Live, Love, Eat and Travel

Saturday, May 30, our last full day in Paris came way too early as always happens on a great vacation. The day was just perfect, cloudless with a warm sunny sky and a beautiful little breeze. Den had noticed that there would be a tennis exhibit near the fountains at Hotel de Ville, which was almost across the street from our apartment. The exhibit was a celebration of the French Open, which was on during our trip. There was a full size red clay court set up for exhibition matches and a giant TV screen to watch the real matches. Den stayed almost 2 hours watching and taking pictures, while I shopped rue Rivoli one last time. We wandered over to rue Montorgueil because I really wanted to have lunch at Les Petit Carreaux after hearing rave reviews from Luc and many posters on OPF. Den ordered Caesar salad and I had a planche campagnarde. Den's salad was beautiful, with lots of lardons (bacon), a perfectly runny egg, spinach leaves, anchovies and shards of parmesan. My planche was a huge board filled with slices of spanish ham, a grilled slice of brie, a very fresh side salad and crunchy delicious fried potato slices. We shared a half litre of Sancerre and enjoyed eating on such a busy, people filled market street. We also saw another little restaurant that had been on my list, Les 3 Petit Cochons on rue Tiquitonne.........yet another reason to come back! We sat and people watched for over an hour and then slowly meandered back to the Marais, going through many little streets we hadn't yet explored. We stopped at the Place du Marche St Catherine for a drink and another little rest and were back at the apartment a little after 6pm. We had dinner reservations for 8:30 at Le Vieux Comptoir, a little restaurant in the 1st which we had really enjoyed last week.

We had debated going somewhere new and out of the area (Le Florimond was our first choice) but decided that we wanted to stay close by on our last night and just enjoy walking along the Seine one last time and not worry about taking buses, metros or cabs to where we wanted to go and back. We changed for dinner and left the apartment a little before 7:30. We walked towards the river and enjoyed the sun sparkling off the water and lingered on 4 or 5 of the bridges joining the right bank to Ile de la Cite. Den took his last pictures of the Eiffel Tower in the distance and we walked over to the restaurant, where we enjoyed our final dinner of our May 2009 trip.

Both the chef and the female server recognized us and gave us a great table. We had a nice little rose to start our evening and then made our dinner choices. I had the spectacular roasted figs with ham in a balsamic reduction that Den had had last week and that I had dreamed about since. Den had the duck foie gras, which was melt in your mouth tender. Den chose roasted chicken for his main dish and I had the pavee of rumpsteak, served blue, of course! My steak was perfectly cooked and so delicious and Den really enjoyed his chicken. We asked our server to choose different wines for each of our appetizers and mains and she picked great compliments to our meals. Den had the chocolate moelleux cake for dessert and I chose the tiramisu with armagnac. Den's cake was all melty chocolate goodness and my tiramisu was good but not the out of the ball park hit that our desserts had been last week (in all fairness, our waitress tried to get me to order the fromage blanc again, but I wanted to try something new. I should have let her have her way, she knew better!)

Halfway through our meal, we started talking with the young couple at the table next to us. They were on a lover's weekend, enjoying a break from their 2 young kids. They were from Lille, just an hour north of Paris. They were very cute and sweet and we talked about many things and time just flew by. The chef offered all four of us a digestif and we finally left the restaurant a few minutes before midnight. We walked back to our apartment one last time, enjoying these fleeting moments that signalled an end to our 17 days in Paris. Funny how something that can be so long in the planning (over 8 months) and anticipation can be over so quickly.

We were up early on Sunday, had a last pain au chocolat from our Marais bakery, packed and were downstairs waiting for our airport shuttle a little before 9:30am. CDG really isn't as bad as everyone says it is, it's just another airport where you have to wait in lines several times as you check your bags, get your boarding pass, go through security and finally buy your duty free alcohol! Our flight was uneventful and we were in Montreal by 3pm and home by 6.

We had another wonderful trip and so many great moments...........meeting Jim and Pat by happenstance at Jacques Genin (where we bought the world's most expensive caramels ~ LOL!), having lunch with Luc in the Bastille and getting to see his gorgeous little piece of heaven in Paris, going to the ballet at the Opera Garnier, sharing a cooking experience with Daniel and Marie from Spring, seeing one of our favourite bands in one of our favourite cities (now I can add........"hey, remember when we saw Simply Red in Paris" to last year's "hey, remember when I met Robert Plant in Paris), meeting Annette and her sweet hubby Darryl and sharing a meal with them and Luc, having David Lebovitz sign his new book for us at WHSmith in Paris, discovering some new great restaurants and sharing time with locals over our meals, getting a tour from one of Paris's top chocolate and macaron makers, and so many other moments. Most importantly, I got to share all of these wonderful memories with my hubby of almost 27 years. We both know how lucky we are to be able to experience a trip like this.

