On a roll now, having spent a good portion of Monday, Dec
15th writing up blog entries and otherwise catching up. I am NOW, not later, writing up what we did
this past weekend.
Saturday we went to an event for French people, and had a
fantastic time! Recall a prior blog entry where I talked about tourist oriented
things being pricey? Well, via the
website parisbymouth.com I found out about a 10E champagne tasting. Most of the major houses including Piper Heidsieck,
Roederer, Deutz, Bollinger, Perrier-Jouet .
But, I need to set the stage. As
this was a decidedly non-touristic event, it was in an area of the city we
hadn’t been before. Dicey enough that we felt really uncomfortable leaving the
metro. Also a little uneasy pulling out
my iphone so I could figure out how to walk to the place doing the
tasting. (I’ll leave it at that). But, off we went and after a couple streets
we were at an incongruous-for-the-neighborhood gourmet food and wine/spirits
shop. I greeted someone working there
and stumbled through a French language question about the champagne tasting and
the guy pointed me towards the back of the store. Where there was a doorway marked “Prive”
(private). We shrugged and went through
to a hallway with the store’s office and beyond that through another door. That led to an outdoor hallway and beyond
that at the far end a room with a wall of windows so we could see perhaps 100
people inside. OK, at least we found the
place, an *old* room with the electrical wiring hanging down from above and held
together in bundles with zip ties (apparently the favorite of French
electricians since we’ve also seen this in under-remodel metro stations). We signed in, and then began tasting the
approximately 25 different champagnes being poured. Our goal, unrealized unfortunately, was to
find “our” champagne, meaning the one we’d buy on the occasional special
occasions when we drink the stuff. We
were able to tell differences in almost every one we tasted, but no one stood
out as a “that’s it” experience. We did,
sort of, conclude that Roederer was the best across the board. And while we’ve got in mind that we need a
bottle for New Years Eve, we didn’t buy anything.
We have to concede that we did see several Americans
there after all. A set of 2 couples
where one of the guys was 6’4” (if that wasn’t enough of a tell-tale, the fact
that they were speaking English locked it), and a guy from Virginia who
graduated from UVa and moved here 6 years ago.
To leave the tasting we had to go back through the
hallway, the office, and into the store.
Where the marketing rep for one of the Armagnac houses offered us tastes
of their 1974 and 1994 releases. We
wandered home…
Sunday wandering took a different meaning. Our legs are certainly sturdy now. Maxine told me this morning that we walked 9
miles on Sunday! We started with an
aimless, but picturesque walk through Montmartre. We were there at night the
first week we arrived here, but wanted to come back during the day. It was touristic but fun. Between 30 and 50 artists out painting portraits
or landscapes. Lots of souvenir
stores. The tremendous views Montmartre
is known for. We went into Sacre Coeur
and were surprised to find that they didn’t have any Christmas decorations
up. A nice walk, again aimlessly, but
enjoyable on a clear cold day.
From Montmartre we walked downhill to the Rue Des Martyrs
foodie area. We saw beautiful, artisanal
food stores – several chocolatiers, the baker who won best baguette in Paris in
2007, an olive oil store, several pastry shops including one specializing in
cream puffs in all types of flavors, a jam store with both sweet and savory jam
and various flavors of spreadable chocolate.
This further corroborated for us that the most interesting things in
Paris are being done not in the mainstream areas, but the fringe ones. We filled up on a great Italian lunch and
made it home to rest.
Because we had plans that evening to meet up with new friends (from Nutley NJ no less) at the British Christmas Carols event we found through meetup. One of the choralists issued a blanket invitation to come for Christmas carols followed by mulled wine and mince pies (brought over from England!!!) I should mention that we don’t have a Christmas tree in the apartment. Originally I thought about getting one but I haven’t missed it at all since in this urban environment (I assume SF and NY would be the same) I’m getting enough exposure to the holiday simply walking around.
After the concert and service, Maxine and I started
towards home but decided to stop at the near to our apartment Champs Elysees
Christmas market for something to eat.
Here’s where I want to editorialize… I’ve made numerous comments about
beer things we’ve done, and Maxine has often observed how good I am at
remembering beer related things (in Paris but also at home!). So, as we were getting close to the Champs
Elysees market I asked her what she was interested in eating. Her unhesitating answer was the tartiflette
across the street. To give you context,
first off, I don’t even know the word tartiflette. Second, I didn’t know what
it is. Third, didn’t know that they had
it here. Finally, I certainly had no
idea where in the market we’d find it.
The conclusion, Maxine and I have different interests. Although we did agree to drink 2 glasses of
Vin Chaud together that night and the tartiflette was good.
On a different topic, I continue to take Emmy on her
night time walks. It’s been cold enough
recently that we’re dressing her in layers -- first her fleece jacket, then her
fake down one over it. I don’t know how
she’s get by in the NE U.S. We rationalize
dressing her here like this. If it’s
cold enough for gloves she gets the fleece.
But, if we need hats, she gets both jackets. It’s a pain getting them both on her but she
doesn’t try to take them off.
Anyway, Sunday night I decided that Emmy hadn’t been
getting much walking the past 2 days, so we walked past the Iraqi Embassy, the
Jordanian Embassy, the Uruguay Embassy and the Quebec Province of Canada’s
Ambassador’s residence. One of the
pleasant surprises to this apartment is that, with Avenue Foch so close, we haven’t
needed to take Emmy to the Bois du Boulogne for walks. It’s 15 minutes away and frankly, other
things being equal, we’d rather just walk the neighborhood. And see the Iraqi Embassy and the like…
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