Bonjour Paris! So nice to see you again...

Will & I have both been to Paris before so we had already gotten all of the siteseeing out of the way during out past trips.
*If you want more info on that, look for old posts under the "Paris" label.

We considered going to some new places via day trips like Mont St. Michel but ultimately, we used this time to just relax and enjoy the city. While we revisited some tourist spots just to take a new quick pic, we spent most of the time eating, shopping, exploring neighborhoods and doing more eating!  The only main difference was the time of year we went.  Since I'm a teacher, we typically travel in the dead of summer where Paris (and most places) are in the midst of their busiest and hottest time of the year.  It was pretty amazing to get to go over Thanksgiving and during the fall.  We both commented several times at how great it was not to be sweaty and have your hair in a ponytail dripping from the heat and humidity.  We found that we actually liked wearing jackets and fall clothes.  Also, since it is towards the end of November, it's officially Christmas season and everything was so fun!  They have tons of fun Christmas markets everywhere and there are lots of festive lights and Christmas decor.  We loved it and highly recommend going to Paris this time of year! Since there's nothing super noteworthy to remember in terms of where to go, I'm combining our entire 4 days in Paris in one MEGA post with lots of pictures and more simple captions. Prepare yourself!

Our AirBnB was tiny but in the best location in Marais!  You just go out the big blue doors and they were tons of restaurants, high end stores, ice cream places, etc.  It was the perfect location near the metro but also walking distance to almost everything!  There was even a huge Paris subway map on the wallpaper which made for helpful planning. :)

 

 

 

First, some revisits of some of the famous sites...

 Notre-Dame Cathedral

 Sainte Chapelle Chapel

 

The Eiffel Tower

Sacre-Coeur Basilica

 

Let's Get Cooking!

Today we started the day by checking out of our riad and leaving the medina!  It's interesting because when you're in the medina, it's like you're in another world and you get to experience Marrakesh how it traditionally is.  However, the second your leave the medina walls, you're in a normal, modernish city.  There are Starbucks, McDonalds, cars, congested streets, and people going to and from work.  As a tourist, I don't really see why you would want to spend much time outside of the medina as it is a city but not a particularly interesting one.  Anyways, today we made a pit stop before going to the airport.  We took a Moroccan cooking class at the Amal Women's Training Center.  This place is really cool!  It is a training center to help disenfranchised women (like single mothers) train for jobs in the hospitality/hotel industry by teaching them how to cook, be a waitress, clean, etc. so they can get a job in a local riad.  The women practice cooking and they sell the food to local schools for their lunch and there's even a restaurant in the city that allow the women to practice what they're learning.  We didn't get a chance to go to the restaurant but by taking a cooking class here, the profits offset the costs to run the place.  It was originally started by a Swiss non-profit who loaned the Amal Center money to get them up and running.  Fortunately, the loan was paid back in full and now they're a self-sustaining center.

 

Seaside at Essaouira

This morning we decided to get out of Marrakesh and go on a day trip.  I had read online that Essaouira was a cool little beach town and it wasn't too far out of the way so we decided to check it out.  Most of the way there was just open, flat land.  However, on the route we passed a bunch of argan trees which produce nuts that make argan oil (the same oil in hair and beauty products).  The craziest thing about these argan trees is that these goats like to hang out in them.  They're not put in the tree by anyone or anything, they just like to climb up there and... hang out?!  It was pretty silly looking!

About half way through we stopped at an argan oil cooperative where these local woman help create products from the argan tree.  It was pretty neat because you could see them grind up the argan nuts to get all the oil out to make various food and cosmetic products.

After that, we pressed on to Essaouira.  It was a cute but sleepy little seaside down where there was a small beach and some cute cafes, restaurants, and shops.  We decided to eat a seafood lunch before walking around and taking pictures and exploring the little shops.

Getting Lost in the Souks

We were up bright eyed and bushy tailed to get a start on the day and this city.  However, last night, I was awoken by some definitely unexpected but beautiful singing!  I think it was some local Muslims singing their morning prayers (pardon my ignorance of whatever it is actually called) but it was so loud but pretty.  It felt like the entire town was singing together.  Definitely a fun experience of being in a riad in the medina rather than a big hotel chain outside of the walls but it was really cool!  I was actually smiling from being woken up in the middle of the night!

 Anyways, the main appeal of coming to Marakkech was the souks.  The souks are basically the rows and rows of shops selling all kinds of fun stuff.  The medina doesn't have any real roads/cars but rather so many little alleys and walkways that only accommodate foot traffic or a small moped.  Each of these stalls in the souks sell are kinds of stuff like pottery, leather shoes, fun ceramic tiles/mosaics.  The alleys are like a maze and since there are no streets or signs or anything, you can easily get lost.  Luckily for us, I wanted to!  It was such a great time and everything looked incredible.  Will said he felt like he was on an old movie set and it was true.  So neat!  I especially loved all the Moroccan metal lamps but unfortunately that wasn't going to fit into our luggage.  We lucked out with the most amazing weather too!

 

       

Marrakech or Marrakesh?

I follow travel deal sites all the time but usually all of the good deals are during the school year which is one of the reasons a teacher schedule can stink.  While I do have holidays and the summer off, those times are usually the most expensive and the hottest times of year to travel.  Finally though, an amazing travel deal worked out for us!  Will and I aren't super big into Thanksgiving so the holiday break, plus two personal days, wrapped around two weekends gave us over a week to head to Paris!

