USA east cost #1: NYC

A few weeks ago I flew to USA for 2 weeks. It’s been years since the Boyfriend and I wanted to plan this trip with the Boyfriend so I could meet his American family (he is Italian but also American on his mother’s side). The trip was divided in 3 steps: NYC, New England (Newport, Martha’s Vineyard and Boston) and we ended by Virginia (Yorktown and Williamsburg) at his grandmother’s. Unfortunately except short sunny periods, we just had rain, wind and cold temperatures the whole trip. :( 

Let’s start with NYC that I divided in 2 because I had to many pictures to show you. I didn’t know how to divide them so I’ve decided to talk you of the eastern neighborhoods first and then in a 2nd post of the western neighborhoods.

It was my 2nd time in NYC because the 1st time was a few years ago with my family when I visited the main museums and monuments and the Boyfriend obviously knows this city quite well. This is why we decided we will just be strolling around instead of visiting like proper tourists so don’t be surprised if I don’t talk about some very touristic places (for example you won’t see even one picture of the statue of liberty).

First of all let’s talk about the Novotel Time Square hotel, the hotel we stayed in for 2 nights. The design is modern, it’s located in the middle of Time Squares, the breakfast is generous and the beds are so comfy (God bless king size beds). If you’re looking for a a first class hotel (it’s a 4 stars’ hotel) and well located, this is the one!

This is the view from our room, pretty cool hum?

And this is the amazing view from the breakfast room. Too bad that it was pouring rain outside, it must be so nice to have breakfast on this terrace.

Novotel Times Square – 226 W 52nd St, New York, NY 10019

Then we had to go to the M&M’s store (1600 Broadway) to bring some peanut butter M&M’s to the colleagues (the 1kg bag disappeared in less than a week) before going to the Rockefeller Center for some shopping at J. Crew and Anthropologie.

J. Crew – 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112

Anthropologie – 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020

If you like shopping, don’t forget to go on Fifth Avenue because it’s the place where you can find everything from fancy shops to department stores like Urban Outfitters (521 5th avenue) or coffee shops. By the way, I just discovered that Urban Outfitters had its own coffee shop!

Toby’s Estate Coffee – 160 Fifth Avenue

rooftop of the 230 Fifth bar (just show your ID at the entrance and they will let you go up) 

Ralph Lauren Coffee -2nd Floor, 711 5th Ave, New York

In regard to parks, because of the bad weather we didn’t even set foot in Central Park, we just walked along Madison Square Park to enjoy the pretty flowers.

In Madison Square Park there is a Shake shack. I’ve heard so much about this fast food that I definitely wanted to go but of course we couldn’t go to this one because of the rain so we went to the one located in 125 Murray Street (between West Street & North End Ave). I thought it was good but it wasn’t that amazing. However I totally agree that it’s 10x better than MacDo so I wouldn’t say no to a Shake Shack in Paris.

Close to Madison Square there is Eataly, you know the temple of Italian food that I’ve already talked to you about. After going to the one in Torino, Milan and Rome, I went therefore to the one in NYC which is I think as nice as the one in Rome (but my favorite one still is the one in Torino). I can’t wait for Eataly to open in Paris in 2018!!!

Eataly -200 Fifth Avenue

And do you see this dog with its own shoes that we saw in Union Square?! We saw so many of them in the city, everyone is so stylish in NYC, even dogs!

What’s amazing with this city is that you only have to change of district to change the atmosphere so you could almost feel like you’ve moved to another country like in Chinatown or in Little Italy. « Fuhgeddaboudit ! »

For the Boyfriend it almost feels like home.

And the street art in this area is pretty cool.

I’m so happy, I was lucky enough to be able to visit the Facebook and Instagram offices thanks to Kristen that I met at an Instameet in Paris. It’s not the head office because it’s in San Francisco but it was really nice to be able to visit the offices of my favorite app and to discuss with Kristen about it.  I took this opportunity to talk with her about the Instagram update on feed change that everyone panicked about. After all I think it can actually be a good thing because you will still be able to see every pictures, you just will see them in a different order. Plus the time you will post a picture won’t matter anymore which is good especially when you have jet lag in a foreign country.  So don’t stress about it plus I don’t have as many likes as I used to so it can’t be worse…

Facebook office – 770 Broadway

Close by there is Momofuku Noodle Bar, the restaurant empire created by David Chang where the Boyfriend had wanted to go for such a long time. It seems that it’s always full but we were lucky enough to find a table immediately and it was amazing! The Boyfriend even said these were the best ramens he ever had in his life!

Momofuku Noodle Bar -171 1st Avenue

Then, here are some pictures of the financial district where we just did was to come and go.

Above you can see the September 11 Memorial. The memorial is located at the World Trade Center site, the former location of the Twin Towers, which were destroyed during the September 11 attacks. It is made of 2 30m pools where water fall in. The movement of the water represents the collapse of the Twin Towers and the water constantly recycled represents the memory of the American people : “Time passes by but we will never forget.”  It’s impressive and moving!

September 11 Memorial -200 Liberty St

Let’s finish with Brooklyn where we saw the Boyfriend’s great-ant.  This doesn’t mean the trendy Brooklyn, but the “real one” like the Boyfriend says.

Ita is a wonderful person of 95 years old who mixes French, Arab, English and Spanish in the same sentence! I don’t think I have ever met someone who loves life more than she does. She’s an amazing character!

Then we strolled a bit in the “fancy Brooklyn” before going on a transfer boat to enjoy the few glimmers of light.

See you next Friday for some strolls in Chelsea, Upper West side, Greenwich and West village (my favorite area).

Have a good weekend guys!