A Little More Brussels & Return to Paris
Trip Start
Jul 23, 2008
1
14
27
Trip End
Aug 14, 2008
Where I stayed
Rental Apartment
Paris, Île-de-France, France
Sunday, August 3, 2008
After that we took the train to Brupark where the Atomium is located. Mini Europe is also there, but it was sprinkling, so we decided to do Atomium first, and then do Mini Europe (which is all outside).
Atomium is pretty cool. It was made for the 1958 World's Fair. You get to go in the different orbs. It has history, artifacts from the Fair, and some great dialogue about society. One of the areas is just for children, so we spent some time there. There were scads of Dyson parts; and kids, and their parents too, could build robots with the parts.
When we finished at the Atomium, it was windy, rainy and cold, so we didn't feel like touring Mini Europe in that kind of weather. Instead, we headed back in to town.
For lunch, we ate at a restaurant in the Grand Place called, La Chaloupe d'Or. It had fantastic charm, very old and authentic looking. The food was amazing. I had what was called "Fondue Parmesan" which was nothing like any fondue I've ever had. It was more like a croquette or something. But either way, it was one of the better meals on the entire trip. Oh, and to drink, I had to have another Framboise (raspberry girly beer!).
I had wanted to go to a big street market/flea market type thing that goes on every Sunday. So we walked, and walked, and walked to get to the right area. But when we got there, we found out it had already closed! Major bummer.
We didn't have much time left by then. So we went back to the hotel where they were holding our bags, and then took the train to the Gare du Midi so we could get our Thalys train back to Paris.
Again, the first class car was quiet and sparsely populated. The trip went quickly.
For our dinner on the train we had the following:
Grilled chicken, parmesan shavings
Corn salad, button mushrooms
Potato salad, red onion
Croutons, cherry tomato & olives
Caesar dressing
Cheese
Plum tart, cream
Coffee/tea
Wine (I had Pays de Vaucluse - 2007 - Bois Joli - Granache, Carignan et Syrah)
We got home to the apartment without incident.