During the trip, we kept talking about going to either Greece or Italy next year, comparing plans with people we met and getting suggestions. By the second to last day of our trip, we had started saying, "next year, when we come back to Paris, we'll........." Paris has such a hold on our heads and our hearts! We don't know why, but we get such a thrill while we are there and it's hard to imagine going anywhere else. So who knows where we will end up next year? We'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Thanks to all who had the patience to read my long winded account of our 2009 trip to Paris. See you next year!

We decided we wanted to see the Andy Warhol exhibit at the Grand Palais on Friday, so we walked over to the FNAC near the Bastille and bought tickets for later that day. We took the metro over to the Grand Palais and got off one exit too early so Denis could take pictures of the Obelisque and fountain at Concorde.

There was no line up at the Grand Palais, so we were able to get in relatively quickly. We spent almost 2 hours looking at the many examples of Andy Warhol's genius and ingenuity. We are not really big art buffs, but it was really cool to see how Warhol changed the concept of art and commercialism. There were so many examples of his pop culture art and we were surprised at how many celebrities, politicians and business bigshots he had access to. We were a little disappointed that we didn't have access to see more of the Grand Palais, but that just gives us another reason to come back next year!

We left the Grand Palais and walked over to the 7th. I wanted to check out Le Florimond to see if we wanted to have our last dinner there tomorrow night. The little restaurant looked very inviting and the menu very interesting, but we were too late for lunch, so we walked back to Blvd Tour Maubourg and had lunch on a terrace of a bistro on the corner of Maubourg and Motte Picquet. Food was what you get when you don't do your homework and settle for location over substance. Den's Veal Moreno was OK, but my moules frites was horrendous, skimpy little mussels in a bucket of dishwater........yuck! Oh well, one bad meal in 17 days and it was my own fault for not having more options chosen beforehand. We walked over to a tiny park across the street called Square Santiago de Chili, right behind Invalides and had a little rest (ok, maybe a little nap) on a bench in the sunshine. We walked a little bit more after our break and took the metro back to our place late in the afternoon. We had dinner reservations with Luc and another member of the OPF board who had flown in from California with her hubby just that morning. Luc had made reservations at Le Zimmer in the 1st at 1 Place de Chatelet. We met Luc outside the restaurant a few minutes before 8pm and Annette and her hubby Darryl joined us a couple of minutes later.

Le Zimmer is a beautiful old fashioned brasserie which has been in operation for over 100 years. We had a lovely table in the back and started with champagne and got to know each other a little better. The internet is such a wonderful thing in its ability to bring different board members from all over the world together. We had a wonderfully leisurely dinner and shared many stores and laughs. Den had a vegetable millefeuille as his appetizer and a Gambas (shrimp) risotto for his main. I had the pate as my starter and a wonderfully moist and delicious salmon steak for dinner. Everyone enjoyed their meals and especially the company and Annette and Darryl were real troopers for staying up so late on their arrival day, after a 10 hour flight and a 9 hour time difference! We all walked over to the nearest bridge and Den took his pictures of the group overlooking the Seine. We said goodnight to our new friends from California and Luc walked us back to our apartment where we hugged and promised to see each other soon. This was the perfect end to another wonderful day in Paris.

We had a 10am visit of the Gerard Mulot location on rue de la Glaciere in the 13th, which we had booked through the Meeting the French website. Let me tell you, this is a steal at 10 euros per person. We took the metro to the Glaciere exit and the outlet is about a five minute walk from the metro station. We met our charming guide and the other people who would join the tour with us outside the store and we went in right at 10am. We were given a great tour which lasted about 1 hour. Mulot has 3 stores in Paris, but everything for all three places is made at this outlet in the 13th. First, we were taken to the back room where they make the famous macarons de Gerard Mulot. We met Patrick, who has been making macarons for M Mulot for over 20 years. It's only in the last few years that the process has become somewhat automated, with a new machine spewing out the macaron shells about 40 at a time. It's still a very labour intensive process and all the fillings are hand squeezed onto the shells. We learned that the shells themselves don't have any different flavourings, they are all made from the same almond paste dough, just the colouring is different. It's the fillings that are flavoured and what flavours they are ~ almond, coffee, caramel, lemon, raspberry, chocolat, nougat, pistachio, coconut, and then the seasonal ones depending on what's appropriate for spring/summer or fall/winter. There are endless flavours and I hope to one day be able to taste them all! We were given samples of the ones they were making at the time, which were grapefruit and nougat. Yum, yum, yum.........

