Another day in Paris

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Monday, 9/7

Got up early to be at Sarah's by 7:45 as the makeup and hair artist was coming at 8 AM. Spent a fun time watching the transformation of Sal from simply lovely to stunningly gorgeous. Bethia also showed up about 8:30 and we had a nice time. Laure is truly a makeup and hair artist!

Afterward, everyone went their separate ways: Bethia and Bob to the Louvre, S & J on their own and us too. We spent a wonderful afternoon starting at Notre Dame and wandering through the Marais to the Bastille, then across the bridges to the Latin Quarter and finally home. The Latin Quarter is so wonderful! Great street vendors because it is such a young and vibrant area: lots of little streets, boutiques, bars, cafes, - that's where the Sorbonne is, the Pantheon and also the Luxembourg Gardens. It's called the Latin Quarter because centuries ago the only language spoken at the Sorbonne was Latin. The Sorbonne is huge and beautiful - lots of young people of course - lots of great energy. Ate lunch in a horrible English pub - oh well, but had lots of fun.

At 5 PM we all met up to go to the wine class/tasting at O'Chateau, a wine cave in the 1st arr. Kind of in back and to the East of the Louvre. It was great experience! A group of maybe 20 people, all couples, sitting around a huge table in a wine cellar. It was the cellar of Louis IV and connected directly to the Louvre at one time. The teacher is a sommalier at Le Crillon who spoke perfect English and was very funny. We learned a lot about the French wine industry, regions, etc - pretty amazing! There are 150,000 wineries in France, each producing probably no more than 50,000 cases per year (very small by California standards). Wine is classified by region and within each region are appellations: Loire Valley is known for its whites and an appellation is Sancerre. In the Sancerre appellation may be dozens if not more wineries who produce this style of wine - some obviously better than others. Just for example! So for reds, he recommended the Burgundy or for heartier reds, Rhone. He did not recommend Bordeaux just because that region is so huge and there are many many poor quality bordeaux that are cheap - the good Bordeaux are quite expensive. However, you can get good quality reds from the Rhone or Burgundy that are not super expensive.

We tried a champagne, Sancerre, chardonnay (totally different style from California chardonnay - I like this style in France better), burgundy (light red very nice), bordeaux (so-so) and Rhone Medoc very nice. It was a terrific experience and then we left, walked over through the Latin Qtr and had crepes at a restaurant. Ended the night at the cafe on the corner - again!
Tuesday, 9/8

All the group except us went to Versailles today. We slept until 11!!! I finally got a good night's sleep last night and that was a tremendous relief. We got up and out as soon as we could, took the metro to the Montmartre area close to Sacre Coeur. It's the most hilly area of Paris and the old Bohemian part - where Picasso lived and Van Gogh and other artists. It still has the very Boho-village feel and it is wonderful!! Lots of artists and of course typical tourist-type of folks in the Place de Leger, but we just love it! Lots of steps and hills and you get quite a workout just getting up from the metro to the street level! When we emerged from the metro at the Abbesses stop, we emerged into a little place and there were some street musicians apparently Americans, playing bass, and guitar and singing wonderful 40's songs. Couples were dancing and what a wonderful scene it made!! I could have stayed all day there listening to them and watching the dancing! It was like nothing else except a perfect movie!! But we walked around and got some lunch - it was very hot today!! Katy called about 1:30-2 from the airport so we headed back to meet here at Notre Dame. It was so great to see Katy!!!

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Photos

O'Chateau wine tasting
Jon, Sarah & Davy

Davy & Erica
at O'Chateau