Since learning we’d be in Paris leading up to the 2024 Olympics for work, I’ve been following some Americans who moved to Paris on YouTube – their channel is called “Les Frenchies”, (yes, I know… but what can you do?), and they have some great, up-to-date content for people visiting Paris. One of the things they highly recommended, was something I thought would be way too touristy for my liking, but based on their frequently voiced dislike of highly touristy experiences, I thought we’d give it a try. So, I booked us a dinner cruise on ‘Le Calife’.
Seeing we are now staying in Saint Germaine (*wipes away faux tears* – it’s lovely, but it’s not the Georges V!), we had only a short 350m walk to the Pont des Arts, where ‘Le Calife’ is berthed.
I love this! I wonder if this was dedicated before she passed away in 2020… ‘On 23rd September 2021, “The ‘Place Juliette Gréco’ was inaugurated in Paris. It can be found beside the Church of Saint-Germain-de-Paris, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris.” Bummer.
This is not out boat.
This is our boat. Le Calife was originally built in Belgium in 19as a cargo carrying ship and has large twin stream engines, but when this type of transportation became less popular it was sold to an enthusiast for restoration. It apparently took 18 years to restore and transform it into a restaurant; it has its original engines still operating. The ship is all fitted out with red mahogany, brass and other decorative details, including seriously vintage stained glass lamps from 1789… which I will no doubt mention later!
Square du Vert-Galant…
Pont Neuf…
We were welcomed aboard at 20:00 with a glass of champagne, and a set menu with several delicious choices for each course…
Our delightful waiter asked us if we would like a bottle of red wine or white wine, all chosen by the chef… we had both chosen meat for dinner so opted for a bottle of red. Which may or may not have been a bit of a mistake, because we didn’t realise that we weren’t going anywhere until 2045, and the first course of dinner wouldn’t be served until roughly 21:30..!
Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris… still under masses amounts of scaffold as the restoration after the 2019 fire, but expected to reopen December 2024.
A nod to the teams of people working on the Cathédrale…
L’entrées… the vol au vent of chanterelles with foie gras and morel mushroom sauce for me, the Label Rouge salmon fillet gravlax with fresh cheese and herbs for Mr K:
Ah, there they are, the fabulous antique stained glass lamps through the verandah of the boat. A lovely touch, but perhaps not so practical when it comes to photography reflections!
The mains… Rossini style beef tenderloin, with foie gras, Dauphinois potatoes and roasted vegetables for me, and Lamb shoulder confit, with seasonal vegetables and baby roast potatoes for Mr K:
Just as dinner was being served we sailed into view of the Eiffel Tower. Gorgeous! I particularly love the stained glass motif they have incorporated into the lighting! 🙂
It is a striking element of the Parisian skyline for sure. A little after these pictures were taken, we swung around and the tower started to ‘sparkle’ as they have the flashing lights going for five minutes on the hour every hour… kinda gave up on the photos by now though.
The underside of one of the several bridges we went under… complete with reflections of someone’s dinner. 🙂
Dessert… Lemon cheese cake, with lemon cream, lemon sorbet and limoncello for me, and Chocolate lava cake, custard and Madagascar vanilla ice cream for Mr K. The lemon on lemon with a lemon motif was really quite good!
Alas we were back to the quay all too soon; not really it was just before midnight. The dinner cruise was really lovely. The food was nice, but we made the mistake of doing this *after* we’d had the fanciest meal of our lives at Le Cinq! When will we learn… you don’t go China straight after you go to Japan and you don’t go to a *good* French restaurant the night after going to a internationally famous three Michelin star’d French restaurant!
Concierge: Oui, madame? Kate: Yes, bonjour. Do you speak any English? Concierge: Of course. This is the George V, not some backpacker hovel.
Ever since seeing those hilarious and famously snobby lines in the 1995 movie, French Kiss, with Meg Ryan and Kevin Kleine, I’ve wanted to come check out the Georges V hotel in Paris… and here I am nearly 30 years later finally getting a chance to do so.
