Paris, Versailles, and Yvoire

Hotel Powers.. Home?

St Germain

Someone needs to make a print of this!!!

Marie Antionette’s “small farm” house

Beautiful Flowers in Yvoire

All the buildings looked like this., cute cobblestone and endless flowers. At first we thought people don’t actually live here, but they do. We asked our waiter while having lunch here where he lived and he pointed across the narrow street to another cobblestone cottage. He said he was bored and wanted to see the beach. Needless to say we were floored.

I matched the shutters and that was not planned!! 🙂

Hi!!! I’m Back!! Hope everyone had an amazing August. We had the most amazing time in Europe and I’m going start a 3 or 4 series photo diary to share all the details.

We went to 3 countries France, Switzerland and Spain. The trip started by flying into Paris and taking a train down to Lyon. From Lyon, we rented a car and traveled all the way around Lake Geneva. Which I must say is shockingly beautiful!! From there we went through Provence down to Cote D’ Azur. We then made our way back up through the Rhone Valley and back to Lyon.  Once getting back to Lyon we flew to Barcelona and traveled to Palamos which is about 2 hours out of Barcelona on the coast. Spectacular beaches! This initial post is going to be on Paris, Versailles and Yvoire. Below are the details of each place, where we stayed and places and restaurants we went too. Xx Nik

Paris/ Versailles: Paris and Versailles are both amazing. Make an early trip to Versailles and have lunch around the reflection pool behind the palace. Also be sure to rent the golf cart while there. Nothing better then acting a little crazy on a golf cart while at Versailles Palace!
Hotel: Hotel Montaigne– Great Location, Small boutique feel
Fave Restaurants:
Joel Robuchon– Famous Chef, food was amazing.. Kinda a given if you know this chef
La Brasserie Lipp– Hemingway loved this restaurant and said it was the place to eat and drink. Menu is all in French and they do not care to help you translate.  But the food was excellent, very traditional French.
L’Avenue– On Montaigne great place for lunch or late night dinner and drinks.
Le Flores: Opened on Sunday! A lot of place are not.

Lyon: Lyon is a crazy little city, with narrow streets that make no sense.  Its known for food. A lot of famous chefs are from Lyon and its a great place to check for a couple of days tops in my opinion not sure there is much to do past that.
Hotel: Le Royal- Best hotel in the area in my opinion. There are not a lot of options. Lyon is not known for luxury unlike Paris which is known for the best. It’s a people city and has a completely different feel.
Restaurants:
Paul Bocuse: Famous Chef, 3 Michellin and not good. I know!! If you are not familiar with Bocuse and are a foodie he’s a good topic to read on. Unfortunately, his restaurant was not my favorite. Chris and I felt that he may be riding on his legacy at this time. He”s known for his traditional French cuisine and still practices traditional techinique at the restaurant. Felt tired to me, but that’s all I’m gonna say about it. You decide!

Yvoire: We did not stay here we just stopped by for a day trip. Although, I would stay here for a couple of nights and use it as jumping off point to check out the other cute villages around this one. Yvoire looks like the most amazing Disney fairytale village you can imagine. It’s absolutely stunning and everything you would want to see in an old French village. It sits right on Lake Geneva along with a lot of other cute villages that look just like this one. This was one of my favorite stops on the trip and I would highly recommend coming to this part of France and spending a few days to check out the surrounding areas.  However know most of your activity will be during the day. The best I think they offer at night is probably a local pub with one beer on tap! Which is my kind of scene.

If you have any questions on anything please feel free to ask! I would be happy to share with you whatever I can. My next post will be on Switzerland, but now I need to back for New York fashion week!!!! Xx Nik