Tasting it all

Jodi opted to sleep in again and off I went to the market near the house.  It’s a good one, about 2 city blocks long, a cacophony of stimulus for the senses.  I breathed it all in as best I could, how do you revive a quickie later?  There were the usual suspects, though the change in produce was interesting: new pointy broccoli-cauliflower thingies,

figs and plums, lovely multicolored tomatoes,

lots of root vegetables, the  fish guys, the butchers,

cheese mongers, bakers, clothing and

miscellany guys.  All carry their own color,

smell, feel ( well I am not so sure about the produce - you DON”T touch the produce here- or the meat and fish!), and even sounds.  I bought a couple of croissants from the baker in the market, but note to self, the ones from the boulangerie are better.  I really didn’t buy much, just gazed and breathed it all in.

Jodi was up and moving, so I threw breakfast together, yogurt ( I had pear YUM!) ham and cheese for me, the above mentioned croissants, OJ and coffee.  

Also I had cut open a pomegranate.   Jodi decided to learn how to do this properly via U-tube so now I am a pomegranate( AKA grenade) butcher extraordinaire.  IT is really easy with the right education.   

Off we went to the EIffel Tower, found a bench in the sun with a good view, 

 sat down  and I knitted and Jodi read.  It is amazing I watched a Japonaise family getting their pictures taken in full regalia, a Muslim family across from us dumped on a park bench, children playing, dogs running around sniffing and doing doggies things.  The downs of many languages floats on the air and warms my heart, oh that we could all get along that well universally.

Then we stopped for a coffee where there was a FULL American Brunch on the menu.  I had to laugh, bacon, eggs, toast and coffee.  Then to Monoprix I wanted some more reusable bags., Jodi more soap.

Next on the quickie around Paris was Luxembourg gardens and our beloved Medici Fountain.  Where we sat and people watched (I knitted of course).  

Jodi chatted up a guy from Serbia (Georgio) that had run out of energy and she is very in touch with that issue, so she shared, Some Indian fellow approached me and started talking, a young guy, in PAris for am on the.  I turned him on to Rue du Princess as there had been a gazillion young people on the street talking and drinking when we left Bistrot du Henri.  And then there were these 3 young women that just made me laugh,

they were taking pictures, posing, kissing the air, swinging their hair, and looking sexy.

  I tried it for Jodi, but just looked ridiculous, not sure if I am JUST not sexy or if I am just old.  It made me laugh though.  Then was the walk to pay our respects to Notre Dame.  

It is all cordoned off and the park behind is totally taken up with temporary trailer-office edifices.  We wanted to see my GF from Pont Neuf so we went there and I got a bit irritated, there are “artiste” hawking their wares there in the bench areas,  One guy asked if I wanted to look or buy, and I said no I WANTED to SIT.

I am all for those folks along the river, streets, etc, but really taking up space from people who want too gaze longingly at my GF and wonder ad the glory of Gods sunset?  Yep, I was irritated.  We found a place, hunkered down and Jodi played with her camera as the day drew to a close.  The sunset was a beauty, and my GF she winked at us!  I tried somme more sexy moves to no avail.

All that irritation made me hungry so off we traipsed to Le Flore en Isle.  We got the same irascible waiter service ( I think they put on a “Waiter” show for tourists), and sat by young American who will be studying law at Notre Dame so she knew where Indiana was!   I had Tartare de boeuf, it was delish ( but I paid a serious price - though not so serious as last year) Jodi had the French onion soup, which was delish.  I just know.   We moseyed back to the Hotel Du Ville and caught the metro home.  

Dégas, Sleeping Beauty and Angels

We both slept late, trying to recover I think from the drive and harrowing return of the voiture (car) to the airport.  There is a temporary exhibit called Degas a la Opera at the D’Orsay,

I don’t usually get to lucky and I wanted to see it! So off we went to stand lin line because of our hedonistic morning.  I just love people watching and this charming guy was drawing his children and they were all drawing each other,  they were just a delightful family to watch.  He was not so bad either.

The exhibit was fun though I had to laugh as I had seen a lot of it before because several pieces were on loan from the U.S..  But it as interesting to see the progression of his work.  I laugh as when you go to art museums, every little prep sketch is often in the museum too and I wonder if the artist knew that someday that little piece of nothing to him/her would be in a museum.  

I have always liked Degas and I wonder how much of it still has to do with my desire as a child to take ballet classes, or if it is the tulle dresses.

We needed some lunch and I lead Jodi down the path of ham in her quiche, not a good thing but my Thai chicken soup was amazing!   We were right next to the impressionist  ( Monet, Degas, Renoire, MAnet......) section of the museum and wandered through there as well just to réimpression those images on my brain.  There are some that just make my heart swell as I look ( I love the French word for this, regarde)  at them.  