The hotel has an artistic director, and one of his responsibilities are the famous floral arrangements that are found throughout the hotel’s foyer, restaurants, bars and rooms. The flowers are replaced every 21 days like clockwork and they order between 12,000 to 14,000 stems per week with a budget of around $.1.4M (and I assume that is USD) per annum! Seeing that it is spring, I was expecting bright colourful displays something akin to what we saw at the Kukenhof only, indoors… instead it was a rather understated affair with the boldest element being masses of yellow roses:
Juliette checked us in and let us know that she was available to assist us with anything we might need. She congratulated us on our silver wedding anniversary, and showed us to our room personally. Along the way, she confirmed that our dinner at Le Cinq was confirmed and should we need anything at all special at dinner, to please let her know so she could take care of it for us.
The room was beautiful – and enormous. We booked a standard king room, but Juliette led us to a superior room with a balcony. As a general rule, the hotels of Paris are busiest in the high season, but in the shoulder season, like this, the busiest time of the weeks is Wednesday to Sunday with many rooms remaining empty on Monday and Tuesday nights… so hint for new players; best chance for a room upgrade on Monday or Tuesday nights.
Juliette was sure to let us know that the Georges V wished us a very happy anniversary and they offered us a bottle of champagne with their compliments, (a bottle I later spotted on the room service menu for €170)…
Also was a piece of chocolate cake that I am sure Mr K will enjoy later…
And some very pretty love heart chocolates filled with liqueur…
It seems sweet treats are the favourites in this part of the world, as we were also bestowed a box of delightful macarons, and a special chocolate and pecan brownie from the hotel’s patisser.
Juliette wished us a very nice stay and handed us our keys, and I got to poke around properly. lol. The keys, btw… beautiful.
We had a delightful space to make tea and coffee with a ceramic and leather kettle, a coffee machine and a huge variety of teas and coffees to choose from.
We also had a well stocked mini-bar, and the fridge was bursting with goodies also… though I’m wary of the price point on some of these! That’s the problem with hotels of this level of luxury – they’re usually catering for people who don’t care what the bill comes to! Not people like us, who are splashing out as a one-off!
The bathroom had a beautiful and deep bathtub, which I took full advantage of!
The bathroom was as stocked with amenities as a minibar – loofah, bath salts, dental kit, sewing kit, nail kit, shaving kit, cotton buds, make-up wipes, comb, hair brush, shower cap, mouth wash, dental floss, shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, hand wash, moisturiser… you name it, it was probably already here for you.
This is *half* the walk in closet, complete with safe, slippers, bathrobes, laundry bags and god knows what else.
The bed looked so good, I almost didn’t want to jump on it… but I did!
Complete with monogrammed pillow shams…
Every little detail was beautiful… I had a lovely hour relaxing in the tub followed by the decidedly thoughtful champagne; felt thoroughly spoilt.
Dinner was booked months ago when we booked the hotel. The Georges V is famous for its Le Cinq restaurant… of course with claims like this, you wonder if it will live up to the hype.
The restaurant is actually quite small, seating only 60 guests and very elegantly appointed. I snavelled some stock photos of the restaurant as it was quite dimly lit and I forgot to stop and take a picture.
Before we even saw a menu or the wine list, (which btw, is like a 200 page book!) we were presented with some delightful canapés… the caviar was the really good stuff!
The degustation menu looked really good, so we decided to order that. Given we have no allergies or anything, the only information we provided the staff, was that I don’t like chocolate, so would be grateful if the chefs could find a different dessert course for me.
Mise en Bouche: White asparagus and carrot and champagne foam.
Foie Gras poached like a pebble in a iodised broth…
Truffled Gree Asparaus, with a Château-Chalon wine mousseline…
Matured Ossetra Caviar and Bulltermilk with warm smoked salmon… (this dish was my favourite).
Pistachio Sorbet with Citrus Flavour and lobster bisque…
Black Pudding scented with passion fruit and coffee…
M. Roman came along at this moment with the highlight of the meal… le chariot à fromages magique! We chose about six different cheese, and they were all delicious.
Mignardises…
Dairy Iced with yeast flavours…
Crunch Grapefruit, preserved and raw…
Chocolate and Hazelnut Crisps with malt whisky ice cream…
Vanilla mousse served with Strawberries and pesto…! Which sounds bizarre, but tasted amazing.
