Lynn and I planned on packing a day or two early so we could clean up the apartment before we left for France so we had a clean apartment to return to. What we planned and what we did were two different things; we packed the morning we left, left for the airport 15 minutes late, and left the apartment in a huge mess. Lynn's parents were going to stay at our apartment while we were gone so I wondered if they'd ever want to stay at our place ever again after this. I figured if the mess didn't scare them then the porn probably would (long story, but it was a gag gift for someone).
We hadn't eaten anything all morning so once we got to Sky Harbor's terminal two we got some pizza from Americo Pizzeria. The toppings weren't bad, but the crust was too doughy. At least it was better than the amazingly greasy Pizza Hut pizza I had in terminal four (which I vowed never to eat again).
We got to Philadelphia without incident or a snack thanks to the new US Air policy of not serving food unless you pay for it. We were starving when we landed so we got a little something from a restaurant in the terminal, Maki of Japan. I thought the food would be terrible, but it wasn't too bad. We both ended up getting the chicken yakisoba. The chicken was grilled and had a good flavor that reminded me of Yoshi's. It was served with a sweet sauce that made even the tasteless noodles decent.
Our flight to Paris left an hour late, but that didn't bother me because we had plenty of time before we had to meet our tour group. One thing that really irritated me about the US Air international flight was that we had to pay for alcohol in coach. I didn't have to do that on my coach United flight to Japan. What a bunch of crap. I'm not a big drinker, but I do appreciate the option of drinking something for free. I also disliked the fact that they didn't have realtime flight telemetry so I couldn't check on how much time we had left before we landed. That wasn't that bad though. They did offer movies on demand though, which was pretty cool, and not available on my United flight. I watched "The Last Samurai", but didn't get to finish it. Another reason for me to dislike US Air; they charged for their headphones, which once again, I didn't have to pay for on my United flight. I understand that they're trying out the Southwest no frills model, but their prices aren't cheaper like Southwest so they just come off as cheap bastards. I'll never fly international with US Air again if I can help it.
We landed in Paris and had to stand in the worst line I'd ever seen for customs. There were maybe three customs officers for non-European Union citizens while there were hundreds of people trying to get to them. We eventually got past customs and picked up our luggage. I needed some Euros so I looked for an ATM (which is normally very easy to find in any airport I've been to) and had to scour the terminal to find one. After I found one we went to find a shuttle. After walking around the terminal for 20 minutes I had Lynn ask someone at the information desk about the shuttles. They said to take the Air France shuttle to some Metro station, and then to take the Metro to a stop by our hotel. That sounded rather time intensive and far more trouble than I wanted to go to so I settled for a taxi. I didn't want to take a taxi, because they were quite expensive, but the shuttles were hard to find and they didn't sound very convenient anyway. Even though the signage at Charles de Gaulle airport sucked for everything else it was absurdly easy to find a taxi.
Our cab driver didn't recognize the address of our hotel so I showed him where to find it on his map of Paris. As we drove into Paris I was surprised to see that the city was a lot scuzzier than I remembered. Everywhere you looked there were tall buildings with some company name proudly proclaimed in 12 foot high letters. The cab driver tried to have a conversation with us, but I don't speak French, and Lynn's French was somewhat limited. Occasionally he'd say something to us in English though. Some marathon was just finished being run through the city so traffic was terrible in the inner city. The cab driver surprised us because he made jokes about some of the marathon runners. For instance, he saw one runner with a large frown and he said, "He lost." It cost 50€ to get to the hotel, but I didn't feel too bad about it.
Our hotel, the Hotel Londres Eiffel, was in the seventh arrondissement [one of the twenty "districts" the inner city of Paris is divided into] not far from the Eiffel Tower. We arrived at the hotel with an hour to kill before we were supposed to meet our tour group. Our room was small, but that was to be expected. We took a quick bath (we couldn't take a quick shower since the shower was a handle connected to the spout by a hose) and I discovered I forgot to pack something. On almost every trip I forget to bring one thing, but this was the first time I forgot to pack my deodorant. I was ticked off because I had to borrow Lynn's which meant I'd smell like baby powder for the rest of the day.
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After our bath we decided to take care of our hunger. We walked around the neighborhood to find some food and get acclimated. I noticed a lot of graffiti while we walked around.
There wasn't much food available in the immediate vicinity so we decided to eat at a small creperie just around the corner from the hotel. We wanted to eat light so we got a salad with butter lettuce, gruyere cheese, ham, tomato, and a mustard dressing topped with a fried egg. Lynn was leery of the fried egg because the yolk was still raw, but the yolk actually matched the dressing very well and added a certain enjoyable flavor to the salad. When we finished the egg we discovered that it's what tied the salad together because the salad was only decent without it.
Lynn wanted a dessert crepe filled with bananas and flamed with run. The chef brought the crepe out, drenched it in rum, and lit the plate on fire. I didn't expect a tableside presentation so that was a nice surprise. We weren't sure how long we were supposed to let it burn so we blew it out. I think we were supposed to let it burn out naturally because sometimes the crepe tasted good, but mostly it tasted like lighter fluid to me. Lynn liked it so she ended up eating most of it.
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We returned back to the hotel a little late and met the tour group of about 24 plus our tour guide Toni. Lynn kept falling asleep during the orientation and I kept waking her up because Toni was talking about important things like our rail and museum passes.
After orientation we took a quick stroll through the neighborhood as a group. We walked out of the neighborhood to a waiting tour bus for a driving tour of Paris to help us get orientated to the city. Lynn and I both fell asleep more than once and I know I missed at least half the bus tour.
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When the bus tour was finished we all went to dinner at La Varangue, a small restaurant (which was completely filled by our group) just down the street from our hotel. The restaurant was staffed by Phillipe (the chef), his 12(?) year old daughter (who seems to have grown up serving in the restaurant because she was very good), and a cute little brunette waitress. Dinner started with a salad of lettuce, mozzarella, a whole peeled tomato, and a light creamy dressing. The simple salad was quite good. My entree was a duck breast in tarragon sauce with mashed potatoes. It was decent, but the nutmeg in the sauce was unexpected. (Little did I know that nutmeg is frequently used in French cooking, but I would find out as our trip continued.) Dessert was a lemon tart that was alternately too sour and too sweet. I didn't like it and Lynn hardly touched her's because she didn't like the way the meringue tasted. Overall dinner was pretty good though.
