit at a cafe with a cold beer and decompress after a hard day of just figuring it all out.
So here is my advice to our readers:
If you want to get a glimpse of what it is like to actually live in Paris, rent an apartment. It will change your life and transform you in ways you’d never imagine. You’ll even eat less when you get home.
But, if you want dreamy, can’t take my eyes off the Eiffel Tower, jazz serenading me to sleep Paris, then you need to head straight to Hotel Londres-Eiffel.
This is where you can get a full dose of travel magazine Paris.
This tiny hotel is your Paris dream come true. From the moment you step inside, you will be treated like you’re a guest in their home. On our most recent trip to this marvelous hotel, the front desk staff was sitting with a family in the lobby, guiding them through a map of Paris, giving them recommendations, while the hotel Golden Retriever sat snoozing peacefully nearby.
The rooms are small and cozy and some have an Eiffel Tower view. From this bed, I could watch the top of the Eiffel Tower sparkle above the buildings of Paris.
The hotel is family run and clean and comfortable. It is located just a short walk from the Eiffel Tower, but tucked away just enough to escape the crowds and tour buses. Breakfast is available in the morning, but you can also venture out on your own and grab a croissant at one of the nearby cafes or the local boulangerie. The famous market street Rue Cler is just a few blocks over and offers a multitude of cafes and shops. We recommend making your way over there for a relaxing stroll and a glass of wine.
When our friends ask us where to stay in Paris, we send them straight to the Hôtel de Londres-Eiffel. Everyone should experience romantic, travel magazine Paris, at least once in their lives, or more than once like we have. We promise it will be an escape you’ll never forget and the Paris of your dreams.
Hôtel de Londres-Eiffel
1 Rue Augereau, 75007 Paris, France
Shh…Paul is sleeping. This gives me the perfect opportunity to showcase his latest photos. While I may be the storyteller of our journeys, he’s the talent behind capturing the beauty in all of the places we visit. Tonight, his photos tell the story of a mid-afternoon stroll through one of our favorite cities in the world.
This is Paris on a summer day.
© Paul and Michelle Shappirio and Bringing Down the White Picket Fence, 2007-2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Paul and Michelle Shappirio and Bringing Down the White Picket Fence with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
As much as we love Paris, the city life gets a tad exhausting, with crowds flocking to the city in the heat of the summer. We love the ease of train travel in Europe and find it a pleasure to whisk ourselves away to small towns and the French countryside whenever possible. In all of our trips to Paris, we had yet to make a visit to Giverny, France, the site of Monet’s exquisite gardens. Giverny is a tiny village on the outskirts of Vernon, a small town just 45 minutes from the Paris Saint Lazare station. Monet painted this station in 1877, when the clouds of steam that filled the station empowered his craft.
Once you arrive in Vernon, you must find your own transportation to Giverny. Through our own research, we found one of the best ways to get there is by renting a bicycle at one of the local cafes. You can hop a bike in Vernon, cycle a short distance through town, make your way over the Seine, and then take the trail straight into Giverny. In total, there and back, it is a very pleasant six and a half mile ride.
After all of our research, we were ready to set out on this adventure on our own until we discovered that Fat Tire Bike Tours offers a Monet’s Gardens tour. Since, in the past, we’ve used this company to take bicycle tours both in Paris and London, we felt confident that we were making the right decision by traveling to Monet’s Gardens with them. As expected, the tour was absolutely fantastic and we highly recommend using this company to take your first trip to Giverny. For 60 Euros per person, you can be reassured your trip will be safe and informative.
Our day began with a quick Metro ride to the Gare Saint Lazare train station where we met our Fat Tire guide on the designated platform. From this vantage point, you can stand and imagine what the station must have looked like in Monet’s time, a station filled with steam engines, carrying passengers to and from Paris. After boarding the train, you have no responsibility but to sit back and relax and enjoy your ride to Vernon while your guide handles the ticket holding.
Upon arrival in Vernon, you then take a short walk to the town square to pick up your supplies for a picnic lunch. Unfortunately, our tour was on France’s independence day, most commonly referred to as Bastille Day, or fête nationale. For this reason, a lot of the shops and markets were closed, but Paul and I were able to pick up baguette sandwiches from the boulangerie and a bottle of local cider at the Monoprix (the local chain of grocery stores).