M. Roman with a Chocolate trolley also filled with ‘Pastry from My Childhood’. Mr K took a selection of chocolates, truffles, marshmallow and other sweet things, but I well and truly felt I had exceeded my sugar quota for the month by this point!
We were also presented with a small chocolate plaque beside some vanilla ice cream to acknowledge out special occasion.
Mr K looking happy and relaxed* (*He hadn’t confronted the bill yet, lol… oh, and I should mention this, as you don’t see it much anymore – my menu had no prices in it, only his did! Que c’est démodé?
Even when we thought dinner was over, we were presented with two little boxes full of fudge to take back to our room…
… which another staff member promptly put into bag with two more little boxes of fudge and another box with a breakfast pastry, ‘in case you need a little something in the middle of the night!’
All up we had an amazing night. The staff were attentive and super friendly. The sommelier was generous, down to earth and told us she is doing an apprenticeship in wine so she goes to study wine one day a week. I realised after dinner that I had expected this to be a stuffy affair – but everyone was friendly and their English was certainly fluent enough to be bantering with the guests, so that kept the atmosphere light and entertaining… and the food was amazing! I don’t know that we would ever do this again, but it was certainly an experience we won’t forget in a hurry.
My mum has alway said, “I wonder what the poor folk are doing today?”, when she was in a luxurious mood… and now I feel like I know what the really rich people are doing!
Mr K posted this on FB:
🌿 Celebrating Our 25th Anniversary 🌿
On this day, a quarter of a century past, we entered into the marrriage, witnessed by our friends and family, to embark upon a partnership of profound affection and mutual respect. I could not have imagined a greater setting to celebrate our love and 25 years of marriage than to be with you now in Paris. This is a significant occasion, and I am compelled to reflect upon the years we have shared, each marked by trials and triumphs that have but strengthened the bonds of our union and have deepened my love for you.
These 25 years have been as full as my heart if of my love for you, as we made a wonderful home together, built multiple careers and now a business, studied, laughed, loved, and grew a family through the blessing of our dear son, Angus. Everything I cherish, and everything I have done of worth in this life was only important to me because you were there and only possible because of your love, belief, and support.
I have always loved you, (and told you so in the first three weeks after we met) but I never believed that anyone could love another more than I did you then. Yet here I stand by your side 25 years later loving you more every passing day as our adventures continue, my love for you deepens, and our friendship grows.
So today know that there is no limit to how ardently I admire and love you, and with great joy can express my deepest gratitude and love on this, our silver jubilee.
May we continue to walk together, guided by affection and esteem, through whatever our future may hold and to embark as soulmates on new adventures until we can no longer travel and then, we can sit together and reflect on what amazing lives we shared and enjoyed together.
To our next adventure, and our next 25 years. Love your dedicated (and hopelessly in love) husband.”
The next morning we decided to just sleep in and luxuriate in the beautiful room. Juliette had given us a late check-out… 3pm! Which is unheard of, (again Monday or Tuesday night bonus apparently!), so we decided to take advantage of the down time before we had to face the work that would be taking over this week. We are here to meet with bus people and Olympics transport organisers for the 2024 games, which happens in less than 100 days, so there was going to be plenty to do. We ordered in breakfast around 10:30am.
Eggs Benedict. I loved the little stamped cultured and uncultured butters… you guess which is which.
We had an amazing stay… the hotel really pulled out all the stops. I’m not sure I would want to stay here a week, even if we could afford it, mostly because this area doesn’t really reflect my perceptions of ‘typical Paris’, but it has definitely been an amazing anniversary interlude in the middle of a work week – even if we did end up on zoom meetings this morning!
Just when we thought they couldn’t exceed expectations any more with the personal touches, Juliette came to see us as we were checking out with yet another gift, this time containing a candle that has the Georges V’s signature scent – and indeed, the box smells just like the entire hotel does! I❤️ Paris!
We drove from Lucerne via Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen and wasn’t exactly expecting this:
Immediately, I’m wondering if we needed snow tires!
Insert random American Christmas music here!
Ok, enough snow photos (pick the Queenslander who hasn’t seen snow in forever. No, wait… I lie, not since last November in Japan). Anyway, we arrived in Interlaken and while we seemed to be just below the snow line, it was still bloody freezing and just for fun, raining.
