More Metro Woes

Today we planned to go to Odeon on the metro, but it was closed so we had to go on to the next stop which was St Germaine.  As we left home there were lots of people getting off the metro with signs protesting the signing of the new labor laws by Macron and the police presence was heavy, even on the train.  We went to Square Vert Galant on the Ile de la Cite and Saint Sulpice to see the Delacroix murals which have been cleaned and restored.  Walked around Luxembourg Gardens, a favorite of mine, and found the Lady on a Bench sculpture before heading to lunch at Les Papilles, which came highly recommended.  It is a wine store and bistro; one wall is all wines and you pick what you want and they serve it with a small corkage fee.  The menu is set and our starter was Cream of Celery Soup which was delicious.  We were given a bowl with croutons, creme fraiche and bacon and then a large tureen of soup to ladle into the bowl.  Next was beef cooked slowly in red wine with carrots, potatoes and snap peas served in an enormous copper pot.  I think there was enough to serve my family a couple of meals and way too much for the two of us despite the fact it was very good.  This was followed by some goat cheese and a black olive tapenade and dessert was a pear compote with foamed caramel; different but very good  We chose a red Domaine de Montcalmes 2014 on the recommendation of our server and it was perfect with our meal.  I bought a bottle to bring home as I think it would be great with the turkey on Thanksgiving.  we wandered home along the quai and through the Marais and had dinner at home again.

Sick Day

I woke up not feeling too well but decided it wasn't going to stop me as we planned to walk rue Condorcet and rue des Martyrs.  We were taking the Metro to Anvers but 2 stops before we got there, the train sat forever in the station getting more and more packed.  Announcements were being made but the only thing we could understand was Anvers.  Finally we moved on to the next station and repeated the waiting game until everyone got off and they backed the train out.  Another, very crowded, train arrived and everyone got off so we were packed on the platform.  We finally decided we'd had enough and we would just walk to our starting spot.  After reading "Rue des Martyrs,The Only Street in Paris" and making a list of every place along the way, I was excited to explore the street along with rue Condorcet.  We were both a little disappointed but did some shopping along the way: Citron verte framboise tiramisu at Delmontel; lemon & chocolate tarts at Sebastien Degarden & madelines from Madeline Mademeselle.  Stopped for lunch at Le Paprika, a spot that looked pretty good for people watching.  I had a coke and Leas had langos with a sauce.  As we left, an ambulance pulled up and got a man out and into the restaurant (for his lunch?).  Interesting.  Visited Notre Dame de Lorette,  I finally decided that I was done so we headed home and stopped at the grocery to pick up some crackers and coke. I settled on the couch and just rested the rest of the day and, after finally realizing I had a touch of Vertigo, took my medication for it.  Leas went back out for a couple of hours and stopped at La Place Royale for a beer - said she put on her big girl pants.  Dinner was leftovers and pateries at home.

Chantilly

Off to Chantilly today but when we arrived at Gare du Nord, the tracks with our train and the ticket machines were behind yellow police tape with police and army patroling again.  We waited for 15-20 minutes and the tape came down so we went to the ticket machine and bought our tickets, but somewhere we hit a wrong button and ended up with four round trip tickets instead of two.  It's only a 22 minute train ride and I read it was a 20 minute walk to the Chateau so we set out on the most scenic route through the woods.  There were signs pointing the way but I think we missed something as we walked for an hour and still couldn't see the Chateau.  We stopped in at the church, Notre Dame, along the way, saw a carnival being set up and finally saw the stables followed by the Chateau.  It is a very imposing sight, surrounded by water and gardens.  The castle is in the French Renaisssance style and was built in 1528 during the 200 years it was owned by the Montmorency family.  Henri IV  was a  frequent visitor.  The space is really vast and would take more than a day to see everything.  The collection of paintings alone, second only to the Louvre in number, would take a day, plus there are many other artifacts including massive silver services, Chantilly porcelain and jewels.   We walked over to the stables, where we had a light lunch of a crepe for me and a cheese baguette for Leas, as we had tickets for the 2 o'clock horse show.  The stables are the largest in Euorpe and are quite an 18th Century masterpiece; I think I read that they cover 3 acres and a horse museum is included.  The horse show was very interesting and different than anything I've ever seen. There was a story, music, light show and costumed riders as they put the horses through their paces. The show was in a round theater in the stables.  They also have an outdoor show ring and race course. We walked casually back to the train station through the town and stopped at L'Arsenal (a little bistro on St Antoine) for a beer (served with popcorn) once we were back in our neighborhood.  We picked up some cheese, and a baguette to go with the ham and wine we already had for dinner in the apartment.  All in all a fun and interesting day - Chantilly is definitely worth a visit.