Being as we've both been to Paris before, we realized that maybe we didn't need such a long time there.  We brainstormed cheap flights from Paris and my French class experience made me think of Morocco and BINGO, we had a side trip!  Flights to Marrakech were cheap from Paris and Morocco was always been interesting to me so it was an easy decision.

Today was a travel day.  We originally got our deal to Paris ($430 roundtrip! And on AirFrance who had the most chic safety video and macarons for dessert!) as roundtrip from DC so today we flew to Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport and then took a bus to the Orly airport to catch our flight to Marrakech.  While at the airport, we got snacks from a little convenience store and even though it was a tiny store, their bread was fresh and delicious and paired with proscuitto and brie, made for a great airport snack!

It was just a 2 hour flight and we had arrived in Marrakech!  We got picked up by a driver from our hotel because we had read that it's pretty much impossible to find hotels from inside the Medina because they can only drop you off so far in as there are not really roads within the medina walls.  What we read was right!  If we did not have a driver to follow, we would've never found our hotel.

Au revoir Montreal!

Today was our last day in Montreal!  Luckily we accomplished everything on our to do list so today was a lazy day. We slept in and leisurely packed up our stuff. After getting everything ready to go, we headed to the Underground City to check it out. Basically it is a huge "mall" of sorts underground and is connected to certain subway stops and some office buildings. It covers a large part of downtown and has a range from nicer brand name stores to random other shops and eateries. It is apparently more busy during the cold winter where no one wants to be walking out and about in the freezing weather. It wasn't anything too exciting but it was worth checking out.

 Next we went to the Halles du Gare which is the area around the train station. Here there are all kinds of fun food stalls and one of them is Boulangerie Premiere Moisson where we ate lunch. This bakery is a famous bakery in Montreal that is famous for their fresh bread and other baked goods. The original store is in another part of Montreal but now they have several outposts. Will and I got a sandwich and some desserts to share and it was delicious!  After that we got another bagel, this time from another famous bagel shop, called Fairmont. I'm definitely going to miss these Canadian bagels!!

Much to see at the Museums!

Today was tourist day!  We woke up early to get a head start to the museums right when they opened. We want to the which is where the old Olympic stadiums are housed and where a bunch of the museums are.

First, we went to the Botanical Gardens. It was super pretty and was huge.  

 

 

Allons-y à la plage!

Today we gave our feet a break which worked out because I forgot my FitBit. So far I've been clocking in about 30,000 steps a day which makes for tired feet!  Today we decided to go to Parc Jean Drapeau which is the name of two small islands in the middle of Montreal, created on a man-made lake.

This park is awesome and is the home of an amusement park, the Biosphere and other museums, an aquatic center, a casino, an open water swimming area, and a Formula 1 track which becomes an awesome place for cyclists and rollerbladers.  It's so neat!!  In addition, one of the islands is a fun "beach" where you can swim in the water. When Will and I were discussing what to pack, I was surprised when he told me to pack a swimsuit and that this "beach" existed. I was super excited because he also mentioned they had all kinds of water activities and one of them was wakeboarding!! Will knew I have been wanting to try that for some time so that was on our agenda today. Unfortunately when we got to the beach, the wakeboarding park was closed due to what we think was mechanical issues. Womp womp!  However, we still had tons of fun!  We went stand up paddleboarding, laid out in the sun, and played on an aqua-obstacle course called Aquazilla!! It was the perfect way to get some relaxation in after such a busy day yesterday. 

This was what the beach looked like when it first opened and no one was there. Soon there would be tons of people on both the sand and grass laying out and picnicking!

Montreal by foot.

Last night's movie didn't start until past midnight and we got there about an hour early to get in line. I'm surprised that Montreal is a late night city with most restaurants and even Starbucks open until about 2am. While I couldn't believe I was starting a movie at midnight, the restaurants and bars were just getting started. I had no real idea what this movie was about but it was called the Greasy Strangler and Will said it was a campy horror movie. Well I should've known it was going to be totally weird and goofy because while we were waiting in line, a character from the movie came out to greet everyone and he was basically wearing a speedo and had a bunch of huge, phallic shapes balloons coming out of his crotch. He even handed out trading cards with his picture on them. Needless to say, the movie was totally weird and strange but hilarious and entertaining.  I can't even tell you what it was about because it was just so strange but Will and I now have some one-liners to last us a lifetime.

Fast forward to this morning and we slept in. Today's agenda was basically a Will-created food tour but with a movie half way through which was perfect because the forecast called for a midday heavy thunderstorm. 

First we started by going to Marche Jean-Talon.  Going to markets in general is one of my favorite things to do in a new city but this one was especially good. They had so many funky specialty shops and food stands as well as a full fruit and veggie market. It makes sense though because Montreal is a big food city. 

Bienvenue à Montreal!

We woke up at 4am this morning to head to the airport for our trip to Montreal. While we typically go on longer and more exotic international destinations, Will has been wanting to go to this film festival, Fantasiafest, for a while now and he was finally going to get to do one of his picks!  So while we are mainly here for the Fantasia Film Festival, Will had also promised to have other fun things planned.  In our relationship, the person who picks the trip does most, if not all, of the planning and Will wasn't playing around.  As I was packing last night, Will let me know he already had reservations for almost every meal and he already had places he wanted to go all mapped out so today when he landed, I knew he already had a plan ready to go.  Here's his map.  All those little pins are his.  Man, do I love this guy.