Palace of Versailles – Oh She Glows

I am seriously hooked on this coffee.

Green tea, what green tea? ;) Someone save me! No, actually don’t save me. I don’t ever want to be apart from this coffee. I’m sad because I hear that the coffee back at home won’t taste as good as Paris coffee. Is this true!?

What are your favourite brands of coffee to make at home? We do have a brand new coffee maker that we have only used twice for guests before (it was a wedding gift). Perhaps I should dust it off when I get home. ;)

The highlight of breakfast this morning included this VOO Parfait my sister made for herself! I was so proud.

My breakfast was similar to my previous days. :) Delicious and filling as always.

Then we were off to Versailles! We walked to the train station. I meant to mention the other day that the Metro (subway) system is just amazing here. It was a piece of cake to navigate once we figured out how the lines worked.

We were serenaded on the train…

It was charming.

That is, until he walked up to each person afterward, stuck out his coin purse, and asked for money. lol.

After about 30 minutes on the train, we made it.

If you couldn’t tell, the weather here has been perfect! Sunny every day and around 20-25 Celsius. We couldn’t have asked for more. I heard Paris is typically cloudy and gray, but we haven’t had any clouds the entire stay!

The Palace of Versailles is amazing!

Ohhh yea.

Those are some fire logs!!

The gardens were beautiful and went on forever!

Afterward, we stopped into Starbucks for a refresher.

This is the face you make when you find out that Paris Starbucks don’t make Pumpkin Spiced Lattes! I wonder if pumpkin is not popular in Europe? I haven’t seen any baked goods made out of pumpkin yet.

Kristi has a little obsession with Pumpkin Spiced Lattes. ;)

Not long after our stomachs wanted food once again. We stopped in at a nearby restaurant for lunch.

We started with Guacamole and chips:

My mom had the chicken salad which was humongous and so beautiful! The presentation here is just wonderful.

And Kristi had another kind of salad that was equally as beautiful!

They loved both of them!

I decided on a pizza!

It had roasted red peppers, artichokes, eggplant, and mushrooms. It was SO delicious!

They brought me this pizza oil and it was really good to drizzle on.

Part II of our day is coming on up. :)

Wednesday is our last full day in Paris and then we depart Thursday morning for home. Six nights goes by so fast!

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Sue

14 years ago

Hi Angela,
so nice to see how you are enjoying your trip!
Just for you info: pumpkin IS kind of popular here in Germany, but only in savory dished. You won’t find any sweet baked goods with pumpkin in them. We also don’t have canned pumpkin over here (*sob*) and fresh pumpkin is very seasonal, you can only find it during fall and winter. But I honestly LOVE pumpkin soup! I have to make it again asap!
Gingerbread spice sounds like a good alternative to pumpkin spice, though. I think Starbucks had some Gingerbread Latte last winter.

Keri

FYI about pumpkin:
Pumpkin is not usually eaten in Europe. My mother in law spent a year in England. She said she tried to find pumpkin once and everyone she asked replied that people don’t eat pumpkin, pigs eat pumpkin. Since it’s a type of squash, it’s native to southwestern North America and was only introduced to Europe after the Europeans settled North America.

Amber K

I hate coffee, so personally I think it all tastes disgusting! Then again, I never tried it when I was in Europe.

Cathy Breit

looks like you’ve gotten plenty of coffee suggestions, but to add my to cents:
**True coffee connosseiurs do not consider French coffee to be that superior! Maybe its the atmosphere :)
**Second, and most importantly: coffee is only as good as how freshly roasted the beans are and how freshly ground they are when you prepare your coffee.
**In my mind it is entirely possible to make a far superior cup of coffee at home than anywhere in public, but jsut like cooking or baking, making coffee (good coffee) is an art!
**Make it strong enough!
**Use a French press. Makes for incredible aroma, body, and froth!
**If you add milk (or soymilk) pour it into your cup FIRST, heat it up a bit, and THEN pour in your coffee= maximum froth and creaminess :)’
**Try different region’s coffees and find the one that suits your fancy. Columbian, Guatamalan, Costa Rican, Indian, Kenyan, etc. Also bear in mind that the type of roast that is given to each particular bean will affect the final outcome (light, dark, French, Full-city etc.)