After shopping, it is time to pick up your bicycles at a small garage just around the corner from the town square. Here you will be able to outfit your bike with a basket, the perfect place to stow all of your important picnic items. 
Your first stop on your ride will be to Notre Dame de Vernon, a church which suffered significant damage during World War II. As you can tell from the dark facade, this church has not seen the restoration that the Notre Dame de Paris has seen. In fact, many of the figures on the exterior of the church are missing their heads!
After a stop at the church, you will make your way over the Seine (this is a bit of an incline) via a large modern bridge. Just at the bottom of this bridge, you will wind your way to this charming park, where you can sit with the one you love and enjoy a picnic next to the old bridge. If you are lucky, the swans will pay you a visit. 
Just a side note: I think Paul and I made the best choice as far as food goes here. Instead of picking up various meats and cheeses like others did, our baguette sandwiches were not only extremely delicious, but outrageously convenient. While others were working at cutting their cheese and bread with plastic knives, Paul and I just sat and munched away on our sandwiches. If you’ve never been to France, you can pick up some seriously tasty pre-made sandwiches at the local bakeries. The baguettes are super fresh and the filling is quite simple. While you have various options to choose from, Paul and I went for the ham and cheese with egg, butter, lettuce, and tomato. These sandwiches are very different from those back in New Jersey. Instead of being piled high with meat and cheese, you will find only a minimal amount of ham and cheese (often one slice) inside the bread, the perfect amount for a couple who doesn’t normally eat meat or dairy. In addition, your sandwich is stored inside its own paper bag for easy transport and manageability.
Once you are fueled up, it is time to make your way to Giverny. The trail is situated along the route of the old abandoned train tracks that Monet used to take into town. You can enjoy the ride along this dusty path and observe the beautiful homes along the way. You will know when you’ve reached Giverny when you hit Rue Claude Monet.
Upon arrival to town, you will lock your bikes next to the historic Hotel Baudy, now a picturesque cafe situated just steps from Monet’s home and gardens. Your guide will escort you to the gardens, give you some tips on the best way to navigate your way through, and send you on your way. You are given a full two hours to explore all Giverny has to offer: the gardens, his home, and the town.
Of course, everyone wants to see Monet’s water garden where the famous water lilies were painted. These grounds are astoundingly gorgeous yet completely overcrowded with people. It is almost impossible to get a good photo of the bridges and the water lilies when there are a thousand tourists milling around you. We hear that if you get to Monet’s gardens early and head straight to the water gardens, you can avoid these crowds.
If you are a garden person, we imagine you could spend hours upon hours identifying all of the flower varieties blooming on Monet’s grounds. The colors that inspired Monet’s work are vivid and the plant life is plentiful. We are sure our mothers would have been naming each and every petal if they were visiting with us. Unfortunately, Paul and I aren’t very knowledgable when it comes to gardening, but we enjoyed the beauty and historical significance of it all.
So, if you ever find yourself in Paris and looking to escape city life for the day, get yourself out to Giverny on the Fat Tire Bike Tour. We agree this is the best Fat Tire tour we’ve been on and we loved every minute of the ride, especially the picnic stop. There’s nothing like traveling and seeing the world on two wheels. 
You can find more information about the tour here: https://paris.fattirebiketours.com/tours/monets-gardens-bike-tour
Fat Tire Bike Tours are available in Paris, London, and Barcelona.
This is just one of the bustling cafes we spotted on our recent “Paris Walks” tour of the Marais. These highly informative and interesting tours are two hours long and just 12 Euros per person! Just find the tour that interests you on their website (http://www.paris-walks.com) and meet at the designated location. The tour guides speak English and are tremendously knowledgable about the city. We’ve taken Hemingway’s Paris and The Marais Circuit 1 and we were incredibly pleased with both tours. We especially love going into the beautiful hidden courtyards of buildings, some of which are so tranquil, you tend to forget you are even in a city.
There is something about this cafe pictured below that steals my heart each and every time we pass it. It just screams Parisian bistro, and while I rarely take any credit for any of Paul’s photos, I stopped in my tracks and asked him to take this photo. I mean, look at that car!