We had diverged off the highway on the way into town to get a better look at the lake, and found us a swan, not of the ‘Threatened’ variety.
Interlaken is a resort town in central Switzerland in the Bernese Oberland mountain region. It is often a jumping off point for people who come to the area for winter sports if they’re looking for more amenities than the smaller villages might provide. It is built in a narrow stretch of valley between two lakes – Lake Thun and Lake Brienz – hence, Interlaken. Lots of traditionally Swiss timber houses, alpine forests and skiing areas.
I love the colour of glacial rivers… you see them in Iceland, Canada, New Zealand, Chile. It’s just such a beautiful teal/grey colour that looks inviting, but is so dangerously not!
Having skipped breakfast we were looking for lunch and again turned to the Google, ‘Restaurants Near Me’ function to find somewhere to eat… it’s got me wondering, I use this feature *every* time I travel because if I am going to spend money of a restaurant meal, I don’t want to end up with with a really ordinary experience. But I’m wondering – who actually gets on Google and leaves these reviews? There must be loads of people who do, but I don’t think I’ve ever left a Google review for a restaurant…?
Anyway, we ended up at a restaurant called, ‘Gleis 3’, (which had a 4.6 on the Googles), and an indecipherable Swiss German menu. Mr K ordered a traditional Swiss meal consisting of a potato roesti with ham, cheese and egg, and I had a chicken Cordon Bleu. The foood was beautifully presented and really good.
And because we were planning on skipping dinner, we split an apple strudel as well.
Interlaken is a pretty town, even in the rain.
Tulips!
Lauterbrunnen and more snow! Lauterbrunnen is a village of around 2500 people nestled in a valley surrounded by high rocky cliffs. It has a cable car that runs up to nearby Shilthorn Mountain and the town subsists mostly on tourism, so it is full of lovely quaint little hotels with neat little restaurants.
We chose to stay in the village at the Hotel Silberhorn. I chose a room with a view in case ‘we get crap weather and end up spending a lot of time working in the hotel’. And I think in doing so, I’ve kinda put the mockers on us! Last week, this area was in the low 20°Cs every day and sunny/party cloudy… this week: fucking cold and snow or rain all day every day.
The hotel has had a recent make over apparently – the room smelled like freshly milled timber and has beautiful views down the valley (when the clouds aren’t in, that is).
Old habits came back quickly… popped the beers and bubbles out on the balcony because it’s more efficient than a fridge!
In every direction the mountains looked gorgeous – this is literally the view from the bathroom!
We had some work to get onto, so got stuck into it, while watching the snow falling in large flurries outside and enjoying a nice cup of port.
The next morning, the entire village was covered in a thick blanket of snow! It was still snowing so much you couldn’t see the mountain – behind that tree is a small waterfall somewhere!
We did head out to try and visit Trummelbach falls, which are supposed to be open, only to discover they have had to close the walkways this week due to the excessive amount of rain and snow that they’ve had making entering the falls dangerous. Bummer. I came here back in 1995 an was looking forward to going to see these waterfalls again – the Trummbelback falls have an enormous volume of water coming through them, as they crash down through a crevice *in* the mountain – not tumbling over the side of a cliff like you usually expect. My most vivid memory of them was they were soooo loud and you got quite wet walking around the various levels of the winding pathway that goes through/into the mountain to see them.
So we had a little tootle around the village instead, and went back to the hotel to do some work.
The snow burned off relatively quickly – not because the sun came out, but things warmed up just a couple of degrees and most of it melted away.
As the weather cleared, the view from our room improved – there is the mountain and the waterfall I knew was out there somewhere.
The 300m high Staubbach Falls which is just outside the village. Lauterbrunnen is only about 800m above sea level I think.
There are far more hideous views to work with for the day… 🙂
At the end of the day we treated ourselves to a nice bottle of champagne that we had picked up on the way into town and had dinner in the hotel restaurant.
These last two photos were taken at 10pm – it was pitch black, but my iPhone did a brilliant job with the low light conditions. The waterfall is lit up in the evenings; we couldn’t see it at all last night the weather was so snowy and cloudy… but tonight, it looks lovely.