We ended the night by going out with Howard, one of the guys from the tour, and taking pictures of the Eiffel Tower as the sky turned from dusk to night. Every hour starting from eight o'clock the Eiffel Tower sparkled for ten minutes. I'd never seen it before and thought it was pretty impressive.
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I noticed that most of the day felt like a dream; it was probably due to sleep deprivation.
I was in the middle of one of the best sleeps of my life when I heard the phone ringing and Lynn say, "Oh shit, it's the tour." The alarm clock had gone off earlier, but Lynn had turned it off before I heard it. We had slept until we were supposed to meet with the tour group and the phone was Toni calling to find out if we were going to join them. We couldn't get ready in the three minutes we had before they left so I found out the schedule for the day and told Toni we'd meet them along the way. They left without us and we got ready as quickly as possible, but see how quick you get ready using a hand shower. We did take the time to eat breakfast though. It was Lynn's first French breakfast with croissants, baguette, cheese, butter, orange juice, coffee, and tea. It wasn't filling, but it was good.
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We could have taken the Metro to meet up with the tour group quickly, but Lynn wanted to walk and I didn't feel like trying to figure out the subway system. We walked to the Seine and then walked along the riverbank to the Ile de la Cité. It started out as a romantic stroll, but Lynn sped up and kept complaining about how slow I was walking. It pissed me off that Lynn couldn't just enjoy the walk, but she was so worried about missing the group that she couldn't enjoy anything.
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I got tired of fighting with her so I decided to leave Lynn to find her own way. While we were waiting for a light to change I crossed the street against the light and almost got hit by a bus I didn't see. It was amazingly stupid. Even more stupid was when Lynn followed after me without looking and almost got hit by the same bus (which I'm sure had already started stopping to avoid hitting me). We didn't talk to each other for a while, then Lynn told me how upset she was that I would leave her. I was still pissed at her, but I was more pissed at myself for almost getting myself killed. We walked past a police station where there was a guard posted holding a machine gun who looked like he was having a worse day than either one of us.
We arrived at the Ile de la Cité when the group was scheduled to be in Notre Dame. We didn't want to attempt to find them inside the church so we waited by the exit for them. I was disappointed because they had already been through Sainte Chapelle, which was one of the few things I wanted to see in Paris. Lynn was disappointed too because Notre Dame was one of the main things she wanted to see. Naturally I took some pictures while we waited.
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 that was singing behind Notre Dame.'))
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Eventually the group exited Notre Dame and we all went to lunch at [I didn't get the first part of the name] des Deux Ponts, which was on the Ile St. Louis. It was another small restaurant that was completely filled by our group. The meal started with a kir (white wine and cassis liqueur), which was actually pretty tasty. There was also some glasses of red and white wine on the table. The red was bad, like a watered down version of the red wine we had at the dinner the night before. The white was decent, but it also tasted watered down. Our entree was a veal meatball sort of thing with stewed onions, green beans, and fried potatoes. The meatball was pretty good, but the fried potatoes were the best thing on the plate. Dessert was a choice between creme caramel and profiteroles [cream puff shells] filled with ice cream and covered in chocolate sauce. We chose one of each for variety. The custard for the creme caramel was too eggy for both of our tastes, but the profiteroles weren't bad. Lunch was another decent tour meal.
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After lunch we visited the Cluny, a medieval museum. There were a couple of neat things in there (like the room of stained glass windows or the tapestry with a demon running holding a sign), but it wasn't my sort of thing.
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We left the Cluny and walked around the Latin Quarter a little bit where we saw like six comic book shops! They weren't something I expected to see. Lynn really wanted to see Notre Dame so we left the Latin Quarter, not that there was much to see there anyway. I'd been to Notre Dame before so it wasn't anything new for me, but Lynn was impressed. I wanted to see Sainte Chapelle, but Lynn was too tired so we took the Metro back to the hotel.
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 in Notre Dame.'))
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We didn't have a problem finding the correct train, but it took us a couple of tries to get to the correct platform for said train. Once we figured out how things worked it was dead simple forever after that. Even though the Pont de l'Alma station was closer to our hotel we exited at Champ de Mars to take the scenic route to the hotel. Along the way we stopped at a patisserie and got a chocolate filled croissant for Lynn and an apple tart for me, and stopped at a tobacco shop for a couple of cigars. When we got back to the hotel our room was changed (the front desk clerk told us that this would happen) and the new room was cute. We ate the pastries in our room and the apple tart was delicious in a sweet and tart sort of way and Lynn loved her stuffed croissant. I knew we'd go back to the patisserie again. I wanted to smoke one of my cigars so we went into the lobby and wrote our travel stuff while I smoked a Cuban (for future reference all the cigars I smoked on this trip were Cubans) Cohiba "Siglo IV" (12,50€). The cigar started kind of sweet, but eventually got a little spicy. It stayed smooth throughout and was actually a pretty good cigar. My Coke didn't really affect it at all. I'd hoped that the Punch "Punch" (10€) I got was also going to be just as good.
After the cigar we went to La Fountaine de Mars for dinner. Even though we got there at ten we still had to wait. While we waited we stood at a tiny bar and had some excellent dry salami while I had a glass of the house red wine (which Lynn and I both liked). We were seated upstairs in a smoky cramped room full of locals. Our waiter told us about the specials and Lynn thought that the entree special sounded good. I started with a duck terrine with some sort of fig sauce while Lynn had the goat cheese, preserved tomato, artichoke, and greens salad. We had seen the salad while we waited at the bar and it looked delicious; the greens were underneath the tomato, artichoke, and goat cheese mixture which was shaped using a circle mold. My terrine tasted like gamey duck meatloaf and was a mistake after the veal meatball at lunch. The fig sauce killed a good part of the gaminess, but not enough for me to enjoy the terrine. There was also a piece of foie gras in the center of the terrine and it seemed to absorb the gaminess from the terrine. Lynn was extremely happy with her salad, but I thought it was only decent.
