Last Evening In Paris

As you saw from the previous post, we had a very full last day in Paris. We'd had a great lunch and were taking taking a short rest around dinner time. We realized that we hadn't really made a dinner from the local shops and it was our last night. So, we wandered out and found the boulangerie that was open on Sunday, was now closed for the summer. That happens a lot in August in Paris. Our hotel manager told us about a couple of other possibilities and we were off. 

First we visited a fromagerie.

Then we found a great boulangerie where we picked up a still warm baguette, a chocolate eclair and a lemon tart. And, of course, we visited a Monoprix for some wine. Monoprix stores are found all over Paris. They are basically department stores that also sell food and wine. We bought all of our wine there and prices were crazy for the quality of what we got. I think the most we paid was 6 euros and most often it was around 3. 

And here's the result of our shopping. Not as classy as a bistro or cafe, but it was so fresh and tasted great. 

I had wanted to do some night shots of the city and this would be the last chance so we headed out after our dinner to walk to Pont Alexandre III which connects the Champs Elysees to the area of the city where the Eiffel Tower is located. It's about 3 km and we wandered through a few areas that we hadn't seen yet. It was a warm Wednesday night but there were so many people out that it could have been a weekend. 

Wall to wall people in this pedestrian area on the way down to the Seine.

A farily standard Paris waiter. We found that not a lot of them smiled or liked to chat. 

For most of our walk, we followed the Seine. 

The walkways right beside the water are very popular for stolling.

Watching the sunset, eating, drinking wine...

It was after 9:00 as the sun finally started to set.

Lovers' locks on one of the pedestrian bridges.

The sun sets behind the Grand Palais, built in 1900 for a World's Fair. 

 I wanted to finish off this edition of the blog with some shots of the iconic tower. The first is just before it started to light up.

The tower with Pont Alexandre III in the foreground. This bridge was another location from the Midnight in Paris movie.

The bateaux mouches also put on a light show.

Once an hour, on the hour, the Eiffel Tower puts on a sparkle show.

Au revior, Paris. Thanks for reading and travelling along with us again!
Dave & Marilyn

Coming Home!

Wow! It's hard to believe it's been two weeks and we are on our way home in the morning. We decided to get as much in today as we could and started off with a walk over to Starbucks to get some real coffee and wifi. But, the coffee wasn't the same and, surprise, the wifi was not working!! That seems to happen a lot here. 
After that we started walking towards the Montparnasse as we had heard that the Montparnasse Tower was not a major tourist attraction and offered a great view. When we got there, we saw about 12 big buses disgorging herds of uber tourista types. There was also a major line forming. We don't do lines. So took the shots below and headed off to our next destination.

Then we decided to get a bite to eat and stopped at a patisserie. We hadn't had pain au chocolat yet so ordered some of those. Marilyn wanted to share one, but that didn't work out. We had two!

After that we wandered into a market. There are a lot of them around the city on various days and most have produce as well as flea market type things. 

This one reminded me of my tomatoes at home!

Our next stop was the Luxembourg Gardens. We're so glad we went there because this was the most beautiful of all the gardens we visited. Once again, there was no walking on the perfect grass but it was amazing to look at. 

Here's a common scene around any of the gardens or parks in Paris.

This is the Fontaine de Medicis. It's hidden away behind the trees in a corner of the garden. Never would have found it if my friend Corinne C. hadn't told me about it. 

From the Luxembourg Garden we traveled to the Rodin Museum. I had no idea he was such a prolific sculptor. The gardens around the museum are amazing and this was another location from the movie Midnight In Paris.

And then we were off to lunch. There were a couple of restaurants that I really wanted to get to while here. One was Fish last night and the other was Les Cocottes de Constant. We saw this restaurant on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations show. It looked really good and he was impressed. It's a small place that fills quickly but there are no reservations. We arrived a little after noon and there were still seats. Lucked out again. A cocotte is a cast iron pot and that's what most of the dishes are cooked in. The food was fabulous. We noticed that there were cookbooks by the chef so we asked and there was an English version so I have one. Now I just need some cocottes but I think we saw them at St. Lawrence Market. Here's what we had,
Wine.

