Happy Whole Mountain Soul

Paris

I would be lying to you if I said that I don’t dream about being back in Paris every single day. There is nothing about this city that I don’t find completely charming and wonderful.

Food

Cheese. Cheese cheese cheese. Cheese boards, gnocchi mac and cheese, fondue. All of it! Plus, lots of sweet treats and produce. Everything tastes better when you are on vacation and everything tastes better when it is made in France. There was no meal that fell short of this standard. 

We ate breakfast most mornings in our apartment using fresh groceries from the market near us. Avocado toast never tasted so good! Even if you don’t plan to make meals for yourself, I recommend heading into one of the markets just to take a look around. I also got myself some tea for before bed, and some snacks for walking around because… snacks. We did spend a couple of mornings (because on our first attempt it was closed) walking for what felt like hours to find a smoothie place that I had found on the internet. Despite its challenge to find, and find open, Love Juice Bar was well worth the trouble. The smoothie bowls that we each got were so fresh and creative with tropical fruits and healthy add-ins. I highly recommend trying to find them yourself!

A friend who had lived in Paris for a time recommended a fondue restaurant that happened to be around the corner from our Air BNB. The restaurant was the definition of a hole-in-the-wall. We almost missed it because it is discreetly tucked into a small alleyway. The place has only a few tables, and more charm than you would believe could fit into such a small space. The owner of Heureux Comme Alexandre sat us, forgave our very poor attempt to speak French, and told us all about our cheesy options. We chose two flavors of cheese and dipped bread, veggies, and meat until our hearts were content. Then… we ate desert fondue because you can’t not eat desert fondue at a fondue restaurant. Alexandre insisted on multiple servings of a melon digestif and we left feeling as happy as clams. 

Other than consuming massive amounts of ice cream at home, I don’t usually go for sweets; pastries, muffins, cakes, and the like are not my usual choice. In Paris, however, they are my daily choice. I think that a Nutella filled donut purchased on the street corner near a Metro stop was the most delicious thing that has ever touched my tongue. I have no idea what they do to make those things, but that was a live-changing experience. My friends and I also had gelato almost every night. The gelato place that was closest to our apartment also had macaroons with a layer of gelato between the cookies. Oh. My. God. I will never forget those. I dream about them on occasion.

I wish that I could remember the name of the pub that I order mac-and-cheese gnocchi at. We spent a rainy day scouring the city for a place to get massages with enough openings for the three of us. After calling every massage parlor, running around town in the rain, and spending a couple of hours getting our massages, we were so hungry that we stumbled into the first place we found serving food. Maybe it was only the endorphins from the massage telling me that my food was so wonderful, but I’m pretty sure that the gnocchi was just THAT good. My advice is to just get lost and try to stumble upon some cheesy gnocchi; you won’t regret it!

Drink

Wine was almost always in our hands during this trip because 90% of why we took work off and flew to the other side of the world was to drink wine and do nothing, but some of the most memorable wine we had was at Wine Tasting in Paris. The place itself is adorable and intimate with plenty of Parisian charm. The champagne that this wine tour might be the best that I will ever taste in my life. We learned about the different wines of Paris and about the history of wine making. Not only was the wine tour delicious and educational, but the group was so much fun, and the course was highly educational. My girlfriends and I were the only ‘non-couple’ situation at this wine tasting because it was more of a date-like situation. I guess that most of Paris tourism is more of a date-like situation. We met people from all over the world and interacting with them for the couple of hours felt like a global gathering of extremely novice wine-lovers. We heard stories from Ireland, Texas, England, and more. The different accents and anecdotes made it feel like the world isn’t as far spread and different as it can sometimes seem to be. 

I never knew the amazing qualities of Rose until spending a week in Paris. “Rose all day”, as I like to say. I wish I was kidding, but I did say that phrase a lot while we were there because we did drink Rose during most times of the day. Sitting in a café waiting for restaurants to fire up their ovens for dinner called for a bottle… or two! Watching people, trying not to get lung cancer from all the smokers around you, and talking amongst ourselves about everything under the sun was our evening ritual while on this trip, and it was perfect.  

I guess that I should mention the digestif from the fondue night one more time. Does everyone else normally drink digestif? Or just everyone living in Europe? I knew about after-dinner-drinks before our Parisian getaway, but I don’t think I had ever tried one before. Not a digestif or aperitif anyways. The three things that I can tell you about them; 1. They taste delicious! The one that was served to us somewhat insistently (we didn’t really complain) was a melon liqueur that went down so smooth and was served cold. 2. My digestive system seemed to really enjoy it. I hardly had any stomach issues at all while we were in Paris. I think because the food is so clean and fresh. BUT I did not have any issues after my post-meal digestif, and after all that cheese, it was better to play it safe, right? 3. It is alcoholic. Many glasses of wine plus a few after-dinner shots of melon digestif might make you tipsy. For us, it led to an impromptu, and giggly, late-night trip to the Eiffel Tower to watch it sparkle. As my friend Kirstin reminded us so tenaciously, standing in front of the Eiffel Tower in the quiet of nightfall with two of the people who mean the very most to you – that is one of life’s top 3 moments for each of us. Easily!