I was so upset about our hotel room at Helzear Etoile that we got last night. We did check in after midnight and it was a full house so we got the last room. It was its own location tucked away under a spiral staircase so it was a 2 story hotel room: downstairs was a small kitchenette and upstairs was a bed and toilette. However, there was literally NO room. It was too cramped and claustrophobic. Plus, we were next to the elevator so no WiFi signal. I wanted to cry last night but Vince helped me ask them this morning if we could change rooms to a more roomy and no staircase for my mom.
Great news, they accommodated us!! I mean they better.. at $500 per night, I expect such service.
We started walking and stopped by La Belle Ferronniere to get some coffee and morning pastries. I got a mocha and a croissant. The mocha was very chocolatey and the croissant was so buttery and crispy and light. Freshly baked! We walked and ate at the same time. It seemed everything was going so well despite yesterday’s missed train that resulted in a 5hr delay.
Vince’s dad for a cone of grilled chestnuts while walking because he loves nuts, was hungry and wanted to try. I had two pieces. It was interesting, warm and comforting. The cone was only about a dozen chestnuts per cone for 10 euro. Kind of on the expensive side if you ask me.. we also saw so many fallen chestnuts everywhere we walked from The trees!
After doing touristy things such as visiting the Alexander III bridge, walk along the Seine River and capturing Mona Lisa in the Louvre Museum, we ate at Louis palais royal.
The food was so good!! We luckily had the whole patio to ourselves and yet a good view of the streets and people.
Foie gras duck liver, toast and jams. We shared this! The foie gras was so good, thick yet smooth. The jams were a nice sweet contrast.
12 gros escargots. Each of us got 2 pieces. They were surprisingly hard to shell out with their spoon tools (I didn’t try but Vince took a while to do it for us). The snails were very soft and delicious because they were drenched in butter, pesto and garlic. I enjoyed dipping the baguette bread in the extra butter too.
Lobster soup. Vince and I shared the lobster soup. It was on the saltier side but very decadent and flavorful. There was a generous amount of lobster in the soup.
Raclette de Camembert, ham, potatoes and green salad. I finally get my raclette! The presentation wasn’t what I expected though.. I thought it would be like in the New York YouTube videos where they slide a melted slice of Camembert cheese on top for me so I get a show.. I just had to spoon it myself but I guess it is all the same at the end of the day. My salad was topped with prosciutto and came with some boiled potatoes. It was good! But overrated in my opinion.
Leg of lamb, mashed potatoes. Vince ordered this and I shared it. And oh my god, can I stress enough how tender the lamb was and how buttery smooth the mashed potatoes was?! It was beyond anything else!! The meat was extremely tender and juicy and flavorful. The whole dish was so comforting to the soul.
On our way back, we also each got a gelato/sorbet scoop at Edwart Chocolatier for a refresher.
I got a scoop of caffe gelato. Oh my god!!! I haven’t had gelato since Italy many years ago because I believe gelato isn’t as good in America as in Italy. But you know what? Paris is good too! It was so refreshing!!
After checking back into our new hotel room (with no stairs), we headed towards the Eiffel Tower. On the way we had the luxury of being able to go to the fruit shop, wine store and grocery store all on the same block near our hotel!!
We got two types of pate, a jambon, grapes, blueberry, banana, cheese, bread and butter!
Both types of pate were really good and soft! The cheese is a semi-hard type of cheese and already in cubes. It was a light salt. Grapes were sweet but had seeds in them
It was a wonderful way to end the night! We ended it short because we saw a couple of rats running around and two were closely coming closer and closer to us AHh!
