On 23 December we left for Paris to spend the Christmas days there. Since there were problems with the trains the days before, we left insanely early and of course, the trains never were more on time. ;-)
We arrived in Paris a bit after noon and checked into our hotel. Hotel Chalgrin is very much recommended. It's a beautiful, boudoir sort of hotel, ideal for a couple of nights with the man or woman you love.
The old man who welcomed us was a bit eccentric to say the least. :-)
Left: the entrance of our hotel room - right : view from the breakfast tabel.
The hotel is small, and the breakfast table only provides for 6 at a time, but during the 4 mornings we had breakfast there, this never was a problem. It's a peaceful place, located near the Arc de Triomphe in a quiet street. The only downside is that you can quite easily hear what happens in other rooms, if you catch my meaning. ;-) but people keep their noise down in the hall etc, so it's not really bad.
Breakfast was great, btw. pain au chocolat, croissant, baguette, fruit, yoghurt, cheese, parma ham, jam, chocolate paste, honey, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, orange juice and grapefruit juice, oh and cereals.
After settling in at the hotel, we went to the Champs Elysées and had our lunch there at Chez Clément. The price is reasonable and you get a hearty meal (we had braised ham). Dessert was a floating island.
Afterwards, we went shopping at the Champs Elysées. The Christmas decorations were amazing.
There were huge queues in many shops (Disney, Abercrombie, La Durée,...). Then we went on to the Christmas market between Champs Elysées and Concorde where it was crazy busy. Lots and lots and lots of food stalls and quite nice other stalls with decoration, jewels, etc.
sausage anyone?
every evening, Santa actually flies!
smoked salmon
Then we went for some drinkies at George V at the Champs Elysées. We had a champagne/strawberry cocktail. Delicious yet expensive. ;-)
Afterwards, we went back to the Christmas market to see the flying santa...and I bought a candle holder.
We had our dinner at Chez Léon on the Champs Elysées (I had the mussels with mustard sauce...yummm)
After dinner we stopped at La Durée, where it wasn't that busy anymore (almost 10 pm after all) and bought some macaroons before heading back to the hotel.
