Monday, May 28, 2012

Thinking about the Eiffel Tower


Today was market day at my favorite market, Grenelle.  I got up around 0730 and left Jodi snoozing.  When we were here before I bought a couple of pretty cool tops, Alas not tops today.  But It was still fun to see all the lovely fruits, vegetables, breads, and meats for sale!  Only in Paris would they scatter a bit of dirt on the fingerling potatoes to make them look more appealing!   People are amazing in the market, passionate  conversations with regulars, arguments, flirting with the customers.  I really just love the markets! I arrived home, and soon after, we left for church.  We arrived just on time, which is pretty late, so we got a seat in the back.  Never fear, the Notre Dame staff are current with modern times, and there are now video monitors every 15 feet or so.  IT is just not right to be able to look at a screen in Notre Dame!  It is always so very interesting to watch people, and I could do a bit of this during this service because the guest priest was from Africa and I could barely understand any of this French.  It is always lovely to go to Mass there, though, and I found the choir music accompanied by the stained glass in the vaulted ceiling particularly nice this visit.  On the way back frojm church we stopped in the market near here and found some hard cider for Jodi.  She loves it and we have had it before.  We wven found Pear hard cider, which I am pretty excited to try!  Back to the apartment to change clothing and then to the Rodin Museum.  Jodi has wanted to see the























Thinker for seven years and FINALLY she got to see it.  It is always fun for me to see her excited, because that is way off her norm.  But I knew that there was yet another treat in store for her.  I particularly think he did interesting things with eyes, they look so real, at least from a distance.  She loves hands, likes to look at them, observe them, and she gets to know them.  Rodin did several pieces of hands, but there is one called he Cathedral in the museum that I knew she would like too.  So I got to see her excited not once, but twice in one day!  Like many things, it has changed since I last visited, but the art is the same.  The roses were our in all their glorious splendor as well, so  Mr Thinker is in good company.  After our visit to the Musee Rodin we went to the Eiffel Tower to do some photography with Molly Dolly.  There is a rather new monument called the Peace monument, that I had turned my nose up on an ealrier visit.   Upon reading about it prior to this trip I wanted a closer look.  there were people of sevaral nations there, sitting on the grass, listening to music, dancine.  It was pretty cool.  We brought one of Jodi’s great niece’s doll (Molly Dolly)  with us and have been blogging to her too.  It all started because I wear an Eiffel Tower occasionally and she seemed fascinated with it,  so when we went to King’s Island I showed her the Eiffel Tower there.  But now every time she sees a tower of any sort it is the Eikel Tower.  So I thought MAYBE Molly being here might catch her interest and help bring it make sense to her.  We will see.  We loitered there a bit and people watched.  After we went to one of the cheesy tourist traps for dinner, it looked like it might rain and it made good sense to be near a Metro entrance and this one was about 5 steps away.  We shared a capreses salad, which they are doing here with half a tompatie instead of a slice now.  THe verdict is still out for e, but this tomatoe was closer to soggy styrafoam rather than a tomatoe.   I had a piece of steak with bernaise and of course pommes frittes accompanied by a glass of wine.  We were going to have dessert when we got back to the apartment, but had a glass of wine instead to this lovely sunset.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Real French Perfume


Saturday started out a lazy day, but it got busy very quickly.  We decided to run some errands.  My friend Mary wanted a Sari, and so  off we went to Rue Fabourg St. Denis near the Gare Du Nord to get it.  Jodi was not real thrilled with this, and I vacillated and vacillated on buying myself one too, which did not help.  I could not get her to try eating a little Indian food there!   From there we went to Les Halles and stoppedin St Eustache because Jodi had not yet seen this church.  On a hot day, the interior of these old stone churches, is even more blessed.  I wanted some vanilla from Detou and we bid a honorary  hello to Dellerhein on the way.   Dellerhein is where the infamous copper pot was purcahsed.  
I still marvel at how much cheaper vanilla beans are here than even on-line.  Detou is a small but mighty store where one can get unusual things to cook with.  Once again I am on the verge of the big.........   Jodi dragged me away and we walked toward BHV.  Mother had asked me to buy some perfume for a friend and I knew that they carry it there.  I also wanted to get myeslf some “real french perfume” on this trip.  I accomplished both missions!  I found the perfume for Gwen and found another scent by the same company called the “Flight of the Butterfly”.  I LOVE it, I squirted some on my shoulder for Jodi to smell because the bottle was new and later I smelled it on the way home, thinking, I sure hope that is my new perfume.  IT WAS!  



 




It was hot, Jodi had had enough of her personal space being ignored and so we came home,  we went to the Grand Epicerie and got some goodies for dinner.  For dessert of course we had left overs from my cooking class.  

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Just Desserts!


Today was my advanced pastry ( AKA: desserts) class.  It was awesome, we made 4 desserts, Baba Au Rum, Strawberry creme Cake, Mille Feuille and Eclairs.  I am thinking that my favorite is the Mille Fueille, but we just had the Strawberry Creme cake for dessert and it was delish!  It was great to see Pino again and cook with him.  It is funny how used you get to something, going to class this morning felt like being on familiar ground.  The school has grown and is now twice as big, but it is designed so that it felt very much the same, even Lena is still there.  
On my arrival home, my suitcase had arrived!  Yippee, I am not sure what I treasured most, clean cloths, a different pair of shoes to wear or my washrag!  But while Jodi was finishing her shower, she had manned the door to get my bag back, I put stuff away and generally loved on it a bit.  She said someone called who did not speak English and she thought that they were not going to show again as they did not arrive until the 19th hour.   so she was pretty relieved too!
I had “saved my self” for the desserts and brought them home to share, so I was starving.  We went to a local place where he had a dessert earlier in the week.  I had steak tartare, and Jodi ( augh) dessert of cheese cake.  My meal was so-so.  I have had it chopped up before but this was way too coarsely chopped and tasted like raw meat.  Which I KNOW it is, but it should have other flavors as well.  After lunch we went to the Sq St. Jean behind  Notre Dame and just sat, relaxed and watched people.  There was a movie filming on the street just behind where we were sitting, so it will be interesting to vwatch if I ever get to see it.  I do watch a fair amount of foreign film.  
We gazed at the roses, let Molly Dolly pose for some shots and walked across a bridge I have crossed many times, to see a gazillion locks on the bridge.  The legend ( a new one!) is that you and your lover put the lock on and throw the key in the Seine

We went to dinner at Le Bistrot d’Henri, I had Duck i a honey sauce and au gratin potatoes, they were wonderful and Jodi had ravioli, which she said was o.k. and you know what that means.  THe couple beside us were FI GH TI NG!  I did not know weather to laugh or cry for them.  The walk home was nice and we had that Strawberry Creme cake once we got home to the vision of the Eiffel Tower Twinking at us!