On the Move - Weekend in Paris
We had a lovely jaunt across the Channel for the weekend. It felt so
comfortable, going back after being there just six months ago, while we
still remember exactly how the Metro works and where our hotel is.
We took an evening train over, enjoying dinner--fois gras de canard followed
by a choice of chicken or cod and then a chocolate macaroon for
dessert--that was so much better than airplane food usually is. We arrived
in Paris ontime and, having learned from experience, split up to get cash
and Metro passes such that we halved our line-time. We dropped our bag at
the Hotel de San Andre des Artes and then went out for a lovely walk along
the Seine past Notre Dame, back along the Boulevard San Germaine and through
the Place San Michel to our hotel. Along the way we got a crepe with butter
and sugar to share and it was so good! It had been raining a little as we
left, so Jason ran back to get his umbrella, which prevented it from raining
at all during the rest of our ramble.
On Saturday it was clear enough for us to go to the Eiffel Tower, since the
lines were prohibitive the last time we were there. It wasn't a very pretty
day, but clear enough to see the landmarks of the city, and it was fun, as
always, to marvel at the construction.
From there we went over the the Musee d'Orsay, the primary goal of our
weekend. Built into the shell of a railway station, it's a wonderful place
with many interesting and beautiful works. We especially enjoyed the wide
range of Monet's work on display.
Leaving the Orsay, I headed back to the hotel, while Jason went over to the
Samaritaine department store to replace the underwear and socks he'd left
lying on the bed at home. We had a short nap and then got dressed and went
to dinner at Les Bookinistes. Conveniently located just a few blocks from
the hotel, it is another of the restuarants owned by Guy Savoy, whose
flagship we visited on our earlier visit. This place was about 1/4 the
price and the food was about 1/2 as good. Jason started with the cream of
cauliflower soup, delicious in itself, but marred by undercooked, overly
fatty chunks of some meat product. I didn't fare much better, having
unwisely risked the rabbit terrine--I don't usually care for them, but I
like the idea enough to keep trying. Taken in bites with the accompanying
salad it was perfectly edible, but not exciting. Fortunately, our mains
soon put all thought of disappointment from our minds. Jason had a breast of
guinea fowl served with mushrooms and an endive gratin. My fillet of
"hog-fish" was perfectly crispy on the outside, moist and flavorful inside,
and served on a bed of seafood risotto in a creamy saffron sauce. The meal
continued its upward trajectory through a plate of cheeses (a goat cheese in
ash, a not-too-strong bleu, and something hard and very flavorful that I
suspect was made of sheep's milk, but we never identified) and on to our
desserts. Jason had the "clementine salad," a bowl of clementine orange
sections with a creme brulee made in half of the peel. I had the
almond/hazelnut macaroon served with ice cream and nuts that was just
delightful. Sadly, the service was a bit lacking--our appetizers were in
front of us within moments of ordering, but we waited quite a while at other
points in the meal, and there was a screw-up with our coats, as we'd been
given the wrong claim check--but we were in no hurry and it was a pleasant
dining room. Afterwards we took a brief turn along the river, but as the
rain began to pelt down harder, we turned back quickly and took refuge in
our cozy room.
On Sunday we headed for the Marais and the Musee Picasso. I had been there
in 1994 with Barbara, but hadn't seen all of it on that visit, and was
pleased to get back there with Jason. They don't have any of his really
major, later works, but they have a nice selection from his middle periods
and a good mix of paintings, drawings, sculpture and photography, as well as
a few of the works by other artists from his personal collection, which help
to create a context for his work and its changing aspects throughout his
life. The special exhibit was examining his fascination with the image of
the bull and minotaur and presented a wide variety of his work with that
motif.
As we left there, we decided to visit the Musee Carnavalet, not far away.
