Monday Dec 29 – Wednesday Dec 31

Monday I had the “bright” idea that, since it’s so off season, no one would be at the Louvre and I could have my only and uninterrupted day looking at the art.  I was wrong!  I got there at 10:30 to find the longest lines I’ve seen there to date.  Outdoors hundreds of people waiting in line.  And down below an equally long line snaking its way through the Carrousel du Louvre mall that I talked about in a prior blog post.  Seeing all of this and still having a hope that I could get in, I recalled various articles I’d read about “secret” entrances to the Louvre.  Googled them and found that the first suggestion was through the Louvre Carrousel – not really a secret there.  Second was a side entrance, which I found had a couple hundred people waiting at in the cold.  No Louvre today for me!  I walked the Tuileries Gardens for a couple minutes, an area Maxine and I walked in t-shirts back in October.  Now everyone was bundled up as much as they could.  Quite a contrast.  Decided that my Plan B was to read in a café, so I found the nearest Anti-Café and spent a couple hours reading, drinking hot chocolate and coffee, and just hanging out.

From Maxine – I also had a museum day.  I went to the Musee du Luxembourg to see the Paul Durand-Ruel exhibition.  He was an art dealer and gallery owner who helped to popularize the Impressionists in the late 19^th century.  The exhibit was filled with Renoirs, Monet, Manet, etc.  It was way too crowded but still very worthwhile.  From Luxembourg Gardens, I headed over to the 5^th arrondissement to explore.  It was a crisp, cold, sunny day and it was fun to walk around the area.

Monday was also a day where dinner was a Plan B.  A couple weeks ago we went to a wine bar, run by a Frenchman, ironically called “Frenchies”.  Great food and wines, and we thought we’d go back.  But, they’re closed for the holidays, so we ended up at Willi’s Wine Bar, which I’ve written about in prior blogs.  Good food, spotty service, but a fun end to the evening.  The next table over was a set of 4 French men who were enjoying 2 magnums of red wine.  Stuff that was good enough that Mark Williamson, the owner, was pouring it for them!  They were in a good mood (no surprise!) and when we started to talk to them, one of the guys decided we needed a pour of their wine too.  1995 Burgundy.  Nice!  Who says the French don’t like Americans!

Recall that our apartment is close to the Algerian embassy.  There’s something tied to year end going on that we don’t understand.  But, apparently some Algerians need to camp out over night at the embassy to be in line for it.  It’s very cold out, and we feel bad that their government is putting them through this.

Tuesday was a great day, the sort of day that does have us asking ourselves if we should/could move here.  Yes, it was cold, much colder than anything we’re used to in LA.  And the bulk of the time we spent shopping for one meal’s food (New Year’s Eve), taking buses and trains and walking to do it, but still!  We started the day with a trip down to Hugo Desnoyer, one of the best butchers in the city, to pick up something to build the meal around.  I was concerned that there’d be a line out to the street to buy their meat, but luckily it wasn’t too bad.  We got some veal and a pate (Maxine will cover the meal much better).  When our butcher pointed to the size slice of pate he was going to cut, I said “parfait” (perfect).  He replied, “that’s my name”, and once we understood what he was saying, we all enjoyed his joke in English.

It was now nearly 11am and we needed to take a break!  So we stop at Eric Kayser’s bakery for coffee and a chocolate croissant (Tom) and kouing amann pastry (Maxine).  In another post I talked about how some French food providers (e.g. Poilane bakery) got funding and have gotten large.  Eric Kayser is also in that category.  Eight years ago he had one location, now there are 40 including one in New York that we visited each morning during our Christmas visit to the Northeast last year.  Now that we were sustained (!) we took the bus up to Lenotre (bakery) to pick up dessert.  This, of course, required a consultation with one of the girls who worked there.  Maxine asked about our different choices including a meringue cake, chocolate mousse layer cake and we ended up with a framboise cake (raspberry).  I don’t think our picture of this cake does it justice – it’s actually so gorgeous it’s food-art!

Home for lunch, then back out for more New Year’s Eve shopping.  We’re on a roll, having a great time, and, again, really loving Paris.  First stop of the afternoon was for a bottle of red wine.  There’s a small wine shop on the rue Poncelet market street nearest to the apartment.  We stop in and are greeted by the owner, who as with everyone else, realizes we don’t speak French very well and switches to English, this time with an English accent.  It surprises me when he says he’s from Brittany (France).  He and Maxine consult on wine choices and we end up with a bottle of 2002 Bordeaux.  One of the things that we’re pretty definitive on as a result of this trip is that we prefer Bordeaux to Burgundy for red wines. He also assumes that we live here (!) and tells us that if we need a plumber or other trades person, he maintains a list!  Nice!!!

Next stop, the cheese store, Alleosse, also on the market street.  While we’d feel better if they recognized us (this is probably our 4^th visit), they are helpful.  We had some nice cheeses on Christmas Eve at Bill’s house and Maxine has written down the name of the one I liked best so that we can be sure to have it on our New Year’s Eve cheese plate.  We walk out with 3 different cheeses.

