SATURDAY-Luca's

Luca's isn't too far from the Jardin du Luxembourg and was fast and very friendly. We kept it light tonight just going straight to main entrees and having a shared dessert.

Jeri had a perfectly prepared salmon steak with bearnaise and rice. I'm not a salmon person, but she really enjoyed it.

Mine was a steak with fries and a nice little side salad like Jeri had. Fries and salad were great, the steak... word of advice, our medium rare is not theirs. This baby was cold in the middle. It was a lovely cut though. Very marbled and smelled just a little funky so it'd been dry aged some.

The bearnaise sauce (think of mayonnaise with tarragon, chives, chervil, and vinegar) with mine was a great match to the steak and the fries too!

We had a nice little cheese course of camembert (imagine brie blended with butter) that was fantstic. The bread rocked of course.

Dessert was vanilla ice cream that was a little more custardy than I like, but a nice way to round things out.

We're headed back to the hotel and turning in early. Unless we stop for some beverages on the way. Which we might :)

Night all!

SATURDAY-Fashion

Several people asked me to keep tabs on fashion and hair in Paris as this is the place it starts before coming to the US.

Bangs out, long hair (straight or curly) in. Very short haircuts with bangs - in. Skinny leg jeans - very in. Flats-in. Knee high boots with heels or not - in. Dogs pooping on the sidewalk and leaving it behind - in. Scarfs - crazy in, i mean all over, guys too, but i think it's a Paris thing. Making out in the park - in. Print and pattern stockings - in. Opaque tights with sweater dress and boots - very very in.

Bread - in. Bicycles - in. Smoking - in. Yup, people in Paris are walking down the street or riding bikes with long baguettes sticking out paper bags, often smoking. The women and men here look healthy, eat heartily, but with thoughtful enjoyment. No berets though. They're in the souvenier shops.

SATURDAY-Public Toilets

I know you're all curious, so here it is.

There're free toilets on the street in Paris. You punch a button on the side to get in and are presented with a bowl, with no outlet, no where for the refuse to go at first glance. It's just a bowl. Above it is constantly running water to wash your hands, and there's papers for.. you know.

Anyway, the door rolls shut, you do you business, shut the door, it's locked down, some horrendous water noise starts and the bowl is presumably pulled inside somewhere, blasted clean and then rolled back out for the next user.

Ta da. You wanted to know. Don't pretend you didn't.

SATURDAY-Hallowe'en in Paris

I'd read there were French who celebrated Hallowe'en in Paris, but they were few. We spoted one little boy dressed like a dog with his father trick or treating around 2pm, then a little girl in a princess costume, a little boy with a jack-o-lantern t-shirt in the Jardin du Luxembourg, and a man in a grim reaper costume after dinner.

There were also some young ladies on the bar scene very late that I saw out the window of my room dressed as various characters from history, if those characters had been 21st century ladies of the evening, and so all is well on Hallowe'en in Paris.

SATURDAY-Jardin du Luxembourg

Of everything I've seen so far, nothing holds my attention like Jardin du Luxembourg. It's a huge park with an old palace in the middle, and it's sooo wonderful. It was like this park was designed with autumn in mind. I can't imagine another time of the year it's more beautiful.

The French love their parks and staff them well. Lawns, flowers, and trees are perfectly cared for, and people take in conversation and the day itself in the park in a satisfied, relaxed way I can't remember seeing in the US.

The octagonal lake near the palace is a great place to people watch. There's this cool think were kids rent little sailboats that they push across the pond with poles back and forth. Kids and old people feed the ducks and gulls.

The Medici fountain is my favorite place in the park. It depicts a scene of Zeus catching a faun with the young Venus. See, Zeus had first dibs on foolin' around with anyone, so he isn't a happy camper in this scene.

I'm really amazed with how sexy this centuries old sculpture, but love to sit nearby and listen to the gentle sounds of the water, see the leaves fall, and watch the ducks paddle around. I could go to this park every day I was here and not feel disappointed I missed anything in Paris.

SATURDAY-Lina's

A lot of today was about people watching and the cafe scene. The city seemed filled with tourists today, mostly French and Italian. We rose late, had a leisurely breakfast and then were off for a walk, just looking around the Latin & Luxembourg districts.