Then we were led to the temple of decadence, the chocolate room! The young man there was very proud of his art and was willing to show us how they made all the different kinds of ganaches, chocolate bars, fruit jellies, marshmellows ( which I don't usually like, but these are nothing like the Kraft marshmellows we are used to back home! They are infused with all kinds of different flavours and are just melt in your mouth delicious) Again, the process is all hand made and very labour intensive, which helps explain the high prices of these little pieces of heaven. The ganaches take up to 2 days to make!! Again, we were given samples of what they were working on at the time and then at the end of the tour, we were given a little goodie bag of different kinds of chocolates and a macaron. I'm sure that the price of the tour was amply covered between the samples we ate on site and what we were given to take with us.

The tour ended a little after 11am and we rolled out of the store in a chocolate-induced haze of happiness. We decided we needed to walk off our goodies and so we started walking down rue D'Alesia. We crossed from the 13th to the 14th almost immediately and took D'Alesia all the way to Didot, stopping a few times at the destockages and degriffe places along the way. We had come shopping on this street known for outlets last year (Sonia Rykel and Cacharel both have stores on the street and there are many places selling last year's Diesel, Marlboro Classics, etc jeans, shoes, and shirts). No luck with the shopping this time but it was cool to explore another area more completely. We ended up at the Montparnasse Cemetary and saw a few of the "famous" graves, including Larouse (the dictionary guy), and Serge Ginsbourg, along with many other less famous, but no more less impressive tombstones. We walked around in the peace and quiet for over 30 minutes and then hunger started to rear its ugly head. I had told my friend Diane at work that I would check out the location of the hotel she is staying at in September, the Hotel Royal on Blvd Raspail and it turned out to be a few minutes from the cemetary, just past the Lycee Paul Bert. We took pictures for her and then headed over to Blve Montparnasse to find lunch. We saw all the famous places like Le Dome, La Coupole and Le Relais de L'Entrecote, but I had looked up my Pudlos for a lunch place in the area and had found Parnasse 138 as a good bet. It was just a little off the more heavily trafficked part of Montparnasse, but it was worth the walk. There was no English being spoken and obviously a few regulars having lunch. They have several lunch specials available from a large menu, ranging from 12.90 to 18.90 for either 2 or 3 courses. You just get more choices with the higher price ranges. I had an old fashioned blaquette de veau and Den has a rumsteak. Both were very nice, nothing exciting but good value for our lunch $$. Den had an iced nougat for dessert, which he really enjoyed. Fortified once more, we strolled over to Jardin de Luxembourg and then over into the 6th. We leisurely walked around, enjoying going down some different little roads until we crossed over the Seine and walked back to our Marais apartment. We did quite a lot of walking today, but it was at a nice slow pace.

We freshened up and had a quick supper of leftovers and decided to walk to the Oylmpia on Blvd des Capucines in the 2nd for our Simply Red concert. We got there with minutes to spare, but we could have been late since there was an opening act. Once Simply Red took the stage, the place went wild (well, as wild as aging Baby Boomers can go!). Den and I both love this band, with their jazzy/bluesy songs belted out by the golden voiced Mick Hucknall. We had seen them in Montreal about 15 years ago and his voice is still as strong and clear as it was then. They sang all their hits and did 2 encores. The concert ended a little before 11 and it was such a clear cool night, we decided to walk as long as we could. We walked past Opera Garnier all lit up like a birthday cake and down Avenue de L'Opera and down off a bunch of little side streets, always toward the Marais. We found a little sports bar called the Sous Bock and sat down for one drink, which turned into 2 and then even into 3!! We sat outside and people watched for almost 2 hours and stumbled home from our latest night out this trip. We laughed and giggled and drank our mohitos and were silly middle aged people who were having a great time. This was a long, long day but it was also one of our best days. Between chocolate and great live music, we had great food, dead people, lots of walking and drinking and just enjoying being in this great city.

