Thursday we decided to each do individual things.
Maxine spent the morning walking, and exploring, the area of
our apartment -- the 16th arrondissement.
We're at the north end of it, and it extends to the Seine River across
from the Eiffel Tower. So, walking her
way down for a view, she had the chance to check out some more of the area
around this place. She ended up at
Trocadero with a wonderful view of the Eiffel Tower.
Our neighborhood is very residential which has its pro's and
con's. On the con side, it isn't as
loaded with things that we as tourists want to do. Not as much cute shopping or cute restaurants
as you'd find in the 6th or the 4th arrondissements. But, the pro -- quiet and residential with
very many dog owners and French locals.
We've taken to walking Emmy to avenue Foch which has a very long grassy
area. We're clearly not the first to
think about taking our dogs there; we meet other owners almost every
visit. The one bridge to tourism is
something that we discovered the other day.
From one spot on avenue Foch, you can look ahead of you and see the top
of the Eiffel tower. Turn 90 degrees to
the left and you have a full view of the Arc du Triomphe.
Tom did his wandering in the late afternoon. First, to the Marais (4th arrondissement)
which has really grown up. Tons of small
shops. But unfortunately also some chain
stores. Not to be a snob here, but
American Apparel. Really! Also amused to find a branch of another
chain, Spitalfields. We first saw them
in London 2 years ago, then again in Las Vegas.
And now here. Anyway, cute
streets and small shops. Also stopped
for a hot chocolate and was truly amused to see someone I knew walk by -- one
of the people who ran that bicycling adventure from the past weekend. In some ways, this is a small city.
Dinner was falafel at L'As Du Falafel. It’s sort of famous if you care about falafel. I'd never had it before, so I'd just call it
a cheap stand up vegetarian sandwich. No
complaints at all -- I'd go back if only to eat some vegetables.
Ended the day at Notre Dame where I sat thru the last 1/2 hour
of evening mass. The stonework in the
darkened building had a majesty that made it compelling.
Friday was also a chance for small activities and personal
interests. Maxine stayed home, relaxed
and read with Emmy (our apartment is very comfortable and suited to this) while
I took a random bus ride. With our
unlimited use transit passes this is sort of a fun thing to do. I took a nearby bus, thinking it would end at
Tour Montparnasse (the tallest tower in the city and something of an eyesore in
a city where most buildings are limited to 7 floors). But, I misread the bus map, overshot
Montparnasse and ended up at the north side of Luxembourg Gardens. Now, I wasn't looking for alcohol at lunch,
but... There's a place I'd been to last
time called the Academy of Beer that was a 5 minute walk from where the bus
route ended. So, I gave in to the
temptation. Had their version of a
Crocque Monsieur sandwich (grilled cheese!) and 2 different beers. First, since it was on tap, Monk's Stout from
Brasserie Dupont. A bit thin for my
tastes, which have admittedly been beaten into submission by strong American
beers. Followed it up with a bottle of
Trappistes Rochefort 8, which BeerAdvocate.com called "world
class".
We took Emmy back to the park and ran into the husband of the
couple with the Jack Russell terriers.
He was with another dog owner and, as we walked up, I heard him say
something about "Los Angeles", so we felt good about being
remembered. He later told us that he was
going to Poland for vacation/work so not to expect him or the dogs for the next
week.
We took Emmy off her leash and she joined the dog games, one of
5 playing in the park. And of course we
felt good that Emmy was helping us meet French people as the other dog owners
tolerated our bad French and talked to us.
One even tried to convince Emmy that she had to drop the ball, which
we'd given up as a lost cause a long time ago.
We took the metro to "our" old neighborhood, the 6th,
for a wine tasting at a shop called the La Derniere Goutte (last taste). Ended up in conversation with an English guy
shopping for good Armagnac. He told us
that he'd had 6 bottles of old brandy stolen from him and that the insurance
company had given him $6000.00 to replace them so he was looking for good
spirits. While he didn't offer to share
with us, he did make the offer that he'd take us to his Single Malt, Single
Barrel, Scotch drinking club if we were heading to London on this trip. Unfortunately we are not...
Ended up "entering the scrum" for dinner. The area most dense with restaurants in this
city is the "Latin Quarter", where it seems that every storefront is
a restaurant. Very touristic. Almost all of them have someone out front
hawking their cheap menus. We were in
the mood for a cheap dinner and Maxine had her heart set on French Onion Soup,
so this was perfect. And, the meal was
both good and a good value. They seem to
have improved things with the restaurants here, and we'll likely be back.
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