Tom and I went to Paris for our belated honeymoon. He had been there twice, so I had no tour guide duties!!
Here are some highlights:
Airfare: Tom got a great deal on airfare through Priceline. Since we were departing from Lake Charles (where there are *only* flights to Houston) he was pretty much able to manipulate Priceline and get the flight we wanted.
I’m a Right Bank gal so we stayed at a little 3-star in the 1st called the Hotel Victoria Chatelet. It was on a little, quiet side street a hop, skip, and jump from Chatelet. Our room was cute – not too small, with wonderful French doors opening out onto the street. The staff was very accommodating and friendly. Price for the room was about 85 Euros.
Our first day would turn out to be THE best weather day of our whole seven-day trip. We walked by my old apartment and my old school and ended up in the Luxembourg Gardens – lots of Parisians out enjoying the lovely autumn day. We had a quick lunch of paninis from a bakery in the Latin Quarter and walked on the Ile St. Louis.
That night, we went to the Ambassade D’Auvergne for dinner. Very friendly service. Tom started with cabbage soup and I had foie gras with onion confit. For main courses, Tom got the signature aligot ( a cheese dish from the Auvergne) and sausage, very nicely presented. I had the lentil cassoulet for dinner – it was just wonderful – perfect dish for a chilly night, and we both had fromage for dessert. Lots of food, but all very good. For after dinner drinks, we ended up at a place called Villa Keops, where I had a caipirinha, of all things! It seemed like a very trendy place.
The next day, we took a bus to nowhere, one of my favorite things to do in Paris. We ended up by the Canal St. Martin, a first for Tom. Walked around a bit and headed to the Gare du Nord to pick up our train tickets for Brussels. For lunch we went to Gulshan, a very reasonable, very good Indian restaurant in the 9th (or thereabouts.) Walk up to the counter, choose your dish and find your seat – we had two really good chicken and lamb dishes. Later on, we went to the Miraculous Medal chapel on the Rue du Bac (my first trip here in 1987 was at the very special request of my father) and popped into Bon Marche just to have a look…
That evening, we had tickets to the Opera for Juliet ou Les Cles des Songes. We both agreed these were the single-worst seats we ever had anywhere in our lives! But no matter, the opera was great, the subtitles – in French – very easy to follow. Afterwards, we went to Au Petite Riche for dinner. I had oysters to start while Tom had smoked eel. Then onto duck for Tom and salmon for me – baba au rhum and fromage blanc for dessert. I love fromage blanc; a very good meal. On the way back to the hotel, our cab driver drove “through” the Louvre – we just loved that. As Tom said afterwards, “Home, James and through the Louvre.”
The next day, we did Tom’s wonderful café crawl, which he spent a lot of time organizing. We mainly went to literary and/or historical cafes. We also did a mini-Hemingway walk and while we were out & about, picked up flyers for “Handel’s Messiah” at St. Germain des Pres that night, so we went! It was a very good concert – very cold in the Church and no bathrooms, but still a wonderful, impromptu thing to do! Forgot to mention, lunch was at the Brasserie Lipp – very good service – I didn’t expect that. Tom had a bass filet and I had blanquette de veau – pretty good meal. Dinner was at Les Deux Magots, after the concert, which was close to midnight. They had a limited menu – Tom had a croque Provencale and I had an assiette du charcuterie – nothing special.
On Tuesday, we went to the Musee Marmottan, Tom’s first time. We both really enjoyed it. For lunch, we went to Nem 101, a Vietnamese restaurant nearby. Tom had spring rolls and a pork dish and I had soup followed by a chicken dish with lemongrass. It was a good meal – a little pricey for what you got, but there appeared to be a lot of regulars there.
Afterwards, we went to Le Grand Epicerie to pick up dinner fixin’s for the next night and ended up walking through the Tuilieries. Lovely, even on a cold, dreary winter’s day (notice it was a lovely autumn day a couple days ago). That night, we went to La Robe et Le Palais for dinner, which was just around the corner from our hotel. Tom had escargots, the singlier (wild bore) and a fig tart. I had foie gras (quelle surprise!), risotto with calamari (just wonderful) and cheese. This was one of the best meals of the trip. It was a local, pretty crowded little bistro, and the service was a tad slow, but just a tad. We’d go back.
