The City of Light

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Mon: Shifting focus

I woke up at 4am with excruciating hunger, grrrr!! A slice of bread eventually put me back to sleep. 7am alarm was rude. With the time change, it was still dark outside. Hunger (again, already!) and an image of roaring tourists at Sacre Coeur slowly pushed me out of the bed. All my joints were still sore. Finally managed to step out of the door at 8:30am. Via metro, I reached Montmartre Anvers station within 30min. Air was a tad chilly but clear. Looks like I just beat the tour groups, good job 😄. Not much souvenir pressers yet either. Sacre Coeur was as beautiful as I expected. Serene, looking down into the hustle bustle of la Seine riversides. Place de Tertre was supposed to be the tourist mecca at Montmartre but there wasn’t much there at this wee hour. It seemed like a humble little square with unauthentic-looking cafes on all four sides. The sleepy neighborhood looked inviting for a stroll. Narrow cobblestone streets and little allies were leading straight down the steep hill. I made my round and ended up at the back door of Sacre Coeur.

I started my descent to Opera Garnier. I wanted to visit the inside today. Walk was nice via Trinite and Lafayette. The line was short yet, yay 😄. With Phantom of the Opera ringing in my head, Opera Garnier was luxury on steroid!! Spotless decoration including the entire ceiling painted by Chagall is matched by no other! The visit took ~1hr until 11am.

Next destination: Arc de Triomphe! I started wondering westward via…the direction that looked nice...well nice. Next thing I knew, I was walking by Tiffany's. All I wanted was a rustic bakery, arrrgh, hungry! Basic need before bling please. Maybe a smaller alley...yes. Not so rustic but a nice bakery. I treated myself to much-awaited fromage blanc with creme de marron, score! The bakery quickly started to fill up as noon was upon us. I could have eaten the entire store but steady steady, there's more to come.

A quick map survey confirmed that I was close to Concorde. Angelina's hot choco, done!! It’s located right on Rivoli in the prime real estate. Large two-story seating area wasn’t full. Shortly after, I was treated to 7.5 euro thick rich chocolate drink. I think Recchiuti’s at the ferry building is par with this but at this price, I expected no less. It’s so so so filling. I wonder a drink like this would be equivalent to licking how big of a chocolate bar. Their signature mont blanc will be for another time. For a research purpose, I picked up a few macarons to go .

Even for a non-shopping gal, you can’t leave Paris without homage to Champs Elysee, right? 😊. In this nice afternoon, street was jam packed!! The shopping block doesn’t start until mid-way from the Grand Palais. I like this portion of the grass-lined street 😊. Walking up and down through Arc de Triomphe was pretty draining. At ~3p, I picked a shady spot in the grassy area and savored Angelina’s macarons. Mont blanc, caramel au beurre sale & vienne (framboise, cannelle, noisette) were all solid and pretty!

I continued my walk back to the Louvre area where I took my next break. As with all other parks, there were plenty of benches and unfixed chairs to go around. Great view, great weather in tranquility – can’t beat it. My legs were beat. Time to head back. I was hit by yet another hunger attack. Next sight of boulangerie on the way back will be my next victim. The lucky shop was Le Pain Quotidian, which I later found out to be a chain, and where I saw Woody Allen’s doppelganger. I didn’t know about Bertrand but I was tired. We kept the dinner “low key”. First, we went down to the cheese shop next door and went wild. Then picked up some fruits and herbs at a produce store. The last top-off at a grocery store for blini fixings. All out.


Tue: Parisian primer

Getting up has been tough. Finally gave in at 7:30am. Not as sore today, even the low right calf, wow! I left at 9am to catch the metro and reached the Rodin museum at 9:25am, only to find out that the opening was at 10, doh! Damn old guide book >. I went for a search of a bakery as I was starving…again. After going around a few corners and restaurants, I spotted a nice one, yes! The toughest thing is to choose one item. Tarte or far. Wow, even for the hungry stomach, the slice of far was big and literally heavy, oof. The bottom was lined with dried prune which didn't help.

Rodin museum is located next to Invalide, the golden dome. I fully enjoyed my breakfast by it and happily went back to the museum just before 10a. Crap! The line was already around the corner!! There was nobody there at 9:25, grrr. For that, I limited my visit to the garden and skipped the indoor exhibition. The garden is large and dotted with Rodin’s work, reminded me of Stanford’s Cantor...or it resembles this one. Very nice space. This has got to be the best deal in Paris.

