Bye Bye France!

Welcome Back to Air India!

Where the food is spicy and the movie is hard to follow...

Oscar Wilde Hotel

Sawyer from "Lost" was not in attendance. Still very "hip" (that's what the kids are saying nowadays, right?).

Chocolate!

My Little Flower

Le Pre Verre

The above depicts one of the best desserts we have ever had. It's strawberries and parsley, with parsley ice cream. Sounds stasnge, right? It is, but it's totally awesome. This restaurant was probably the culinary highlight of the trip. It's a young(ish) chef creating inventive French dishes. It seemed as if most of the (many) patrons were French as well. Merri had Veal wth onions and peppers in a vanilla (not sweet) sauce that was dynamite and I had Cochon de Lait (kind of like veal, but piglet instead of baby cow) with a cream sauce and cinnamon/fennel/asian pepper. Also amazing. If you're ever in Paris, this restaurant is a must!

More Monet

Big ups to Annie Green for g-chatting with me just a minute ago! Annie fell off her bike when she went to Monet's gardens, but she got right back up and soldiered on. We can all learn something from the courageous Ms. Green.

Mer Gets the Hang of it

And Dan realizes that it's kinda difficult to take pictures whilst riding a bike.

Maison Monet

Mer strikes a high-school yearbook pose.

Monet's Gardens

Do You Know the Way

to Claude Monet?

Picnic by the Seine

These ducks wanted to picnic too.

Mer Gets Her Bike On

Item! Don Polec Spotted in Paris!

It's probably a statement on my mental condition that I was about as star struck as I have ever been with the prospect that Action News' own Don Polec (from the ever-entertaining "Don Polec's World") was booked on our Giverny bike tour today. I had visions of swapping stories about our respective experiences as "newsies" (avid Dan Slawe fans will recall that I was featured on the "opening credits" segment for at least one half-second in 1981). But, alas, Wacky Don (as I've just begun to call him) was booked on LAST week's Giverny tour and was unable to attend (I guess Don and I have something else in common). Ah, what could have been - me and Don, riding side-by-side (maybe there would even have been a two-man bycicle) wind blowing through our hair..... but it was not to be. I guess you might say Don really made a good first "impressionist." Maybe if he offered the tour guide a little more "Monet," he could have snuck on. Daniel Slawe, Action News.
UPDATE: He's here! Ol' Don was undeterred by the bike tour snafu and made the trip to Giverny anyway (remind you of a certain Versailles-tour-missing pair?). I was able to profess my fandom and even catch some Polec wit ("If I take my glasses off it looks just like the paintings.") Classic.

Monet's Gardens

Off to a bike tour of Monet's gardens...should be a fun day! Mom and Lisa - I hope you are having a great mother-daughter long weekend in California!

Le Coupe Chou

Merri and I had a very special dinner here on our honeymoon, so its only natural that we'd spend our first anniversary night here as well. If there is a more romantic restaurant in the world, I'd sure like to see it (no, we haven't been to "two if by sea" or whatever it's called). We started with some champagne in the salon followed by dinner: duck terrine and salad (egg and bacon - mer says: "it's like breakfast for dinner!") For hors d'oeuvres and tartare and escargot (just look at that "S" car go!) for main courses. For dessert - chocolate mousse, bien sur!

Berthillion Ice Cream

Supposedly the best in Paris. I believe it - this is some fine ice cream - I just hope it doesn't spoil our special anniversary dinner at Le Coupe Chou...

Memorial de la Shoah

Holocaust Memorial

The "Other" 3 Ducks

("Les Trois Poussins" means "the three ducklings"). Eric and I stayed at this hostel when we were but fresh-faced college juniors, our whole European campaign ahead of us.

Malongo Cafe

Big ups to Mike and Lisa for the cafe recommendation!

40€ worth of dog treats later...

We may or may not have just purchased Foie Gras for the buf...

Bon Anniversaire du Marriage!

M+D=4EVA

Student Protest

What are they protesting? I don't know. My guess: something wine/cheese-related.

Day 6 (26 May) - Recap

This day (please note that I have moved the Day 5 recap to it´s chronological place on the page - scroll down past yesterday´s posts to see it) started with us having to pack up all of our belongings (again) and catching a cab to our new hotel on the Rive Gauche (left bank). The hotel is just ok, but it´s in a fabulous neighborhood, just steps from the Parthenon and the Sorbonne and all of the other lefty sights. Our first order of business was to cross the river back to the right bank (with a quick stop to gawk at Notre Dame) to re-visit the Jewish Quarter. It was much more lively today, with lots of beards and kippahs. We grabbed some falafel and a sandwich (which was more French than Jewish) and headed over to the Jewish History museum. We walked around for awhile (past the Centre Pompidou) in the rain and then went to Sainte-Chapelle for an evening concert including Vivaldi´s Four Seasons (I´ll post some videos when I have time to upload them). It was a spectacular way to avoid waiting in the humongous line that always snakes out of Sainte Chapelle. After the concert, we went back to the hotel to change for dinner and eat some charcuterie/fromage purchased along the way. Dinner was at Brasserie Lipp. You may or may not remember that we tried to go here on our honeymoon, but got rejected because someone was wearing shorts (a big no-no, I guess). Well, this time, we got right in (I love pants!) and proceeded to not understand a word on the menu (I suspect this was on purpose, because there weren´t even any French descriptions - you just had to know what they had there). I never thought I´d utter the phrase "maybe this is too much pork for me," but after an appetizer of pork covered in mustard/mayonnaise, I was served a heaping plate of sauerkraut with about 50 different kinds of sausages/bacons/other pork products. The place is famous for being exclusive and also because it was apparently Ernest Hemingway´s fave spot, but we found the food only so-so, and the prices a bit ridiculous. After running away from Cafe des Fleurs after seeing their crazy prices, we had a nice pistachio ice-cream based treat and cognac at a cafe around the corner before heading back to the Moderne for bed-time.