Lucerne, (Luzern), is a small town in Switzerland just an hour south-east of Zurich. I visited here in 1995 when doing the 70 day, ‘Grand Tour of Europe’ with Big Sal, Bloody Mary and the adorable Slapper. We didn’t have a lot of time here back then, but I remembered it as a really pretty old market town and was keen to see some more of the place.
The Old Town (Altstadt) has a nearly 1km long Musegg Wall which is part of the old 14thC ramparts. Mr K was immediately excited and exclaimed that he hasn’t seen a real castle before – which took me by by surprise, but when I think back on the travels we have done together, there’s been plenty of palaces, but not many medieval castles. Only one we could come up with was Blarney Castle near Cork – and that’s more a crumbly than a castle, so we will have to fix that in a future trip to Scotland or somewhere equally overrun by castles.
The famous Lion Monument of Lucerne, (Löwendenkmal), was our first port of call on the way into town this afternoon… I wanted to see if in the afternoon light as the morning was a bit ‘meh’, from (my admittedly fuzzy) memory. The dying lion that is sculpted into the rock face of the cliff that overlooks the little town, and was made to commemorate the Swiss guardsmen who died in 1792 during the French Revolution. It’s a beautiful and evocative monument… though slightly less moving when surrounded by 30 or so Chinese tourists all angling for the best selfie!
The Altstadt is right in the centre of town, and full of beautiful old buildings painted in a charming, and very Swiss, style. Just wandering around town is full of beautiful old buildings that mostly house modern shops or restaurants and cafes in them, and accomodations above.
This clock tower chimed the hours and thankfully, (after Bruges!), didn’t have a full on carillon playing a five minute rendition of, ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ several times a day!
The gorgeous Chapel Bridge, (Kappelbrücke), was originally built in 1333 and links the Aldstadt to the Reuss River… like Australians can even get their heads around a wooden structure build by people from 700 years ago! Several sections of it have burned down over the years, but they have always rebuilt it – it is a unique bridge and is truly such a strong symbol of the town, I’m glad they have kept it. At home it probably wouldn’t have been replaced with a concrete monstrosity with steel girders looking like dropped Pick-Up-Stiks!
The construction of it is even beautiful… as are the artworks that have remained in tact. Unfortunately, many paintings were lost during the various fires, but some remain.
Just a stunning even for a stroll through such a quaint medieval town.
Yes, I couldn’t help myself and took way too many photos… the one below is our version of a selfie: you can see our shadows on the ironwork of the bridge we were standing on.
Lining the river near the bridges are a long row of old hotels that have fantastic local restaurants in the basements ands hotel rooms above them… this is where you find our exactly how expansive Switzerland is as a tourist. Even though this is a small town, it has LOADS of accommodation options, but staying in one of these hotels facing the bridge can set you back around $600-800 a night – and we aren’t looking at high season pricing! And for that price, most of these hotel rooms don’t include breakfast, are not air conditioned and might not even have a lift to get you to the higher floors!
Hotel Schiff is a hotel I decided was definitely *not* in our budget, but they have an excellent restaurant, so we thought we’d go check it out for our first Swiss dinner.
The staff were friendly, and didn’t even seem to mind my mangled attempts to order in German. We did manage to get a recommendation for a local beer for Mr K – the Eichhof Kloster, which is some sort of unfiltered pale ale. He was so fond of it, we had to go find some in a local bottle shop the next day.
Dinner was a hearty (read: stodgy) affair of meat a pot-ay-toes! I went for the beef cheek, (Sorry, Slapper, I know you hate tertiary cuts!), and it was super tender and delicious.
Mr K opted for some pork meatballs, also served with a huge serve of mashed potatoes. I loved that he crockery, cutlery and glassware in the place didn’t seem to match, and we had little blankets and braziers even though we were undercover.
Thanks to indulging in a few glasses of rosé and possibly one beer too many, dessert sounded like a good plan tonight and we tried some apple fritters. These were super tasty – but also super sweet, so Mr K got to finish most of it.
Next morning – we woke up to a simply gorgeous day! Unexpectedly so – the weather forecasts had told us it would be miserable and we were nonplussed by that, as we were checking out transport for most of the day…. Lucerne, though it is a small and compact town, has an extensive public transport network which was why we were here.