Reply to Cathy Breit

I should also note that it is best to buy from a company that regularly(ideally it is DAILY) roasts their own beans on site. Where I live (about an hour from Minneapolis) there are several good coffee shops that roast their own, but if you happen to be a ways from any, your best bet would likely be to order from a company that does this. Trust me, the quality is worth it!

melissa @ the delicate place

gahh i’m so jealous! i went to paris this march and stayed for 8 days. i loved every second, it might be my fave city in the world! enjoy your last days! i took pics of my eats/adventures too in paris, check it out if you have some time :) all my days are listed here: http://thedelicateplace.wordpress.com/?s=paris

Cynthia

Your pictures are making me reminisce about my honeymoon 2 years ago. Versailles was such a beautiful place. I loved Paris so much. Glad you are having fun!

Violet

Wow, the Palace is amazing! So awesome to see all your wonderful photos, thank you. I loved the pointed doorknob. BTW, I believe pumpkin is a New World food and not indigenous to Europe, therefore not offered at Starbucks! They don’t know what they are missing. :-) Continue having so much fun, happy travels!

Bree

I am by no means a coffee connoisseur, but I do really like Dunkin Donuts original/medium roast. We don’t have Dunkin stores here, but you can find the coffee in stores. We also buy most of our whole bean coffee from Costco and I just today opened a new bag of a new-to-me brand called First Colony. It is organic and fair trade and I really liked it! If I remember right, you have Costco there?

Maya

I lived in French speaking Belgium last year, and unfortunately, pumpkin isn’t very popular in France. They mainly use pumpkin in savory dishes/soups, not for sweet uses. My host mom was quite surprised when I told her of all the uses for pumpkin in the states! Glad you have such beautiful weather in Paris!

kelsey@snackingsquirrel.com

can you imagine getting married there!!!! if they let me id probably die before i said ” I DO” … just the vast beauty and trying to take it all in, would be enough to kill a person lol

xoxo <3

Leah @ Why Deprive?

Im surprised about the pumpkin spice lattes. Theyre such a hit here.

Those pictures are amazing. Everything is so intricate – we just dont have that kind of thing around here.

Kristin P

I was just in Paris for the first time earlier in the summer and I LOVED it!! I went to Versaille too and it was amazing. I rented a bike to explore the gardens. You MUST take your dairy -eating fam to get Berthillon ice cream on Ile de St Luis! AMAZING. I loved the salted caramel. And I can tell you from recent experience, no, the coffee here is def not as good!! I went looking for eurpean coffee places when I got back to NYC.
also if you are interested- I took a Fat Tire Bike Tour in Paris and that was really fun. Enjoy :)

Natalia - a side of simple

This is bringing back such wonderful memories of my visit to Paris. So happy you are enjoying yourself, Angela!

Laura

I’m English and we don’t put pumkin in anything… The only time we really use it is to carve halloween faces! I tend to use butternut squash and sweet potato as much as you guys would use pumpkin. Although saying that, I don’t think strabucks do a butternut squash latte! Would like to give it a go though as it does look yummy. x

Miranda @ MirandasJeans

OMG Versaille. My heart honest to goodness started to flutter. If only life were a perpetual vacation I would be in Paris/Europe all the time.

I think I am resolving from your trip that I will return to Paris/France (to explore more) before 10 years is up since my first trip. That leaves me with just over 7 years to go.

Sean @ Learn Fitness

Awesome pics … keep them coming. If your looking for good coffee when you return check out Intelligencia and their website. You can order their beans online and they are truly amazing … a bunch of people at the HLS tried it from their cafes in Chicago and loved it as well.

Faith @ lovelyascharged

Oh man, between the candy shop and the Louis Vuitton my wallet would be SCREWED!

Agreeing with the many previous posters that pumpkin is purely thought of as a vegetable in Europe, and is served in savoury dishes only. I live in the UK, and set out a canadian thanksgiving buffet last year…but all my British friends ate the pumpkin pie for the main course, thinking pumpkin=savoury veg, not pumpkin=dessert!
And personally, I really like Tim Hortons coffee.

Natasha

I understand the disappointment that is Starbucks Paris. Heck I deal with it all the time. I miss Gingerbread lattes too. They had them in the UK, and really Paris isn’t THAT far away. They didn’t have pumpkin spice in the UK either, and I am so eager to taste it after all I’ve heard about it xxx

Monique@She's Going The Distance

Ohh when I lived in Nice I only found a few Starbucks the entire time. Lyon around Christmas had pumpkin spice lattes and also peppermint. I think Geneva was pretty similar. However, I never once had a Starbucks in Europe. It was like 7 Euros at the time for a tall, which back then was close to $12 USD!!!

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