From croissants to fish!

Pictures: As it's hard to predict the order, there are: Two pictures of flowers on the viaduct; one picture of R's fish; one picture of my favorite police station; and the Hotel de Ville!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Bonjour!

Wow, another great day in France! (Although according to Robert, there are no other kinds…)
This morning didn’t even set the clock, as our first stop wasn’t until 10 a.m. – at the Hotel de Ville (City Hall). Out by 9-ish, and over to purchase our Mobili transportation passes for the day. Then, a bus down to Chatelet and a very short walk, and there we were! Stopped for coffee (for R) and croissants for two and OJ for me. (And then proceeded to watch as a poor delivery guy managed to drop something like 3 cases of orange juice – in BOTTLES – all over the floor! What a mess! R looked questioningly at me, but I was NO WHERE close to the action, so it definitely wasn’t MY fault … this time!) Still a bit early, so after circling the Hotel de Ville, into another café for more coffee and this time hot chocolate (delicious!) for me. Looks like a beautiful day – totally cleared off after the brief evening shower yesterday, and it feels like it’s warming up!

Got to the entrance for the Eiffel exhibit just at 10, and had to wait about 20 minutes, as they were letting people in by stages. Well worth the wait! A terrific exhibition! It was divided into three parts – his early work – the Tour Eiffel – his later scientific work. Lots of photographs, drawings and manquettes of work. Had not realized that Eiffel’s company did the entire understructure for the Statue of Liberty, as well as had the original commission to design the locks when the French were going to dig the Panama Canal! All very, very interesting (and a GREAT audio guide in English…) and now we’re talking about a new hobby! Follow Eiffel’s works around the world!! Could this possibly be as interesting as following the Appian Way?? Who knows, but Eiffel’s works are in Cambodia, Chile and Mexico and all over Europe!

From Hotel de Ville, it was a short walk down Rue de Rivoli to 13 a Table (which I misnamed yesterday; sorry!). Had a good look around, but amazingly, didn’t buy anything – not that I wasn’t tempted – and R had his eye on some Le Cruiset – can you imagine trying to take THAT on carry-on?! From there we caught a bus to Bastille, and transferred to another bus to get us to Dugommier in the (I think!) 12th Arr. Here we found restaurant La Truyere where we had eaten wonderfully well a year or so ago, the first time we walked the Viaduc des Plantees (probably not spelling that properly!) It was almost 1 p.m., so we sat down for a terrific lunch!

R had Dorade (a fish…which will be included in the photographs…) and I had faux fillet for main courses. We both had mixed salads to start. My filet came with sauce béarnaise and scalloped potatoes as well as two grilled tomato halves – YUMMY! Don’t even want to talk about the fishy dissection that went on on the other side of the table, but eventually it was finished and R said it was TERRIFIC! So! We were both happy – excellent food, nice place and the same waiter we had last year! There was a street market outside the restaurant when we did arrived and I was hoping for a look around after lunch, but about that time, folks just packed up and left – nothing remaining but the awnings! Will make it a point to come earlier next time!

As we had walked the Viaduct from Bastille the first time, our plan now was to pick it up from the 12th Arr. and walk in the opposite direction. Easy to find, and a lovely day to see it! Just a beautiful park above the city that goes from Bastille all the way to Chateau de Vincennes! The roses were particularly stunning, and there were all sorts of other trees and shrubs in bloom that we didn’t know the names of! People were jogging, reading, eating – oh yes! – and walking all along the way (but felt like we had less traffic going in our direction!)

Back at Bastille, we decided that we would try to find the new location to pick up our rental car. Wound around on several buses, and finally found the location, near the Place de Breuteil in the 7th. Absolutely smack dab in the one location making it VERY difficult to get to by public transportation! Will need to take at least two buses to get anywhere close … and even though we’re not weighed down by lots and lots of luggage, the thought of schlepping it for long distances anywhere is a bit daunting! So…will our intrepid travelers change their frugal ways and take a taxi instead?! Stay tuned!!

When we had finally wound our way back to Le Senat (for a well earned nap!) the issue was still up in the air! Had a nice sleep – there is NO problem taking an afternoon nap when it doesn’t get completely dark until after 9:30 p.m.!! So, R still sleeping…will need to roust him out soon, though, as I’m getting peckish! All this walking!!

But before I close, I realized that I’d posted yesterday WITHOUT finishing out the day!! Sometime after 9 p.m. we headed out to our favorite Japanese restaurant, Yaki, near Rue Royer Collard for dinner. We both had their teppan yaki beef, which was excellent – and just the right about to eat after our VERY late lunch! Finished there about 10:15 p.m. and wanted to make our way over to le Tour Eiffel for the 11 p.m. sparkle show! (The tour is lit most of the night, but every hour on the hour, for 5 or 10 minutes, it sparkles with something like 10,000 lights strobing all over – it looks like DIAMONDS lighting up!! Very fun!) Had to take two buses to get there, but managed to make it just a minute or so into its 11 p.m. performance. Lots of people watching; carousel going around; wonderful! Then took the buses back home, arriving just after midnight … which makes me wonder?! Would our bus passes work until the end of the “night” or would they automatically become invalid at midnight?

So…tomorrow we’re heading out to pick up our car (somehow!) and then make it out to the tennis tournament in Malmaison (suburb of Paris, near La Defense) for a couple of sets of tennis. Have no idea who is going to play, but there are 8 or 10 of the best male players in the world coming, and we’ll be watching four of them! (It’s an unofficial warm-up to the French Open which starts at the end of the week!) From there, we’re heading to Saint-Leu-le-Foret to stay with Alain and Graciela, the landlord of our Paris flat. Very, very much looking forward to seeing them! Not sure if we’ll be able to log in and post blogs those days, but if not, I will be writing them – giving you all more reading when we post again from our hotel in Vannes on Friday!

So – until I post again!!
Au revoir!
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