Yet another colleague will be leaving us...and she decided that she would like her farewell lunch to be at Poulet. This is the 2nd time for me at Poulet and you can read my 1st review here. I had a relatively big breakfast so I wasn't hungry come lunch, so I only ordered a French Onion Soup and Tomato salad.
The French Onion Soup ($6.80) was ok. I wasn't too impressed with it and it had this taste that reminded me of minestrone. Was there tomato in this soup? The thickness of the soup was slightly questionable as well.
My salad ($9.80) came in a jar! It contains vine cherry tomatoes tossed with feta cheese, basil, golden raisins and a hint of maple syrup. I'm tempted to recreate this dish but I'll add in a bit more basil, sea salt and truffle oil. I liked the fact that the feta cheese was minimal and therefore, didn't overpower the whole dish.
We decided to share a jar of tiramisu, which also came in a jar! Sorry...I can't remember the price of this. Taste wise, it doesn't disappoint but I wish that there was more alcohol/ coffee soaked biscuits.
Je'taime Paris? This week's nails is cute, frilly but yet relatively simple to do. Below is a close up of the Eiffel Tower on my thumb. I didn't draw this on my right hand because I'm not ambidextrous...apologies for the bad pic qualities as the light and my camera refused to work with me today.
Here's how you can get this:
Base coat
Choose a nice pastel base colour. Mine's Canmake no. 20 pink. You might want to try baby blue or lavender.
You can add white stripes along as well but I just topped it off with Nicole's Nude Pink to give it a softer look.
For the frills, I first drew a semi circle and then filled in with black nail polish. Do this for your index, third and last finger.
Once the half moon is dry, use a black nail polish pen to draw scallops along it.
For the Eiffel Tower, use the same black nail polish pen to draw an upside down V
Join the V with an arc
Draw a horizontal line through the upside down V, with the middle resting on the top of the arc
Draw a short horizontal line at the top and make this one thick
Write the word 'Paris' (or any French word for that matter) in cursive next to the Eiffel Tower
Top it all off with some glitter polish to give it a bit of sparkle
I used a silver nail polish pen to draw a couple of hearts on my ring finger nail
Seal it all off with top coat
Voila! Simple, non? You can add white stripes after the base colour too but I reckon that you need a steady hand (especially on your non-master hand) and a fine tip brush. I've jazzed up my toe nails with some red hot nail polish and leopard prints too but that'll wait till my next post!!
As mentioned, my bro and I went to Paris over the weekend and I had planned the whole itinerary on Thu in 5 hours. I highly recommend doing the planning at least 2 weeks in advance and yes, I LUUURRRVE the internet!! I will be posting a link for you guys to look at our itinerary and change it to suit your needs.
We went to Paris via the Eurostar and the recommended time to check-in was 30 mins before departure. My advice is to be there AT LEAST 45 mins before departure. Not only do you have to scan your ticket through the turnstile, you've got to scan your luggage and bags AND lastly, you've got to go through immigration.
Above is a short clip that we took from our seats in the Eurostar on our way to Paris. The train ride is about 2h 23mins, which is pretty fast and convenient!
Upon our arrival, we went to the hotel to leave our luggage there since check-in was only at 2pm and we had arrived in Paris at 10.30am (hotel review was posted a day earlier). After depositing our luggage and grabbing maps etc, we headed to St. Michel-Notre Dame metro station in an attempt to get tickets to Chateau de Versailles. Since we were going to do a lot of travelling, my bro bought 3-day passes (Paris City Centre, Zone 1-3) for us. Yes, I do recommend buying such passes because you'll save money on travelling. You can use this pass for the RER, Metro and buses. For more info, you can check out the Paris transport website here but I prefer to buy the passes from the metro station itself rather than online. If you are planning to go to Versailles as well, please DO NOT purchase the pass that includes Versailles. I'll recommend a cheaper way to get there in my next post.
Well, we realised that we couldn't get tickets for Versailles from St. Michel-Notre Dame and they had stopped selling those tickets since the beginning of the year. So, please disregard what other websites have been telling you. The only places to get tickets for Versailles is either through Versailles' official website or queuing up on the day itself.
The St. Michel-Notre Dame station is at Notre Dame itself, so we decided to pop out for a bit and just take a look at Notre Dame. Both my bro and myself have been inside, so we didn't really bother going in to take another look. Thank goodness too...as there was an ordination going on and tourists weren't allowed to go in.
After that, we decided to head to Sacre Coeur, which is a Basilica located on Monmarte, which is the highest point in the city. Once you get up the hill, you'd be able to get a nice view of the city. The basilica is HUGE. Really massive and the size itself is quite impressive.
The view of Paris from the top of Monmarte.
TIP: There is a main stair entrance to Sacre Coeur and a smaller one to the right side. DO NOT take the side entrance because there are bunches of African hawkers who are touting their goods at the base of Sacre Coeur. My bro and I took the side entrance and our passage was blocked by 4 of them as they wanted to sell us some string bracelet thing. They even pushed my brother to prevent him from passing through after I had managed to see and opening and 'escaped'. They are at the main staircase as well...but it's tougher for them to block your passage etc.
After Sacre Coeur, we went back to our hotel to take a nap as we both had to wake up at 5am to catch the tube to St. Pancras station in order to catch our 6.55am train to Paris.
We, being good children, went for English mass later that evening in St. Joseph's Church. How did I manage to find this church? Well, I simply searched for "English mass paris" in google. We didn't know what to expect but we were most certainly not expecting a church that was so modern and minimalistic. In fact, the main hall was located underground and we felt as if we were attending some kind of secret meeting.
The main hall. The stations of the cross.
I kinda like the location of this church as it is near the Arc de Triomphe. So, after mass, we went there!The Arc is the second largest Arc in Paris and is also a monument to the unknown soldier who died during WW1. As such, it is also considered as as monument to all the soldiers who lost their lives during the war.
Dinner was a very uneventful burger and fries but we were going cheap..since we were at Champ Elysees - where all the big designer brands are. Think of it as a more upmarket version of Orchard Road.
After dinner, we headed to the Eiffel Tower 'cos I haven't seen it at night before. The last time I was in Paris, I went there in the afternoon and even went up to the top. I do recommend that but I also think that you should come back in the evening too. The Eiffel Tower really looks very pretty at night. It was 10.30pm before the halogen lights for the Eiffel Tower were switched on. However, I think these pictures proved that it was worth it to wait for it, despite how tired and sleepy we were. I took a lot more pictures but I shall not bombard this post.
I'm Melissa and this is where I like to share my travels, thoughts, ideas and review about things/places that I come in contact with. Besides that, I'm also the COO of SAUCEink - bringing you the juicy content that women love!