Here’s where we make a very food-centric decision. The coffee roaster isn’t open for another 20 minutes, so rather than skip him and buy grocery store coffee for our last 2 weeks, we do go to the grocery store, but come BACK to the coffee roaster when he opens at 3.  Probably an extra half mile of walking, but it’s pleasant out and we’re really enjoying the experience.

OK, now to talk about dinner…  Plan A here was Restaurant Pierre Sang, who was a finalist on the French version of Top Chef. The restaurant doesn’t take reservations and we can’t find a phone number so we decide to just go over there for an early dinner.  But this is a time of year when people close up, and Pierre Sang is closed.  Plan B is another nearby wine bar, but also closed. Finally we end up settling on our last beer event of the trip, a return visit to Brewberry, this time for dinner as well as beers.  All in all it takes us 1 ½ hours from the time we left the apartment until we’re finally there.  As for a beer report, we had Jack’s Abbey’s Mass Rising, Evil Twin’s Yen Imperial stout, Nogne’s Imperial Stout, Laugar’s Kiskale Brown Ale, Emilisse’s Earl Grey IPA, and De la Senne’s Jambe de Nois.  These are all small pours, 4 ounces each.  The food was good too – ask Maxine about the “burning pig” if you’re curious.

My evening walk with Emmy…  We’ve come to realize that one of the things we’re enjoying about being here in Paris isn’t just that it’s Paris, but that there’s simply a lot we do during each day – much more than our average day in LA.  We’re not yet sure whether that means we should do more in LA than we do, or if this is characteristic of a mass transit city.  Which brings up my next point, we are having lots more people contact than LA’s car-centric world.  And, in fact, a man stops me this evening and tells me that he likes my dog and we should have a Happy New Year.  A really great day in Paris.

Wednesday, New Years Eve, isn’t too bad either.  I head over to the city of Paris’s Modern Arts Museum (Maxine was there earlier in the trip) for the Sonia Delaunay exhibit.  Early 1900’s modern art apparently is my favorite style; Kandinsky is from the same era.  Ms. Delaunay likes semi circles  to excess, but I enjoy the exhibit.  From there I take the shuttle bus from the Arc du Triomphe to the Fondation Louis Vuitton building in the Bois du Bologne.  I’m there just to look at the Frank Gehry building, which is nice but seems like a cheaper version of the same thing as the Disney Music Center in LA.  Cheaper in the sense that the “skin” is more of an evident skin than outer layer of the building like in LA.  I’m back early…

From Maxine – Since it was a pretty day, I decided to bundle up and walk down Avenue Victor Hugo to window shop.  It was a fun walk and I followed the street to the end then got purposeful since I planned to visit the Musee Marmottan Monet in the area.  It’s a great small museum with an amazing Monet collection bequeathed to the museum by Monet’s son.  I really like Impressionism and it seems to be my art theme this week.  I’m already planning to go to the Orangerie to see the Monet water lilies murals on free museum Sunday this week.

Maxine and I have one last New Year’s Eve food errand to get to, bread.  We’ve got cheese and foie gras to eat tonight and I’m afraid that with our normal bakery closed from Christmas to January 2nd, there might be a bread shortage at the bakery across the street (our next-nearest bakery).  So, for our afternoon errand… 

But, things don’t go like the clockwork I’d imagined.  We’re taking Emmy out for her afternoon walk as part of this, so we swing by the Avenue Foch park, where we’re waved over by the owners of Emmy’s friends, Coco and Lola.  Both the husband and wife are there (yesterday afternoon it was only the wife and Coco who were there to play with Emmy).  The dogs play, and we talk some, then, after 20 minutes or so, wish them a Bonne Annee and head 2 more blocks up to the Arc du Triomphe, where we get a couple of our fellow tourists to take some pictures (on our camera) of us with Emmy, and with the Arc in the background.

THEN, bread!!!  No, they weren’t sold out, but stocks were getting low.  We get a standard baguette and a “Tradition” (Maxine’s favorite).  We head toward the apartment, but decide that we need one more French experience for the day, so we stop in at the café for spiked coffees (Irish with whiskey for Maxine and French with cognac for me), with Emmy sitting peacefully on my lap and no one questioning that she’s there.

NYE DINNER

We planned our amazing dinner to end around 11:30 so we could walk over to the Champs Elysees to ring in the New Year with everyone else.  I read one estimate that there’d be 500,000 people, but it seemed like many more than that.  The crowds were so intense that we were on a fringe street, with wall to wall people.  They projected images onto the Arc and then at midnight set off a nice fireworks display.

At 1:30 our evening is nearly over, except for Emmy’s last walk of the day.  I’m walking down our street with her, when I hear someone from the 5^th floor of the apartment down the street.  “Bonne Annee” from a voice above.  I reply in kind.  Then I hear, “Bonne Annee au chien”.  I have to laugh.  Emmy and I turn the corner to see hundreds of people still streaming away from the midnight celebrations and one stops to wish her (not me) a “Bonne Annee to the puppy”. 

From Paris, Happy New Year to all!