Those of you who guessed I am going to Paris in September are correct! Good work, ma petite détectives, good work. ;)
During the 3rd week in September, I will be on an all girl’s trip with OSGMOM and my sister Kristi. We have been planning a trip together for over 5 years now and we couldn’t be more excited. [I would like to thank Eat Pray Love for giving my mom the travel bug again. She called me about this trip idea shortly after starting, and falling in love, with the book!] I took French Immersion in school (from grade 7-11), but I will have to brush up on my French skills before leaving.
I will be blogging while I am away and I am excited to take you on this journey with me. However it is quite possible I may turn into a coffee-drinking, croissant loving, bon-bon eating non-vegan. I can’t be sure. I will be talking more later on about how I plan on eating while there. ;)
Now onto less exciting, but equally delicious things…breakfast…
We have a situation here!!!
Today I used 1/8th tsp of Vanilla Bean Paste in the banana soft serve and it was delicious!
Swirlz.
Tip: If you can’t get your processor to make Banana soft serve, add a splash of almond milk to speed things along.
Check out the specs of vanilla bean! Mmmm.
I made it with layers of blueberries, Nature’s Path rice crisp, and cacao nibs.
And a raspberry on top for colour!
For the vegan overnight oats, I used my classic recipe.
It was pretty much out of control goodness, as per usual.
Today’s question: Have you ever been anywhere in Europe? Where did you stay and what did you think about it? If you haven’t been, where would you like to visit?
Well, I am off for another busy day of work. Today is Operation: Healthy Living Summit day. I will be making over 225 Glo Bars complete with custom name tags for the HLS and shipping them out tomorrow! I also need to work on Kristin’s Wedding Favours and Ambrosia + customer orders. Going to be a busy one! Wheeeeeee. Have a wonderful Wednesday!
I went to Europe for the first time at the beginning of this summer and spent a month in Hungary (where my husband’s family is from). I absolutely loved it and am dying to go back and see more European countries! How long will you be in Paris?
1 week unless I decide to live there forever!!!!!
I have never been to Europe. But I am actually going there in Sept as well. I am following a long awaited dream of mine to work abroad! I will be living and working around the London area for two years and I look forward to doing alot of traveling while I am there!! :)
Your breakfasts always look like desserts!!! Yum.
I am so excited to see your journey in Paris!!! As someone who would LOVE to go there, I am going to now vicariously live through you, lol.
I was actually born in Paris and lived there for the first year and a half or so of my life. Because most of my extended family still lives there I go back at least once every two years (though I try and make it once a year… doesn’t always happen). I am so excited for you!
I have also been to England and Germany, which were also super fun.
I have to say the croissants in France are unlike anything I can find in North America. Seriously. If you do decide to de-veganize for just one day, have a croissant, it will be completely worth it. That being said, the baguette is absolutely amazing and vegan. I usually end up eating my body weight in baguette and croissants every time I’m in Paris, but Paris is such a walking city that I always end up losing some weight when I’m there. Yay walking!
Make sure you make it to the Musee D”Orsay, it’s amazing. Buy a city pass, it will save you the line-ups, and if you want a list of all the vegan and organic places in Paris let me know, my mom pulled up a list from when we went together when I was 14 (she was 99% vegan, except for a really good Camembert. She was French and they’ll revoke your citizenship if you don’t eat some cheese :) ), and I think I still have it somewhere. There was this one veggie (vegan friendly) Indian place in particular that I remember, we sat on the floor and course after course of AMAZING Indian dishes were brought out.
Also, the world’s best falafel is on Rue d’Rosiers in Le Marais. Go there, you wont regret it. I’ve had the falafel in Israel, and this stuff is actually better.
And do take the time to go to Versailles, the Chateau is ehhhh, but the gardens are amazing, you can get lost in them for hours (and we did).
I could keep going for a while… but I wont. Though if you do want more advice on what to do in France, and all the secret places you’ll never find, let me know.
I’ve never been to Europe but I’m thinking of planning a giant month-long trip for next summer, including Paris! I can’t wait to see your posts about it.
How exciting! I have not traveled to Western Europe as an adult but did go when I was 5. I loved Italy and Austria.
I did travel to Eastern Europe and absolutely loved it.
I’m an American living in Europe. I live, in my opinion, in the most beautiful spot in Europe: right on the border of Switzerland and Germany. We have the Lake (Lake Constance) and the Swiss and Austrian Alps…gorgeous. Europe has so many great cities to see: Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona, London, Dublin Prague…and don’t get me started on Italy.
BTW, Venice is much lovelier than EPL made it sound…I didn’t find it depressing at all!
And if you have had enough culture and museums there is the countryside: Provence and the South of France, Portugal, Spain, Sardinia, Tuscany…
There is so much to see and do here, I am so priviledged to live here and see it all.
Of course, North America has so much splendor too…But I love the cultural diversity here…
Ah, Paris with your mom and sis will be fabulous! I’m trying to convince my mom and gma to take a European vaca with me. We’ll see.
Last May I took my very first European vacation with a good high school friend for three weeks. We went to Rome, Florence, Cinque Terre (Italy), Provence and Paris (France), Berlin and Munich (Germany), Lucerne, Interlaken and Geneva (Switzerland). Every place was amazingly different and eye opening. We took a lot of guided bike tours around the cities, which was a fun way to learn a lot and see a lot more than we would on foot.
