Vegan MoFo Day 26: Paris, Part Deux

I promised we'd revisit Paris, the City of Lights and one of the most romantic cities in the world, so let's journey back there tonight. Last time I wrote about Paris, I shared the adventures of my honeymoon in 2001. This time, I'm going to write about my second trip to Paris, which was in March 2002. My parents came to visit my hubby and me in Germany, and we decided it would be fun to take a road trip to Paris. We were only going to spend 2 nights there, so we tried to see as much as we could, since it was my parents' first trip to Paris (and first trip to Europe!)

We walked along the Champs-Elysees and saw the Arc de Triomphe:

It was pretty cool underneath the Arc!

Of course, we had to go to the top. We survived the spiral staircase from hell and were rewarded with amazing views of the city:

We also visited the Musee d'Orsay, which was a real treat for me. I am happier than a pig in poo walking around art museums. The museum itself is a work of art. It's housed in a former railway station, and it's just so lovely.

The art history course I took in college really came in handy! I was basically dumbstruck coming face-to-face with literally dozens of paintings I had studied...works by Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Gauguin, Seurat...it was just amazing. I could just stand and stare at them all day!

But...I didn't. We had lots more of Paris to see, after all! Like Sacre-Coeur:

...and Moulin Rouge! We didn't go inside, though...it costs something like $100 to get in!

We also did something my hubby and I hadn't done on our honeymoon...we visited the Eiffel Tower at night. Wow, was that AMAZING!!

I love how the only food pic I have of Paris is my hubby and I eating donuts and drinking cappuccino in the Eiffel Tower. I mean, really, people.

I didn't eat here, but how cool was this crepe stand. They have Nutella by the truckload and a bumper sticker that says "J'<3 le pop corn." LOL

We had a lot of fun in Paris. It was great to go back and revisit some things, as well as see some things we missed the first time...and eat more chocolate croissants, of course!

Tonight I wanted something French for dinner, and what is more French than pate? 'Course, I don't do the whole animal-liver thang. I opted for some tasty Walnut-Mushroom Pate from Veganomicon. I made tartines, with toasted sourdough bread, a thick layer of pate, some sliced pearl tomatoes, shredded baby spinach, and shredded carrots.

On the side, I had a hefty salad of baby spinach, celery, and carrots, drizzled with Basic Balsamic Vinaigrette from 1,000 Vegan Recipes. I also had a big scoop of extra pate with baby carrots. Can you tell how much I love carrots?? All I needed was a glass of carrot juice to wash it all down! :)

The pate was delicious, the terrine was awesome, and it was all so much better for me than a donut and cappuccino!