Paris Superlatives

1. Funniest thing to say that we don't know it's meaning, or if it means anything "Qu'est qu'il ce pass?? Voila!!"

2. Best dressed Vespa: LX50

3. Best breakfast food: still warm baguette monge from Eric Kayser with Bonne Maman jam and/or Nutella.

4. Cheapest dinner: 14 euro, 2 take-out boxes of pasta from Mezzo and a 4 euro bottle of wine from Monoprix.

5. City of Light Brightest Light award/most like the gestapo: Bateaux-Mouche night cruise.

6. Funniest imitation: Drake's Julia Child "Bonjooour!!"

7. Favorite Arrondisement: tied: 5th and 6th.

8. Best flea market purchase: vintage Texier messenger bag

9. Favorite indoor museum: L'Orangerie

10. Favorite outdoor museum: Rodin's garden

11. Weirdest outdoor museum: Marie-Antonette's Ferme at Versailles

12. Sketchiest person in French history: Marie-Antoinette

13. Best local dinner: Rotisserie Beaujolais

14. Biggest snafoo with the home exchange: not knowing the code to their front door when we arrived.

15. Best idea ever: www.homeexchange.com

16. Most favorite activity: riding bikes everywhere!

ps: Books we read while here: Loving Frank, Lindberg, A Moveable Feast (highly recommended to anyone staying the 5th or 6th arrondisments!)

Fou for France

It's official, we're fou about France...at least Paris! It's been a funny couple of days--most Parisiens returned from holiday at the beginning of this week and the traffic got increasingly worse as the week went on. And then this morning, low and behold, we went to our neighborhood market and everyone was American! Maybe a Labor Day influx? SO, we're a little confused but we just love this place. We think we can recreate it in New York but we have a small list of things it'll take to live the dream: 1. A Vespa, preferably a used PX125 or LX50 but we'll take anything, 2. An apartment in the Village, near the river, 3. Really amazing and cheal restaurants that offer house wine, 4. A Nespresso machine , and 5. Legal drinking in all city parks.....that's it!

The last few days have been so fun, surpisingly relaxed; since we've been here for 10 days, we were able to do everything on our "must-do" list pretty early on and that left us about four days to repeat some parks and museums, see Giverny, walk from Montmartre across the city back to our apartment, and eat some great food.

A brief recap: Tuesday we saw Sainte Chapelle which is jaw-droppingly delicate and beautiful. I don't know what the French were thinking when they built the Palais de Justice around it, but

even without direct sunlight, the windows are still awe inspiring. That night we set out to find David Leibovitz's favorite creperie, Cafe Breizh in the Marais, which was closed! It was the second night in a row that we were stood up by a creperie, so we rode our bikes back home and looked

up his second favorite, which was a hike to the 11th Arrond. Not bad, but not our favorite, although they served delicious Breton cider (we consumed about a liter!).

We visited Giverny yesterday and it was GORGEOUS! We were both pleasantly surprised at the beautiful gardens and how fun the day was. We rented bikes in Vernon and rode through the countryside to Monet's house and had a picinic. Could have sat in the garden forever, and it was so fun to see the waterlilies in full bloom after seeing his Nympheas at L'Orangerie (and Drake really loved seeing Japanese tourists on le pont Japonais, I think it was his high of the day).

Then last night we were treated to a special

dinner (thanks Mom and Dad!) and chose to go to Clos des Gourmets, a restaurant near the Eiffel Tower whose 26 year old chef trained with Alain Ducasse and Guy Savoy and picks the ingredients for the menu from the markets daily. Highlights were meeting a French-American couple sitting next to us who own a French restaurant in Phoenix (they helped explain the menu and paid us the highest compliment of the trip--they thought we were British!!), Drake's incredible "Tuna Cooked and Raw" (a piece of seared tuna and a pile of tuna tartare with some sort of ginger reduction something sauce), and the broth in my mussels--butter, raisins, mint, and un peu de creme. We ordered dessert wine and got Cognac instead which was interesting, but over all a fabulous and memorable dinner in Paris!