My entree was the rosemary lamb chops, and Lynn had the special, which was supposed to be a steak speciality from Southern France. The waiter asked Lynn if she wanted her steak medium and when she said medium rare he was surprised. He asked if she was really American because all the other Americans request medium. When Lynn's steak arrived it was almost the size of the plate it was served on. The steak had a beautiful crust and a pleasant salty flavor. Lynn thought it was the best steak she ever had until I reminded her of the New York strip at Morimoto in Philadelphia (she doesn't really have a good memory for this type of stuff). My lamb chops were tender and pretty tasty, but they weren't quite as good as Irene's Cuisine in New Orleans. The chops came with zucchini au gratin which had some sort of weird seasoning in it that started out ok, but I couldn't stand the taste of it by the third bite. Lynn's steak came with potatoes au gratin that didn't have the odd flavor that my au gratin dish had and they tasted pretty good. Unfortunately, I just had the particularly brilliant goat cheese potatoes au gratin at Convivo in Phoenix so I couldn't be as impressed with the potatoes au gratin as Lynn was.
For dessert I didn't feel like anything too exotic so I went with the ice cream. I got to choose from the sorbets and ice cream flavors they had that night so I went with prune ice cream (it sounded so unusual that I had to try it) and raspberry sorbet. Lynn had a "chocolate crumble" with chocolate ice cream. The prune ice cream tasted better than it sounded, sort of like rum raisin, but if I knew the prunes were soaked in rum I would've gotten vanilla ice cream instead. The raspberry sorbet was your standard raspberry sorbet. Lynn's dessert ended up being like a pot au creme with some crunchy stuff on top and some ice cream. I dug the crunchy stuff and the overall dessert was pretty good. The ice cream was a necessary part of the dessert though because the pot au creme chocolate wasn't sweet.
Lynn loved La Fountaine de Mars and wanted to return there before we left Paris, but I wasn't impressed with the place. In fact, I hadn't been impressed with any of the food we'd had so far. Our Michelin starred restaurants were coming up so I was looking forward to seeing how they fared.
We actually got up on time thanks to the combination of a wake up call and the alarm clock being placed far away from Lynn. We took separate baths because there wasn't a stand up shower and the tub in our new room just wasn't big enough for two. We had breakfast in the hotel breakfast nook again and I thought that Lynn was getting hooked on real croissants.
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![Montmartre](javascript:popImage('/images/Europe0404/Montmartre06.jpg','Montmartre', 'The "I Love You" wall in Montmartre. I don\'t have a picture of the rest of it, but it has "I Love You" written on it in many different languages.'))
The tour group took the Metro to the Abbesses Station and I was looking forward to seeing its long spiral staircase because I had read it had murals painted on the walls. The murals were great, but I was disappointed to see that there was graffiti on them. Some people just don't have any sense of respect.
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The tour started at Montmartre and ended at the Sacré Coeur. There wasn't much about the walking tour I found interesting. There was a unique bronze statue of a man half materialized in a wall that the tour guide told us was taken from a short story. Other than that the closest I came to seeing something interesting was the tour guide pointing out the cafe from the movie "Amelie".
We were in some park when I heard the sound of my Powershot G2 hitting the ground. That was something I hoped to never hear. Lynn was putting the camera in her jacket pocket, but she missed her pocket and dropped the camera. She didn't even have the camera's wrist strap on, which would have prevented her from dropping the camera! I asked her if she thought it was for decorative purposes only. I was pissed at Lynn for dropping the camera so Lynn got pissed at me because she didn't see how dropping an expensive digital camera was a big deal if it was an accident. I pointed out that if the camera was broken it didn't make it any less broken because it happened by accident, but even logic couldn't penetrate her indifference. I told Lynn that if the camera didn't work she wasn't going to use my other camera to take pictures. Lucky for Lynn the damage to the camera was purely cosmetic (although that does effect its resale value).
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The Sacré Coeur was one of the main things in Paris that Lynn wanted to see the most besides the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. It wasn't something that appealed to me, but it was so brilliantly white on the outside that it demanded attention. Toni or the other guide told us that the stone is special because it's self cleaning; when the stone gets wet dirt just slides off. There was a sign on the door of the Sacré Coeur stating no flash photography. As we walked inside we both turned on our cameras and some French security guide told us, "No photos." I turned my camera off, but Lynn replied to the guy that she wasn't going to use her flash. He got sterner and told her again, "No photos," repeatedly. She turned off her camera, but she spent the rest of the day complaining about how rude the guy was. I figured they must not allow photos during mass and they were conducting mass when we walked in. The interior of the Sacré Coeur was impressive; it was white, bright, massive, but all done in good taste (in direct contradiction to the exterior which is more than little showy). I tried to wait patiently for mass to finish, but every time it seemed like it was over someone else would start up (e.a. the priests walked out and then some nuns started singing). I ended up taking a couple of pictures when I'm sure I wasn't supposed to. We were both impressed with the Sacré Coeur when we were done walking through.
Lunch was just a couple of staircases down from the Sacré Coeur at L'Ete en Pente Douce. The place had a really funky look, but it still had a comfortable feel to it. Lunch consisted of an entree and dessert. I'd rather have an appetizer or salad instead of dessert for lunch as a general preference and specifically because it didn't seem like we got enough food when we get dessert for lunch.
I had the couq au vin and Lynn had the French version of shepard's pie. The chicken in the couq au vin looked so dark that it looked more like beef than chicken. It didn't taste like much and it was served on top of a bowl of noodles that could have used a good dose of salt. I don't think I even ate half the dish. Lynn's dish, on the other hand, was very tasty. I could have eaten a couple of servings of it instead of the two or three bites I had. The shepard's pie also came with a very lively tomato sauce that went well with it. On top of everything else Lynn's dish came with a small cabbage salad so I was very jealous.
I had an apple tart for dessert while Lynn had a chocolate cake which reminded of the fallen souffle at Cafe ah PWAH in Gilbert (which was average). My tart was only ok and tasted more like a cheap apple pie than a tart so I didn't eat much of it.
There was an attractive older lady working at the restaurant. I noticed there didn't seem to be that many attractive women in Paris and those that were were just attractive or cute, but not hot, beautiful, or gorgeous.
