BRUNCH, THE POMPIDOU AND CAFÉ DES MUSÉES

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Brunch

It’s Sunday morning in Paris, and we just finished a lovely home cooked brunch. Since our Jazz brunch was no longer, we instead stayed in for the morning and I again cooked. And in answer to your question Nancy, yes it is an electric range, but that is what I have at home so I am use to it.

I slept until 9 Jerry was up at 8 doing dishes from the night before, now he is doing dishes from brunch. After my shower I began the preparation of brunch. This morning’s menu, ham, cheese and tomato omelet with sautéed croissants topped with pears and bananas in a caramel crème fraiche sauce. Now, I have never managed to make an omelet that turns out right, mainly because I don’t have the right pan. Here, while the stove is small the pan was right and the omelet turned out pretty decent. We ate our breakfast with what else but mimosas. Other than my cooking classes this ends my cooking on this vacation. From here on out someone else will do the cooking and the dishes.

The weather this weekend has been cold but the sky very sunny. In just a moment we will head out for the day. The only item on our itinerary is the Pompidou Center and the museum. I think we have both finally acclimated to the time difference and are now fully on European time.

Pompidou Center

Our only plan for the day was a trip to the Pompidou Center. This is the home of the museum of modern art, allegedly the largest collection of such art. So you can expect to see such artists as Picasso, Matisse, and on and on. There is currently a special exhibit of Eileen Gray, for those of us that have no idea who that is (I was certainly in the category) she is a famous art deco architect and furniture designer. She specialized in lacquer. Her exhibit was on the top floor of the museum and we headed there first.

I must stop here and say that I am not much of a modern art fan, in fact I can easily and unashamedly say that I could live quite nicely without ever having to see a Picasso painting (seen one you seen them all). Modern art simply does not speak to me. Jerry on the other hand is much more appreciative of the art form and of course was very excited about the Eileen Gray exhibit.

In addition to the art, the Pompidou has a very nice view of West Paris; this is worth the trip even if you don’t want to see much of the museum. I don’t really have much to say about the art itself, although I do appreciate it for what it is and I do like Matisse. We did see one piece by Jackson Pollack (clearly before his mental stability was too far gone) but yes you could tell it was a Pollack and aside for the appreciation for the deep brush strokes, he is no Van Gough. There was also a piece by Andy Warhol, now I am generally not a fan but this piece I like because the subject matter was Elizabeth Taylor, it was an interesting piece. There were about 50 Picasso’s and as I previously stated I could go my entire life without seeing 1 so I have now seen enough for 50 life times. Don’t get me wrong and I say this to all of my art friends, I do appreciate that they artist was saying something and had ability. I am saying that for me, I prefer art that is displaying life as it is or is seen in that moment. In my view modern art seems to be more about how the artist sees or perceives the world and not how it is. But perhaps to them, that is how the world is. For example, Pollack suffered from being bi-polar and his paintings clearly reflect that (at least to me) so I appreciate the art as it perhaps gives a glimpse of what he saw in his mental state, but I can’t see that and don’t appreciate it with any sense that it is beautiful or even interesting to look at. Honestly some of his works looks like what I created when I was finger painting at 5 years old.

Please keep in mind that I have zero artistic ability outside of the kitchen and even my one musical ability left me long long ago. So I am not qualified as any type of art critic and my opinions probably aren’t worth much. I do know what I like and most modern art isn’t it. I will say that some of the larger pieces that are not paintings or drawings, to have some fascination, but sorry a urinal on a stand, that doesn’t do anything for me. Yes I know, people can debate for hours about what it means, and what the artist is trying to say, but did anyone think that maybe he didn’t mean anything. Just some food for thought.

We did cover most of the museum before we headed back to the apartment. The day was bright and sunny yet still a bit cold. Jerry is possibly getting a cold (which he often does when travelling) or just suffering from allergies, there are lots of things in bloom here, after all it is April in Paris. So we opted to just go back to the Apartment, where we both just woke up from a nice long nap. Yes ok, we are old we take naps now, but after we leave Paris, the rest of the trip will not give us much opportunity to take it easy as we will be exploring previously charted territory for us.

We are currently getting ready for dinner which will be a repeat of a place we had dinner our last night in Paris last year, Café des Musées. Jerry thought it was the best béarnaise sauce in all of France (perhaps better than mine, but can that be?)

Dinner

It was about a 15 minute metro ride with one transfer to the restaurant. Café Des Musées is at 49 rue de Turenne in the Marias. Again, we sat at the same table we did last year, but this time next to the window. At the table next to us (and I knew it the moment they sat down) was a couple from New York. They were what people believe to be the typical New Yorkers (and I love New Yorkers don’t get me wrong) but these were the 5^th avenue I have too much money type and I will be dammed if I am even going to try and speak French, even in Paris New Yorkers. These are the type of people who give American Travelers a bad name. We did strike up a conversation with them, and they were pleasant but with that certain air. Further they weren’t much interested in what we had to say as they interrupted us when we were talking to go on about them.

Enough of that, I do highly recommend this restaurant, it is a low key local favorite, although tonight there did seem to be a lot of English being spoken, but most of the locals are seated in the back section. The food is very simple and well done and the béarnaise is very good. I am sure you already know what Jerry had. I had Echine (roasted pork loin in tons of garlic). Jerry drugged himself up enough to make it through dinner but now he is passing out. He will not be going to the Architectural museum tomorrow but instead staying in bed trying to get over his head cold.

Dinner was very enjoyable, even with our New York dinner companions. I will say that today was the day that comes on every vacation, when you hit that point and you finally realize that yes your are in fact on vacation. That happened for me this evening. Normally it takes about a week to get to that point, but I think with all of the naps it just hit me sooner.

Tomorrow is macaroons in the morning, and who knows for the afternoon, much depends on how Jerry is feeling.

Today’s Food.

Brunch at home: Ham, cheese and tomato omelet, grilled croissant topped with sautéed pears and bananas in a caramel sauce and mimosas.

Dinner:

Jerry – Salade Tomate Brebis (Sicilian tomato, sheep cheese and lettuce) Entrecote aux béarnaise and frites.

Chris – Escargot (in mushroom caps with a pesto garlic sauce), Echine (garlic roasted pork loin) with dauphine potatoes.

We had a bottle of Chateau Gaillard a 2008 St. Emilion Grand Cru and of course started with champagne. We both had Terrine de Choco (a very dense chocolate cake with a crème anglaise and caramel sauce.

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Photos

Escargot
Its on the plate not the big blue thing.

Comments

[cristine]

I'm really enjoying your posts!!!