Gotta love working in Paris in May - Part 1

You may ask, "Why is it so great to work in Paris during the month of May?".  Well, it’s because May has a ton of bank holidays which means you don’t actually have to work all that much and that leaves more time for playing!  Honestly, in May many French people take another 1 or 2 week vacation just to take advantage of all of the holidays.  If we had been better prepared for this, we absolutely would have done the same too.  It all started with a holiday May 1.  That was then followed a week later by a 5 day weekend (yes, you read that right) which was then followed by a 3 day weekend.  You can see how you could easily have a 1-2 week vacation without really taking that many vacation days.  Love it!

Let me back up here for a second though.  The beginning of May also greeted us with our next set of visitors.  This time it was my cousins Catherine and Lisa and my Aunt Cynthia.  They were on a 2 week European vacation which both started and ended in Paris.  They arrived on a Thursday afternoon and were ready to start exploring.  I think the theme of their trip was that they didn’t come here to rest.  That following day I took the day off of work and us ladies headed into Champagne to see who I now call my friend Rachel.  She’s the one I’ve now seen 3 times and just absolutely love!

Getting croissants before our Champagne day

She picked us up from the train station and we headed to the small champagne house Wafflart-Briet located in this cute little village called Sacy.  If you recall from previous posts, this champagne house is owned by her boyfriend’s family.  In any case, she gave everyone the complete overview of how champagne is made, while giving us a tour of their facility as well.  She prepared a quite delightful lunch of cheese (of course), bread, tomato tarte and a local specialty (I can’t remember the name but it’s basically this pork mixture inside a pastry).  All very delicious!!!  Oh and of course there was champagne tasting!!!  I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed the day!  We ended our time with Rachel around early afternoon which left us a couple of hours to explore the city of Reims.

Saturday was filled with seeing many of the main sights of Paris (Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees, etc.) which we gladly let them go off and do.  We met up in the afternoon for some shopping in the 6th and finished with dinner at a quaint little French bistro.  And then Sunday they were off to their next destination and Nate and I were headed back to work.  Oh but don’t worry, it was only a 2 day work week for us before we started our 5 day weekend.  Man I love May here!

Ok, part 2 to come in a bit.  Venice and back to Paris with the girls!

Finally a visit to the Palais Garnier

One of the things I’ve been wanting to check out since we moved here is the opera house (or as it is officially called, Palais Garnier).  I’ve seen it multiple times from the outside and it’s quite the grand building.  In talking with people at work, they absolutely recommended going inside to check it out as well.  However, instead of just buying a ticket to tour the building, they suggested actually going to see a performance.  So I kept an eye on what was playing there and came across Hansel & Gretel.  I figured that since it wouldn’t be in English that at least knowing the story might make it easier to follow.  I got tickets and we went last night.  My co-workers were right.....the opera house is indeed amazing.  Wow, just so beautiful inside.  

In the entry hall

Ceiling in the theater

View from our seats

The performance was good however eventhough we knew the story, it was still hard to follow at certain points.  The performance was done in German and they showed French subtitles.  I was somewhat surprised at how much following the French subtitles actually helped me in following what was going on.  I guess those French lessons are doing something afterall!

So all in all a great evening and well worth the visit!  I highly recommend for anyone coming to Paris.