Wednesday, September 20th

We started the day at the Musee de la Vie Romantique  to see the exhibit "The Power of Flowers", the work of Pierre-Joseph Redoute.  Really beautiful as was the museum itself, which was the home of Ary Scheffer, a painter.  The museum is small, two floors and has some interesting pieces.  One room is devoted to the memorabilia of George Sands.  The museum has a delightful secluded garden where they serve light lunches so we decided to eat there but, as I wasn't very hungry, I only had some madeleines and Leas had a salad.  After leaving, we stopped at Trinity Church by architect Theodore Ballu and finished in 1867.  The building is Italian Renaissance and has quite an ornate exterior. Then on to Musee Gustav Moreau, a museum filled with Moreaus drawings and paintings in the townhouse in which he grew up.  Many of his paintings are huge, floor to ceiling, and there are many that are quite interesting.  One of the highlights of the house is the ornate circular staircase leading to his atelier, which is replicated as it was when he painted there.  Then we set off for Galeries Layfayette to have a drink in their rooftop bar, The Cube.  We sat on the high chairs against the balcony over looking the rear of L'Opera and each had a kir.  The view was beautiful and you're able to walk around 3 sides to take unobstruced view pictures.    Dinner was at Frenchie, chef Gregory Marchand's highly rated, hard to score a reservation restaurant.  I'll do my best in describing the dishes but have few notes as the waiter came over and told me he would e-mail me the menu if I gave him my e-mail address so I did't have to bother with notes but he never sent them; this is my only criticism of the restaurant as everything else went above and beyond our expectations.    As soon as we sat down, we were served some maple bacon scones and butter.  We opted for the wine flight to accompany the tasting menu and the sommelier was a cute young girl who was very enthusiastic and passionate about wine.  She throughly explained every wine as she served it and even told us why she chose it to accompany the specific food.  The amuse bouche was a zuchinni flower with heirloom tomato on crispy bread with a yogurt and celery oil dressing.  This was followed by a pie shaped wedge of silky foie gras served with mango four ways: fresh, pureed, aspic and pickled.  It was really delicious!  Next was smoked eel with  potatoes, vegetables and coriander seeds.  The fish course was pollack with mashed potatoes  and roasted carrots and the meat was squab with wild mushrooms.  It consisted of a breast and a leg which was very crispy and fun to eat.  We had two desserts; the first was a berry sorbet with several different crunchy pieces (almost crumbs and some fresh fruit pieces.  The second was a chocolate dome which, when cracked open, was filled with vanilla ice cream and caramel.  We had 5 different wines with our meal and we both deemed it pretty spectacular - Frenchie lives up to all the hype and is highly recommended.  This was a great day and our first day without a single drop of rain.

