Day 41 - October 11 - Paris
It started out a bit chilly and foggy. Decided to walk to the Musee D'Orsay. We walked near the US Embassy area again. Police and their vans were everywhere - some of them were inside watching DVD movies, TV, reading the paper. Several of them said 'Bonjour' to us - I guess they recognized us as we had walked through this area several times already in the past week. One of them stopped traffic so we could cross the street.
We arrived and even though it looked crowded it did not take us long to get inside. This used to be an old train station and was converted into the museum - most of the art is Impressionism. Wow- it's beautiful and I loved all the paintings by Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Gaugin, Renoir, Cezanne! We really like this museum. We spent two hours here.
We then started walking towards Il de Cite. We walked along Rue Lille - Rue des Saints Peres - Rue l'Universitie looking for a place to eat - we didn't like anything we saw. We found ourselves on Rue Seine and saw La Palette.
They were serving lunch so we stopped - same funny waiter. Owner waited on us - he came across as gruff- but was really a teddy bear. We had 2 beers, 2 capuccinos, 2 croque madames and fried potatoes. Forty euros and better than that stupid Cafe Flore.
Note: I do not agree with Patricia Wells in her book Food Lover's Guide to Paris - she speaks more highly of Cafe Flore than La Pallette. I feel it is the opposite, we enjoyed ourselves much better at La Pallette- better service, food for the money.
We left and walked to Il de la Cite, across Pont Neuf. Saw a 1940's/50's movie being filmed in Place le Dauphine. Walked to St .Chappelle and Notre Dame. Wow! Took a bunch of photos, stopped to buy some French flags from a cart. We said 'Bonjour' to the man selling us the flags, he said 'Hello' in English and then asked where we lived. We couldn't figure out how he knew we were Americans since we had spoken French! :) We told him Texas and he said "Bonjour, Texas!" Nice man.
Left and headed to Hotel de Ville metro to go shop at Galleries Lafayette Department store. We arrived and OH MY GOODNESS!! The place was a madhouse. It was hot and we could hardly move through the crowds. Apparently they were having a 40% of sale and it was beyond crowded. We went to the top floor for souvenirs - looked at the beautiful interior and left as fast as we could. I will have to save this shopping for another time in Paris when maybe it won't be so crowded. Oh yes, it took us 30 minutes to check out - they were so slow - took 3 people to check one person out!
We get back near the apartment and I have been itching to buy something, anything from Paris to wear. So back to the Monoprix where I bought a black purse, 2 cashmere like sweaters and a wool hat. I was dressed all in black that day and David was holding my coat and bag as I shopped. Well, French women kept coming up to me and asking me questions in French - such as: do you have this in black, another one in back?? I kept responding 'I don't speak French, or I don't know' in French and couldn't figure out why they all thought I worked there. I look up and notice that all the Monoprix female employees in that department are dressed all in black!! The next person that asked me a question I said "I don't work here" in French.. It was funny and I suppose a compliment that I looked French!
We left Monoprix and went back to freshen up for our dinner out at 7:30 pm. We went to D'Chez Eux in the 7th. It's a small place near Invalides.We were seated and the only English speaking people in there from I could tell. We were fortunate to get a funny, nice waiter named Dominic. He spoke very good English. He figured out that David did not know any French and I knew some so he would tease David by saying things in French and looking at me or asking David something in French while poor David begged me to translate. Dominic had a good sense of humor.
DW has cassoulet with duck, pork and sausage. I had roack of lamb with potatoes au gratin and a bottle of Bordeaux. The dessert was quite different. They have a 3 tier cart with all sorts of items like pudding, fig sauce, cherry, and other fruits, ice cream, and biscotti. You serve yourself as much as you want from the cart. The owner stopped and said something in French, our waiter said something to him, and he promptly switched to English. We still tried to speak a little French to him. We received Chez Eux key chains, said 'Au Revoir' and home to bed!
