Eating in Paris: Terra Nova

The night I was leaving France for Tokyo, I had a dinner appointment with a German business friend from Berlin who was staying in Saint-Germain-des-Prés.  We initially planned to go to a neighborhood cafe near the Panthéon at which we had made a reservation.  When we got there the service was so bad we left and looked for something more suitable.  We found an Italian restaurant around the corner and settled there.

Our waiter was a super friendly Italian.

I try not to eat non-local food when I’m travelling but a break from French was just fine.

Huge portions.

It was a Friday night and as the night progressed, the place became very busy with locals.

From her to me.

From me to her.

And off I headed to CDG to catch my 11:30 pm flight to Tokyo.

Seven Hours in Paris

That’s all the time I had for visiting Paris, my final destination of this year’s trip to France, on Friday, February 1 to do a couple of meetings…

Cafe de l’Industrie

Places des Vosges

These steps were set up in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral for what purpose I was not sure but looking at its website, looks like something to be used in relation to the 850th anniversary.

Notre-Dame de Paris

Gare du Nord, Paris

Upon arriving at CDG, I took the train/metro into central Paris and upon arriving at Gare du Nord, I was so surprised that it had transformed itself into a complete “ekinaka” institution, an extensive shopping and dining experience (generally the more affordable type) inside a train/subway station.  As I remember it, Gare du Nord used to be a typical train terminal, dark and rather seedy which has apparently now changed.

Nice and airy!!

Down in the metro.

Busy!

From MRS to CDG

I don’t think it’s the case with everybody but I rather like airports and it’s always interesting to visit an airport you’ve never been to before.

From Arles to Paris, I flew from the Marseille Provence Airport to the Charles de Gaulle Airport.

My first time at MRS.

It’s a small airport and it was interesting that the way to security and onto gates was right behind the check-in counter, kind of similar to Tegel in Berlin though TXL is MUCH MUCH more organized at security. ^^

I always like this view.

Breakfasting.

As I arrived at CDG, I saw this aircraft parked and thought what a neat plane. Had never seen it before but apparently it’s a revived model of Airbus A320.

Got lunch before going into central Paris.

Under the Rainbow

The river that runs through Arles into the Mediterranean is the Rhone, originating in the Swiss Alps.

As I was leaving Arles in the morning of Friday, February 1, I saw a perfect rainbow that stretched from one shore of the river to the opposite shore.  It’s not a small river and I don’t think I have ever seen a rainbow that didn’t fade or break up in the middle so it just looked like a big arch.  I was being driven in a car and this was taken from the passenger seat as we were driving.  Wish I could’ve captured the whole thing.