Tuesday the 19th

Started off at the Grand Epicierie of Galleries Layfayette; such fun to wander through their aisles upon aisles of fresh and packaged food. I'd love to buy so much of it but it would take more than a suitcase to get it home so I settled for a package of Angelina Chocolate Chaud and a jar of Christine de Ferber white peach jam (as recommended by David Lebovitz) which they didn't have on our 2015 trip.  The vast amounts of ham, cheese, fresh vegetables are truly overwhelming.  Then visited Notre Dame de Champs - the first stone was laid in 1867 and it was consecrated in 1912.  Then went to the Saint Vincent de Paul Chapel, a Lazarist chapel where you can go up behind the altar where there is an interesting view and a memorial to ? .  Went to lunch at La Closerie des Lilas, an historic brasserie and haunt of Hemmingway.  After our usual kir for an aperitif, I had oysters with a glass of Viognier and Leas had Pike quenelles with  a Pouilly Fume.  Both of us loved our lunch and my oysters were some of the biggest I've ever eaten.  For dessert we shared a lemon, basil tart which was outstanding.  The restaurant is truly old school Paris, beautiful and a place not to be missed. Then we went through Montparnasse Cemetary which is 46.2 acres.  Found the graves of guy de Maupassant, Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, Jean Seberg (Marshalltown, Iowa) and a few others.  Then went to Notre Dame de Travail which was built in 1901 and influenced by Eiffel as it has an ironwork nave.  It's very unusual and worth visiting.
Dinner was at Yves Camdeborde's restaurant Le Comptoir, which we had been really looking forward to since Leas scored the reservation two months before we left.  The room is tine but very nice; typical bistro with the tables practically on top of each other.  We were seated next to a mother and daughter from Chicago and they were delightful dinner companions.  The menu is a set 5 course and we started with a kir and tuna with mushrooms and several other vegetables in a viniagrette.  The entree was cod with potatoes and vegetables in a foamy seafood mousse followed by the main course o roasted veal with Kalamata figs and olives and cabbage with parmesan.  Note: the veal was very tough and somewhat tasteless which we have found to be true  on several ocassions when it's been served to us.  The cheese plate was served next and it was placed between two tables to share.  It consisted of 8 choices and included honey and two jams - it was pretty spectacular and each cheese included a card noting what it was.  We had a bottle of Chateau d'Arche 2009 Haut Medoc, cru Bourgeois  with dinner.  Dessert was pears poached in red wine on a pepper shortbread with grapes and a very good vanilla ice cream.  The dinner was very good but we both felt it didn't quite meet our expectations, though we can't say exactly what was missing.  The food (except for the veal) was delicious but the meal wasn't spectacular and we never felt special or like they were glad we were there.

Observations

We noticed several changes on this trip, some of which are worth mentioning.  Most restaurants now have salt and pepper on the table, I think we only ate in a couple that didn't and very few of them are serving baguettes as bread anymore.  Most served some type of brown or whole grain bread instead.  Many are also serving bread in little bread bags on the table instead of baskets.  They are quite cute and we looked for some to buy to bring home but had no luck.  Lots of chefs seem to be using lots of seeds, herbs and spices in unusual ways. The majority of the restaurants are printing their menus in French and English so we don't get to try and decipher and test our French food vocabulary much any more.  Scarves are no longer seen on almost everyone and very few of the younger crowd seem to wear them - older women and men are the most frequent scarf wearers.  Everyone is wearing blue jeans, doesn't matter the age or sex, they are the most frequently seen article of clothing.  Men are wearing suits that are have very tight fitted pants and  very short coats.  I figure I must really look my age as I was almost always offered a seat on the Metro when it was full and the person offering sometimes seemed to be about my age.  Rarely did we run into someone who didn't speak English.

I am always amazed by the number of people (Parisians) who read the Metro signs like they've never been on them before.  They constantly scan the line and stops on board and search and discuss the maps in the stations.  It's such an easy system but they actually make it look like it might be difficult.

Giverny, Monday the 18th

Started off at Gare St Lazare, but the area where we had to buy our tickets was shut down with yellow tape,  army and police cordoning it off.  We waited, along with many others for 15 or 20 minutes and they took down the tape and let everyone through.  We asked the ticket agent what was going on and he said that someone had lost their luggage.  We wandered around the town when we first arrived  and then went to Monet's, at which point it started to pour so we tried to wait it out in the gift shop, but it never seemed to stop so we ventured into the garden when the rain got lighter.  It stopped for a while so we were able to enjoy the visit but lots of flowers were pounded down by the heavy rain.  We had a little snack at a cafe across from the train station before heading back to Paris and went to Le Bonne Soeurs, a restaurant that we tried in 2015 on the recommendation of Rick Steves, for dinner as it's close to the apartment.  Leas had a hamburger, which she said was very good and I had eggs benedict which were delicious.  I later read that they are considered one of the best Brunch restaurants.  Fun but very wet day.