We were feeling pretty peckish by about 2:30 and stopped into a little sandwich shop called Lina's. We enjoyed a bacon and turkey panini there and a couple desserts. I say bacon and turkey, because it was mostly bacon. The bacon was not very salty, but had a dark smokey flavor and a nice crunch. It was in a big wad in the middle and delicious!

We had a creme brulee that was a little disappointing. Not as smoothly creamy as the ones i'm used to that Jeri makes, and it had set in a cooler long enough the sugar crust had liquified. We had no trouble finishing it though.

There was also a very nice white chocolate tart with raspberries that was delicious. Very firm and thick, it was sort of like a candy bar with a crust. Coffee would have been a great pairing with this, but even asking for it to be delivered with the dessert, we didn't get it until after. They just don't do that here and it's hard to help them remember, so we just went with it.

Good stuff. Off to the Jardin du Luxembourg!

FRIDAY-Dinner at La Marlotte

Best restaurant yet. Very friendly service and they patiently let me stumble around in French with them.

The appetizer for Jeri was an artichoke salad with beets. She wasn't thrilled with it, and it was just ok, to me too.

Mine was very thinly shaved French country ham (dry cured ham, like a prosciutto). I will try to describe the awesomeness. If ham and bacon had crazy monkey sex and produced a child, it would be this ham. The rind of fat on it turned into this thick, gelatinous goo in your mouth that was the very essense of pork. Amazing.

The main entree for two we shared was a cote d'boeuf (big hunk of beef from the rib area). The best I could tell it was seasoned with only salt and pepper and cooked to a perfect medium rareness. It was one of those rare restaurant dishes I come across where I think "i don't think I could do this." It was treated with such respect and artistry, it raised the bar for beef from anywhere for me.

The outside seasoning, simple though it was, retained some ghost of itself throughout the meat, probably remaining on our palates for sometime. And it was so perfectly prepared. I've given up entirely ordering beef in restaurants because no one knows how to make a decent steak, anywhere. (Don't bother posting a comment on who's got good steak, i won't believe you. Yes, i'm a turd that way-deal.) I nearly cried it was so good. Oh, and there were potatoes too.

Dessert was a lovely molten chocolate cake with fantastic vanilla ice cream and a coffee sauce. The cake was well executed, but lacked the salt an American palate likes in sweets (yup, i salted it. Way yummy then.) All in all, a fanastic meal and evening.

I can't stop thinking about the beef. Dear god it was good.

FRIDAY-Moonlight Boat Tour of the Seine

After the Eiffel Tower we hopped on an open air boat for a moonlight tour of the Seine. Very romantic and fun. They told us a bunch of quasi interesting stuff about the bridges and buildings along the way that I don't remember a bit. Not much depth to any of the commentary anyway.


Mostly I was thinkin' "i'm on a moonlight touring going down the Seine at night! How cool is this!"

FRIDAY-Eiffel Tower

First off, the tower's brown, not black. A light chocolate brown actually. I'd always thought it was black.

I couldn't really appreciate the tower's height from the ground. Frankly, as we approached, I thought to myself, "Yup, that's the Eiffel Tower. The same one I've seen in pictures and other cheesy representations my whole life." Truth be told, in my mind the damn thing was seriously packed with frommage.

The base of the tower was peppered with vendors selling keychains, plastic light-up towers, toys of all sorts, and junk, and a few pan-handlers. The base was also crawling with tourists from all over, not just the US. This time of year there aren't very many US people to be found actually. The lines for lifts seemed huge. The base of the tower was also freaking enormous.

It wasn't until we started sating our growling tummies with a fantastic ham and gruyere on a baguette that I looked up and suddenly became aware of the enormity of this thing. The Eiffel Tower was fricken huge.

But was it this magical thing, place, experience that so many people seem to wax romantic about? Sure didn't seem that way. Between the lines and the incessant sales pitches for knick-knacks, I wasn't so sure it was even worth the trip across town to see it. Sure, feat of engineering for it's time, etc., but sheesh. This looked like a giant pain in the ass for the pleasure of going up in one of the most done-to-death icons in the western world.