After lunch I asked Toni about the appetizer versus dessert thing, basically to see if she had control over it. She told me she was the person who made that decision and that her experience with Americans was that they preferred dessert. I let her know that it wasn't my preference and I was an American.
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The tour moved on from Montmartre to the Musée d'Orsay. The Orsay is a great piece of architecture that used to be a train station before it was a museum (which probably explains why it was so dramatic), but I didn't really care for the works of art within it. The furniture exhibit, which featured some works from Frank Lloyd Wright, was interesting and so were the Art Nouveau pieces, which looked organic and alien. I felt the impressionist works that the Phoenix Art Museum had at the Monet exhibit were better. Naturally, Lynn really liked the Orsay.
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.'))
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We got back to the hotel and participated in the French wine tasting Toni hosted. After a couple of whites I think it's safe to say that I'm not a fan of French white wine. The reds were definitely better. Unfortunately I didn't get to taste them all because we had to get ready for dinner.
I had asked Lynn what she wanted for her birthday months in advance and she told me that she wanted a birthday dinner on a bateaux mouche. I thought that sounded disgustingly touristy and would be a ripoff because of it, but it wasn't my birthday present. I did some research and found out there were several different companies that offered dinner cruises on the Seine. The one that sounded the best to me was Bateaux Parisiens because their menu was creative, alcohol was included with the meal, and they were conveniently located by the Eiffel Tower.
We got dressed up for Lynn's birthday dinner and I thought we looked pretty good. There was a cold wind blowing outside and I was freezing because I had forgotten to pack my overcoat. Lynn wasn't doing any better because she didn't have any warm dress clothes either. At least it was nice and toasty on the boat.
We were seated at the side of the boat and given an aperitif; Lynn had Champagne and a I had a kir royal (Champagne with cassis liqueur). I thought the alcohol might be crappy because it was included with the meal, but our aperitifs were quite good. We also had an amuse that was pleasant. After we had finished with our aperitifs we were poured glasses of Chablis. Lynn thought the Chablis was good, but I didn't like it. It was Lynn's birthday so only she needed to be happy with it anyway.
Our first course arrived and I had the prawns in pastry with lemon butter sauce while Lynn had the oriental cannelloni. My appetizer was a simple dish of shrimp served in puff pastry with a tasty butter sauce. It was excellent and I ate the whole thing. Lynn's oriental cannelloni was filled with fried vegetables that reminded me of the Budget Gourmet Szechwan vegetables (one of the few frozen entrees that I like), only not as good. Neither one of us really liked her appetizer.
Our entrees came and so did a bottle of red wine. The wine was something I had never heard of before, a Canon Fronsac, but we both enjoyed it. Of course since a bottle of red wine came with our meal both of us had ordered seafood. I had pollock with passion fruit sauce and a spinach pancake while Lynn had seared scallops with a wild herb sauce and mashed artichokes. The pollock was ok, but the passion fruit sauce was too sweet and too weird for my tastes. (It probably would've helped if I had remembered that I don't really like passion fruit.) The spinach pancake was interesting, but I couldn't take too much of it. Lynn's scallops were perfectly seared and quite tasty. The mashed artichokes weren't bad either. The wild herb sauce had a distinctive flavor that was good in small quantities. In the end I liked Lynn's dish better than she did and it's possible she liked my pollock better than I did too.
During our meal we looked out of the windows of the boat so see Paris all lit up. I do have to admit that Paris is beautiful at night. Listening to the general din of the diners made it obvious that there were quite a few French people on the boat. It was reassuring to me that this sort of thing didn't only appeal to American tourists.
The Champagne in the kir royale contributed to a buzz that I thought was a little too healthy so I left most of the red wine for Lynn to drink and she did her best to make sure we didn't waste the bottle. Sometime during the cruise a photographer came and took our pictures. He said funny comments like, "I'm so jealous," and, "Pose like Napoleon." I knew Lynn was going to want the pictures to commemorate her birthday so when the pictures came back I wasn't surprised by the fact that she even wanted the ones that didn't look good. Of course the 8 x 10s cost 20€ apiece so they got me for 80€. I hope Lynn appreciated that.
There was a cheese course and I was happy with the ones I got. It was educational watching the waiter cut and handle the cheeses with two knives.
In front of Notre Dame the band played "Ave Maria", which was one of the highlights of the trip for Lynn. Between the cheese and dessert course the band was playing some disco and old Michael Jackson (the good stuff). They were playing some old Prince song that I wanted to dance to so I pulled Lynn onto the dance floor. There were three or four other couples already dancing so, of course, as soon as we got there the band switched to a slow song that cleared the dance floor. Lynn and I were out there alone, but we danced anyway; Lynn rarely dances so I get them in when I can. We went back to our table when they changed songs though.
Dessert arrived quickly after our dance. I had an apricot and violet clafoutis [corn cake] while Lynn had a chocolate and caramel cake (because she had to have her birthday cake). My clafoutis was excellent and I ate the whole thing. Lynn thought the violet flavor was too strong, but I thought it was subtle. I think I'm going to have to learn how to make clafoutis someday because I like them too much. I didn't think the chocolate and caramel cake was going to be a good choice since we had that so-so chocolate cake earlier that day, but it was excellent. The center of the cake was still soft and the caramel really added to the flavor.
The boat was almost to the dock at 11 when the Eiffel Tower went into its light show. It was a beautiful end to the evening.
People were still partying and having a good time after the boat docked, but we were ready to get back to our hotel room. As we left one of the maitre d's said, "Bravo por la dance." That made us both feel pretty good. We were once again freezing when we got off the boat and walked back to the hotel as quickly as possible.
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Wednesday we went to the Marais district. We didn't see anything that made any real impressions on us, we just kind of walked around the neighborhood. One of the things we saw while walking around was Brasserie Bofinger, a famous brasserie. I made a mental note to eat there if we didn't find anything that looked more interesting by lunch time and as it turned out we didn't find any place that looked really interesting.
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We must have been starting lunch early for the French because when we were seated at Bofinger there were only one or two other occupied tables. They sat Lynn against the wall and I was seated facing the wall. Bofinger had large mirrors on the wall and I thought their purpose was so that guys would have something to look it (with every couple that was seated the guy was the one seated facing the wall). I noticed that we were underdressed when the rest of the normal clientele arrived dressed in suits and dresses.
