French Needle Paris 2016 - Day 0

On May 21st, I finished up my class at 4pm and packed everything up. All my stash stayed behind with Louise to go to Montreal, and I went to pick up my suitcase from the dorm to go to the airport. Clare was sweet enough to offer me a ride (Thanks again Clare =D), which means I had a very relaxing ride to the airport.

I quickly checked in my luggage and went through security. Once I got through to the secure area, it was insanely crowded. Luckily it was quieter near my gate, so I sat down and got some reading done on my kindle.

After very little sleep, my plane landed on May 22nd at 8:45am on a rainy day. We had pre-arranged transport with Karine, so someone was waiting for me at arrivals. There were actually 3 other ladies who arrived the same morning (one of them came in as early as 6am o.O) and were waiting in the car for me to get there.

We were at the hotel within an hour, but our rooms were not ready. Our hotel was located in the 5e arrondissements, right across from the Panthéon. You could even see the Eiffel tower at a distance.

Luckily, we had scheduled brunch. So even if our rooms weren't ready, we weren't left starving. We ate at a bakery named Dalloyau. The bakery was established in 1682 and it was where Marie Antoinette ordered her macarons from to be delivered to Versailles fresh, daily.

This location is in front of the Luxembourg gardens.

I can't remember what I ate, but I did not forget dessert. Our first tastes of Parisian macarons. I tried their Thé Bergamote and citron flavored macarons.

Their display outside looked delicious as well.

After lunch, some went back to the hotel to rest, but I decided to go with another group to visit the Cluny Museum.

The museum contains medieval artifacts, mainly religious. which isn't of much interest to me.

However, it houses the six tapestries of La dame a la licorne which are well worth the visit. Unfortunately, flash was not allowed (the image below was taken by Kathleen) but no image could convey it's beauty. I think we spent 40 minutes in there just looking at all the tapestries.

We did spend some time at the gift shop. I got a few postcards and the museum coin (I always pick these up if I can find them). You can see lots of rabbits here. I loved the little bunnies in the background and got some good close up picks. You never know, I might want to stitch one one day.

And this kit by Le Bonheur des Dames. I can't take the tapestries home, but this is good enough. It was also a great find, since I wasn't able to visit Le Bonheur des Dames' shop.

After wards we went back to the hotel, where we met our guide Vincent for a pre-dinner tour (under the pouring rain :P). He took us around the neighborhood and we went inside the Panthéon.

Dinner that night was at Au Port du Salut.

I'm not into taking pictures of food (except for desert), but I do remember trying black truffles for the first time and I've been converted :) A little video of our entertainment that night, sorry there is a lot of background noise.

Finally made it back to the hotel ready to collapse. I was actually nodding off at dinner lol

We had a nice little gift to start off our tour. It was a collection of different products made in Paris. I didn't think to take a picture of all the contents, I gave most of it to my mom and sister.

I did keep one thing. You can think of this as my first stash acquisition of the trip :)