Un reservation!

I just made my first fully French reservation on le telephone for a very special dinner tomorrow night at Clos de Gourmet near the Eiffel Tower...and I'm so excited I just had to blog about it.

It's rainy here today, Drake took the train to Versailles this morning and went for a long run through the gardens. I took the train to the airport and met Prescott Nadeau's fiance, Sarah, while she waited for her train! She is so lovely, and is on her way to Brest to teach English for the year. And we're about to go Sainte Chapelle and one more swing through Mu. D'Orsay. Tonight, crepes in the trendy Marais!

A Moveable Feast

Today: The Louvre. (or, Da Loovra, as Drake likes to say) Well... it's still huge! And the Mona Lisa...is still small and surrounded by bullet proof glass, Japanese tourists, and lots of other people with cameras (what does one do with a picture of the Mona Lisa?). But the rest of the museum, at least the tiny chunk that we bit off today, is just fantastic. Botticelli, DaVinci, David, unnamed Roman sculptures, I.M. Pei even, one masterpiece after another, and another, and another! But fortunately, our pain au chocolates didn't last too long and we had to retreat to the Tuilleries for a picnic before we imploded with too much art.

Having paid respect to the Louvre, and having four days left, we felt a little bit lighter on our feet and the rest of day was spent reading and napping in various parks and our apartment. We stumbled (literally, on our bikes) upon the English bookstore, Shakespeare and Company, which was started by US expat Sylvia Beach, who published the first edition of Joyce's Ulysses and was a good friend to many of the "Lost Generation" writers in Paris. I needed a new book (just finished Loving Frank--the end? Oh my goodness!! Did not see that coming) and picked up Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, his memoires about his time in Paris in the '20s. It's a really fun read, he writes all about our neighborhood. Anyway, we love this little place!! We have some rain in the forecast and would love to spend an afternoon there.

One thing we're trying to do is not eat at anymore restaurants with any English in the menu...and it's proven to be harder than we thought, both to find these restaurants (most are still closed for August; hello France, it's basically September today) and to then translate the French menu. But we had a wonderful meal tonight at Bistro Mazarin in the 6th arrondisement, with a fun but chic local feel and our first pommes frites of the trip! And then for the 2nd night in a row we went to Ile Saint Louis searching for crepes and came up empty handed! But this time we had ice cream instead, from Berthillon, the first "glacée" in France. YUM.

The formidable Wedding Feast at Cana, and the back of Drake's head.

Here, in Napolean III's apartments, it was time for faire du manger.

Place de St. Germain-de-prés...just love the bright red geraniums everywhere.

Self-timed shot so we have proof of our time reading in a Paris park, to include in our memoirs...

Today was a great day. We finally ventured to the Right Bank! Some highlights in pictures:

Port de Vanves Flea Market: Chose this "smaller, low key" market over huge Clingancourt, but over 200 vendors didn't feel small to us! I bargained for a leather Texier messenger bag (love it!) and Drake got some great postcards of Charles Lindberg (about whom he is reading at the moment).

Walked through through the Tullieries after lunch and tea at A Priori Thé, then rode our bikes up Ave. Champs-Elysses and rode back down Rue Faubourg-Saint Honoré to look at the closed couture shops (sadly, we were forced to window shop, as it was Sunday).

Look who Drake found!

Monet at L'Orangerie, my favorite museum so far.

Beautiful gardens at Palais Royal.

We think we're going to have to tackle the Louvre tomorrow...but only for a quick trip to say hi to Mona. And maybe Musée Cluny/Moyen Ages? Can't believe we've been here almost a week, and Friday seems too soon!

A word about markets. Yesterday we explored the market on Rue Mouffetard and it was wonderful! We followed the crowd of locals walking down a tiny cobblestone street (that used to be the main road to Lyons and Italy in the 13th century); old men in plaid blazers, women in house dresses, and families, each with their empty shopping bag or pull cart. And we passed lots of people walking back up the hill and eyed their full bags: at least one baguette in each, lots of fruit, chickens, bottles of wine...