Nevermind that; we were in Paris, and by god, we needed to go up and all the way to the top. If we came home without even going in the Eiffel Tower, some people might think we were nuts. Into line we went.

With the off season we were through in less than 40 minutes and on our way up. There was a transfer to the final lift that took us to the top. The ground dropped away from us and seemed like it would never stop. Vertigo baby. And then we were there. Through the doors, up a short flight of stairs and we were in the open air above Paris.

Dusk had fallen while we waited in line and took the lifts to the top. Approaching the edge, a thin fog had crept in across the city making the lights of the city below glow with a fairy tale halo. There was the Arc d'Triumph and the Seine and the lit winding streets of one of the oldest cities on the planet. I forgot to breathe.

We both stood, overcome with the beauty of the city of lights below and all around us. As Jeri squeezed my arm tight and kissed me, it was clear that this was indeed a magical place that we would remember visiting for the rest of our lives. I can't imagine a city view that could compare with Paris at dusk from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

It was Jeri's birthday today too. It was somewhat arranged and somewhat happy accident that we took our trip to fit her birthday in Paris. Jeri had said this was her birthday present.

As we raised a glass of champagne to toast her special day, I reached into my pocket and took out a diamond rimmed watch I'd gotten her for her birthday a few weeks ago and hid to bring on the trip. She was pleased and touched, and I think this was a good birthday for her.

Later, back on the ground we watched the tower's lightshow, a waxing moon behind it, we reflected on what an amazing visit it had been so far. So, if you're in Paris, really do see the Eiffel Tower. You might not feel what we did, but you'll feel something and I bet that feeling will be special.

FRIDAY-Metro

I talked about the metros in Moscow, so needed a quick note here. They're very easy to navigate (i understand French much better than Russian), clean, and efficient. As ornate as Moscow they are not, but mighty handy.

Oh, and if you're lucky, you'll have a dude in your car playing that French accordian music you automatically think of when you think of France. We had a dude like that in our car. It was cool.

FRIDAY-Gauloise

I made a deal with Jeri.

While in Paris, I get to smoke Gauloise cigarettes.

I could not imagine being in Paris and not getting to smoke. Lots and lots of people smoke here. Not inside as they used to. But everywhere else. People smoked at the top of the Eiffel Tower!

So I got me a couple packs and I love 'em. These are supposed to be the quintessential French cigarette. Much shorter than a regular cigarette and very mild. They don't leave a stink on my fingers like American cigarettes. They're sort of toasty and mildly nutty. A delight!

Oh and the French? They're all havin' Marlboros from what I see.

FRIDAY-Crepes

Jeri and I have decided we will eat crepes from street vendors every chance we get. They're just what you think they are, rubbery thin pancakes. They're fresh and hot and there are great choices of things to get in them. Vendors fold them up into a nice quartered triangle shape and put them a paper holder for you.

Jeri loves Nutella in hers (a chocolate hazelnut spread the consistency of peanut butter) and I like Grand Marnier (orange spice liqueur) in mine. They are delicious to eat sitting on the street corner on a cold day, or just a few feet from the waters of the Seine on a chilly October night.

THURSDAY-Dinner at La Ferrandage

Our concierge recommended this place for our first real dinner in Paris. The appetizer was a
squash soup (not a favorite of mine, but we're in Paris, i might learn something) that
knocked my socks off.











Seriously laden with cream, perfectly seasoned, and garnished with chive, scallions, and a magnificient lightly garlic crouton made from a baguette. Yummers. Great.















Jeri's entree was a perfectly prepared piece of perch broiled under a layer of tomatoes and
prawns. Also amazing and just a hint of smoke from the grill. Great stuff. Side note: her side was mashed cauliflower garnished with some puffed wild rice, she was sure they were worms at first. Honest, they really did look like little larvae of some kind.

I got to order one of the oldest French recipes on the books: Boeuf Bourguignon. It's a nice cut of beef roast slowly braised with carrots and seasoning in a bath of red wine. Magnificent.