We then walked ( well actually Metro’ed) to Reed to take Catherine another painting I had done of her restaurant, and stumbled on this store with the tiniest little macaroons I have ever seen in the window, so I had to buy one or two, I ate one, the mango passion fruit, and YUM.

We took the painting to Catherine, and chatted a bit, and waked toward the Eiffel Tower, Jodi wanted a coffee I have to admit that the aging process does not do much for me, but it does offer the opportunity for a lot more coffee breaks which I think are fun an all get out, so, a deliver lining!  

By then though it was time to head toward supper.  I simply love looking at the posters in the Metro,  there I was enchanted by this play on the Sleeping  Beauty story

and got a kick out of taking Jodi’s photo by this one.

Dinner was at L’Ange 20 near Place du Voges and we stopped at a Monoprix on the way so I could look for mascara.  They kindly had a végétarien plate for Jodi,

and my meal of fois gras with onion compote and a main of a sort of beef stew in potatoes, and then granitized was amazing!  We sat by a couple of Dutch women and the lilt of their language was a warm comfortable memory of my Grandparents.  We skipped dessert again as we had wine to drink back the house.  

Art, Art and More Art

I woke this morning all cozy and warm but I am in PARIS and knowing that my crazy affection for this city warts and all was bubbling up I offered Jodi to sleep in while I hit up the art store and have coffee 
It is delish though I had trouble finding a place that had plain croissants,  the first and second brasserie I entered offered tartine (which is toast with butter and jam), which may sound sassy but really, what’s up with that?

I am sitting here and glanced up at the TV and there is an ad for weight loss,  Sandrine - 15kg!  Lord our crappy ways of eating have totally invaded and NOT the good ones nor for the better!
The art store gave me the same “kid in a candy store” feeling  that I get when I walk in here, I wanted sore more Fabriano paper but they did not have what I wanted so I bought a couple of other things to try. A paint brush, paper and a few colored pencils ( to do the sand paper trick) and that I was it.  I then read to the Poste and got the “BOX” to mail stuff home. It is simply cheaper than paying overage at the airport or for a second bag.  And it has the added benefit of not having to carry it other than to the poste.  Back at home, Jodi was up and ready to go.  So we went to the grocery store and purchased all kids of goodies for breakfast, some wine, Toilet paper (no fun colors this time, blue and pink BUT some with flamingoes!), and some general stuff for around the house.  Then,  I wanted to hit up the Senellier store, there were a few colors I wanted to try, A turquoise, orange, and a couple of new greens.  Jodi was great at keeping me on track to get what I wanted to get done today, done! SO off we set to go to the Senellier store, this is a very old, 1887, store.  I love going in here as I read about the impressionists getting their pigments here and true or not it I give me chills to think I am standing in the same store that Monet or Renoir stood to buy paint.  
To get there we needed to walk by the Louvre as that is the closest stop,

and I got to catch my first glimpse of my Girlfriend!  

Nothing like strolling by the Lovre to do some paint shopping.

 AS we crossed the Siene there was an artist displaying his wares and we chatted a bit and finally I shared the painting I was taking to dinner to give to the restaurant owner.  He made fun of it, said the perspective was off (I had done it from a tracing of a photo, so the perspective of the photo might be off, but not my painting!)   Well darn, that is hard on a persons self esteem.  I had already purchased a couple of pieces from him.  I don’t think he understood that I had painted it and was dissing fellow hawkers work, but if I had not already done so I don’t think I would have purchased from him, no quarter here!  It is very interesting to me to have a look at other peoples work.  At the Senellier store Jodi waited

outside as it is a very tiny store (3 stories though) and it was BUSY.  

 I had to touch a few things, found  another paper to try and then bought my paint and I was done, Jodi was worried that I had not spent enough time ( she was waiting outside) but I had done most of my drooling that morning so I was good. Then we stopped at Paul for a coffee and I reintroduced Jodi to millefeuille,

a lovely custard dessert that is MUCH easier to buy than make!  Paul is one of the chain boulangerie, patisserie, tea room places that is getting bitter and bigger.  But is is a lovely location on rue du Four and I enjoy the people watching.  We both were trickled at all of the people in their winter coats,

Jodi wanted to know what folks wore in the winter, but they were already wearing it!   Next was purse shopping, but I got into trouble on the way  we stumbled across anther art store right there in the 6h, Esquisse.  I went in touches a bunch of stuff, but kept going back to an adorable little goodie in the case that is a small metal travel pallet with the water storage built right in.  I looked at the price and thought I saw 17 Euro, and through Well Heck I am going to buy a couple 2 or 3 for gifts.  Well, I miss read a a but and ended up only purchasing one million Euro pallet, not sure I can justify it in any way, but it is a honey!  There had been a store in the 5/6thish that always had great purses, but it was no longer there.  Jodi pointed out another one and low and behold there was a purse that tickled my fancy there.  I bought a cute little mustard colored job at good will before we left and it was already loosing its “covering”, but I really like the color so this was a find!  I was really happy to see that my shoe/purse store CLIF in 5/6 was still there, last time is was all covered up and I thought it had bit the dust.  NO mustard colored shoes though.  From there we went to Dinner at Bistrot Du Henri.  I gave the owner my painting and he liked it, regardless of what the other nay sayers had offered me.  If he didn’t think much of it, he put a good face on it and even gave us a glass of wine!
 Dinner was delish, green bean salad for Jodi and I ,

when I got done she finished mine as I had to save room for my Margaret du canard in honey sauce.  

