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!