It’s been a week and a half since I’ve finished my exams. I’m sorry I haven’t posted anything up until know, but my days have been all about restoring my sleep pattern and catching on with tv shows. Oh, and a weekend getaway to Paris.

There are no words to describe Paris. I haven’t traveled that much but, apart from home, Paris is by far my favorite city. Wherever I look there’s something to see, something to visit, something to eat, something to smell. The name city of light fits like a glove and there’s no way of getting bored: life is always happening around you.

It was my third visit to the city: the first one with my parents, the second with my partners in crime aka my cousins and this time I took my boyfriend along. I’m already planning trip number four if you wanna join (just kidding, I’ll give another city a try next year). One good thing about me and my boyfriend as traveling companions is that we both really really like to try new restaurants and foods. Since most of the Museums in Paris have a non-paying policy for EU citizens aged 25 or under, we got to visit pretty much everything we wanted and spend most of our money on what we love the most: to eat.

And that’s exactly what we did. We ate. We ate really great and delicious food, closing our eyes (not entirely, we didn’t loose our minds) to the almost prohibitive prices of Parisian restaurants. It was all worth it: we came home longing for the food we ate and incredibly happy with the restaurants we found. We tried to search for restaurants near our hotel so that after long days walking, dinner would be a a few minutes away from our base. We were luck enough to be surrounded by amazing places.

On our first night we tried to eat at Pedzouille, number one on Tripadviser. Needless to say, it was booked. So, we left a reservation for Monday night and walked away thinking we would had to eat at a nearby fast food restaurant. How wrong were we. We ended up at Le Richer, a restaurant we had already noticed (it is so nicely decorated) tucked in a corner of a building. It was the best way to start our trip: everything was beautifully made and presented and the staff was super helpful since both me and my boyfriend didn’t understand a thing about the menu, which consists of three entrees, three mains and three desserts, periodically changed. I should have taken a picture to now know what exactly I had for dinner. There were many components in each plate, all of them prepared and paired perfectly. I wish I could break down every plate, but the truth is I can’t. I’m also sorry the pictures don’t make the food justice: they were taken with my phone with basically no light. But you have my word as everything was as it should be.

Another jewel we found was Pedzouille. This restaurant is almost across the street from Le Richer (we were really lucky with the area we were staying in) but completely different. Pedzouille is a tini tiny restaurant, decorated amazingly and with a warm environment to it. The menu also changes periodically so that every meal is made with seasonal, all fresh and french products. The tables are long so you’re bound to be seated alongside someone you don’t know (unless, of course, you go there with a large group), and this makes the eating experience even more enjoyable.

We started our meal with an amazing camembert, straight out of the oven, alongside sourdough bread. As cheese lovers, this hit all the right spots. There were two mains on the menu: duck and beef. We both went for the beef (should have tried the duck but neither of us can say no to beef.. sorry not sorry), which was cooked to perfection, the meat with that amazing pink color we all strive to achieve. Along with the beef there were fries with three kinds of potatoes (sweet, “normal” and another I couldn’t identify) and a simple greens salad. I ate the fries and the boy ate the salad. Couldn’t be the other way around. To top the meal, chocolate fondant, which we couldn’t finish because we were already at the point where pants had to be unbuttoned.

On Valentine’s day, we went to try the world famous Angelina’s Hot Chocolate. We ended up ordering they’re Valentine’s day dessert as well and thank God we did. It was beautiful, in all the ways possible. Composed by vanilla mousse, strawberry compote, lemon custard and fresh raspberries, it was basically heaven and I wouldn’t mind to be having it while writing this down right now.

We then had lunch at Le Brebant, a Brasserie with a warm terrace and an inside decor to die for. The food was amazing (I had ravioli stuffed with cheese, a light chives cream and pan fried foie gras and my boyfriend had a prawn risotto with sow sauce) but the portions are not that big, which wasn’t a big deal since we were already partially full from dessert at Angelina.

Another place to visit is Merci, a store/caffe located at Le Marais. The first floor it’s a food photographer’s heaven: tables already set in the most beautiful manner, loads of plates, cups, cutlery, etc. I wish I had brought it all back with me to Portugal. Especially the large windows and that magical natural light.

Four days that went by at light speed. I already feel like returning, Paris does feel like home (apart from the fact that french and I don’t really get along, I only know how to order something at restaurants and that’s basically it) and it feels amazing to leave “real life” behind even if just for a few days. But it also feels good to be back to my everyday life. Especially the kitchen. And a true Parisian recipe is coming on my next blog post, I promise you won’t have to wait long 🙂