It was as delicious  as ever and we went home to a bath and a glass of wine!

A Hampster on the Wheel of CDG

Today I had breakfast again, with the same lovely family that is staying in the B and B, Grandmprents and a 5 year old named Margot.  They were lovely people traveling there for a week, I felt bad for them though as this was one of our 2 ugly days on this trip ( weather wise) and it was windy, wet and cold, and they were going to go horseback riding.
Jodi had slept in a bit ( it was her birthday after all), so we were off a built later than I had hoped.  Driving was not so fun, the speed limit in good weather is 80 MPH ( 130 km.hr)  and 68 MPH in rain ( 110 km.hr) all in all that is not a big deal, but the trucks and there are more and more BIG trucks there now, and they have to drive 60 and 80 respectively.  So you are constantly coming up fast on a slow truck, still not a huge deal, but then there are the folks for whom the speed limit is a suggestion and they are not going to let you merge out into traffic to go around that slow trick.  You get the idea.  It was a Doosey, but we made it.  We did though have to move to Plan B as we had to be in Paris between 5 and 6 PM to get into the house and there was no way it was going to happen. Plan B was to drive into Paris , get checked in and then return the car to the airport.  Simple, except I REALLY did not want to drive in Paris.  But we had GPS and I have a awesome cheerleader so that became the plan.  We go to the apartment and as I could not find Giulianes phone number had a moment of panic as she was not there. But after much praying and searching I found it buried in my e-mail.  Note to self,  PAPER!  She came and checked us in with much clucking as we ere so close to 6 and she had somewhere to go, but I let it roll off with the rain, and then we were off to return the car.   WELL, the nav did not really work all that well for returning the car, though I am sure it was just a matter of not knowing how to really work it properly, but we had done this multiple times before and we set off not thinking it was going to be a problem.  Long story short it took over an hour to actually get in the right place to return the car, and that was after many loops around the premises, fiddling with the nav, looking at signs, cursing almost crying, doing a 8 point turn in the bidule of moving traffic..... You get the picture.  I felt like a gerbil on a wheel and ground hogs day all rolled into one.  Finally though we got it done and got on the RER to Paris.  We had dinner plans with friends and that totally fell through so we went back to the house and had dinner at a mediocre Italian place on the corner, Pizza. I was so drained that is even ate cheese pizza with Jodi.  A glass or 2 of wine was necessary to restore equilibrium. Bed was a welcome relief, and at least I knew the apartment so no hurdles there.

At Last

This morning I got up to a small heater in the bathroom,  the first morn I didn’t  freeze my derrière off getting ready!  

Breakfast is almost as blissful as the bath last evening

Croissants,  but GOOD ones,  bread,  coffee and juice  and a lovely little personal pear tart,

  note to self!

The weather today suggests that it may not be a great day,  fingers crossed 

We got on the cold road where there were low hanging clause gracing the country side,  it was postcard perfect.  First we win to Chateau du Milandes.  

We were impressed with both the beauty of the chateau but also with Josephine Baker, her life and carréer.

It was beautiful, the gardens were impeccable, and the houes both interesting and a chateau and as her home and story.  

Were I to come back here, it would be a do over.

Then we headed to Chateau Castelnaud, a castle from the 100 years war, with lots of history and armaments to tell the story of war after war. 

 It was moving to consider who this crossbow for example had belonged to,

that persons hopes and dreams, what their life might hav been like..............  Reading mid evil romance stories, one takes in words about attire, but often I have no idea, or little idea what they are talking about, there were a few scenarios that gave some of that info!  

The views from the top were breathtaking and one could absolutely see the next chateau.  

Beynac was a bit of a challenge to get to, the GP took up up a street requiring a 3(6) point turn to get out of the tight spot we were in.

It had interesting info too. But more about who had lived there, what the different spaces were for etc

We drove into Sarlat but honestly I was too tired to get out and walk.  We then drove to St Circ in honor of one of the Fordorites and back to our B and B for dinnner, The vegetarian plate for Jodi 

And the taste of the Périgourdin for me.

IT was delicious and for dessert a Snickers dessert, Carmel tart, with milk chocolate mousse ball covered in chocolate, peanuts and covered with a warm nougat cream sauce,

it could be a do over and this place The Moulin du Porteil is definitely a do over.

Bath ( more bliss) and bed.