We took a walk along the river and across the small section of medieval bridge, similar in design to the Chapel Bridge that is close to a really cool little hydro plant, in order to get to the main train station.
This small section of bridge has more of the old paintings in the rafters…
There are massive beams in the construction – I assume they are oak, but that’s just a guess.
The hydro system – more towns should put these in their rivers.
Such a pretty town. Love it!
We spent most of the day with work stuff around trains and the mass moving of passengers – Lucerne does their tourist thing really well, we were impressed. In the evening decided to ferret out a raclette or fondue dinner somewhere… now, I’m all about the cheesy goodness, but not super fond of the fact it’s usually served with bread, bread and bread, or potatoes, potatoes and potatoes … or sometimes loads of bread and potatoes.
So, we did a bit of research and found the highly rated, Fondu House du Pont! Booked a table and got ready for a rich, but hopefully not too bread and potato-y fondue.
Such a cute little spot by the river.
Booking a table gained us the best seat in the house and we had to suffer with this marvellous view for the duration of our meal! Blue skies, mountains, old buildings… gorgeous altogether!
Our five minutes of research paid off – there was indeed a cheese fondue on the menu that could be ordered with yummy meat sides. The fondue was called a Moitié Moitié, and was made with Gruyère, and Michael Tell Alp organic cheese and a splash of garlic, and we were able to order it with a serve each of sliced chicken breast and sliced beef.
The claim on their website it’s that it is ‘The Best in Town!’, and while we have nothing to compare it to – it was fantastic. 10/10 would do again. The service was excellent, the wine list was extensive and reasonably priced and the fondue was really, really good.
So much gooey, stringey cheese! I am we looked like complete savages trying to tame the cheese, but didn’t care – it was delicious!
Back towards the town after a long day of work and a yummy evening of fondue… this town is so pretty.
I did make the mistake of looking up Lauterbrunnen though… we are supposed to be taking the cog railway, (yes, more trains!) up to Jungfrau one day this week – but bloody hell! Maximum temperatures of MINUS 19°C or 20°C that feels like MINUS 34°C… I think this may be taking Mr K’s enthusiasm for transport way too Farr
Screenshot
And scary room chicken* agrees with me!
We stayed at the Magic Lantern Hotel and had a room called, “The Farmer”. The hotel has all these weird themed rooms… it was covered in chickens in a most disconcerting manner! In hindsight… maybe we should have shelled out for a Pirate Room; no pesky chickens!
Today was mostly work, but we did find time to pop out for some breakfast – I had a waffle and realised I have never had one before. Not in a restaurant, not on a cruise ship, not at home… it was ridiculously sweet.
There are loads of waffle houses here, so you can pick and choose by Google ratings which one you want to visit.
Sweet and savoury offerings at this place.
After breakfast we went back to the hotel and worked until about 4pm when we went out to find a drink by the canal and watch the world go by. We ended up at Jan Van Eyck Square in a tapas bar? Ok.
There’s some cool civic art in these old cities and then some weird civic art in these old cities.
The Bruges Belfry that was built in the 13thC is 83m tall and is one of the three iconic towers of Bruges, (this and the Church of Our Lady and the St Salvator’s Catheral). There are 366 steps to climb to the top to see the famous views of the city. At the top, there is an enormous impressive music roller that controls the carillon, and a lower room where there is a keyboard which the carillon bells are played with now – since we got here, I’ve been wondering who I write to, to ask them to stop playing ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ on the damn bells! Seems such a weird fucking choice, but it here it is, every hour on the hour.
Mr K went for the walk up the top to check out the view for me… no way my knee is having any part of this.
On the way up, is the city’s schatzkammer – or the imperial treasury. Here is where the city hallmarks, the city seal and the city treasury were kept in the Middle Ages… in a teeny tiny coffer, they’d have us believe.
The views look amazing.
The carillon mechanisms.
Back on the ground, we went to find a place for dinner and ended up at a Flemish restaurant (after vaguely toying with the idea of going for sushi, lol) called Vlaminck.
The food was delicious. Beef carpaccio, cheese croquettes, the obligatory frites and the Flemish stew was the best one we have tried.