We had a wonderful dinner at Le fils des Saisons to end our day. The restaurant is on a tiny street called rue des Fontaines du Temples, almost across the street from Square Temple. There is no sign on the door indicating the name but there is a chalkboard menu in the window.

The restaurant is very intimate, with about 8 tables. Wood beams across the ceiling and stone walls give it a very cozy air. This is a nice place for a quiet dinner, there is no loud music or shouting going on, just a nice refined atmosphere without the stuffiness. I had never heard of this restaurant until we were recommended it by a local we met in another restaurant last week, but when I googled the name, it came up on several Paris sites and blogs and got universally good reviews. It remains off the main radar screen of tourists, but that's OK, that's probably why we were able to get a reservation on 1 day's notice.

We were served a very fresh tomato soup as an ameuse guele . Our charming waitress helped us chose a nice wine to go with our dining choices and served us a spear of 3 little breads, all homemade by the chef/owner. We told her who had recommended we come here and she recognized the name immediately and said that he was a very loyal customer and lived right around the corner.

Den had the home made duck foie gras served warm over sliced sausage in a beautiful cream sauce. I had the St Jacques (scallops) simply and barely sauteed in a butter sauce. Both entrees were delicious, but Den's foie gras was just decadent,a melt in your mouth wonder. We followed up with 7 hour duck confit served with foie gras for me and andouillette for Den. My duck was one of these French classics I dream about when I'm not in Paris! The skin was crispy, the meat was fall off the bone tender and the foie gras on top was like winning the lottery. The chef makes his own foie gras, as well as his bread and even his ice cream. This little place is a real authentic gem with very reasonable prices (36 euros for 3 courses and I think our wine was 24 euros for a very nice red that stood up to the heavy food, sorry, I can't remember the name!) Den loved his andouillette, this was the second time this trip he had ordered this French classic. Dessert was the palette of ice cream for Den and the creme brulee for me. The ice cream is actually served on a plate that looks like an artist's paint palette, with 5 different flavours (and colours, of course) spread out like paint colours. I had 3 little pots of different flavoured creme brulees, which were nice and crisp on top and yummy and smooth inside. Den has a jasmine tea infusion and our total bill was less than 100 euros.

The owner came out to talk to us as we were finishing up our dessert. We chatted about 20 minutes about how we came to be at his place, our love of Paris and our trip so far, Parisians in general, and his love of his restaurant. We were the last ones to leave and we were very happy to have met that well-informed guy last week who so far has steered us to two of the best meals we've had so far!

We decided to explore a few undiscovered areas today. We took the metro to Place Charles de Gaulles and walked down Wagram Avenue to Place des Ternes. I wanted to visit the tiny Poncelet market and see some of the side streets in the area. We also found the Russian Orthodox Cathedrale St Alexandre Nevsky, but it wasn't open to visitors today. We walked over to beautiful Parc de Monceau (thanks, Luc!) and ate our takeout lunch of foccachia and cannoli we had picked up at a little Italian place on Poncelet.

We sat and strolled around the park for almost an hour, Den took lots of pictures of little kids enjoying the park, lovers oblivious to everyone else and the wonderful gardens and trees which fill this beautiful oasis. We then walked over to the Batignolles area, enjoying the neighborhood feel of the little streets with many bakeries, wineries, cheese shops, cafes, bars, restaurants, etc. We sat at Square des Batignolles for a little while. Even the smallest parks are so well kept and maintained in Paris, they are a joy to sit in and enjoy. We walked down Brochant and found the bus stop for the 74 going back to Hotel de Ville. As we were waiting for our bus, Den spotted a tiny little creperie across the street on Avenue de Clichy called Le Bouquet. We scurried across the busy intersection and enjoyed freshly made crepes and cafe cremes. We were the only 2 people in the tiny place and we talked to the owner about Northern Quebec, of all places! Every year, he and a group of like minded crazy people go snowmobiling in the wilds of Chibougamou in the middle of winter. He said they travel about 2000 kilometeres during the 2 weeks that they are there! I told him that in January and February, I try to minimize my time outside and just run from my house to my car to my work and back every day. We finished our perfect little pick me up and caught the bus back to the apartment. I really like taking different buses and seeing different streets and views.

We have reservations at Le Fil des Saisons in the Upper Marais. This is another recommendation from the Parisian man we met at the little Italian restaurant early in our trip and the first place he sent us to, Au Vieux Comptoir, was so good, we decided to try his second pick.

A demain...........