Paris 2010-7

25 Octobre (Lundi) - Started with a trip to G-20 for a few essentials and some chocolate.  All of a sudden I have this craving for chocolate.  Wonder where that came from?

Then, we bundled up and hopped the métro to Italie2 in the 13é.  I love riding the Ligne 6 métro  (be sure to scroll to the bottom for some very good pictures) because a lot of it is above ground.  Of course, my favorite part is when it passes la Tour Eiffel and la Seine.  Fantastic views of both!  This has been a strange Paris visit, because I am alternately loving and hating it.  A lot of the hate is caused by the very cold weather, of course.

In Italie2, we came across Celio, and since everyone was staring at my Dolphin cap, I bought a cap that looked really nice and even has a 'bill'. Unfortunately, when I got out into the cold, the wind just whipped through it like I was wearing nothing. Drat, I HATE the cold, and especially the windy cold!  Robb bought another suitcase similar to mine with four wheels.  The guy who invented them is most definitely a genius.  Now, if only they came in a size just a little larger.

Because of the suitcase, we took a taxi back.  During the ride we saw these signs, the Panthéon, Notre Dame, the Louvre the statue represents the city of Marseille.  We also saw they are working on the Louvre, but I couldn't get a good picture from our side of the Seine.
      

Dinner tonight at Chez Clément, the site of our first meal in Paris this trip.  The staff was much more friendly this time.  In fact, the guy who gave us a hard time before, was nowhere to be seen.  My dinner consisted of Crème de champignons "Maison" (a really great mushroom soup), Travers de porc au miel et épices, pommes Pont-Neuf (I found the description of the French fries quite funny and the pork was ribs which I would not have ordered had I known, even though they were also very good).  Coupe Mont-Blanc was the dessert and it is an ice cream sundae with chestnut sauce. Robb's dinner started with Salades fraîches de saison (salad with cabbage and jicama).  He then had Noix de Saint-Jacques, légumes oubliés (scallops and forgotten veggies - which were forgotten because we didn't recognize most of them).  His dessert was Tarte Tatin à l'envers et sa crème fraîche d'Isigny (an apple tart with créme fraîche which is sort of like whipped cream but not).

26 Octobre (Mardi) - Walked to the 30 Bus stop.  Just acoss the street was a pharmacie, so we went over and I bought a package of PepcidDuo.  Then back to the bus stop.  We rode the 30 Bus to the Trocadero to check out the Architecture Museum.  I knew it would be closed today, but I wasn't exactly certain where it was located or how to enter.  We both saw it as soon as we got off the bus and walked to the corner.  There are several other things in the Palais de Chaillot (commonly called the Trocadero, but the Trocadero is actually the name of the area, not the building) and there is a ticket office there which was open.  I asked the guy there how to get to the Architucture Museum and he obliged with the information I needed.  We're not sure yet, if we're going tomorrow or Thursday.

After getting my information, we went out and walked a little.  I took the obligatory pictures: the golden statues with a view of la Tour Eiffel, Apollon Musagète (Apollo), and a picture of some of the knock-off copies being sold by the blacks.

We caught the bus back and stopped into Brasserie l'Étoile for a café.

Dinner at Thai Siam on Avenue Wagram. It's a very prettily decorated place, as are most oriental restaurants. We wanted to sit at one of the window tables, but after only a couple minutes, we became aware of why we were the only ones sitting in that area. It was freezing and actually felt like they had the air conditioning on. We moved to an inside table. My dinner began with Ho Mok Pla (steamed fish in a white curry sauce). Robb had Pet Yang (roasted duck with veggies). We drank Pinot Noir d'Alsace, which was listed as a rosé, but was red. For dessert, we both had the Beignet de Banane (flambé bananas), we didn't like it.


Upon leaving, I took a picture of l'Arc de Triomphe at night.

