I stared out at the Fellini exhibit. So worth it. Definitely worth a visit if you’re there before February. So many great photographs and fun facts. Now I need to re-watch La Dolce Vida.
Breakfast: Pan au chocolate and quiche with salmon and broccoli. Must try to make this.
Activity 1: Gallery Lafayette to browse shoes. Nothing found under 150 euro, not worth it.
Activity 2: Spent 3 hours in the Musée d’Orsay. Definitely my favorite all-around museum. I could spend a week there. In the train painting by Monet, the train station used to delay trains so he could finish his sketches and paintings. Some pieces I liked in particular:
Henri Edmond Cross - Les Isles d'Or - The Golden Isles
Monet - Le Fare Saint-Lazare
I started the day off at Fauchon near the Madeleine with a croissant and a coffee. Delicious. Good to try ONCE. Ever.
Next: Versailles for the rest of the day. Gigantic. Spectacular. Ridiculous. Gold. Complex. Cake. I walked through the palace and gardens until the sun set.
I started the day off right with some delicious macaroons from Ladurée: rose-something, pistachio, chocolate, pistachio, raspberry, pistachio.
I think my favorite museum show ever is Monet’s Water Lilies in L’Orangerie. Their intense and large size is balanced by their calming and euphoric subject. Standing in each room surrounded by them feels like a dream.
Another day with my cousins! We have a lot of time to make up for. We started at La Butte Montmartre to see Sacre Coeur and explore the area a little. Check out the woman in orange… wow.
The cousins are back in town and that can only mean one thing: adventure – or at least some fun. We started the day off right with a croissant from Paul (a patisserie I later found out is a chain store – but it’s okay) and coffee on top of the giant department store, Printemps. Definitely do this. It gives you a great feel for where everything is in the city.
Next stop, the Musée du Quai Branly to see the Teotihuacán exhibit. (more…)
If you’ve never been to Le Bon Marche it is worth a visit just to the food section. It’s sort of like a food mecca, like the food section in Harrod’s in London. There were so many things to try and so little understanding of what things were. Regardless, I went a little crazy and did some serious sampling. Crab meat with dill wrapped with smoke salmon and a glob of caviar, duck and arugula crepe, prosciutto di San Danielli, goat cheese, baghuette, fava beans lightly sauteed in butter and vinegar, and a pear. All excellent.
My immune system got a booster today in the form of the H1N1 vaccine. It felt okay I guess. Some very good family friends brought it for me from America on ice. Kind of a hassle but now I am safe which makes everyone happy. I spent the rest of the day with them, exploring Le Marais.
We took a short Rick Steves walking tour of the area and visited some pretty interesting stores and museums. (more…)
You have to love days off in the middle of the week – in France it was WWI veteran remembrance day or something. For Sarcozy, it meant parading through Paris in various motorcades and giving a speech at the Arc de Triomphe. For my cousin, it meant we could play F the dealer the night before and go to a boat party on the Seine and then wake up late and pretend to be tourists (who am I kidding, he was the only one pretending). And for my first day in Paris, how lucky. So, my cousin, who normally works nine to six as some kind of consultant intern and I slept in and then went out to find the perfect post-party night (yes, hangover) food.
Our desires were met by La Courniche, a family style couscous restaurant near Park Marceau where we were greeted with Korean BBQ style appetizers like potatoes, tuna fish, nuts, pickled carrots, and other assorted cold salads. (more…)