Zombie Sunday

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Back to back days of little sleep has created a household of zombies... I awoke at 7:00am to the sound of a street sweeper going back and forth down the single lane street that is in front of our apartment. The street is lined with parked cars on either side, so it has about 12 feet of room to move down the street, but the sweeper felt it necessary to hit the street 3 times! Oh, and yes, it is Sunday morning... I didn't try falling back to sleep, and was amazed that Charlene (and the rest) didn't wake up. I got up to get the blog current, and research some of the things we've seen so far. I tried to be quiet to avoid waking anyone else, but by 10:30am I found that I had to knock on B & B's door to get them up. They had their 11:00 massage appointment, and the place is a 10 minute walk away.

By 11:15 I went in to wake Charlene up. Seems I was living with zombies through the night. Charlene slowly got ready to go, and when Brandee and Bruce got back, we headed out to have the best Crepes in all of Paris - Breizh Cafe. The cafe is a short 15 minute walk from our apartment. We got there before 2:00, but we were kind of laughed at for not having a reservation. It was clear we couldn't get in to eat at this establishment today, so we made a reservation for Wednesday (gotta try these Crepes before we leave), and headed across the street to a small place for lunch/brunch. After eating we meandered back through what we now call the shopping district - Rue des Francs-Bourgeois. It started sprinkling a little, and we were without hats/umbrellas, so we found ourselves ducking in and out of doorways as the girls tried to window shop. We worked our way through the shopping area, and decided to head back to the apartment to regroup.

It was decided that heading off to any sightseeing today would be a bad call - Sunday's are supposed to be the busiest day at all the major sites, and we just weren't up to dealing with the masses. Brandee and Charlene wanted to shop - that was clear enough. Bruce and I recalled an Anthony Bourdain episode that explored Absinthe bars in Paris. We used our geek skills to track down the episode and discovered that the bar he went to was called the Cantada II. A few google searches later, and we had a plan on how to get there. We split up with our different plans in hand. The girls went on foot while Bruce and I hit the metro.

The metro ride there was smooth - we're definitely getting used to this. The bar was a short 5 minute walk from the Couronnes stop, but when we got there we discovered it was closed - bummer.... Oh well - at least we got to see an interesting part of the city. We decided to start heading back to the apartment and come up with a plan B. On the trip back we decided to get off the final metro 8 train a few stops early, and walk back in search of a comparable bar, but none could be found. We got back to the apartment, and sparked up google again. We searched out a few closer Absinthe bars that were apparently closed today, but we came up with a few options with places who's hours could not be verified over the Internet. They were within walking distance, so set out to the North on foot. We headed toward Les Furiex (a bar near Bastille). We made it there in about 20 minutes, and yes, they too were closed. At this point we came to the conclusion that Absinthe must not be a drink you can't get in a bar on a Sunday - maybe some law or something??? Parisians clearly like to relax on the weekend, so it must be some external rule that is keeping them from this "magical drink".

By now we were utterly determined to taste this stuff. Now it was beyond the curious itch and had turned into an all out challenge to get some of this stuff. Earlier, after our lunch excursion, we stopped by the wine store that we had visited the day before and picked up a few more bottles of wine - we go through this stuff like it's water over here. At that time I noticed that they had a few bottles of Absinthe in the back. By now Bruce and I were thinking we were going to have to make these drinks ourselves, so we decided to head to the wine store to see what we could get. We managed to get a small bottle, and the store owner set us up with the the appropriate pouring spoon that holds the mandatory sugar cubes. We left the store and, yes, we were now hunting for sugar cubes. We hit the small store near the apartment - no go. We went to the store near the wine store - closed. Back to the other store toward Picasso Museum - closed. GRRRRRR. Bruce suggested we hunt for another small convenient store on this side of Beaumarchais. An extend walk of another 15 minutes or so brought us to just that small store, and YES they had sugar cubes. We dropped the 2.90 euro to get the 1,000 pack of sugar cubes (we'll use 6 of these, but oh well), and were FINALLY on our trip back home.

Met up with the girls back at the apartment, and while they were showing off their conquests for the afternoon, I experimented with how to create these mystical concoctions. I initially set the drinks up straight (over sugar) but not diluted. Oh my, that was WAY to strong. Thank God for the Internet. Wikipedia directed me to the appropriate way to prepare these drinks. Round 2 was much better, but neither of us saw green fairies or anything special. An interesting drink, but more hype than anything and certainly NOT worth investing 4 hours of an afternoon in Paris trying to put together.

Off to dinner about 8:30, and we only had a few ideas on where to go. We first tried Hugos, but the waiter decided to tried to give Charlene a French lesson, so (in the words of Bruce) - Au Revior... We then headed toward Le Petit March (a MUCH better choice) and had an awesome meal. Charlene had Ahi Tuna, Brandee had Penne Pasta with Shrimp, and Bruce and I both got the Filet Minon. We shared a bottle of the house wine (always get the house wine - it's always good, and very affordable), and we shared a large Creme Brulee. We all agreed that it was the best Creme Brulee any of us had ever experienced - and I'm not exaggerating. It's going to be hard to venture out to another place after that meal, but we will try.

Back to the apartment for some late night planning of tomorrow's schedule, then off to bed....

The day started with Zombies, and ends with Zombies... Tomorrow we venture out again...

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Photos

Zombies at Les Furiex
Poster at a bar near Bastille

Streets on mid-day walk
Streets of Paris on our walk for Crepes.

The Pink Flamingo
This one is for you Jess

Raining in the Streets
during our shopping walk

Place des Vosges
One of the oldest parks in Paris

Ma Bourgogne
I just liked how the building looks.

Cirque D'Hiver
off Boulevard Beauchamais

Saint-Denys du Saint-Sacrement
On a walk back to the apartment

Dinner at Le Petit March
Charlene's Ahi

Absinthe
Yes, that's 72% :O

Comments

[anonymous]

Seems like they don't sleep in Paris! I remember that from when we were there too. I loved the Versailles blog and all the pictures and look forward to the blog every day. It's almost like being there. Hope you sleep tonight.....Mom