It’s Monday 10 June. Howard and I are still under the weather so we relax at home and nap a bit. Larry is still not feeling well but Gail seems to be recovering. G&L enjoy a walk to take some pictures for Gail’s Paris portfolio. The best part of the day is dinner: G&L make chicken noodle soup! Wow, does that taste great. It is the perfect medicine for what ails us.
It’s Tuesday and for the first time since we arrived, I sleep through the night! Maybe my cold is at its end and jet lag has finally been overcome. I can’t believe the razor blades in my throat are gone!
We are ready to visit the Rodin Museum. You know…The Thinker. The garden where most of the sculptures are is beautiful. And the sculptures are so incredibly huge. We meet up again with Ugolino and his sons—the man in Dante’s Inferno whose children beg him to eat them so he will not die. Earlier in the trip we saw a sculpture of this gruesome story at the Musée D’Orsay.
We avoid the museum restaurant and have lunch at a nearby cafe. The men happily enjoy their mixed grill plates du jour (lamb chop, sausage and some other forgotten meat) while the women heartily regret their choice of squid and fries. Fortunately the men share their ample fare with us.
The waiter is a real clown. He makes a big deal of serving Gail her coke. He sniffs the bottle cap and pours it as if it were a fine wine; he notes the vintage of one day.
After we get home I take a walk on the north end of our street—we’ve not walked that way yet. I am amazed at the nice wine shops, épiceries, fruit stands and an exceptional cheese shop. I buy a hard cows milk cheese, Beaufort, from the alps; Morbier, a semi-soft cow’s milk cheese with an ash layer in the middle from eastern France; Demuolca, a nice soft, runny cheese that is especially delicious; and a mouse of l’Epoisses, a particularly stinky but delicious cheese that works well in a cream mouse. I also buy some Brittany butter—yum! And happily they also sell wine and I find one of my favorite French Sauvignon Blancs, Quincey. I’m still looking for the perfect baguette…
Howard cooks DELICIOUS scallops for dinner. They are frozen and have the bright orange roe attached. When we were in France for 3 months in 2014 we discovered how tasty the frozen scallops were and always had a bag or two in the freezer. I brown the Brittany butter for pasta and we have a nice salad.
Howard and I wake up on Wednesday after a night of a little coughing but a good night’s sleep. Gail and Larry are sleeping in and getting the rest they need to beat that nasty virus. About 10am Howard and I decide to visit Rue Cler, a short pedestrian street with all sorts of food shops and restaurants. It’s a Rick Steve’s favorite but we haven’t been there in probably 15 years.
It’s an easy metro ride but, as usual, we have a little difficulty orienting ourselves once we’re off the metro. We eventually get pointed in the right direction. The first shop we see has stacks and stacks of peonies in a multitude of colors! Ever since we saw beautiful peonies at Pikes Market in Seattle the day before we left for Paris, Gail and I have wanted peonies! But there is a problem. Our dish cabinets are filled with teeny glasses and no vases that I could remember seeing. A text to Gail and Larry results in Larry finding a blender pitcher which is the perfect size!
We have a very nice lunch at Cafe L’Eclair. Howard starts with the gaspacho and his second course is a salmon and leek quiche with a small salad. I have a quintessential French lunch of a cheese omelette (with nice soft egg curds), fries and a salad. We each order a large white wine and are surprised by the huge glasses they serve.
There are four young woman is very short cut-offs walking by our cafe and I have to laugh at the three firemen walking behind them with grins on their faces. Just as we’re finishing up our lunch a very pretty young woman sits down next to us. It sounds like she is having a difficult time communicating in French to the server who is seating her. As we got taking we find out she’s from Finland and has been in Paris for 8 months to learn French. (?) Clearly she was hardly learning anything in that regard.
We wander around the shops. The chocolate shop is particularly enticing. We pick up some little gifts to take home.
At 3pm we have a date to cruise the nearby Saint Martin canal and the Seine River. It is raining really hard as we find our way to the canal and finally our boat. We’re taking a cruise with the CANAUXRAMA cruise line. Although we start out in the pouring rain, it quickly clears up and we are able to sit outside on the bow of the boat. Our guide easily switches from French to English in his narration of the sights. His spiel is funny and informative. For two hours we cruise down the canal, through the locks, under Place Bastille and into the Seine. We see all the incredible Parisian sights along the Seine. We gave our guide a nice tip and I complimented him on his English. He very nicely complimented me on my French. I can never hear that too much. This cruise was a highlight of the trip.
We head right home to relax. Gail is losing her voice again so it worries me she is relapsing. We commit to visiting Versailles tomorrow.
We leave at 9am and arrive in Versailles to a 1.5 hour wait in line!! We honestly can’t believe that VERY long line is our line. I thought pre-bought tickets let us jump the line. I listen to others in line with us who had the same misconception. We discover that we needed to buy TIMED tickets (get in at a determined time). That line had ZERO people. The entire time we’re in line, rain is threatening. Howard and I did not bring rain gear! But we eventually get in without experiencing more than a few drops of rain.
Once in the palace, we are not surprised to find lots of people. I find these crowds to be a little less infuriating than the Louvre but Gail finds it to be the opposite. The Hall of Mirrors is a highlight. The last time we were here, the hall was being renovated. We decide to have a late lunch in the palace at the Angelina Restaurant. Once again we wait for about an hour before we are seated. We happily start with mimosas. Then Larry and I have salad niçoise, Gail had croque monsieur and Howard has mushroom ravioli. But the highlight of lunch was the desserts. We come to understand that’s what Angelina Restaurant is known for. Gail and Larry share the Chou Caramel-cacahuète: http://www.angelina-paris.fr/en/new-collection/209-chou-caramel-cacahuete.html Howard and I share the Mont Blanc: meringue base, whipped cream and chestnut cream “vermicelli.” The desserts are incredible.
Gail and Larry walk around the grounds a little while Howard and I relax but none of us explore the queen’s hamlet or the Trianon. We all decide once is enough for Versailles and Howard and I have been here once too often.