Happy Thanksgiving! The next day we were off to Brussels, another first for Tom. The weather was just awful – chilly & rainy – but we enjoyed our time there nonetheless. It was about an hour and a half on the Thaly’s train and our first stop once we got there was Le Grand Place, of course. We had drinks at le Roi d’Espagne (I love this place) and visited the Mannekin Pis and just walked around and shopped some. Lunch was at Aux Armes de Bruxelles. Tom started with onion soup, followed by moules-frites. I had chicken croquettes and the moules-frites. For dessert, we both had chocolate mousse. We had some of our best people-watching at this meal – lots of regulars and locals here. We watched a very sophisticated elderly woman eat her mussels by pinching them with an empty mussel shell – she ate her frites the same way! Wonderful.
We got back late and had planned some cheese and bread and wine from Le Grand Epicerie in our room. That and phone calls home to send Thanksgiving wishes were the perfect end to the day…
On Friday, we attempted the Picasso/Matisse exhibit. It was so crowded we decided to bag it! We justified this by saying we both had seen a lot of the works anyway – just not in the same place! We went to the Erotic Museum, a first for both of us. This was a lot of fun – very…errr…interesting things on exhibit – seven floors of interesting things! We walked around Montmartre some and ended up at Restaurant Gigi for lunch ( I had to have a sunny side up egg on a pizza before I left!). Tom had a pizza with artichokes, sausage, ham and egg, and I had a calzone with tomatoes, cheese, egg and ham (no sunny side up, but still good) along with 2 pichets of a very comforting vin de table rouge.
We were supposed to have our blow-out dinner that night at Les Elysees du Vernet. I called to confirm the day before and was told the restaurant was closed for renovations! I made this reservation three months in advance. They had my address, my phone number and my email address. They couldn’t have let me know? By then it was too late to get a reservation at one of the BIGGIES – not a nice thing to happen on your honeymoon.
We ended up at Paul Chene (I believe a recommendation from Fred – thanks, Fred!), a lovely restaurant in the 16th. In fact, we took the metro to the Trocadero stop – one of my favorite metro stops in Paris – and visited La Tour Eiffel before dinner. Tom started with a seafood soup with croutons, cheese & rouille. Yum. I had some fresh, grilled mackerel which equally deserved a Yum. Tom had rognons de veau a la moutarde for dinner (Excuse me, sir, (in broken English) but do you know those are veal *kidneys*). Of course he knows! I had hare in red wine sauce – another good dish. For dessert, we shared some profiteroles. Upon leaving, the owner gave me a lovely, peach rose. While we were at dinner, the French gentleman seated next to us started up a conversation – turned out he had spent quite a bit of time in Southern Louisiana and just loved it! The most interesting thing he said was he had a hard time understanding Cajun French. Me too! Nice, nice man.
Saturday, our last day. Always a dommage. We walked around the Marais (I bought the sweetest little teddy bear for my goddaughter at a teddy bear store) and had our Berthillon (bien sur) and some chestnuts. I just love the street chestnuts on a cold day. Lunch was at Page 35, a crepe place close to the Places des Vosges. Tom had a Crepe Tropezienne and I had crepe with potatoes, cheese and egg; a pichet of rose. After lunch, we stepped outside and heard music coming from somewhere. We traced it back to La Place des Vosges and found this great Slavic band playing. We ended up buying their CD. We separated to do some Christmas shopping for each other and met at Le Square du Vert Galant, where Tom proposed! OK, we’re already married, but it still made me cry!
Dinner on our last night might have been our best. We went to La Truffiere near the Mouffetard market, recommended by my friend Ellen in New York. The space was lovely – fireplace when you walk in, and a vaulted cellar, where we sat. For amuse bouches, they brought out crème of celery soup and pigeon feuillete. Tom had a scallop dish with ham & flageolet beans to start and I had duck foie gras (oh horrors, foie gras again?! ;-)) on toast points with grapes and fresh fruit. For our main courses, Tom had pike perch with mashed potatoes and wild mushroom and I had a parmentier of duck with pommes purees and truffles. They’re known for their cheese cart here, and we both indulged for dessert – we tried some wonderful, new cheeses. We shared a roasted apple on gingerbread with vanilla ice cream for dessert. Before dessert, they brought out little pastries, and after, bonbons. We had a good bottle of Southwestern wine with dinner. This was a top-notch meal in every conceivable way and a fraction of what we would have paid at a 2 or 3 star. We weren’t quite ready to end our last night in Paris, so we had after dinner drinks at the Sarah Bernhardt.
Sunday was off to the airport where we planned to meet my brother-in-law who was arriving that day on business! We had some red wine (it was still morning, but when in Rome…) and had a wonderful visit with him, all talking about how much we love France…