First Day in Paris

lunch on our first afternoon in Paris. The wonderful outside seats are now the smoking section so we never get to sit and watch the world go by now.

baguette with jambon (ham) and cheese

omelet very much like what we have at home. we learned that "mixte" means ham AND cheese

my favorite macaron stop...Laduree. It was on the corner of our hotel street. How convenient!

Laduree windows are always something special to look at

Macarons..chocolate, red fruits, pistachio, lemon

Église de Saint-Germain-des-Prés, built 990-1014

inside the church. It was dimly lit, but i managed to get a few grainy photos

The organ pipes at the back of the church

Kouignettes, mini butter cakes from Brittany, at Ceorges Larnicol on St. Germain.

Braving the rain in St.Germain

I adore street art

This one marked a corner to help me remember which was to get back to the hotel

wandering in the St. Germain area

found a Carrefour near the hotel and located my beloved mustard

Danny's favorite goat cheese. This particular brand is not available in the U.S.

my second favorite chocolatier (of the ones i've tasted) in Paris

a favorite restaurant and one we go to every time we are in Paris

the wonderful salad with mustard vinaigrette and walnuts

steak and sauce with frites...the only thing on the menu

well known for their desserts, my favorite is the Profiteroles

We left Bordeaux on the TGV at 8:21 this morning. Vincent met us at the hotel at 10 until 7 and drove us to Bordeaux from Lacaneau which was about an hour trip. Upon arrival at the train station 20 minutes early, we thought we had enough time to get something to take on the train with us. Well that was before we found out that ordering orange juice meant that each glass was created individually by juicing the oranges one glass at a time! We had 5 minutes to spare and thankfully our train car was at the end of the train closest to us. Whew! We had a special rate that enabled us to ride in first class! The experience was really wonderful as the seats were a little bigger and they reclined! I am pretty sure that all of us napped during some point of the three hour trip. Andy said he wished all of our travel had been that way as he had the best nap ever! We took the metro from the train station as it was only 3 stops to our hotel. Danny and I managed to get our suitcases stuck in the metro entrance gates because we walked through too slow and Danny had to pull with all of his might to get them through! We popped out of the metro by the Église de Saint-Germain-des-Prés and walked two easy blocks to our hotel. We are staying at a new hotel for me, The Millesime in St Germaine. Our rooms are wonderful, and the hotel is just delightful. We were greeted with a bottle of wine on ice in celebration of our anniversaries. What a surprise! After checking into our rooms, we donned our raincoats and umbrellas and set out to explore our neighborhood and eat our lunch. It has been raining all day and is expected to rain the whole time we are here, but we are not going to let that keep us in our rooms. We found a cafe near the hotel and had omelettes and baguette sandwiches for lunch. Andy is learning a new phrase, "moi aussi", which means "me too" or in Andy's case, "I'll have what they are having". Not being able to read the French menu and not having an English menu can be frustrating when you don't know food words, but we all help each other interpret. We toured the Église de Saint-Germain-des-Prés which is very old and beautiful. We then walked all over the neighborhood in the rain and cold. We stopped for macarons at Laduree which is on the corner of our hotel street. After eating 3 each today, we aren't sure that having Laduree so close is going to be a good thing, for our waistline that is. We had supper tonight at a favorite spot, le Relais de L'Entrecote, which serves only one thing, rib steak and frites with fabulous sauce AND a fantastic selection of dessert. We shared plates of profiteroles which are my favorite there! We came back to the hotel after dinner and hope to be in bed at a decent hour tonight. Oh and my computer is locked in the hotel safe which is malfunctioning and so no new pics just yet. Until tomorrow...