The Rodin Museum is currently under construction, but it’s still worth the visit. While certain parts of the museum are closed and the grounds are bordered with scaffolding, you can still stroll through around the beautiful property. Actually, this is our new summer home. Do you like it?
We also got the chance to meet this guy. He’s beautifully sculpted and doesn’t talk much, but he’s quite The Thinker.
Aviation is an amazing thing. In the span of about seven hours, I went from having this very expensive $12 glass of fine Newark airport wine…
to this…
Here, you can buy two bottles of wine at the local supermarket for about 4 Euros a bottle. With the current exchange rate, that equals less than $5 a bottle, which makes that aforementioned glass of Newark airport wine a huge rip off. Plus, the 4 Euro wine here is good, in fact better, than any expensive bottle of wine we’ve ever tasted.
This is Paris, our big city by the Seine. With a total of four trips together (and 6 total trips for Paul), we have yet to see and taste everything this beautiful city has to offer. We often get asked the same question: “Why do you keep going to Paris?” and we can’t come up with a simple and concise answer. Rather we ramble about all that is good here: the slow pace, the small portion sizes, the quiet hum of packed cafes, the wine and cheese picnics on the river’s edge, the baguettes, the markets, the ease of getting to Provence, and that sparkling tower…just to mention a few.
This often leads to more questions. Here we answer some of the frequently asked questions we get about our Paris habit:
Do you speak French?
No. Paul took French in school and I took Spanish, and recently, we both took a healthy dose of Rosetta Stone. Paul speaks enough to get us by and I’ve mastered a few common French phrases, but in actuality, our French is pretty limited. I can’t stop putting a Spanish accent on everything, this a result of my high school Spanish IV Honors education. I’m proud of how far I got in Spanish and therefore, I’ve put a Spanish spin on my poor French-speaking skills. Paul, on the other hand, is quite convincing. He sounds pretty authentic until a local responds to him in quick conversational French. Our confused facial expressions most certainly always result in a good laugh and a much-needed English translation.
Is Paris expensive?
Not as expensive as a weekend in Disney World. Just trust us on this one. We’ve compared, side by side, the weekend we spent with the family in Disney World to our month in Paris. When you crunch the numbers, it is cheaper for two people to live in Paris for a month than to visit the Mouse’s House. And, keep in mind, that’s Disney for the weekend, without kids…
The French are rude, right?
We hate this question. There are some people who completely avoid this amazing city because they’ve “heard” the French are rude. They are only rude if you give them good reason to be. Let me put it this way. Imagine you work at a restaurant in New York City and a French-speaking family comes in to dine at your establishment. Would you be able to speak to them in their language? Most likely, the answer is no. Would you expect them to speak yours? Certainly, they are in your English-speaking restaurant. Am I right? But here it is different. Many English speakers walk into French businesses with the expectation that the employees will speak English. We’ve witnessed it so many times. You’re in France! Part of the fun is that they don’t speak English! Trying to speak French and fumbling a little will not only get you better service, it will almost always guarantee you some help and a few recommendations when it comes to navigating the menu. The best way to learn about how other people live in this world is to put yourself a little bit outside of your comfort zone. It opens the door to some unforgettable experiences and gives you the kinds of stories you’ll keep telling for years to come.
Is staying in an apartment more expensive than a hotel?
No. In fact, it is much cheaper to stay in a huge apartment than a tiny hotel room. On our very first trip to Paris, our hotel room was so small we had to crawl across the bed to get to the bathroom! In an apartment, you can spread out, open the windows, put your feet up, and take in the cafe life. Plus you can still run to the fridge when you get that late night craving for some cheese and toasts.
So, are you ready to jump on a plane and visit this city for yourself? Or do you still have some unanswered questions? Let us know and we’d be happy to answer what we can. We are not experts, but we’ve got enough experience to give you a good foundation for your future Parisian adventures. We can recommend airlines, restaurants, tours, food, accommodations, and more.