I wanted something distinctly Parisian (or at least French) so I went with raw oysters while Lynn had the onion soup (otherwise known as French onion soup here in the US). The raw oysters came out on a bed of ice with bread, butter, and mignonette [shallot and red wine vinaigrette]. I'd never seen, or even read about, the bread, butter, and mignonette condiments so I wasn't sure what to do with them. For a few minutes I studied the room in the mirror to see if some other table got the oysters so I could see how everything was supposed to be eaten. My patience ran out and I tried an oyster plain, local custom be damned. The oyster was very good with a clean sea flavor. Lynn didn't like the oysters. I tried another oyster with the mignonette and that was pretty good too, although it kind of detracted from the flavor. Eventually a table next to us had the raw oysters and I watched as the guys buttered their bread and ate it (I was glad to see that the oysters and bread never met) and they ate their oysters with or without the mignonette. It made me feel better that there wasn't some sort of etiquette that I was supposed to follow. The onion soup had a dynamic flavor that was great and tied with Pinot Brasserie in Las Vegas for the best French onion soup I'd ever had.
My entree was a seafood sampler type thing that I wasn't exactly sure what to expect since the menu was in French and Lynn's French knowledge didn't extend to ingredients. When my plate came out it had four small pieces of fish (a smoked fish, poached salmon, and two other kinds of fish) surrounding a large heap of sauerkraut with a langoustine on top. The langoustine looked great, but was disappointing since it didn't have much flavor. The smoked fish was pretty good, but only in small quantities. I didn't think I'd like the poached salmon since poaching any meat seems completely wrong, but the fish was tender and tasty. The other fish were ok and after three or four bites of sauerkraut I was done with it. Lynn had some fish dish with ratatouille that she really liked, but I didn't taste it.
For dessert I had a pear tart with ice cream. The tart was excellent and the ice cream was very good.
I wasn't impressed with the food at Bofinger and the service wasn't that good either; the cute brunette waitress (that seemed to be a running theme) who seemed to be helping five or six other tables gave us better service than our own waiter.
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Another one of the few things I wanted to see in Paris was the Pompidou Center so we walked there after lunch. I was impressed with the building's avante garde architecture and originality, but Lynn hated it. When you design a building to display all the inner workings on the outside people are bound to either love or hate it. The sky was full of brooding clouds and there was a long line to get into the museum so I hoped we got in before it started raining. It sprinkled before we got in, but it wasn't too bad. We walked around the museum, but I didn't see much I liked. There was a really cool Picasso sculpture, but I've always liked Picasso's sculptures. While we were walking through the multimedia room of the museum (which was rows of computers facing the walls) I saw some kid watching a video of some lady kneading dough in her lap. The kid had headphones on so I couldn't hear the video, but I imagined it was the lady describing how she's handling the dough in French. After we passed the kid I asked Lynn if it was wrong that I thought the video looked sexy. We couldn't find a free computer so we walked out. After we left the room Lynn whispered that the kid who was watching the video was playing with himself. I guess I wasn't the only one who thought the video was sexy, but playing with yourself in public is foul.
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We left the Pompidou Center and got some chocolate from a Leonidas store. It seemed ironic that the first chocolate we got in France was actually Belgian, but we can always count on Leonidas for damn tasty chocolate.
We went back to the hotel and had dinner with the group. We walked to Le Bosquet, which wasn't far from the hotel. I had a salad with lardons [bacon (I love the way lardons sounds)]. The bacon was brown on one side, but couldn't be considered cooked. Despite that the salad was tasty. For my entree I had lamb in a cream sauce with mashed potatoes. The lamb and the cream sauce were both delicious and the cream sauce made the mashed potatoes eatable. Lynn had some dish that was supposed to come with potatoes dauphine, but her dish came out with mashed potatoes. We mentioned it to Toni who mentioned it to the restaurant manager. The manager said she'd give us a little of the potatoes dauphine, which ended up being an entire plate full. The potatoes dauphine looked like scalloped potatoes and tasted like they were heavily flavored with nutmeg. We didn't like them. For dessert I had fresh strawberries with chantilly. The fresh ripe fruit with sweetened whipped cream was excellent. A lot of people were sitting around drinking wine and talking, but I just didn't feel up to it so we went back to the hotel and got some sleep.
Thursday we went to the Louvre. We were met by a local guide and saw all the usual stuff. Lynn was impressed seeing things like Winged Victory, the Mona Lisa, and the Venus de Milo. Afterwards we ate at the Louvre cafeteria. Eating at the cafeteria wasn't my idea, but it was free (it was one of our tour lunches) and convenient, and I was starving. They had a lot of things that looked good, but it all ultimately tasted like cafeteria food. It's amazing how cafeterias seem to universally suck. I had some pork ribs that were glazed with honey, but tasted like they needed salt. I would have been better off not eating them.
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We left the group after lunch and walked to the Isle St. Louise to see Sainte Chapelle, which we missed Monday morning. Unfortunately there was a long line to get into Sainte Chapelle. At first I thought the line was only Sainte Chapelle, but there also seemed to be a courthouse in the same building so we waited in line with a lot of shady people. After about 30 minutes we finally got past the metal detectors and got to wonder at the painted walls and stained glass windows of Sainte Chapelle. It was beautiful. There was supposed to be some sort of concert at 3, but we waited until 3:30 and it still hadn't started.
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When we left Sainte Chapelle we walked to Berthillon for some ice cream. I had a cone with apricot sorbet and vanilla ice cream while Lynn had raspberry sorbet and something else she wasn't sure of. My vanilla ice cream was an unusual shade of beige, but it tasted good. The apricot sorbet was equally good. We tried to figure out what flavor it was that Lynn had ordered, but it was difficult to place because even though it tasted familiar there was an unusual floral flavor. We only found out what it was when Lynn remembered that "noix de coco" was coconut in English.
It was somewhat warm when walked to Berthillon, but after we got our ice cream a cold front blew in. It went from fairly warm to freezing before I finished eating my ice cream! We quickly found our way to the Metro station and went back to the hotel.