The culture of the markets is a funny one and takes some getting used to, we've found that observation of each individual stall is key before entering in to buy. Some fruit and vegetable sellers let you touch the food and bag it yourselves, others will walk around as you tell them what you want and pick it out for you. They are all equally gracious and welcoming, asking "pour deux?" or "pour aujourd'hui?" and helping us pick the best cheese, rotisserie chicken, nectarines, or whatever else we're buying. We came away with a few figs for a snack but loved watching the rotisseries at the charcuteries that had potatoes broiling under the chickens in the drippings (YUM!) and all the people.

SO this morning I went back to get some things for breakfast and dinner tonight (we figured we should cook in at least once!). Going in, I thought I knew what I wanted but once I got there... the cheeses, the sausages and salamis, the fish and crabs and oysters, the chickens, the grapes and lettuce and potatoes and tiny little red plums...it was all overwhelming! And it was much quieter this morning than yesterday, I think Sunday morning is serious down time for the Parisians. I finally came away with two different baguettes (one for breakfast and a skinny one for cheese with dinner), a fresh off the spit chicken (pour deux, s'il vous plait!), a bag of roasted potatoes, figs and strawberries, a head of lettuce and tomatoes, and a little pot of cheese that looks like its going to be stinky and gooey. AND a bottle of Minervois that I picked up on the way home. C'etait magnifique!! And I think we'll eat on the Seine again tonight if it stays warm.

The gardens tres grande!!

Bonjour!!

A short post today, as we are tres fatique!

With a long day in Versailles, we saw the Chateau, the gardens, the English gardens of Marie Antoinette, and la ferme.

The chateau was huge with a below average audio tour. The rooms were incredibly beautiful with lots of faux marble, real marble, painted chairs, and portraits (where the men and women looked very similar).

The gardens were the highlight of the day and I hope to go back and do a full run around later next week. We loved the symmetry, the huge walls of trees forming straight and narrow paths, the fountains that were unfortuantely not running, but majestic nonetheless. It is huge!! Much bigger than Central Park...and we think it is larger than the Summer Palace in China (anyone?), which we have also seen.

The most peculiar part of the journey was Marie Antoinette's little English village that she created, which included thatched roofs and sheep, as well as an absurd amount of fish in a small pond, two big bulls, five donkies, many goats (and even some billie goats?).

Our legs are seriously exhausted after a lot of walking! We treated ourselves to a take-out dinner on the Seine with a bottle of wine and inspected the Bateaux Mouches and other Seine Cruisers, some of which are offensive in the way that they create a "City of Light" all by themselves.

The entry gate to Versailles.

The hall of mirrors with Sarah sporting the headphones for the audio-guide.

The first foundain in the back.

Marie Antoinette's ferme.

Sarah loves the flowers!!

More flowers!!

The Seine with take-out and vin rouge.

Day 3

Day 3 was full of unexpected highlights. It started out chilly and drizzly but we conquered our first morning market down the street and acquired a baguette and des fraises for petit dejeuner, and a can of paté canard fumé and a piece of fromage de brebis for lunch.

We rode our Velibs along the Seine to the Eiffel Tower, stopping along the way to get museum passes at Musée D'Orsay. When we got to the E.T. (which is huge, and not as romantic as we remembered) we sat in the grass and ate our paté (in honor of Edward Crouse, our favorite gourmet in NYC) and wondered if it would rain.

Then, we walked across the river to the 16th arrondisement in search of designer consignment shops and vintage ties. We found some amazing things! Like 500 euro Chanel amazing, so... we didn't add to our wardrobes but it was a fun adventure.