It's a museum dedicated to the history of Paris and has period rooms from
the 16th century onward, preserved and recreated in a lovely mansion. After
an hour there, we were ready to move back into our own time and walked over
to the Pompidou Centre to visit the Musee National d'Art Moderne. The center
itself is an interesting building that reminded us both of the science
center at Wellesley. We made our way up the wacky escalators to the 4th
floor, where the museum's cavernous galleries begin.
Despite flagging strength, we walked through both enormous floors, checking
out the wide variety of 20th century art. My favorite piece was a
Kandinsky--the second one of his I've ever liked--but they also had some of
the wonderful wire-heads by Calder that I love and a lot of interesting
stuff. Jason's favorite was one of the several room-sized installations,
the walls covered in dry leaves behind chicken-wire, with a set of lungs on
one wall made out of molded leaves painted gold, and a spiky sculpture in
the center of the room.
We were pretty exhausted by the time we went back to the hotel and we were
very happy to nap for a couple of hours before trying to find dinner. I had
been enticed by the oysters on offer at Chez Clement in the Place San Michel
and Jason had no counter-proposal, so we went there. It was a fairly
touristy place, kind of like what you'd expect the Disney French restaurant
to look like. The dozen mixed oysters were tasty and we also shared one of
their mixed platter appetizers that included some smoked salmon, a few
little lobster ravioli, a Thai-style spring roll, goat cheese en croute and
some fois gras de canard. My main course of seared scallops and mashed
potatoes colored with beets was simple and tasty. Jason was pretty
underwhelmed by his mixed grill of chicken, beef and pork ribs with mashed
potatoes and mixed greens. For dessert we split a very tasty hot apple
crumble that seemed to cheer him up a bit.
We packed up and set our alarms for 7am, but somehow failed to wake up until
8:30! We made it to the train station by 9am, but they had already closed
the queue for the 9:10am train we were scheduled to be on. They issued us
tickets on the 10:19 and we hung out for the hour and then had an uneventful
ride home, getting back to our flat around 1:30pm.
So, quick trip with good food and lots of art, and now home again.
This entry was originally posted at http://lillibet.dreamwidth.org/583952.html. You can comment either place! There are
comments over there now.
comfortable, going back after being there just six months ago, while we
still remember exactly how the Metro works and where our hotel is.
We took an evening train over, enjoying dinner--fois gras de canard followed
by a choice of chicken or cod and then a chocolate macaroon for
dessert--that was so much better than airplane food usually is. We arrived
in Paris ontime and, having learned from experience, split up to get cash
and Metro passes such that we halved our line-time. We dropped our bag at
the Hotel de San Andre des Artes and then went out for a lovely walk along
the Seine past Notre Dame, back along the Boulevard San Germaine and through
the Place San Michel to our hotel. Along the way we got a crepe with butter
and sugar to share and it was so good! It had been raining a little as we
left, so Jason ran back to get his umbrella, which prevented it from raining
at all during the rest of our ramble.
On Saturday it was clear enough for us to go to the Eiffel Tower, since the
lines were prohibitive the last time we were there. It wasn't a very pretty
day, but clear enough to see the landmarks of the city, and it was fun, as
always, to marvel at the construction.
From there we went over the the Musee d'Orsay, the primary goal of our
weekend. Built into the shell of a railway station, it's a wonderful place
with many interesting and beautiful works. We especially enjoyed the wide
range of Monet's work on display.