That night we had reservations for the two star Michelin rated restaurant Les Elysées du Vernet. I don't believe in restaurant ratings, but the Michelin guide has a reputation like none other. I figured if the French, who are supposed to be the most serious people about food, could use it as their restaurant bible then I could try a couple of starred restaurants to experience the French version of fine dining. We dressed up for the dinner and took the Metro to the Champs-Elysées. I had the address, and a pretty good idea where to find the restaurant, but when we got there we couldn't find the place. We walked up and down the street, but didn't see it. We tried going to the Champs-Elysées, but there wasn't an entrance there either. We asked some guy who worked at the entrance of some store and he left his post to take us back to the street we were on originally. He told us to go further down the street than we had originally gone. We thanked him and I was impressed that he went out of his way to help us. The restaurant was on that street, but the address I had for the place was wrong, which is why we didn't find it. We were 30 minutes late for our reservation and Lynn was worried they wouldn't take us. I told Lynn not to worry about it because they wouldn't care and they treated us very well when we showed up.
We were seated at our table (one of maybe ten in the restaurant) and one of the waiters came by with a large rolling basin filled with ice and a couple of different bottles of Champagnes. I figured since this was a special occasion that we might as well splurge and get a couple of glasses of expensive Champagne. The Champagne we got was the Taittinger "Comtes de Champagne Blanc de blancs 1995" and it was the best Champagne I'd ever had! It was light and crisp with a great flavor.
We looked at the menu and were indecisive (trying to decipher the French on fancy menus is a little difficult). Before we went to Les Elysées du Vernet I told Lynn I didn't want to get the tasting menu since it was outrageously expensive, but that's exactly what Lynn wanted. The only way they'd serve it is if everyone at the table had the tasting menu so I decided to get it too since I didn't see anything better on the menu to convince Lynn otherwise. After we ordered the tasting menu Lynn asked the sommelier for a wine recommendation. He suggested the Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Cru "Ile des Vergelesses 2000" from Burgundy. We followed his recommendation and the wine was very tasty.
How they served the wine was interesting because they kept the bottle tilted in a wine basket and took the basket after pouring. They were always paying attention though because as soon as a wine glass approached anything resembling empty they were right there with the basket to refill it. I guess that's not a surprise considering we were waited on by like three or four different people. It felt odd to be waited on by a team of people, but we got used to it with surprising ease.
We were brought an amuse of fried calamari. It was amazingly tender and was tasty despite being a little too salty. At first I had to restrain myself from eating all of it, then the saltiness kicked in and it was easy not to eat it. We were then brought another amuse of a sweet pea cream soup served in what looked like a shooter glass. It had a certain fresh flavor that was absolutely delicious. I tried to eat all of it, but it was difficult getting the spoon to the bottom of the narrow glass.
A waiter brought out a platter with a huge foie gras with a slice cut out of it. I thought our first course might be served from it, but once we looked at the foie gras the waiter took it away. A few minutes later they brought out the first course, which was a slice of the foie gras. We both tried it and thought its assertive gaminess was nasty. I don't remember either one of us making it past the second bite. Eventually the waiter realized we were done with our foie gras and was quite concerned because with how little we ate. Lynn explained that it just wasn't to our tastes and I thought that was the end of it. Lynn, for some inexplicable reason, knew it wasn't. The maitre d' then came over and asked us about the foie gras. Lynn told him the exact same thing she told the waiter. He then asked us if it was ok that the tuna and lamb was cooked rare. Oh brother.
The second course was some sort of crab soup. It was thick and green with crunchy stuff (pistachios?) and an almond froth on top. The soup had a decent flavor and the almond froth was good, but weird at the same time. I didn't care for it much while Lynn loved the soup, but I suspect that it more for its novelty than flavor.
The third course was langoustine with pickled vegetables. The vegetables were excellent, especially the white beans. Disappointingly the langoustine just tasted like langoustine. It was about this time I figured out that I just don't care for the flavor of langoustines. Before I was through with this course I found myself compelled to visit the bathroom. When I got up from the table one of the waiters lead me to the bathroom. The bathroom wasn't in the restaurant, but in the hotel so I was grateful to have a guide. When I got back I told Lynn that I had a touch of food poisoning. I thought it was mild case, but I found myself having to revisit the bathroom until I finally puked before they brought out the fourth course.
During one of my many trips to the bathroom I figured out that I got the food poisoning from the pork at the Louvre cafeteria. It's the only thing I had eaten earlier that Lynn didn't touch. I should've known better than to eat pork in France. Lynn thought I was a dumbass for eating the pork after I said it tasted funny, but by funny I meant it tasted weird sweet without salting, not that the meat tasted like it would kill me.
The fourth course was lamb. The waiters waited for me to get back from the bathroom before they brought it to the table, which was a waste. I love lamb, but I had to have it taken away from me untouched because just smelling was making me sick. Lynn asked me if I wanted to go and I told her I didn't; I knew we'd get charged for the full tasting menu even if we didn't eat it. I also knew I wasn't going to feel any better in our hotel room than I did at the restaurant so it seemed pointless to ruin the meal for both of us. Lynn hates lamb, but she said this was the best lamb she ever had in her life. She loved the lamb so much that she would return to Les Elysées du Vernet just for it. I had to stop Lynn from talking about the lamb because even listening to her talk about it was making me sick.
They brought out cheeses, then desserts, but I couldn't look at anything because it all made me nauseous. Lynn got me some green tea, but I couldn't drink the tea, or even water, because it made me sick too. Lynn felt sorry that I couldn't enjoy the meal so she paid for dinner. I had the waiter call a cab because I knew I couldn't survive a ride on the Metro. Before we left the restaurant one of the waiters gave Lynn a single white rose. We both thought that was very nice. Lynn didn't see them do that for any of the other women in the restaurant so I figured they did it because they felt sorry for her. I had hoped they would knock something off the bill since I missed the last half of the tasting menu, but I wasn't surprised when they didn't. The bill ended up being about $500, which I didn't think was worth it because I wasn't impressed with the food, but Lynn thinks my food poisoning put me in the wrong frame of mind. Since she paid the bill I'm glad she thought it was worth it. To be fair at least a third of bill was wine, which was great.