Marilyn had the daily special which was a pork chop with mashed potatoes. The pork was really tender and juicy. 

Mine was a veal stew with potatoes. Simple but so good. 

When you order a coffee in a restaurant here, this is what you get. It's basically an espresso. They just can't do a proper, ordinary cup of coffee. As soon as I get off the plane tomorrow, I'm finding a Timmie's!!

After lunch, we picked up our new passports and we decided we needed to go back to the hotel for a break. It was unseasonably warm at 26 degrees so we were hot too. (I know, it's a million degrees back home!) So, we stopped and picked up a couple of cold beers at a local store. So convenient and civilized! What's wrong with Ontario!!
Mine was the 11.6% Maximator. Wow, that packed a punch! 

We ended up putting together our own dinner in our room and then going out to see the crowds and lights later. But, it's after midnight now and we're getting up before 6 to leave. We have to catch a 7 a.m. train to the airport. So, I'll tell about last night and whatever else happens when we get home. See you!

Champagne and Our Best Meal

We were up quite early today to get to the pick up point for our bus tour to Reims and Epernay in the Champagne region. We went on one of the double deck touring buses which was a first for us. It was a pleasant ride through the French countryside to Riems and our visit to Mumm (pronounced "Moom", who knew?)Cellars. We had an informative tour that showed us the  caves and the champagne making process. Then we had our first champagne tasting. 

Here are some shots from the caves.

Some of the bottles of champagne are kept for 6 or 7 years before they are sold. 

This was a display in the Mumm cave. 

After the caves, we were set loose in Reims and chose to go on a tour of the Reims cathedral. It was largely destroyed in the first world war and has been rebuilt a number of times. It has some amazing features that were different from other cathedrals we've seen.

This is the apparently famous statue of the smiling angel. 

Most of the original stained glass was destroyed in the world wars. This is one section that was not destroyed. 

This section was redone when Germany and France came together years after the second world war to pledge friendship. 

This section was designed by famed French artist Marc Chagall. 

Next, we drove to Epernay to visit the Moet and Chandon caves. The presentation there was a bit more modern but the information was very similar to Mumm. 
These are bottles of Dom Perignon. We had one of these when we retired so it was interesting to learn about exactly how it's made. 

This was our favourite part of the tour. And Moet poured bigger samples!

This is Dom. He's the monk who spent 47 years perfecting the method of making champagne!

Ok, now on to our best meal in Paris. I had read about a small restaurant called Fish la Boissonnerie before we came. It was apparently very hard to get a table but some people had written that they showed up when it opened and got seated. After our tour today we walked to the restaurant which is in the St. Germain des Pres area. This is close to our hotel. We walked into the restaurant when it opened at 7 and got a seat! The hostess said that they usually save a table for walk ins. It was an amazing experience for a very reasonable price. The servers would walk across the narrow street to a bakery to get freshly baked focaccia for the tables. We were used to French servers but everyone here spoke English which made the meal stress free. We are hoping to try to recreate some of the dishes we had tonight.
This is the restaurant and you can see it's quite small.

Interestingly, the kitchen is upstairs and food is sent down in a dumb waiter.

Marilyn's starter was buffalo mozzarella with sweet corn and figs. 

My starter was gaspacho with cheese and basil sorbet. I'd love to make this at home. 

Marilyn's main was grilled salmon with pasta risotto and shaved fennel. Somehow, the photo of my main, grilled duck breast, didn't work. I use my phone for dinner pics and occasionally it doesn't take the picture. Picture or not, it was excellent. 

On the way home we stopped at a chocolate shop since we didn't have dessert with the meal. We picked up a few items and ended up finishing our day with assorted macarons and a nice Sancerre wine.
Here are some of the macarons that we had to choose from.

Chocolate shoes??

A chocolate Porsche for me!