I started to make my way back to the city hall area where I had a baking class at 3pm. On the way was Saint Germain des Pres and it was a perfect occasion to stop by one of Laduree’s outpost. By this time, my bar has been set high. For being the macaron power house, I thought the flavor could use some pop. My limited samples were caramel fleur de sal, cherry blossom & cassis, which tasted somewhat artificial. Hello Kitty take-away box seemed unfitting imho. Unenthusiastic call of “no foto” to the people behind me seemed obnoxious. Around noon, I got to the city hall. Doisneau & Sempe exhibition worked out perfectly. Due to capacity issue, line moved occasionally. Both exhibitions were well worth the wait. At no cost, this was even better deal than Rodin garden!!

I don’t know when my first encounter with macaron was but it has been somewhat of a mystery in my kitchen. Baking complication is directly correlated to deviation from acid-base reaction. This one has nothing to do with it. I haven’t been satisfied with my shots at it thus far. So I’ve tried making it many times. I felt a bit oxy-moron taking the class on macaron to be honest. Especially the class being taught in English, I wasn’t expecting no more than basic instructions catered to the tourists. At the same time, I was hoping for a slight chance of it being more, given the location. Sure enough, the class was composed of ~10 people including those who have never tasted one before!! All the procedures were familiar to me but the instructor was knowledgeable. Exactly what I was hoping for; a person who had been taught the way that’s been done here for many years. At the end of it, I came away with all my questions answered!!

Happily departed the class, I headed toward Bastille. I was meeting with Bertrand at a theater at 8p. Bastille is a busy plaza where many roads come together. At one corner stands Dalloyau boutique. Dalloyau is where opera cake was created. Must have the original! I walked in – completely empty. It was obvious I was a tourist who was after their opera :”>. So fine, I’ll tell it like it is. There I was in a fancy salon de the, having a cup of tea and 2"x1" opera, just me, myself and two attendants – luxury. Of course the cake was delicious; super thin layers of coffee soaked daquoise, coffee buttercream and chocolate ganache in center. Just the right size. They, too, had macarons. Research material! Caramel au beurre sale was buttercream and I preferred the flavor from other places. Cognac, on the other hand, was super strong and awesome, yum!! Slightly west of Bastille lies Place des Vosges, a square surrounded by uniform buildings, reminding me of Plaza Mayor in Madrid. Park was full of people enjoying the nice weather 😊.

The theater was a short walk from Bastille, tucked away in a narrow alley. Tonight’s show was “How to become Parisian in one hour”, a one-man stand-up in English. The show was brilliant, attracting both tourists and locals. Genuinely hilarious and so true!!! What’s great about here is that the places are open and happening after the shows. Bertrand and I had tough time in SF in this regard. He took me to Chez Paul, an old restaurant serving typical French fare. Love the authenticity of hand-written menu that needed decoding. A German photographer at the next table commended Bertrand for his thorough and patient explanation of the menu – thank you 😊. I had rabbit rillet and pot au feu, mmmm. It would be a perfect meal on a cold day! Of course I couldn’t leave without cafe gourmand. All of these at midnight. Have I been initiated into Paris now?


Wed: Paris reinforcement

Hump day already. Time to think ahead to the time remaining in Paris 😞. Besides Rodin, I wanted to hit Orangerie museum, located between Louvre and Concorde. By now, it has become a usual route southbound via Pompidou toward Louvre. Just east of Louvre is a bit of a maze through galleries and what not. As I went deeper into the hood, bam, opened up that Palais Royal I couldn’t get in the other day due to construction. What luck!! I arrived at Orangerie museum at ~10:30am. It houses 2 large oval rooms filled with wall-to-wall water lilies. Simply awe inspiring! Lilies magically start floating as you walk away from the piece. Basement has more crazy impressionism collection.

At ~noon, I resumed my journey westward through St Honore via Vendome, an upscale shopping district. This is where I was when I found myself in front of Tiffany’s, Chanel and Cartier. Laduree should be just about here too… Further along, I started to see police and gate guards…why? Time for a location check. It turned out to be Palais Elysee, the white house of France. Timely, before I overshot my way to the Eiffel tower area. I turned to pick up Alexander III bridge after le Grand/Petit Palais. The bridge is decorated and then some, with gold, leading to the golden dome of Invalides. Can't miss it. It leads directly to the grass area in front of Invalides. On a nice day like this, every possible grass area and benches were well occupied.