Lynn asked one of the waiters for a copy of the tasting menu and the name of the bottle of wine we got. Before we left he returned with a mini menu with the name of the wine we had printed on the left inside cover and the tasting menu on the right inside cover. I was impressed!
We got in the cab and Lynn got into an argument with the cab driver about the spelling of "Augereau" (which was the road our hotel was located on). Lynn was pretty drunk at that point because she didn't want to waste the bottle of Burgundy we had at dinner and came close to finishing it on her own. Needless to say when the cab driver pulled up to our street Lynn lost the argument. I slipped the cab driver a couple of extra Euros for putting up with Lynn, but he probably just chalked up the overtipping to me being American. At least I hope I overtipped.
Lynn really liked the meal and kept talking about it while I was the sickest I've ever been. I spent a lot of time in the bathroom while my body tried to wring the food poisoning out from both ends. I tried to get some sleep, but I kept waking up every 30 minutes to shit or puke. About 3:30 in the morning I finally wished I would just die; my mind wanted sleep more than anything, but my body wouldn't let me get any. I finally broke down and took one of Lynn's anti-nausea pills (Lynn brought all sorts of drugs on the trip) and was surprised I kept it down long enough for it to work. I'd never been so happy for sleep.
Lynn woke up and I involuntarily woke up because of her. We were supposed to go to Versailles, but I wasn't even well enough to go downstairs for breakfast so I told Lynn to go without me. I stayed in bed the entire day reading while my body refused all food and drink. I at least read through an entire book. Lynn took the train back from Versailles and kept me company until dinner time.
Friday night was the last night of the tour and the tour group was going to celebrate. Lynn went to dinner with them and came back drunk about 1 in the morning. She had the nerve to be mad at me for being asleep (drunk logic is so annoying). I guess while Lynn was drunk at dinner with one of the other drunk women from the tour they thought it would be funny to pretend to be up for a threesome while one of the drunk guys from the group took pictures of the expression on my face when they told me. Lynn forgot her room key so she had to have me open the door, but I was asleep so the front desk clerk had to open the door. Lynn thought I ruined the joke, but I was glad I was asleep since as the only sober person I didn't think the prank was funny.
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Lynn drank too much the night before and had one hell of a hangover Saturday. I, on the other had, didn't feel bad, I was just weak from not eating or drinking anything for an entire day. We moved to a room with a view of the Eiffel Tower that I got specifically for Lynn. Lynn loved the view, but she slept the entire day. I was on the road to recovery so I went to the supermarket G20 (I think it's some sort of Gran Prix related name, which seemed to be a common theme among supermarkets) for some orange juice and the bakery closest to the hotel (not the one I really liked because I felt too weak to walk the extra two blocks) for some food. I got a ham and cheese sandwich for myself and a croque monsieur for Lynn. My ham sandwich was a baguette with a few slices of ham and cheese inside it. I ate maybe an inch of the sandwich, but I was proud of myself for eating all of the ham. Lynn tried the croque monsieur, but she said it was gross. I tried it and it tasted like nutmeg. Nasty. I really hate the way the French use nutmeg. I loved the orange juice though and oddly enough all the orange juice in France seemed absolutely great. The sandwich, orange juice, and a small croissant was all I had to eat all day.
I didn't do anything but read for the rest of the day. I read through my entire "Ethan of Athos" book, which was very odd (if you read the plot summary for the book you'll understand).
We had reservations at a one star restaurant Saturday night that I had to cancel. I was disappointed because it would have been nice to compare a one star restaurant to a two star restaurant.
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I woke up Sunday morning hearing a calliope version of Edith Piaf's "La Vie en Rose". If I didn't know I was in Paris before this certainly made it obvious. I was up earlier than Lynn so I ran some errands by myself. I picked up some soap, some cigars, and some beignets from my favorite bakery. I was curious to see how French beignets differed from their New Orleans brethren and was disappointed to find out that the French ones tasted like greasy deep fried tube biscuits that didn't bear any kind of resemblance to the tasty ones at Cafe Du Monde. While I was running around I heard the calliope "La Vie en Rose" again and I felt there was something magical about it.
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I woke Lynn up and we walked down rue Cler looking at the different stalls. I loved the energy of the place, like the French produce hawkers yelling something I imagined sounded convincing in French. I also loved the cheese stalls; there's something about large blocks of carved Parmesan and small rounds of goat cheese and blue cheeses that appeals to me on a primitive level. I was really hungry, and even Lynn had an appetite, so we looked for something to eat. There was a shop that sold rotisserie meats for take out that smelled great and they even had a few tables for dining. Lynn and I had half a chicken and a couple of side dishes. After we ordered I watched in horror as they microwaved our plates of food. The chicken was dried out (I assume from the microwaving, but maybe they were dry when they came off the rotisserie) and the skin was the only part of the chicken with flavor. The roasted potatoes we had were also dried out and the side I had with white beans was undercooked (crunchy beans are nasty). We left the shop without eating very much.
![In a Metro Station](javascript:popImage('/images/Europe0404/Metro01.jpg','In a Metro Station', 'This is my favorite advertisement in the Metro. I think their French title "Les Marionnettes du Penis" sounds better than their English title "Puppetry of the Penis".'))
![Tuilerries Sculpture](javascript:popImage('/images/Europe0404/Sculpture.jpg','Tuilerries Sculpture', 'The "turtle" sculpture in the Tuilerries.'))
Next we took the Metro to the Tuilerries. The park was nice and we had fun looking at the sculptures, flowers, and people (which there were plenty of). Lynn looked at a sculpture that she thought was a turtle, but I pointed out that it was actually a man and a woman. Heh. There was a large fountain in the center of the park with sailboats for kids to play with. It was fun watching the kids trying to push the sailboats across the fountain with the rods they had for the purpose. We left the Tuilerries and walked down the Champs-Elysées. I wanted to pick up some chocolate from La Maison du Chocolat so Lynn could try some good French chocolate, but when we found their store they were closed. We looked around at a couple of other shops, but we didn't see anything too interesting. I had a serious craving for a bacon cheeseburger, but I couldn't bring myself to eat at a McDonald's so we stopped at a Quick (a French fast food joint). The bacon on my cheeseburger was mostly raw, but that seemed to be the French way of cooking bacon (which I was probably lucky to get brown on one side). There was warm mayonnaise on my burger that made it kind of gross so I only ate half of it. After I had finished my second lunch we went looking for a cigar shop I had the address for that was supposed to have a great selection, but they were also closed. Damn Sundays.
