Design Dolcezza

Today was my very late day at school. Tom had his own adventure walking (yes, walking!) the whole length of central Paris to meet me at the Louvre. He took some great photos on the way with his cell phone...

I literally spent the whole day and evening at the Louvre (the museum closes at 10:00pm on Wednesdays and Fridays), except for my two meal breaks (lunch at Pomme de Pain, a chain of sandwich places, and dinner with Tom at the Louvre's cafe). Quite exhausting even if you're not 28 weeks pregnant!

I got to play tour guide for Tom and showed him all the masterpieces I had learned about.

St-Etienne-du-Mont

Then we walked to the Pantheon and they closed the gate before our eyes!

To console me, Tom suggested we visited a fabulous patisserie we found nearby; we got beautiful tarts for our dessert later. Such a yummy bargain!

We thought about a picnic, but every meal's a picnic (without ants) when you dine on the sidewalk in Paris, so we ate at L'ecriture, right in front of La Sorbonne. I had lamb chops, and Tom had a humongous veal chop in a cream sauce. Both were very tasty, indeed.

My first day of school, and my first adventure on the Paris bus system. I like it, because you get to see the city and have more ventilation than on the metro. Plus, people give up their seat for you if you're handicapped, pregnant, have small children, or are elderly.

Class was light today because many of my collegues were victims of le fuse horaire ("jet lag"; they haven't been here all week like us)... more orientation still, and we didn't see any exhibitions yet.

Tom and I decided to go to Montmartre, to the glorious Sacre Coeur which we could see from our terrace through a threatening sky. We took the Abesse stop (don't ever do it... about 8000 steps just to get to street level), and when we finally reached the surface, it was raining a`verse....

Once it lightened up a bit, we began "death march number two" to the top of Montmartre.... not just to the top of the hill (the butte), we climbed all the way up the Dome of Sacre Coeur, the highest point in Paris. Spectacular!



We came down once dome closing time came and couldn't go into the crypt because that was closing, too. We did examine the enormous interior of the cathedral, however, before descending on the funiculaire.

Our primary mission fulfilled, we set off for the secondary target, a famous bohemian tavern called the Lapin Agile ("agile rabbit" ). I hurt my ankle descending the slippery street towards it, and it was closed! A sign said it was open everyday... but Monday, argh! We went back up the hill and mercifully found shelter from the storm in a cozy old restaurant. We revived oursleves with a plate of lyonnaise meats, escargots (the only place they weren't served in the shell during our whole stay), boeuf bourgignon, and rumsteak. A very meaty dinner! In the back room was a caberet show (attended by a bunch of half-drunk American kids on a tour), so the place had atmosphere in spades.

We strolled the neighborhood some more (the rain had passed) with a dessert of gelato before taking the metro home again.

Started off with noon mass at Notre Dame (front pew), strolled around the public areas of l'Hôtel Dieu (the oldest hospital in Paris, which proximity to Notre Dame kept the radicals from buring down the great cathedral during the Revolution)...

or as the French call it, La Fete Nationale

Early start today so we could get to the big military parade on the Champs-Elysees. We crossed a side street where numerous arnmored vehicles were formed up, as if in war movie, waiting for parade to commence.

As we approached the next side street, we were stopped by the gendarmes; they closed off Rue Wagram right in front of us... then, wonder of wonders, we saw the whole of the Republican Guard Cavalry were formed up in all their finery just a few feet away. They gallop forward in precision and lined both sides of the street, sabres drawn up in salute.

After an eternity it seemed, someone asked the officer what was going on: we were waiting for the president of the Republique, Sarkozy, to drive by! Moments later helicopters roared low and loud overhead, startling the steeds so that they could barely be restrained... and suddenly, a motorcade raced by with the gloved hand of the president waving to us all! They came by so fast that we couldn't get a photo, and the rearing horses blocked Tom's video, but, oh, it was dramatic! Though more pagentry was to come, this miraculous treat was the day's highlight.

A few minutes later they opened the barricade, and we continued on our way towards the parade route.

We found a spot with a pretty good view of L'arc de Triomphe, so we could see everything (though later tonight, I had time to read the newspaper which had a play by play of today's events, and it seems like we were too far up on the Champs: we missed all the foot soldiers, representing 27 countries, a first for this parade).

A soldier played the bagpipes, and out of nowhere, jets came screaming over the giant arch trailing tri-color smoke, red-white-and-blue, from their exhausts; they disappeared past us down the great avenue, literally covering it with the Frech flag! More squadrons followed, then came all kinds of tanks, armored trucks, troop carriers, the firemen (they're part of the military, too), and finally helicopter squadrons. The French know how to do a parade!

It seems like this holiday has gone a bit commercial; many shops were on the avenue to take adavantage of the throngs (and I mean throngs) of tourists. We took advantage by going to Monoprix, the "hypermarket." We got the fixin's for a picnic on our terrace: rilletes de canard, Roquefort, and a club jambon. Yum!

We had thought about going to the the Champ d'Mars under the Eiffel Tower tonight to watch the fireworks (at least I did), but after finding out that there would be a free concert there, too, and that the metro afterwards is a nightmare, we decided to play it safe for my sake and stay in. We watched the concert on TV, and you couldn't even see the lush grass because between five and six-hundred-thousand people were already there! Oh la la! With the view from our balcony, we got to enjoy the fireworks without the agony of being surrounded by a million people (the total by the end of the night). Tom shot footage of the fireworks for a long time; it's really great! The French take their feu d'artifice as seriously as we Americans...

