Europe,  France,  Paris,  TDM,  Travel Journal

Five days in Paris (France)

Since Jb’s brother is getting married in September, we decide to spend 2 months in France, before going back on the road. And we take the opportunity, of course, to go back to Paris for a few days. While we used to spend 24 hours a day together, every time we come back to Paris, we hardly see each other anymore. Between professional appointments, friends to see, administrative and medical procedures… it is really a ministerial agenda that awaits us.

Jet lag

In this sense, the time difference isn’t very annoying. We get up a little earlier than other Parisians (5 am French time = 11 am Chinese time), but it isn’t very annoying. In 4 days, we get up at a slightly more reasonable time: 7:30 am 😀

The cat

My first priority is to pass my cat, Rosalie, who is kept with my sister. Contrary to last year (after the 1st round-the-world trip), this year, she recognizes me right away and spends a lot of time next to me. The reason why I have to spend so much time with her is first of all that I love her, but also that she needs to get used to my presence again – we’re going to take her on vacation with us in the Loire Valley country! I can’t wait!

Restaurants

When you spend too much time abroad, you are amazed at any Parisian brasserie menu. My friends know this and take me to eat my favorite dishes. Like this dish with duck breast and two huge slices of foie gras. (restaurant Le Cliché, 15 Rue Hispano Suiza, 92270 Bois-Colombes)



And many tartars please! This one, excellent, can be tasted at Ma chère et tendre, my favorite steakhouse (81 Boulevard Gouvion-Saint-Cyr, 75017 Paris)



Not forgetting a quick stop at a Basque restaurant near the St Paul metro station (I jumped on the dishes so quickly that I forgot to take pictures).

Jb and I also shared a dinner with a couple of future travelers. It made us relive our moments of preparation of our world tour, they ask the same questions we had asked ourselves before the world tour! We know another couple with children, they will go on a world tour in a month, and it makes me relive the same emotions of before the trip, it’s really great!

Facial care at Ioma

I took advantage of my express trip to Paris to test a facial at Ioma. I went there in 2012 (a lifetime ago) and I liked the skin diagnosis that made me understand at that time how dehydrated my skin was.

The treatment I booked at Ioma includes a free skin diagnosis and a custom facial called “Constellation Signature”. The whole thing lasts 1h30.

For the skin diagnosis, the machine takes 5 pictures of my face under different lights to see the state of the pores, oil secretion etc.

A score of 1 is the best, and 15 is the worst.



I find the results to be quite correct/credible. For someone who has just spent 24 hours at the airport and on the plane, and 3 days in Beijing, I do expect to have a lot of dead skin (my score for desquamation is the worst). For the bacterial activity, I think it is 100% justified because I use the SK-II brand skin care products that contain precisely the bacteria that are used to produce sake. As for fine lines and fine wrinkles, they are invisible to the naked eye (I never noticed that my eye contour was a bit dry) but the machine allows a huge zoom and was able to detect fine lines related to dehydration.

Then, the beautician gives me a treatment with products adapted to my skin, the massage (neck and neckline included) is divine, so relaxing. Right after the treatment, my skin is super radiant (unfortunately the effect does not last more than 2 days). The recommended products are very expensive (count on average 100€ per product and you need 10), they even offer a custom-made cream, but do not specify the composition of this cream. For me, no clear composition, I don’t buy!

In my opinion, it is a diagnosis to be done regularly (once a year) to find out if the current routine is adequate and/or if I need new products. Combined with a super pleasant facial, what more could you ask for?

You can book the treatment, like me, via the Treatwell website and pay only 118€ instead of 163€.

JB, as for him, tries to go to the mosque of Paris for a hammam session but he is told that the hammam has not been open to men for 10 years. He came back empty-handed, poor guy. I hope that our next stay in Turkey will settle this.

The rest of the time, JB and I worked at our respective clients’ premises. It was a lot of fun.

And then, we took the car and drove 3h30 to bring our cat on vacation with us! Yesssss!

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