759. Porto Days 3 & 4 | Livraria Lello & Majestic Cafe

I'm a bit behind on my Porto posts as we are already leaving tomorrow! I wish we had more time here because I really like Porto and also, I don't want to pack and take another flight again lol. I used to LOVE flights but now I find them exhausting, especially during COVID and certain restrictions. Tomorrow we go to Las Palmas (Canary Islands) and will stay for a month. Back to hot and sunny weather!


Here is our place here in Porto which I really love. It's like a loft - really spacious, nicely designed and PERFECT location at Largo Sao Domingos. We get live music through our window every day and tons of nice restaurants at our doorstep. It's also very centrally located so a few minutes from the river and also walking distance to the other major attractions/streets. I highly recommend it if you are coming to Porto! (The listing on Airbnb)



One of the attractions here in Porto is Livraria Lello, the "most beautiful bookstore in the world". The entrance fee is 5 euros (can be deducted from a book purchase). There was a line up when we went. I think we waited about 20 minutes. Now they only let very few people in at a time. They have exclusive Livraria Lello editions of some classic books. I think the entrance fee + price of their books are pretty steep (my book cost 16 euros) though. The store is pretty small and I think we spent about 10 minutes in there.


Here is the book I got - a collection of Grimm's fairytales


One night we had dinner at a restaurant called O Fado. It was really good. There is live music while you eat (there were 3 performances when we were there) of traditional Portuguese/Fado music.



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372. Paris | Li Chen Exhibition at Place Vendome

When I was in Paris, I came upon these sculptures at Place Vendome. They are all by a Taiwanese sculptor named Li Chen. I was actually browsing through Instagram when I was there, looking through the #Paris hashtag when I saw photos of them. I thought they were so interesting I had to go take a look. The only available time I had to go was this rainy evening, so unfortunately my photos came out kind of dark.








Les Marquis de Laduree: They were closed when I walked by. I think I'd prefer their macarons rather than chocolate (don't like chocolate that much) but the chocolates look so beautiful on the website..






On my last night in Paris I walked around the Notre Dame area.


I went for dinner at this place called Cafe Panis, right by the cathedral. The food was pretty good for a touristy spot. I had a nice chat with the waiter, who was pretty excited when he found out I was from Toronto. He lived here for one summer before and really likes it here. I wish we could trade cities.


After the dinner, I went walking and stumbled across Shakespeare and Company, which apparently is quite a famous bookstore? I've seen photos of the shop before, and never knew where it was. It was definitely a cool feeling to randomly find it. This is one of my favourite things about travelling..finally seeing something in person (especially when least expected) after seeing it in photos so many times.

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