I’ve been to Paris twice and it is gorgeous! I can’t remember where I stayed the first time but the second time it was in a hotel quite close to the Eiffel Tower… I believe the Mercure : ) I loved it! The city is amazing and there is so much to do. Of course you have to do the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Versailles, Champs Elysee (not sure if I totally butchered the spelling), etc but there are a lot of other cool things too. One of my favorite parts was the Opera Garnier, which Phantom of the Opera was based on. In the future I’d like to go back to Paris and check out the catacombs and other cool parts as well!
Europe is wonderful and you will have so much fun on your travels! One of my favorite places was Barcelona — the parks designed by Gaudi are gorgeous and then you have shopping in Las Ramblas, and La Sagrada Familia (which was closed for renovations when I was there). Italy is amazing as well… lots of tourists but the cities themselves are like historical landmarks (Rome, Florence…) and the island of Capri is beautiful too. I have also been to the Netherlands (but for less than a day, so I only saw a couple of things) and Monaco, which I believe is possibly the world’s cutest country. I hope to one day marry Pierre Casiraghi, their young prince!
PARIS! i dream of going to paris….i dream of going to europe….one day i’ll make it there. i can’t wait to go via your blog! :)
so exciting!!!
Paris!!!!!!!! That is going to be AMAZING!!!!
GAH! I can’t wait to read you posts about Paris, me and my boyfriend are going for 10 days this October for my birthday. I’ve been there about 8 years ago, whilst I was a poor student, so I can’t wait to go there not broke! haha. I bought a couple books, I recommend chocolate and zucchini’s guide to Paris, its the perfect size to tote around and even has french recipes in there. I find indulging usually isn’t a big deal on city vacations since you end up walking everywhere, when I went to New York I ate everything in sight and still came back 4 pounds lighter.
Have an amazing trip!
My hubby and I met over in Europe, Germany more precisely. We were stationed in the Air Force for a total of 5 years. Loved it!! Spent a lot of time in Italy and traveled quite a bit to surrounding areas around Germany. If we could go back it would definitely be to Italy! I know you will have an amazing time!!
I’ve been reading your blog for few weeks now and I think it’s my first comment today – I’m sure you’re gonna enjoy your trip in France – my last time was in March for a half marathon and I’m going back next Christmas to visit my family- every time I’m amazed by Paris…
be careful with the food – you might come back with excess in your luggage ;o)
I’ve been to France twice. It is an amazing place. if you know some of the language do try to use it, they will appreciate your efforts. And it will help you read the menu so you know what you can eat. The first trip I took I was gluten-free and vegetarian. I was sad not to eat the bread but stll found plenty to eat. There is lots of fresh foods there and vegetables, salads, etc. the second time i went I was vegan and gluten-free. We traveled all over France. I managed to find enough food and hit up a fair amount of biocoops (health food stores). Since I was gluten-free I was not tempted by the pastries (which would have made me very sick). My husband who eats wheat but is vegan stuck to bagettes which we assumed were vegan or close enough. Anyhow, I think you will be fine, there is so much else of France to enjoy so don’t stress about the food!
Angela, I went to Paris with my husband (who is a canadian from PEI, by the way. :) I am brazilian) in 2008 and we stayed at an Ibis Hotel next to the Gare du Nord train station. We were travelling in europe for 2 weeks and were on a budget and Ibis hotels have reasonable prices. Although the location of the hotel was convenient (next to one of the main train/ subway stations), the hotel wasn’t very nice. I heard that some Ibis hotels are better than others, and this one was definitely not one of the ‘better ones’, but you may want to check out the one close to the eiffel tower and the one close to the Opera house.
Now, I am going back to paris in september too (I will be there in the second week of september so I will just miss you! :) , and this time I actually got a 4-star hotel for super cheap by bidding on priceline! For cheaper than the Ibis hotel, I will be staying at a 4-star Novotel 1Km away from the Eiffel tower. Awesome deal! I strongly encourage you to try the same. If you need tips on how to bid on priceline effectively, shoot me an email and I can give you some tips.
Alternatively, you could pick up Rick Steeve’s travel guide to Paris (I highly recommend this book), and he gives several recommendations for hotels that fit all budgets. A friend of mine stayed at one of the Rue Cler hotels that he recommends and loved her time there.
Cheers,
Thais
I’ve been lucky enough to live in Europe twice already and traveled there twice more, living once in Geneva Switzerland, and once in Valence, France (Provence) and travelling throughout the entire continent on my other visits. Although each place I lived was amazing and beautiful, my favourite city is Rome – so vibrant, warm and friendly. Paris and the rest of France is a must see for everyone, and you will LOVE the time you spend there, but try to go back and visit everywhere else – it is definitly worth the trip back!
I have been to 10 countries in Europe. <3 My favorite being Switzerland and England. So gorgeous and London is one city that I could actually see myself living in. I'm usually more fond of the countryside. I'd love to go back to Paris and make it out to Versailles though. Last time I didn't get a chance!
I just got back from France, Italy, Switzerland and The Netherlands!! I loved Switzerland- the mountains and the air were just incredible.
Oh Paris!! I’m so excited for you!! Y’all are going to have soo much fun! I have always wanted to go to Spain and Greece!