Spring and Neysan come to TASIS

Gorgeous spring blossoms on campus

Neysan's visit was way too short but it was great to see him for the 20 hours he managed to spend with us here in Lugano. The rain was courteous enough to pause for his brief stay.

Neysan near one of the town churches

Blossom detail

Paris Pictures

Ju and Nu - In Paris - Aww!


Some of the best hot chocolate in Paris - Isle Saint Louis


Boat tour on the river


Angelina's for some more fantastic hot chocolate. Be warned - don't order food as well!


Moulin Rouge - too bad the show was sold out!

Spring Time in Paris

I love Paris. It's probably one of my favorite cities (so far). So the chance to spend some time there with my best friend was an easy choice. We lucked out with a fantastic apartment of a friend of hers in the 8th Arrondissement very close to L'arc de Triumph. We were there over Easter making it tricky to know what would be open when, but despite our bad timing to many places, we had a grand time. Some tips in case you should travel over this same weekend some year - the catacombs are closed. No, they are not just closed earlier in the day than 5:30pm when we finally found our way there after nearly 2 hours of walking. They are in fact closed from January, February, March and yes, maybe even into April. We had to find out the hard way from a crepe making lady. We took it decidedly well and instead, as it was Easter Sunday, decided on a new mission: to find a cabaret show. This too resulted in a big fat nada, but I can tell you for a fact that the Moulin Rouge is open on Easter Sunday and was PACKED. I'm glad we all have our priorities squared away.

Far more important than our thwarted missions (and there were more - like our attempt to see the Musee D'orsay (lines were too long to contemplate waiting) and the Museum of Anthropology or whatever it was (closed!) - we still managed the essentials like hot chocolate on Isle Saint Louis. Yum. And Hot chocolate - L'Africain - at Angelina's near the Louvre. We appropriately ate pain au chocolat, pastries, crepes and tasty sandwiches. I even had a good old croque Monsieur - always greasier than you remember them to be.

Nifty find - Pomze - a very sweet and well-decorated restaurant in the 9th with the theme of apples running through the menu. Live piano and tasty cocktails (apple inspired of course) followed by a tasty meal made for a lovely evening out of the rain.