Leaving the Orsay, I headed back to the hotel, while Jason went over to the
Samaritaine department store to replace the underwear and socks he'd left
lying on the bed at home. We had a short nap and then got dressed and went
to dinner at Les Bookinistes. Conveniently located just a few blocks from
the hotel, it is another of the restuarants owned by Guy Savoy, whose
flagship we visited on our earlier visit. This place was about 1/4 the
price and the food was about 1/2 as good. Jason started with the cream of
cauliflower soup, delicious in itself, but marred by undercooked, overly
fatty chunks of some meat product. I didn't fare much better, having
unwisely risked the rabbit terrine--I don't usually care for them, but I
like the idea enough to keep trying. Taken in bites with the accompanying
salad it was perfectly edible, but not exciting. Fortunately, our mains
soon put all thought of disappointment from our minds. Jason had a breast of
guinea fowl served with mushrooms and an endive gratin. My fillet of
"hog-fish" was perfectly crispy on the outside, moist and flavorful inside,
and served on a bed of seafood risotto in a creamy saffron sauce. The meal
continued its upward trajectory through a plate of cheeses (a goat cheese in
ash, a not-too-strong bleu, and something hard and very flavorful that I
suspect was made of sheep's milk, but we never identified) and on to our
desserts. Jason had the "clementine salad," a bowl of clementine orange
sections with a creme brulee made in half of the peel. I had the
almond/hazelnut macaroon served with ice cream and nuts that was just
delightful. Sadly, the service was a bit lacking--our appetizers were in
front of us within moments of ordering, but we waited quite a while at other
points in the meal, and there was a screw-up with our coats, as we'd been
given the wrong claim check--but we were in no hurry and it was a pleasant
dining room. Afterwards we took a brief turn along the river, but as the
rain began to pelt down harder, we turned back quickly and took refuge in
our cozy room.
On Sunday we headed for the Marais and the Musee Picasso. I had been there
in 1994 with Barbara, but hadn't seen all of it on that visit, and was
pleased to get back there with Jason. They don't have any of his really
major, later works, but they have a nice selection from his middle periods
and a good mix of paintings, drawings, sculpture and photography, as well as
a few of the works by other artists from his personal collection, which help
to create a context for his work and its changing aspects throughout his
life. The special exhibit was examining his fascination with the image of
the bull and minotaur and presented a wide variety of his work with that
motif.
As we left there, we decided to visit the Musee Carnavalet, not far away.
It's a museum dedicated to the history of Paris and has period rooms from
the 16th century onward, preserved and recreated in a lovely mansion. After
an hour there, we were ready to move back into our own time and walked over
to the Pompidou Centre to visit the Musee National d'Art Moderne. The center
itself is an interesting building that reminded us both of the science
center at Wellesley. We made our way up the wacky escalators to the 4th
floor, where the museum's cavernous galleries begin.
Despite flagging strength, we walked through both enormous floors, checking
out the wide variety of 20th century art. My favorite piece was a
Kandinsky--the second one of his I've ever liked--but they also had some of
the wonderful wire-heads by Calder that I love and a lot of interesting
stuff. Jason's favorite was one of the several room-sized installations,
the walls covered in dry leaves behind chicken-wire, with a set of lungs on
one wall made out of molded leaves painted gold, and a spiky sculpture in
the center of the room.
We were pretty exhausted by the time we went back to the hotel and we were
very happy to nap for a couple of hours before trying to find dinner. I had
been enticed by the oysters on offer at Chez Clement in the Place San Michel
and Jason had no counter-proposal, so we went there. It was a fairly
touristy place, kind of like what you'd expect the Disney French restaurant
to look like. The dozen mixed oysters were tasty and we also shared one of
their mixed platter appetizers that included some smoked salmon, a few
little lobster ravioli, a Thai-style spring roll, goat cheese en croute and
some fois gras de canard. My main course of seared scallops and mashed
potatoes colored with beets was simple and tasty. Jason was pretty
underwhelmed by his mixed grill of chicken, beef and pork ribs with mashed
potatoes and mixed greens. For dessert we split a very tasty hot apple
crumble that seemed to cheer him up a bit.
We packed up and set our alarms for 7am, but somehow failed to wake up until
8:30! We made it to the train station by 9am, but they had already closed
the queue for the 9:10am train we were scheduled to be on. They issued us
tickets on the 10:19 and we hung out for the hour and then had an uneventful
ride home, getting back to our flat around 1:30pm.
So, quick trip with good food and lots of art, and now home again.
This entry was originally posted at http://lillibet.dreamwidth.org/583952.html. You can comment either place! There are
comments over there now.