Day 10 Monday, August 11th - Beware August the Paris Vacation Month

It is Monday in Paris. We decide to walk to Creperie Bretonne (buckwheat crepes) located east and south of our apartment. It is about a 35 minute walk mostly down Voltaire and then along some side streets that are occupied by Chinese merchants. I had written down the walking directions from Google Maps and we did find the restaurant. Voila! The note on the door states it is closed until August 18th. Yes, many many of the stores and restaurants are closed for periods in August as this is the popular vacation time in France. You really need to phone first to verify they are open.

Lana's picture of Paris tomatoes. She says even the tomatoes here look chic and fashionable.

 Lana's picture of a traditional French breakfast with baguette and jam. Even simplest of things seem  so elegant.

We walk along Rue de Charonne and come across a small intersection that has three restaurants on opposite corners. We decide to stop at Pause Café as it is easily the most busiest place. Now this could be due to the fact it was getting the most sun or it has the best coffee, but we decided to go with the crowd on this one. We do the typical Parisienne thing and sit by side-by-side facing the sidewalk in the sun. Lana needs shade though. While we are sitting Lana keeps checking Centreville (across the street) to see if anyone is eating there; "nobody sitting there."

The lunch was pretty good and the service was decent. We enjoyed being in the sun and watching the pedestrians and traffic. 

Great seats!

Charcuterie plate of cheese, paté, proscuitto, dry salami sausage and cornichon.

Italian salad of lettuce, mozzarella cheese, black olive tapenade and proscuitto. Nice glass of rosé.

The bathroom is downstairs. This is the coed sink. Pretty cool.

We decided to walk towards and into the Marais and visit Hotel de Sully. This is a national French monument and a Louis VIII building. We did get lost (went in the wrong direction once) but recovered. It was a beautiful sunny day to that point. Check out the picture below as at every Metro station they have one of these great maps.

Hotel de Sully magnificent residence and gardens. Free entry.

Lawn.  Lana says it looks like a giant french putting green and wonders what plant makes the darker green grass. 

Statue of a human female on a lion's body.

If you come to Paris and want to see this site, make sure you don't mistake it for the "other" Hotel Sully (note no "de") which is located on the same block LOL. This is NOT the tourist destination.

We walk into the Marais and decide that Centre Pompidou will be our museum of choice. But first we relax in the plaza outside like a number of locals and tourists. Two people sitting and playing didgeridoos (Australian musical instrument). Eventually, we get in line to have your backpacks or bags checked. We go to an automated kiosk and use our credit card. Entrance is 13Euro each for this art museum and great views. We enjoyed the exhibits and graphic design. It is always so soothing to visit art museums.

View from outside. It is quite the incredible building designed with the majority of mechanical/service items exterior to the building to save space inside. 

At the entrance to the museum art.

Escalator tube on the outside of the building.

Notre-Dame is close and this is our view from the top floor. Check out the gargoyles sitting on top.

Eiffel Tower viewed from the top.

Kandinsky painting (one of our favourite artists).

The walking tube on the exterior that Lana describes "so hot it felt like being in a Pizza Hut baking oven where the pizza goes in one side and comes out the other side cooked and crisp."

Exterior of building. Escalators that take you up to each floor.

Bottom escalator.

We are getting tired (lots of walking) and decide to walk through the Marais and into our Haut Marais neighbourhood down streets we have not walked on before. Just before we reach our apartment the rain comes and it is pretty heavy. As we get into our apartment, Lana receives a text from Jim as they are downstairs. Lana wants her afternoon nap so Jim, his parents and I visit the next door grocery to purchase some wine. Jim buys two bottles of Tavel Rosé and by the time we are back in the apartment Lana has had a good nap. We have a couple of hours before we need to head to our dinner reservation for 7:30 pm.

Each night we entertained guests with either champagne and/or wine and some food. It is a lot of fun and a great relaxing pre-dinner experience. Lana went out and purchased some gougere so we had a traditional french "nibble" to go with wine. Lots of laughs.

Our reservations are at La Verre Volé based on recommendations from Anthony Bourdain. It is a 15 minute walk in the rain north and a bit west into Canal St. Martin neighbourhood. Directions a bit dodgy and we do find the place and are ushered towards the rear of the restaurant. Another casual, but hip trendy Paris bistro. It is a wine bar as well and has a huge walk-in refrigerated room where they have their wine, cheese and eggs. The servers were excellent and very knowledgeable about their wines. In fact, there is no wine list. We ordered an excellent white Burgundy (Chardonnay) and a red (Gamay Noir) that was superb. 

Lana's appetizer of line caught red tuna rillette salad "à la niçoise". The tuna rillette was brilliant.

Pink veal carpaccio from the Basque country, crunch vegetables & taramasalata. Another tasty appetizer.

Randy's appetizer dish of smoked sea snails, jelly fish and red fruits. The snails were chewy, but the jelly fish was very interesting with an unusual texture.

Lana ordered the pork sausage with mashed potato and salad. The waiter brought out a jar of mustard and we all loved it--it was smooth but tangy with a good shot of horseradish. No label on the jar so we couldn't tell what brand it was--but it tasted great with everything!! Randy says almost as good as German mustard (senf)!

Randy's main of white ham "Prince de Paris", mashed potato and salad. All were delicious. The moutard (mustard) really enhanced the ham.

The other three had the farmed guinea fowl from the Périgord cooked in two ways, grilled baby corn, zucchini and fennel sale, summer truffles vinaigrette. Each plate was finished with a smile.

Dessert cheese (fromage) plate. Beware as the very yellow bit on the side is butter and not a piece of cheese. When Randy asked what it was the waiter gave him a funny look and said "beurre" and we all said "ahhhh, butter!"

About 9:40 pm we are asked to vacate the table as the next group has arrived. We had no idea there was a limit on how long we had the table, but this makes sense as more restaurants here plan for two seatings--one early and one late. Something new we learned about Paris. Although Lana was wondering who goes out for dinner at 9:30 pm on a Monday night?  Don't these people need to go to work the next day? 

No problem though as we were finished. Jim and his parents grabbed a taxi and we walked back to our apartment (no rain). Another excellent and low-key day in Paris. Jim and his parents are on a train to Bordeaux tomorrow so we are on our own Tuesday. Lana comes to the shocking realization that she hasn't had one single macaron since arriving in the City of Lights--and since the title of the blogs includes a reference to her favourite cookie--I suspect she'll be indulging in this tomorrow :)