After a big nap, we awoke to clear blue skies and sun at 6pm and headed off to the Musée D'Orsay, which is open late on Thursdays. We intended to go to the café there for dinner but got stuck in the Impressionists and admiring the view of Paris from the 5th floor terrace and decided to bike home and eat locally instead. The bike ride home was unexpectedly incredible. The sun was setting over the Seine and we detoured into the Louvre and found ourselves riding around the square and glass pyramid at dusk and then down the Seine to the Latin Quarter through Ile de la Cité and past Notre Dame.

AND. THEN. We had our first Julia Child moment!! This little restaurant called Rotisserie de Beaujolais around the corner served us the MOST delicious "megret de canard" and "demi-poule roti"; we felt like Julia and Paul arriving in France and eating sole meunier for the first time. They were served with a casserole dish of heavenly mashed potatoes and (lots of) beurre. And finished with a molten chocolate cake and pistachio ice cream (both of which sound better in French but we can't remember). Anyway, we'd go on and on, but just read My Life in France and what we experienced was just like that!! We just hear her voice, "Yum!".

Sarah's favorite part of the day was seing all the way to Montmarte from the top of Musée D'Orsay and then the duck at Rotisserie, and Drake's was wandering amongst the Monet, Cezanne, Degas, and Van Gogh. Wonderful day. Tomorrow, Versailles!

Day 2

Quick post so we don't forget today: lunch of baguettes with jambon et fromage et beure (!) from Boulangerie Kayser, the best organic bakery in Paris, which happens to be down the block. We ate on the Seine, in the little garden at the end of Ile de la Cite dedicated to Henri IV. Then walked through the windy streets of Ile de la Cite, which once housed all of Paris, and Ile Saint-Louis, which is the cutest little place! My favorite windows and apartments today, on tiny quiet little streets. Then cafe and vespa watching, which Drake posted about below.

THEN, another highlight, we figured out Les Velibs, public bikes that they have all over the city, and took off to Chinatown. Bikes and China, we thought, our two favorite things. And we thought it would be an easy order compared to a French menu but, it turns out that when you mix various Asian dishes with French and some pictures and a waitress who doesn't speak English....it's really hard! I think we ordered three "specialites de maison" and ended up with delicious plates, especially le canard laque (laquered duck?). It was a great adventure, for sure.

C'est tout! Bon soiree, as ze Franch say!

Dolce Vita

Tomorrow we will be reinacting this movie:

Vespa-Watching

The highlight of today's afternoon was watching the battles between the cars, Vespas (and other less-attractive mopeds) and motorcycles at a busy intersection.

Here are the victors:

On her way to NYU?

Doable on 2nd Ave??

In Hingham, Oui?

"Je voudrais Drake!"

Day 1: We made it! It was a close call with a 3 hours delay in Boston because the plane had been struck by lightening in Paris but we almost made up the lost time in the end with a great flight. After Sarah failed to get Aurelien, who had our keys, on the phone and broke down in the airport, Drake valiantly stepped in and made one more call, announcing himself "Allo! Je voudrais Drake!" That's what did it, we got the keys just fine after talking to Aurelien and...his mother (?). Drake also mixed in a little Chinese at the metro station which was interesting.

Pain au chocolate and naps ensued and were followed by an adventure to the Latin Quarter where we drank chardonnay and split a croque monsieur for lunch and people watched. We also explored the supermarche which was a little overwhelming for Day 1 (shoes and perfume on the first floor!) so we took a stroll to the Seine and discovered that Notre Dame is in our backyard. Dinner was at Maison Verlaine, where the poet Paul Verlaine died in 1896 and Ernest Hemingway lived from 1921-1925. It was a beautiful day, clear and cool, just perfect!

Here are a few photos:

This one's for you, Mom!

La Seine a block from our apartment.

Drake and Charlemagne

Notre Dame!

Bonjour!

Our home, 24 Blvd Saint-Germain

Je ne sais pas...

La Chope, our people watching café.

Bonjour!

I'll be updating as we go, so you can follow along with us for 10 days in Paris... Feel free to check in as much as you like.