As in Rome, of course, in Paris history seems an every day part of life...

Contrary to their contemporary reputation, at least in the United States, the French seem deeply devoted to all things military.

Late start today for us; went down for breakfast around 1o:30.

Since Tom doesn't want to ride the metro far, we took the RER which also has a station very close to our lodging; the ride is more pleasant, but the trains a bit less frequent. It took about a half hour to get to our stop: Notre Dame. It's nice to see it again now that I can fully appreciate its architecture (of course, even great cathedrals look like toys to us when our visit to St. Peter's in Rome is so fresh in our minds). Tom just revelled in the place, both spiritually and intellectually. We got an audioguide and explored almost everything, exiting after five hours at 5:45pm. We just missed getting in to climb to the top of the tower by seconds. We also missed going into the archaelogical crypt for time reasons as well... another day, then.

We walked along the river to our dinner destination: it used to be a Parisan truck stop but today it's just a charming old french brasserie. Tom's rather sure a film is going to be shot there later tonight... we saw girls being made up, trailers, and guys setting up cones to block new people from parking on the street. Having been in the business, Tom picked up on this way before I did. We took it easy for dinner today: we both had quiche, Tom's was lorraine while I had three-fromages with salad and potatoes (yum... as Tom says, "Toonce's style").

We were thinking of going to a Bastille Day ball tonight, but my feet are killing me... and the baby has found just where to lay to aggravate my sciatic nerve.

Had yummy breakfast buffet in the lobby (assorted hams, hard-boiled eggs, cheeses, fresh fruit and rolls, yogurt, and wonderful warm pan au chocolat for dessert with juice and coffee served by a waitress).

Then had to gather our bags together because the room we stayed in was only for the first night. We are now in a special room, probably the most special of all here because we have a terrace with an incredible view of the Eiffel Tower, L'arc de Triomphe, and Sacre Coeur!

After breakfast and packing up (the staff hauled our bags to the new room while we were out), we set out to get a France Telecom SIM card for my phone so that Tom and I can keep in touch when I'm at the Louvre taking classes. Another slightly chilly day in Paris, unless you're in a store: they have no air-conditioning... and a bit of rain at times, too.

From the store, we walked up to see our neighbor, L'arc de Triomphe. We examined it from every angle possible from the ground.... our trip to the top will have to be postponed for a day that's less windy!

We lunched at Chez Clement... what cute decor (all-copper spoons and colanders are sculptural elements here). Tom had a quarter of "Red Label" chicken and I had duck confit... both came with mashed potatoes (the yummiest ever!).

Took the Metro to Les Invalides....We explored the military museums (Never had I seen so much armor in my life! The Metropolitan has like 1% of the collection here!), and the beautiful Dome Church, which houses Napoleon's tomb (Now, I've seen the tomb before in books, and you think... a tomb is a tomb, but this thing is gigantic! It's 5m high and 4m wide. Wild!).

Then we trekked back home on the Metro... Tom almost go suffocated by the dumb kids who kept piling into our car despite there being no room, but we got home safely. I went out and got us some take-out sandwiches at a nearby cafe (the french really know how to do sandwiches) and we had a very late supper on our terrace.

We arrived in Paris around 745am local time, got our bags and met with our driver from the hotel. He spoke to me often during the ride and said we were the first Americans he had ever met that were spending three weeks in Paris!

We made good time until we were just about to enter the city... then the traffic jam, so we didn't make it to our hotel until about 9:30.

The hotel is really cute and comfy... the air conditioning is a little anemic, however, by Yankee standards. Happily, it's about 15 degrees cooler than it was in Philadelphia.

We pretty much just took a shower, napped, strolled our neighborhood, and then dined at Le bistro du 17ieme as recommended by the concierge. I had pate de foi gras, and then because I didn't read carefully.... my entree was veal kidneys with pasta (very french and really very delicious). I had pralined ice cream for dessert. Tom had escargots, magret de canard, and crepes with grand marnier. Both our desserts were 'house specialties', but mine was better than his.

We got to the airport three and a half hours early driving through the rain to make sure we wouldn't be late. Went through security withouth a hitch (well they did search one of my bags... but they didn't find anything), unlike when we went to Italy in December. We passed our time enjoying the cushy seats and free food (and libations) in the Envoy Lounge.

Boarded the plane, and enjoyed our mimosas... one of the perks of flying First, ahem Envoy, Class. The attendants gave us our menus and we choose our entrees and beverages. We had a lovely salad of mixed field greens with breaded goat cheese. I had the duck breast with oriental barbeque sauce and Tom had a decent Chablis with his macadamia-encrusted fish. This was followed by a cheese plate and some dainty pastries.

I slept well on our cushy chairs... so much room, my feet don't even touch the ground; Tom can stretch his long legs all the way out and not touch the seat in front! He watched some movie... and miraculously with the flying over the time zones and stuff, about three hours later it was time for a breakfast of yogurt with muesli and a croissant, then our descent to Roissy Charles deGaulle airport.