Life Lately: Around the Bay

Crissy Field

The past few weeks have been filled with a little of everything: a visit from my brother when he was finally introduced to the glory of Philz Coffee; another tubing trip down the Russian River when I got a little too much sun; a visit to Everlane; a viewing of Beautiful the Carole King musical, which I had been wanting to see back East on Broadway but was pleasantly surprised to learn had actually started in San Francisco; a day at a beautiful spa with girlfriends; and of course outings around San Francisco (finally) enjoying our Indian summer. Here's a round up:

Paris Guide

from the Green line

Below you'll find a recap of my Paris trip taken at the beginning of summer. I admit I was thinking, well it's way overdue. I was also thinking of skipping a recap altogether because, hey, there's no shortage of Paris travel guides out there. But then, a good friend said she and her S.O. were heading to France for a couple weeks and asked for my itinerary. 

I was happy to share the details because I've been thinking of the France trip ever since I returned stateside. In many ways it was a comfortable, almost familiar, trip - developed, Western nation, many English speakers, easy Metro systems, large metropolitan cities as well as some quaint little towns (I already wrote about staying in Cannes and hanging around the French Riviera). But it was still great to see everything for myself, to practice French, and to observe any differences between Parisian culture and that of say, San Francisco or NYC, or how some styles are spread around the world. 

There were times around Paris (around the Pigalle and the Canal) that I felt like, wow, they out-Brooklyn'd Brooklyn (see: my new favorite bar). There were also instances when I was reminded of more serious issues such as politics around business/workforce problems, and ideological differences - such as when we had to figure out our transportation when strikes were going on, or when we inadvertently avoided a huge protest taking place by our Airbnb. This is a crazy world we all have to navigate, no matter where we are.

truth (original article)

I was only in Paris for five days, which in my eyes was not nearly enough time. Thankfully you can still get a good sense of the city, especially if you walk and use the Metro, because both offer you so much good people watching where you can see "everyday" city dwellers, and you can see the different kinds of architecture around the city. Many places we hit up were recommended by friends and their friends, which is my favorite way of getting travel advice. And with that, word for word, is what I gave my friend - and now you - on Paris.

Le Comptoir

Le Comptoir

Paris: the best advice I can give you is to pack some comfy slippers or buy the padded 10-euro ones at Muji (which I ended up doing) because even though I wore comfortable shoes, we walked so much that my feet were aching and slippers felt awesome at the end of the day. 2nd best advice is to shop at the Franprix for cheap (but good) wine and other groceries

• Trocadero: First two nights we stayed in a small hotel in Trocadero so we ate in the bistros around the circle ... had drinks at Sir Winston and this college pub called The Freedom. Good area for reaching all the touristy stuff by walking or Metro without staying right next to them. Mo and I were thinking the area is like the Upper East Side.
• Canal Saint Martin: For the weekend we switched to an Airbnb by Canal Saint Martin and I loved this area! We stopped using the Metro without meaning to - we just walked everywhere - up to Sacre Coeur, all the way down to La Marais and back up to our neighborhood. On Sunday we picnic'd along the canal (there's a Franprix grocery store right there). This is definitely the Brooklyn of Paris.
• La Verre Vole - a bunch of Americans recommended it, then I realized it's one of Anthony Bourdain's picks. But my boss (who's French) also recommended it, and it was really good
• Le Comptoir General - coolest bar I've been to, hands down. After dinner at La Verre Vole we came here and left only because our friends couldn't get in (but, their fault for not arriving until 1am). Went back during the day and it's a cool coffee house/lounge
• Du Pain et Des Idees - also a Bourdain pick, but clearly a local favorite. Open only on weekdays.
• Bob's Juice - we got bagels (they were really good!) and filtered coffee here to go so we could eat while walking
• Ten Belles - also got coffee-to-go here one day
• Le Marais - Marche des Enfants Rouges was a cool farmers market with sit-down-&-eat options. The Picasso Museum was great (and free on Sunday). I did tons of window shopping here. Others have recommended it as a good area to stay in, but it got very touristy/shopper-y for me on the weekend (kinda like NYC's SoHo), and I think because we were here at the end of our trip, I was glad to stay somewhere less busy.
• Pigalle - Also quite Brooklyn-y (maybe Bushwick). We ate at Buvette, and drank at Dirty Dick (a tiki bar!) and Le Sans Souci - all were fun, and there were probably 10 other bars I'd read about in the area.
• Versailles - If you are going, and the train isn't running due to strikes or whatnot, you can do the metro to the bus, it's basically the same amount of time (at least from the Western part of Paris) ... the charter buses we saw were like 50 euro vs ~5 euro we spent on the metro/bus. This guide was awesome: http://parisbytrain.com/how-to-get-to-chateau-de-versailles-via-bus/. At Versailles (we did not wake up early enough to avoid the crowds), we skipped the audio guide because the line was ridiculous. My favorite parts were Marie Antoinette's place and all the gardens.