Day 5 (25 May) - Recap

Oops, we did it again! After rescheduling our aborted Versailles tour from yesterday to today, we got lost trying to find the tour agency office and missed the tour again. While the woman at the agency was understandably irate at our tardiness, she did thoughtfully agree to re-book us on a bike tour of Monet´s Gardens on Wednesday at a more manageable 10:40 a.m. We decided that we would not be deterred and so we went to Versailles anyway. Good choice. If you haven´t been to Versailles, there´s really no adequate way to describe it. Picture the biggest building you can imagine (not tallest, just biggest), double it, and then cover it in gold. Throw in landscaped gardens that are roughly the size of Rhode Island and I think you´re getting the picture. There is actually a town of Versailles with a lively food market and so, naturally, that was our first stop (well, second, if you count our stop for croissants and cafe). We picked up some fresh fruit and grilled chicken wings (plus beer, of course) and headed up the road to the palace. We sat and stared at the building (as well as the 16 mile long line to get in) for a while as we ate our lunch. We then proceeded to skip the line by showing our Museum Passes at a side entrance and playing stupid American ("playing") until the woman agreed to let us inside. Score! Once inside, we listened to the Rick Steves´s audio podcast tour of the royal apartments and got to see such highlights as the hall of mirrors (where I also learned that 'La Galerie des Glaces' is not a room full of ice cream), the King and Queen´s private bedrooms (they´re separated for ease of adultery), and the chapel, which would be the largest church in almost any city in the world. Then it was off to explore the gardens. On this particular day (as on most weekend days in the summer) the gardens, instead of free, were 8 Euros (or 6 for poor students like us). The extra money was because they had the fountains going (more on that later). We strolled around (and stopped for crepe), saw a water show or two, got some wine and french fries at the cafe, and hopped the train back to Paris. A quick change and we headed up to Au Lapin Agile, a 200 year old cabaret (which has probably never been cleaned or renovated) where we saw a bunch of different performers in a tiny room with about 25 French people who seemed to know all of the words to every song. Apart from having no idea what was going on (and apparently not getting any of the jokes), it was a very cool experience.

Concert at St. Germain

The first few days of our trip nicely coincided with the final days of the Saint Germain Jazz Festival. While at fnac to get our museum passes, we were able to score tickets to Friday night´s (23 May)concert in the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. It was a piano concert given by Yaron Herman, an Israeli-born virtuoso jazz pianist. We showed up at the church at the given time and were escorted to the general admission (Placement Libre) section. The lights were dim and the sun was setting, so the stained-glass gave off an eerie blue glow the whole time, which added to the jazziness of the evening. The interior lights dimmed and M. Herman came out to raucous applause. I suppose most of the people in there probably knew who he was and, considering this was the final concert of the three week festival, we probably should have know who he was too. Then he began to play and the whole church filled with music. I was unfamiliar with most of the tunes, but he played them with such vigor that, when combined with the awesomeness of the venue, they really hit home. I snuck up around the side and down the arcade for a closer look, it was a little creepy walking around such a big church in almost pitch blackness (it was dark by this time). M. Herman finished to some serious applause and played some more familiar tunes as encores, though the way he played them, you kind of had to wait for the tune to break free from the improvisation. He played "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav," "Halleluyah," and finished off with "Hatikvah." Here are some videos (the videos are why this post was delayed - internet connections around here are slooooooooow):


"Yerushalayim Shel Zahav"


"Halleluyah"

In case you were wondering what Buford has been up to...

He's been enjoying the beautiful flowers on Van Pelt Street...

Brasserie Lipp

Sainte Chapelle

We saw a chamber orchestra play Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" here.

Jewish Museum

Alfred Dreyfus (and a ridiculous amount of security) stands guard.

Merri is a Saint!

Or at least she must be to put up with me. ba-ZING!

Lunch in the Jewish Quarter

Grabbed a quick nosh (or as the French say: "le nosh") before going to the Jewish Museum.

Postcards!

Is one of these for you? Wait by your mailbox to find out!

Some Church

It's pretty nice I guess.

Fraanch Fries

The Neptune Fountain

Apparently they only turn the water on on weekends at certain hours. I can see why - these things are pretty spectacular and must use a lot of water! Not as good as the Bellagio, though.*

* interesting tidbit - the same guys who did the Bellagio fountain are doing the one at the new Comcast Center in philly. I can't wait to see it!

Good to be the King

Sitting by the huge Neptune fountain. Even with the throngs of tourists here it's still really peaceful. The palace looms on the hill ahead while the rest of the gardens stretch out for miles to my left. The fish are jumping out of the water. They must be the great great great grand-fish of Louis the XIV's. It really must have been good to be the king - with fountains (and everything else) coming to life as you approach. Still, I guess I'd miss sushi and Lost in HD - though I guess the non-stop butt-kissing would be a nice substitute...

Versailles Gardens