27 Octobre (Mercredi) - Woke up to no hot water this morning. The water heater is one of those that only heats the water as you use it. It's another love-hate relationship. I love the way it saves on electricity, but so far, I've never seen one that heats enough water for a full shower. Ours works on gas, so apparently the gas had been turned off for some reason. 

Around 14h15, while Robb was out getting bread, a repairman came to check the gas in the apartment. All was well and he left. I tried the water, but it wasn't heating. That meant it had to be reset. I called Jean-Michel and he told me how to do it, so now we have hot water again.


When Robb returned, we walked down and got the 30 Bus to the Trocadero and Palais de Chaillot, with the intention of checking out La Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine (the City of Architecture and Heritage). "Mais au'jourdhui il est fermée" (but today it is closed). We asked but no one has any idea when it will re-open. So we came out and I took a couple photos, statue of Foch and a couple of buildings on Avenue du President Wilson.


Since we couldn't do that, we thought we would go back, get the métro and check out the Louvre. We haven't been there in ages.


The first problem was we got off at the Louvre-Rivoli station, from which we used to be able to enter the Louvre. No longer, but I did get an example of how Paris is changing (and not for the better). This copy of an ancient relief has been in this station since before our first visit and had suffered no damage.  How sick must one be to do this kind of damage?


 We climbed the steps to the sidewalk and started to the museum, when I detoured to get a photo of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois. When the Louvre was still a royal palace, this was the royal church. Just around the corner, on rue de Rivoli, is l'Église Réformée de l'Oratoire du Louvre. A little further down the street is the Conseil d'Etat (Council of State) and the Hôtel du Louvre.

It was only minutes later that everything went to hell and Robb managed to get himself lost. He says one of those supposedly deaf people accosted him and he lost sight of me. I guess I need to explain that Robb never walks beside me, he always walks a couple of steps behind. And, of course, when he gets lost, he never stops, he continues to wander around, so I would have to get really lucky to find him, especially in a crowd like there was today in that area. I waited for quite awhile until it became obvious he wasn't going to show up and took the métro home, where I found him waiting. He had taken a taxi.

Dinner at Lacombe. We both had the duck with winter fruit and pureed potatoes. It was very good. Dessert was disappointing for me. I had what they called 'carrot cake'. It wasn't like any I've ever had before. I'm not really sure what Robb had. It looked a little like a macaron, but wasn't.

28 Octobre (Jeudi) - Robb had an early meeting with his BNP representative, so we were up bright and early. The reason for the early meeting was because there was another retirement demonstration scheduled for around noon. We took the 43 Bus to Gare St-Lazarre where we got the 81 Bus to Opéra. We saw no grève, but I was surprised to see construction on the Opéra, and there were police vehicles filled with policeman all up and down the boulevard. We stopped at the American Bistro for a cafe and watched as they pulled into position. By the time we left, there was still no demonstration, but it had screwed up the bus service.


We decided to walk up to Galeries Lafayette, where just beyond it, I saw another of those temporary buildings. I'm still not sure what they are but they seem to have something to do with construction of some sort. We left Galeries Lafayette and walked up to Trinité, because I thought maybe we could get the 43 Bus back to the apartment. Then we decided, instead, to take the Ligne 12 métro to Concorde where we could get the Ligne 1 métro to Saint Paul.


 We were walking past Saint Paul, but detoured to have our first look inside. It was very nice, but looked like most of the other churches we've seen in the past three months. We continued to Fontaine Sully where we were greeted warmly by the owner. We sat at a table by the window from which we had this view.

We left Fontaine Sully, caught the 76 Bus to BHV, walked through to BHV Homme, bought nothing again and finally walked to Les Marrionners where we would meet Rhino75. We were an hour early because we thought the place would be full, but it wasn't. Steve showed up and we chatted for an hour or so.


We were going to hang out and go back to Fontaine Sully for dinner because they were having tartiflette, but I was just too knackered, so we caught the métro home.


You can see all the Paris pictures here: Paris 2010  

À la prochaine, mes amis.