Honeymoon Europe 2018 : First Act
As messed up and horrendous 2018 was politically , it was also a beautiful year personally and professionally.
Mainly because I was lucky enough to go on my honeymoon with my wife . Almost exactly one year after we got married; we packed our bags and went to France, Germany and Italy . I was looking forward seeing my family and friends and to spend time with my wife in some of my favorite places in Europe.
LAX, Los Angeles
I reserved hotels, AirbnB, planes and trains and ferries, whatever we had to take.
Here now our first stop : Paris, France. Direct from Los Angeles.
I discovered this beautiful little Studio apartment on Airbnb, at the 8th District Montmartre ,one block away from the Moulin Rouge. I have to say Montmartre is both our favorite district. Arriving early in the morning,we knew that jetlag will be bad so we had to stay awake. Which was not an issue as we discovered that our little cozy place was on the 7th floor. There was no elevator and I knew Dalila would not like that at all. But so at least we got some exercise. Which we got plenty in the next 2 weeks. The stairs were stunning, I couldn't get enough of them. I think Dalila didn’t care too much.
After long minutes of up and back down to get the next bag, we finally made it and settled in our lovely little place and went out right away to grab lunch at a beautiful restaurant : http://www.wepler.com/en/.
Excellent food and after that we grabbed a taxi to Sacré-Cœur,a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. From there you have the most beautiful view of Paris.I think everyone ever been to Paris has been there .I have been a few times to Paris and that was my first time at this church.
At night we strolled along the Promenade until 3 am, had a Vegan and gluten free pizza and used that time to reconnect and talk.
Even though it was 3 am we were quite awake and looked for more to do. And we were not the only ones ! Down the street was a bar with a bunch of people sitting outside and they had Jameson on tap! So we settled for that bar, Dalila had Prosecco and I had Jameson for the next 2 hours until not sleeping caught up with us and we went back to our little beautiful studio apartment on the 7th floor.
As mentioned before, we were about a block away from the Moulin Rouge, I went the next morning to Artisan Boulanger- Pattisier La Prairie to grab some coffee 7 am. My french is terrible and I did not think using German would get me a any further. There was no drip coffee in that place, I got my wife a green tea - I managed that - and I ordered 4 shots of espresso for myself. I tried to explain to her that all those 4 shots were meant for me but I failed.They had no lids or trays. And I got a croissant. So what I had was 5 cups to go and a bag with a croissant. I also had keys for the gate to get back into our apartment.
I juggled and managed, put all the cups down on the street, opened the gate, put my foot between the gate, managed to pick up all 5 cups and the bag and got into the gate. There was a little backyard kinda thing so I had another gate with another code and had to repeat the procedure. At no point in time it occurred to me to combine those espresso cups into one or two. To my defense I was jet lagged and really needed some caffeine.
After that I had to climb 7 floors to make it to our apartment,with no air left in my lungs .
The next day the lady in the patisserie - had mercy on me, laughed because she played a trick on me , but then gave me all 4 shots in one cup ! Great start to another day in Paris. It was cloudy and chili but that could not mess with our good mood and excitement to explore Paris for the first time together. And the clouds added to my pictures a beautiful touch.
Please enjoy, pictures are all ©Kurtew Photography , phone pictures as well.
Connie
https://www.kurtewphotography.com
all images ©Kurtew Photography and available for purchase