On the way back to our hotel we stopped at a chocolate shop not far from our hotel for some French chocolate. The chocolates were herbal and odd and neither one of us liked them. La Maison du Chocolat would've been so much better.
I basically brought enough clothes to last a week (even though you couldn't tell by the size of my hardcase since I also had to bring dress clothes and enough layers to stay warm in April weather Paris) so I needed to do some laundry. I was lucky because there was a laundromat almost directly across the street from the hotel. It took a little time to figure out how to operate the washing machine (which had separate compartments to put your prewash soap versus your wash soap and was paid for at a central coin operated console), but I was soon taking care of business. I was surprised that doing laundry didn't seem expensive, at least until I had to dry my clothes. The dryers seemed to operate with luke warm air so it took like three or four drying cycles to actually get my clothes dry.
While at the laundromat I met some guy from L.A. who was vacationing with his family. I remembered seeing him arrive at the hotel Thursday or Friday night looking pretty frazzled. I asked him about it and he said that driving in France, and Paris in particular, had stressed him out. He then told me the story about when they drove out of Paris to northern France. He was approaching a toll booth and got in the lane for people with speed passes (some sort of card or electronic device that automatically debits an account when someone drives through). By the time he realized that he was in the wrong lane there were already cars stacked up behind him. I guess it took a while to get the people moved out of his lane so he could back out and get into the cash lane. That was a good thing to know since I was going to be driving on those French toll freeways in a day.
Since we were still sort of hungry we decided to have an early dinner at La Fountaine de Mars. I wasn't crazy about La Fountaine de Mars for the money, but Lynn loved them, the food was good, and they were open on Sunday. This time we were seated downstairs. Lynn started with one of the daily specials, the mushroom soup. It was tasty stuff, but it could have used something to perk it up a little and give it some complexity. Lynn loved it but even she thought some black pepper would have done wonders for it. I had a mixed salad with an especially salty ham, pyrenees cheese, and shredded celery and carrot. I thought it was only decent.
Lynn went with a really basic sole meuniere with spinach. I didn't want anything heavy so I went with the lightest thing I could find, the cod with aioli and mashed potatoes. Lynn's sole was decent. My cod was denser than I thought it would be and mostly tasteless. It was pretty good with the garlicky aioli, but the aioli was far richer than I could take. I was amazed at how dull American aiolis were compared to the real deal. I thought the mashed potatoes would help out, but they were very buttery. I ate much less of my entree than I was comfortable leaving.
We were both in the mood for dessert though so Lynn got the schnapped cherries with vanilla ice cream and I got the strawberries with vanilla ice cream and pistachio sabayon. I didn't taste Lynn's dessert, but she really liked it. She couldn't eat too much of it though because it was too alcoholic for her recently recovered hangover. My strawberries were very simple, but quite tasty; the vanilla ice cream was very good and the pistachio sabayon had just the right level of sweetness.
Ultimately I wasn't very happy with dinner, but at least it ended well.
Continue to part 2 (the Burgundy region, Switzerland, Austria, and my worst travel nightmare).
The camera I used was a Canon Powershot G5 digital camera. Lynn was using my Powershot G2. Some minor touch ups were done in Photoshop. (I'm sure the touch ups could have been done better, but I still lack the patience to examine every photo, so you get what you get.)
Anyway, you know the rest: the pictures are copyright by me (or Lynn as the case may be) and unauthorized use is prohibited.
I took a tour the last time I was in Europe and I wasn't terribly happy with it so I wanted this time to be a little more free form. Lynn, on the other hand, had never been outside of the country before so she needed to be on a tour to feel comfortable. We compromised and started our vacation with a Rick Steves' seven day city tour of Paris to let Lynn get acclimated to being in another country, and then spend the remaining days running around Europe. That gave me 14 days to work with. Lynn wanted to spend the entire time in France, but I couldn't do that. It's not that I disliked France, but there were other places I'd rather be.
I tried to balance our itinerary so we got to see a lot without spending too much time on the road to see it. There were also some specific places I wanted to see like Vienna and Lucerne (two of my three favorite cities from the last time). I'd also hoped to squeeze in Venice, but that wasn't feasible. Our final itinerary was Paris, Beaune, Bern, Luzern [the German spelling of Lucerne which I just happen to like better], Brunnen, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Vienna, Heidelberg, and Reims. Paris was for Lynn since that's the one European city she's always wanted to see. Beaune was on the way to Luzern and it was the heart of the Burgundy region (which was a good stop for two wine enthusiasts). The entire old town of Bern is considered a historic treasure so that sounded like a good place to play tourist. Luzern is so pretty that I had to have Lynn see it. Brunnen is a small town on the same lake as Luzern that had the cutest hotel room I stayed in last time. I decided it was worth a stop just to give us a little respite from attractions and whatnot. I hardly spent any time in Innsbruck last time, but it seemed it would be worth an actual visit. I wasn't impressed with Salzburg, but it was one of the few major towns between Innsbruck and Vienna so it became a stopover. Vienna was one of my favorite cities from my previous trip so I was looking forward to spending more time there. Heidelberg was another one of my favorite cities, but unfortunately because of time constraints it was only going to be a place to overnight. Reims was in a direct line from Heidelberg to Paris and the heart of the Champagne region (yet another good stop for two wine enthusiasts).
It was a lot to see and I quickly ditched the idea of taking trains because a 14 day rail pass wasn't exactly cheaper than a car rental and train schedules are more inconvenient than just driving. I preferred the freedom of a rental car even though I knew driving would bring its own challenges. If you're thinking about driving in Europe then you might find this trip report useful.
With our itinerary set I then figured out where we were going to stay and possibly where to eat if there were high end restaurants available. I hate spending money on hotel rooms, but I made reservations at a combination of value hotels and hotels with charming rooms that are uniquely European. I also made reservations at a couple of Michelin starred restaurants and a fine restaurant in Vienna. With reservations for the rental car and all of our hotel rooms set we were ready to go.
If you're interested, you can read Lynn's version here.