Thursday, September 5, 2013

Sweltering in Paris

Today the temperature went well into the 90's and as most of Paris is not air conditioned, it was quite uncomfortable at times.  I had a sheeps' milk yogurt with chestnuts (delicious!) for breakfast and after catching up with The Daily Show and the Colbert Report via internet, we set off for lunch.

The restaurant Bouillon Chartier opened in 1896 and has an attractive Belle Epoque decor.  It was designed to cater to working class people and provides low-cost traditional French dishes.  I had beef cheek bourguignon  which was served with macaroni.  Very tender, but a little too salty.  Bill had roast chicken with fries.  We each had a side salad and Bill had a beer.  The tab was 26.30 euros (about $34.50).  So, it's inexpensive by French standards, but not particularly inexpensive by midwest American standards.  We had a nice conversation with the man seated next to us who said some very kind things about my French, which I chose to believe.


After lunch we took the Métro to Montmartre to shop on one of our favorite market streets, Rue Lepic.

We got baguettes from 2 different boulangeries because we knew that we'd be having our usual dinner of bread, cheese, and fruit.  The cheeses for today were Brie de Melun, Camembert, and Osso-Iraty, a Basque cheese.  At the boulangerie we also picked up a couple of financiers for dessert.  The French don't make many cookies (with the exception of macarons) and financiers are more of a tea cake than a cookie.  They got their name because they are shaped like bank notes.   These have chocolate in them and I'm looking forward to them.  We got lucky on the ride home and caught one of the few air-conditioned Métro trains for the first part of our ride.

While we were in Montmartre, we came across the I Love You Wall, a ceramic tile art work with the words "I love you" written 1000 times in more than 300 languages.


Here's a link to a website with a virtual tour:  http://www.lesjetaime.com/english/lemur.html

3 comments:

  1. Sorry it's so hot there. The Love wall is pretty cool.

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  2. Hi Margaret,

    Didn't know you were headed to Paris. Thank you for sharing and enjoy. Wish you would post more on FB because I forget to look/check your blog.

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