The beef becomes a buttery treat that just holds onto the texture of meat. The carrots are tender and citrusy from the wine, and the resulting sauce... fragrant, deeply textured with loads of flavor that run the gambit from the sophisticated to home cooking that takes you back to your childhood. It's worth getting for the sauce alone. It's served over some wide pasta.

Dessert was a delight. Jeri got a series of items that were small tastes of several desserts with an espresso. There was a light, smooth custard, a compote of preserved apples, cherries, and plums, a tiny eggy cake with chocolate chips, and a milk chocolate mousse with coconut (she's not a fan of the coconut. I had to eat it for her. :) )







Mine was a coconut dacquoise (think layers of chocolate cake and that same coconut chocolate mousse chilled to firmness), a 70% cocoa mousse, and coffee jelly.





The dacquoise was yummy, the cocoa mousse was amazing. It was ice cold and so darkly chocolate, and a bit thin on the mouth feel compared to a standard mousse. Wonderfully chocolately in a very pure way. The coffee jelly was an amazing surprise. The consistency of jelly as you'd think, but like coffee candy on the palate. A great companion to the other two items.

THURSDAY-Our Room

I mentioned this place came highly recommended by a very good friend and the room did not disappoint. It's fabulous!

















The staff had already taken our bags to our room. After this, we were pleased to find out that the hotel cat, Sputnik, accompanied us to our room. He met us in the lobby and got on the lift before

us, meowing at the back of the lift for us to come in. Once we reached our floor, he impatiently moved to the front of the lifted and meowed until the doors opened and then urgently led us to the rooms. He came in with us and immediately jumped up on the bed to let us know everything was good here as he'd clearly inspected it himself and was satisfied.

Sputnik drank some water from the faucet in the tub, then went to the door and asked to be allowed out and back downstairs. There were clearly other guests arriving soon.



We're all unpacked and ready to catch some shut eye with the sounds of Paris outside our room. What a view and what a city!

THURSDAY-First Lunch

Lunch today was at a brasserie just a few blocks from our hotel. We'd gone for a walk in the Jardin du Luxemborg - it was so fantastically peaceful and beautiful (and close by) that we're sure to go again and I'll have some pictures of it then.

We ate outside, which was very nice. Temps in the low 60s here today. The salads were excellent. Jeri's was mostly buttercrunch lettuce with tomatoes and pinenuts, topped with apples baked in honey and toasted bread rounds with toasted chevre (goat cheese) on top, dressed with a simple vinegarette. Outstanding- tasted like and autumn day and the tart, fat flavor of the chevre rounded it out nicely.

Mine was very mild arugula with shaved parmesan dressed with only olive oil. It was nutty and grassy with a great salty sour kick from the parmesan. This was all extra fantastic with torn hunks of some really crusty baguettes.

I also had some beef entree i forget the name of, but it came with a potato confit that was fan-f*cking-tastic. Just new potatoes that had rested in duck fat, but lord they were tasty with a sweet, buttery, savory, nutty, melt in your mouth texture / taste. Yummers.

The beef was unremarkable with a thin brown sauce that was so so. Kinda disappointing really.

Dessert was an apple and custard tart that was nicely understated, but maybe too much so for the strong americano drank with it.

Our server, Renior, was truly over taxed with tables to wait on, but I was so proud of myself that i was able to confidently ask for the check in French! Those who've not researched or travelled to France may not know you must ask for the check because they want you to be comfortable and not feel rushed as you enjoy your meal. What a country! Yay!

We're pretty beat at this point and it's back to our room to finally check in, settle in, and catch a few winks. Looking forward to a quiet dinner tonight and planning our day tomorrow. Did I mention tomorrow is Jeri's bday?

THURSDAY-Breakfast at the Hotel St. Paul Paris

We checked in and left our bags under the steps (yup, not locked up, just under the stairs) at the Hotel St. Paul Paris.

This place came highly recommended by a good friend of mine and the check in process and complementary breakfast tell us so far that she was dead right. Checking in was a simple as walking to the desk and saying our name. Honest, done. We dropped our bags and went to breakfast downstairs in the brunch room.

There was coffee, juice, cheese, mortadello, rye bread, fruit, creme fraiche, baguettes, hot hard boiled egs, and other yummy stuff. The baguette was unbelievably good. And they had our favorite French butter, President! What a coincidence, eh? ;)

We ate our fill and lounged for a while planning what to do next as we couldn't officially check into our room until 2.

