Neighborhood and First Michelin Meal of the Trip

The "Big" event for the first half of this week was the Salon du Chocolat.  We both went -- it merits its own blog entry.

Aside from that, Monday was a beautiful day so we did a walking tour of a nearby neighborhood, the region around Parc Monceau (from Paris City Walks -- thanks Bridget).  It's almost too cute.  From what we've seen, it's the most made up park in the city.  They've got staged areas with what look like Roman ruins, others with what appear to be old statuary, small streams, bridges, and open fields.  It really is very pretty.  We walked there, as well as the neighborhood, for nearly 5 hours.  Emmy hasn't been getting enough exposure to the streets of Paris, as far as we're concerned.  So, she came with us.

And we ended up eating lunch at a chain called Hippopotamus (a bit like Denny's).  When we went inside I carried Emmy and asked the hostess if she (Emmy) was permitted.  "Of course".

Tuesday, we went to Au Trou Gascon, our first Michelin starred restaurant, for lunch.  Maxine describes it in more detail in the blog entry with pictures of the meal.

Finally, Wednesday was the Salon du Chocolat.  There's a separate blog entry for it as well.  Eating chocolate all day, and watching everything, had me feeling dazed (to some degree it's the same feeling of being at the mall just before Christmas, where you're trying to see and buy everything all at once).  So, rather than a big dinner Wednesday night, we went to Le Trois 8, a newer Paris beer place (Maxine was humoring me!).  Our dinner charcuterie picture is in the other blog entry.  But, as for beer reporting, what I had was: Correzienne brewing's HopHopHop Mosaic, followed by Brasserie Artisanale Pleine Lune's Lun'ion Jacques.  They had 8 beers on tap.  7 were French and one French-Canadian, which Maxine had, Rescousse by Dieu de Ciel.