THE RETURN TO PARIS

---

The Drive to Paris

After are standard French breakfast, I went to pick up the car while Jerry finished packing. The parking structure covered about 2 square city blocks underground, with several exit options; somehow I managed to take the correct one that easily got me back to the hotel without going around the block 5 times. When I got to the hotel there was parking directly in front so that made for easy loading. It was a beautiful day for a drive to Paris.

The drive was fairly quick probably less than 90 minutes. The difficult part lay ahead, driving in Paris proper and getting to our hotel. But again, with a bit of luck and much more familiarity with Paris, we drove right to the hotel. This hotel being a 4 star (yes this is the big splurge of the trip) they had the usual hotel zone in front and the bell man unpacked and carried our luggage in and stored it until our room was ready. It was nice to at last not have to lug our own suit cases (ok, its not the hard, but really after 2 ½ weeks of narrow stair cases, rolling it blocks to the hotel, a little luxury goes along way).

Returning the Rental Car

After checking in the next step was getting the card back to the airport. The only really difficulty about driving in Paris is the large roundabouts with no lanes but fit about 10 cars wide. Fortunately I only had to drive through one and that was the Place de la Concorde, which is at the end of the tulleries and the beginning of the Champs E’lyess. From their we just hugged the river until we saw signs for the airport, we only made one wrong turn and went across the river, but it was easy enough to circle back. We managed to get to the airport and the car return with out much fuss. I wish I could say the same about the trip back to the City. A typical RER from the airport to Central Paris takes about 30 minutes, for what ever reason it took us over an hour, with several minutes of simply stopping. It was also very crowded. We finally got back to our hotel and some relaxation.

Four Star Accommodations

We are at the Hotel Astor Saint-Honre. This is in the middle of the shopping district of Paris and were many foreign embassy’s are located as well as the equivalent of the French White House. It is a 4 star hotel and comes will a fully equipped staff to meet your every need. I have already mentioned the bell man, but let me further talk about him. One he is young and French (oh that would be a different type of blog), he was young but not only did he carry all of our luggage up he then spent about an hour trying to fix Jerry’s suitcase, he went way above the call of duty. He ended up with very large wire cutters and cut off the metal parts that have been causing the problem. I have never experienced such service in a hotel.

We also made use of the laundry service, a little expensive, but it saves us the time of finding a Laundromat and then spending 3 hours there doing a bit of laundry.

The room while not the largest we have been in is the most comfortable, very nice bathroom (no towel warmer) and we have a balcony, not a great view but nice flowers and lets lots of fresh air in. The best part, is the bed, it is the largest bed we have had on the trip, a nice King size bed.

Concierge

The real star of this hotel is the assistance chief-concierge Jean-François. He went out of his way to help us fine an open wine story (it was Sunday when we arrived) and he recommended an incredible restaurant for dinner that night. Keep in mind the Sunday/Monday problem of Lyon is even worse in Paris. He spent about 30 minutes with us, giving us pointers and pointing us in the right direction for our needs of the moment, including making the dinner reservations for us. After our conversation with Jean François, Jerry went to the store for wine and alcohol (he woke up with an ear ache this morning) and I went up to the room to finish unpacking.

Royal Madeleine

The restaurant Royal Madeleine was locating on a small street just office Place Madeleine, it has limited outside seating, but there is nothing to look at so you probably don’t want to sit outside. The real show is inside anyway. We were greeted by a very friendly server (a woman and few women are head servers in Paris) she spoke very good English, but was very pleased that we tried to speak as much French as possible. She showed us to our table and then was off to assist other diners.

There is no prix fix menu here, so it can be a little more expensive than a lot of places to eat. However, we are also in a pretty high rent area so almost any good bistro is going to be more expensive than say the Latin Quarter. Dinner was excellent and many things, while not exactly cooked table side are done at a central station in the middle of the restaurant so I hade a pretty good show for the evening. Two of the highlights on the menu that we did not have were a whole roast duck and a grilled saddle of lamb. Both were for two people and all of the carving was done table side by the head server. I saw her carve several and god she was good at it.

There was a good mix of locals and tourists, two other tables of U.S. folks, but also some Italians and Germans. At the end of our dinner, I was sitting back resting my head on the wall, and I must have hit the lamp above me just right as it came off the wall on almost on my head, but I managed to catch it in just the nick of time. Jerry jumped up and mounted it back on the wall. The head server then jokingly asked what we were destroying, but after Jerry fixed the lamp, the entire staff and some other patrons gave him a round of applause. It also earned us a free after dinner peritif of Calvados.

After dinner we strolled home and went to bed. I have an early day tomorrow, as I would be off to my macaroon class and Jerry would be exploring things he didn’t make it to last time we were in Paris.

TODAY’S EATS

Breakfast: Standard French breakfast at Hotel Morand

Dinner: Aperitif: Kir Royal (Kir and Champagne); Mise en Boche: Sautéed vegetables with lobster; Wine: Bourgogne Pinot Fin, Geantet-Pansiot (2010); Entrée: we split White Asparagus with a hollandaise sauce (This was not just any hollandaise sauce, it was like a mouse, egg whites were folded in to the sauce to make it the lights hollandaise I have ever had.) Plats: Jerry had a chicken breast served with a wine and morel mushroom sauce; I had a chateaubriand with sliced potatoes and a croquette that was deep fried, the inside was a total surprise it was the same pesto garlic sauce that escargot is often served it, it was wonderful. Dessert: Jerry again had the three chocolates; 1 was nestle crunch like wafers filled with a thick chocolate mouse like fudge, second was a lite chocolate chiffon and third a chocolate mouse with crumbled chocolate cookies on top. I had an apple tart, except the crust was three pieces of caramelized sugar, served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

REVIEWS

Royal Madeleine: Excellent some of the best food on the trip, and next time we will try the canard for two. A little on the expensive side but the food is very good. Make a reservation, it fills up. And it is open on Sunday’s so that is a huge bonus.

DAILY TI

If you have rented a car try to see if you can return it in the city rather than at the airport. It is best to make this request when you book the care in the first place. If you’re not leaving the same day you return the car, returning it in the city will save you 3 hours of valuable time in Paris.

---

Photos

4 Star Room
But you have to pay for the internet, everywhere else it was free.

The Madeleine
Yes it is a catholic church

Don't Lean Back Chris
The lamp will get you