THURSDAY-Taxi Ride

Probably the nicest taxi drive we've ever experienced. The car was fast, smooth, and quiet. A lot like the driver. He was great and had his radio tuned low to a station that played a mix of reggae, African, Indian, and Middle Eastern tunes.

Motorcycles and scooters are very popular and thankfully they're all Asian and European models with blissfully quiet engines and exhaust. Must have been 10 times the number you see in the US. These drivers are apparently accorded the dotted line portion of the road to drive on provided they do so at twice the posted speed limit.

This purposely wreckless behavior is not just tolerated, but appears to be enjoyed by everyone as the motorcyclists will beep to ask car drivers for more room while passing at break neck speed and everyone issues each other a jaunty wave as this manuver is executed. Driving the dotted line surely results in all the two-wheelers beating the traffic jams to work, and also solidifies these cyclist's claim on having balls like church bells.

We were surprised to see that almost all the cars on the road were only a few years old. There was only one car you could call 'old' that passed us. Most were nearly new, small, and clean. Lots of Mercedes, Peugots, Renalts, Citroen, and a couple others i just didn't recognize. With the exception of a single Toyota Yaris, there were no 'American' cars on the road.

Oh, and check this out; when's the last time you saw ash trays in a car in the US, let alone in each

of the doors?

THURSDAY-We're in Paris!

We've landed!

Charles de Gaulle airport is way cool. This doughnut like building with tubes running through the middle like something from the Jetsons. Also very understandable and efficient. That plane hit the ground and we were out. No lingering taxi or waiting at the gate. We almost were too slow for everyone, it rocked! The airport itself is also a model of effiency and ease. We were out the door and into a taxi in record time.

On the drive in, we were pleased to see we hit the city just as the fall color is starting to peak. Most trees are a yellow or orange here. Lots of sycamores or paper bark maples here, i'm not sure which they are. Very pretty autumn city.

WEDNESDAY-Boarding!

Catch you tomorrow folks!


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WEDNESDAY-More layover

Played scrabble for an hour. Drinking now. Buffalo Trace Bourbon, very good.

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WEDNESDAY-Layover - Chi-town

7 hour lay over here, but we're camped out in a deserted, dark gate and lovin the break to chat and plan. Down time of any kind is always a vacation!




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TUESDAY-The Night Before...

I'm not a good traveler.

Jeri, my wife, makes sure I get through airports ok, makes sure our room has enough pillows, navigates giant metro systems in foreign countries, all that logistical stuff I really stink at, and worry about too much.

It's usually about this time before a trip that I'm thinking in the back of my mind, "We should really just pass on this." I love October in the midwest, my cat's givin' me that 'you're leaving me, aren't you' look, and there's the persistent tingling in my head that says, 'you're gonna forget to bring something you need, and you're gonna lose something you brought to Paris.'

That's where we're headed this time: Paris! City of Lights! Moonlight on the Seine, great food, great people, great art, great history, great architecture! And I should be really excited because I love all that stuff, but I'm not. I like what I have here so much. Home is so great!

But having gotten over some serious travel concerns a few years ago (we didn't take a vacation the first 13 years of our marriage - just not good at relaxing, either of us) with trips to Banff, Sleepy Hollow, and then Moscow just the other year, we're better, and I don't worry like I used to. When I think of the trip to Paris we're about to take, while there's some seriously cool stuff that you could spend a lifetime visiting and enjoying, that's not what gets me excited about this trip.

I honestly start to feel excited and look forward to Paris when I think about how it's Jeri and I going there. The way we're a perfect travel team with each other and compliment each other so well. When I think of the way we'll just find our way through it and how we always have a good time together, that's when my interest starts to pique.

It's not Notre Dame or the Eiffle Tower or even the great food that gets me going at this point in the trip. It's knowing that part of that happy home feeling is gonna be right there with me and thinking of how for the rest of our lives, we'll just say the word, 'Paris' to each other, and we'll both know exactly what each of us is feeling.

Isn't that why we travel?