Washington, D.C. is one of those cities that just keeps us coming back for more. Perhaps we have Pierre Charles L’Enfant to thank for this. After all, George Washington put him in charge of designing our capital city, and coincidentally, there is quite a strong resemblance between a stroll towards the Capitol and a stroll towards the Eiffel Tower. The National Mall and the Champs de Mars, both with their wide expanse of green space, while not conceived by the same person, are strikingly similar in appearance. While French architect L’Enfant didn’t design Paris, he was born there, and it is obvious he constructed the city of D.C. keeping European ideals in mind. If there is one thing we can say about D.C., the food scene is pretty spectacular.
We’ve never come home disappointed and there are some restaurants we just can’t stop visiting over and over again. One of these restaurants is Hank’s Oyster Bar. 
Hank’s Oyster Bar With two locations in Washington, D.C. and one location in Alexandria, you can’t miss out on a trip to Hank’s. Whether you are into oysters or not, this is your place for delicious seafood. Personally, we love oysters, and although we thoroughly enjoy the pleasure of slurping them down raw, Hank’s serves up a serious bbq oyster that, we warn you now, can get you into quite an addictive situation. You’ll just want to keep ordering more and more of these incredible shells of bbq heaven. If a sandwich is what you fancy, the oyster po’ boy is downright delicious and the lobster roll is better than anything we’ve ever laid eyes on in Maine (or sunk our teeth into, for that matter). While we’ve only dined in the Dupont Circle and Alexandria locations, both restaurants are adorable, with a staff that is always pleasant, even when the crowds are bustling at dinner time. You can even get a front row seat of all the oyster shucking. If a warm evening on the patio is just what you need, arrange to sit outside. Either way, we guarantee your meal will be fresh and fabulous.
There is just one thing we’ve never been able to attend at Hank’s: Hank’s Oyster Fest. This annual event, usually held in April, has never worked with our schedule, but it is something that we are dying to attend. This year, for $80, you could join the Hank’s family from 12pm-3pm and feast on All You Can Eat oysters, Old Bay fries, popcorn shrimp, bbq oysters, fried oysters, and beer. While we aren’t usually the All You Can Eat type, an unlimited supply of oysters is just a dream come true for any oyster fan. So the next time you’re navigating Dupont Circle, cruising down King Street in the lovely little city of Alexandria, or wandering around Capitol Hill, drop into Hanks for a meal that you’ll want to tell all of your friends about. Slurp some oysters, enjoy a cocktail, and like us, you’re sure to be “hankering” for more.
Paris is getting a lot of press lately on their decision to remove the padlocks of love from the Pont des Arts bridge. Of course, everybody has their opinions on the matter, from those who find the locks to be a must-see tourist attraction (right up there with seeing the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre) to those who understand the realistic dangers of thousands of metal locks weighing down the side panels of a bridge. Then there are those who believe their love lives and dies with that Sharpie’d up metal padlock. The day they threw that key into the Seine in the most romantic city in the world represented a monumental commitment. As if locking it up and throwing away the key is the ultimate form of marriage insurance.
We got engaged under the Eiffel Tower. It was April in Paris and I’ll never forget the sparkle of the tower, of the ring, of the lights reflecting off the surface of the Seine. That night and that first trip to Paris will forever live in my mind. Despite all of the grand romantic gestures my future husband planned, neither one of us ever felt the need to lock our engagement onto the sides of a city bridge. Who were we to leave our footprint on a city so full of its own culture and beauty?
Despite never locking our love to the Pont des Arts, this summer Paul and I will celebrate 5 years of marriage. It works because there is no other person who can remember that night under the twinkling Eiffel Tower, or the homeless man who charged after us to give us a congratulatory hug, or Paul’s trip to the drugstore to ask (in French) for something to alleviate the uncomfortable itchy rash I got afterwards. It works because when bicycling through the streets of Paris, I unknowingly cut Paul off and kept riding, while a Parisian on a scooter scooped my new fiancée off the ground. His shoulder has ached ever since. It’s these moments that we still laugh about that keep us fastened together. We don’t need a padlock for that.
So go. Travel. See the world with the one you love. Learn. When you leave, take your memories, your photos, and tell some unforgettable stories when you get home. But, by all means, don’t take down history with your declaration of love. A bridge built in 1800 wasn’t designed to withstand this outpouring of metal devotion. But a relationship built on making moments can withstand just about anything.
Bringing Down the White Picket Fence 