Continuing on toward Rue Cler, I stumbled upon Pain & Chocolate. It's a small cute place that has a tiny tiny baked goods display filled with rustic but fine pastries with a warm smell of butter, mmm. Too bad I wasn't hungry but I could use a coffee 😊. I took a pleasant cup on a sidewalk table. This was a good call because Rue Cler wasn’t all that, especially as much as Rick Steven’s spent talking about it. No wonder Bertrand had never heard of it… In the midst of all this, I squeezed in my macaron reinforcement. All of PH’s jasmine white choco, Matisse with carrot chunks and Angelina’s caramel au beurre sale, chocolate passion fruit, café were excellent. I think those 2 places are my favs. Cookies are fluffy but no air gap while cream has solid flavor 😄.

Quai Branly museum is an unlikely anthropology museum located right next to the city’s most-visited Eiffel tower. An unknown building in between is covered in fern and looks amazing. I took a refuge at a museum cafe for a breather. I was in for a good surprise with a nice view of the tower 😊. La Course du Coeur was starting today at 7pm at Trocadero. This is a 4-day team running event to increase awareness of organ donation. Follow the blog at www.irun4you.com.

After sending off the runners, it was time for us to eat 😄. I had crepe on my bucket list and of course, Bertrand knew exactly where to go! We velib’ed to Monparnasse neighborhood to the Creperie row. No joke, the street was full of creperies!! This was the case for many things in Paris. Pick a category, go to the neighborhood. A short stand in line was worth it. The place has a great atmosphere; nonchalant and rustic 😊. I like the dry cider which went well with my egg/cheese/ham/mushroom galette. And of course, ain’t no leaving until we had sweets! Keeping with the region, I had apple sauce/calvados flambé 😄.


Thu: Fontainebleau

Today was gonna be a day trip day, woohoo 😄. We decided on Fontainebleau. It is ~70km south of Paris. The castle is located in the forest. 10:20am train from Gare de Lyon arrived at Fontainebleau at 11am. A short bus ride took us to the castle entrance. I was hungry by then. We picked up a quick bite of croissant. Castle was the home to the historical figures from Louis IX, Napoleon to Marie Antoinette. It’s been altered by the new kings and emperors but was well kept otherwise. The garden is spacious and includes 1.2km grand canal. Needless to say, it is lavishly extravagant! The castle visit took ~2hrs until 1:30pm. Audio guide was easy to follow and sufficient.

Lunch time 😄. We found a nice outside seating in town where I opted for croque saumon fume & cafe gourmand. Bertrand looked into hitting another town or a trail but there was no good means. We took the 5pm train back to Paris. We made it a movie night. So far, I’ve focused on the busy area but Bertrand’s neighborhood is studded with inviting bars. We had a low-key outing at one of them for a drink, retreated at ~11pm, munched and turned out.

Fri: Boulanger for a day

Today's search of a cup of coffee was a total success! I stumbled upon Terres de Cafe at Rambuteau x Rue de Archives. Their coffee was yummy for a stealing price. And the atmosphere - super cute!! One 2-seater table, shallow counter with 3 metal stools facing the little coffee plantation pictures tidily lined up in the individual frames. Bonne journee a tous!

This morning was La Cuisine Paris class part deux - Baguette! It's hard to make at home and I was hoping for some tips 😊. The 3-hour class was busy busy busy. In such a short time, we managed to churn decent number of products 😱. Procedures were, for the most part, familiar. Will give it a shot at home. I wanted to spend this afternoon at Promenade Plantee. It's a elevated 3-mile path between Bastille and Bois Vincenne. My goal was Chateau de Vincenne at the park! It was a nice afternoon stroll on a gorgeous day! The path is just perfect - love it!

I walked all afternoon and my legs were done X(. I metro'ed back to Rambuteau to visit Pain du Sucre and to make another stop at Terres de Cafe for a noisette before the "soirée" with Bertrand and his friends 😊. I got back at 7:30pm and shortly after, we velib'ed to Sebastian's flat. Good times, good company 😊. Wow, we left at almost 1am. No wonder it was cold to bike back!


Sat: Morocco to Mont Blanc

9:30am depart. Destination; les Halles neighborhood for kitchen stores. E. Dehillerin was closed last time 😞. It is a large shop taking up the entire street corner. As soon as you walk in, you're OD'ed with shelves full of kitchen tools from peelers to commercial size pots. Items have tags and you look up the price in the booklet hanging here and there, typed in dot-matrix, classic. Contents seemed catered to the restaurants. Perhaps I'd get a mold. As with many other things in Paris, similar stores are located in the vicinity. I went around a few others to find exactly what I wanted.

I was meeting Bertrand at 404 at 12:30p for a brunch. This Moroccan restaurant had a good ambiance. Brunch menu came with kefta, cardamom-honey pancake and sweet mint tea, mmmm.

Today was cloudy and freezing for the first time since I got here. Of course it was one day I decided to leave my jacket. We swung by the apartment and headed to Grand Palais. The Vogue Photographer, Helmut Newton exhibition opened recently. When we got there, there were long multiple lines; one with reservation, one with membership and last for the rest. The membership line failed miserably in front of a strict official, boo. No mercy for a TV chef either. But! While we were in line, a couple in front of us gave us the entry to the art fair that was going on in the main hall of the palace. They ended up saving our day, merci!

It was still gloomy out – perfect for a warm drink. Bertrand wanted to check out Angelina, the home of 7.50 euro hot chock and 8 euro mont blanc!! We arrived there at ~5p when a line was out the door!! Paris continued to amaze me!! Fortunately, we didn't wait too long since the place is fairly large. I tried the decadent hot choco last time so this time was mont blanc by default, right? They ran out of everything else but that anyway…crazy. Mont blanc was a hefty muffin size although it wasn’t heavy or overly sweet. It was like licking a tub of creme de marron 😄.

At Angelina, Bertrand found for us a show for tonight. Of the one man shows, he found a mime near St. Michel at 9:30p, awesome. After a quick bite of rillet, we velib'ed through the cold air. Although it was a comic mime which involved talking, I was more-or-less able to follow their French – double awesome!! It was 1 hour of good fun – triple awesome!!!


Sun: From Newton to Monet

Impressively, Gerald Mulot was open 7 days a week 8 to 8. I left the house at 8:30 to make a visit via metro, to get some calissons to go. From my limited survey, they have the best calisson deal in town; the most elaborate at better price 😄. The store was still getting today's pastries in order at 8:45. I took a cafe creme and poupouse since calissons weren't out. After the snack, I still didn't see them. Turns out, they were prioritizing getting Easter chocolates ready. They were totally sweet to this tourist customer's funny request of calissons at 9 in the morning. They packed a box just for me!!

At 9:15, I started to make my way to Grand Palais via St Germain des Pres. This time, I had reservation at 10, take that! Along the way, I saw a curious mob at 9:30am. Believe it or not, it was a long line for d'orsay. I’m still not with the extent of Paris tourism! In any case, thank god for the exhibition in SF.

After Newton exhibition, we browsed through Petit Palais which is totally worth the visit. It would be a great place to walk through and have a cup of coffee 😊. From there, we velib'ed to the canal for a vegan brunch at Voy, a cute rustic joint which serves vegan fares full of herbs and supplements. All unfamiliar but kept us interested.

2:20p train from Gare SL to Vernon. 15min shuttle ride to Giverny where Monet house & garden are. A small walk took us to the entrance only to find 50m of line to get in! This place is open only Apr-Nov. Today was the opening day. But wow, at 4pm? On a nice Sunday but seriously? Together with d'Orsay, never underestimate Paris tourism! Fortunately, the line moved slowly but steadily. We got in at 4:10p 😊.

The garden had tulips and daffodils in bloom but I can imagine it being amazing with Fuji in blossom. How would it have been to live in this flower-fulla garden in tranquility? Hard to imagine with a house-fulla visitors about to make it collapse. An underground path now connects the garden and the lily pond because they are separated by the main road. Again, it ruins the imagination of all too familiar lily pond at Orangerie. After ~1hr visit, we walked the historic walk of Giverny. It seemed to be a sleepy little town with spotty but cute B&B's and houses. On the south side is a nice walk path built on old railway track. The unfortunate of the day was the main road smacking through town >.

A peaceful stroll was a nice wrap-up to Giverny visit. We took 6:20p shuttle to Vernon station. Packed train left at 6:55 to Paris SL. Today, I was ready for tartare and I had a perfect company 😄. Bertrand took me to Les Tontons in Montparnass neighborhood. It wasn't exactly on our way but it was worth the velib travel across town. Page 1 of their menu; starters, plates and desserts. Page 2; tartare, tartare and more tartare! A page full of various tartare, raw and seared, was incredible!! My tartare provençale with anchovy, olives and sun dried tomatoes was awesome. When it's good, despite amount of meet, it doesn't weigh on my stomach. It would be a perfect post-long-run meal!!


Metro'ed our way back and it was time for me to pack, oh no 😞. I had a morning flight...delayed by 3hrs 😄. Hehe. Sounds like another boulangerie stop to me.

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Photos

Ceiling by Chagall
Opera Garnier!!