Fourth Day in Paris (Old Bones and Birthday Celebrations)

This morning we took the metro to the Paris Catacombs. I had told everyone that we had to get there early since the line gets really long. We found that out the hard way a couple of days ago. So we arrived at 7:30 AM and found that the Catacombs don't open until 10:00! So we had 2 hours to kill. We decided to walk down to the Luxembourg Gardens to see the beautiful grounds and chateau but unfortunately we couldn't go into the chateau since it's now being used as the Parliament building.  Its a fantastic chateau from the out side and I bet it's incredible on the inside. We walked back to the Paris Catacombs and found a line so we jumped in and waited to enter. When it was out turn we started down and down and down and down a spiral stare case. All the time I was muttering to myself, what goes down must come up. When we arrived at the bottom there was a chart that showed how deep we went. It was way below the Metro lines, very, very deep! There are 200 miles of tunnels down here but fortunately we only had to walk a 1/2 mile or so) until we found the bones. From what they were telling us there are 6 million people down here! When we finished walking through the tunnels we ended up at the base of another spiral stair case. As I said going down, what goes down must come up. So Up, Up, Up, Up we go, huffing and puffing all the way up. What a climb!

Once we finished with the Catacombs we stopped at a little pizza shop where we had a wonderful pizza. I had one with a egg on it. It was cracked raw in the middle of the pizza and cooked with it. Once we were finished with lunch we headed back towards our apartment. We decided to walk instead of taking the metro.  This walk was very long!. (CJ made us do it!) On the way back we stopped by the Louve but it was closed. However we did get to see the inverted pyramid which is under the Louve pyramid. At this point we parted ways and went back to our respective apartments to get ready for the birthday dinner at 8:00 PM.

We took the metro over to the restaurant (Auberge Pyrenees Cevennes). This was the restaurant that Norm and Vicki recommended. We arrived and Norm, Vicki and Gene were already there. Norm and Vicki gave me personal flags that said Bon Anniversary with a bottle of champagne with my name on it. Wonderful touch. I waited for everyone to arrive and I gave a little thank you speech and then ordered a magnum of white Bordeaux to go with the starters and a magnum of red Bordeaux to go with the main meals. They were fantastic wines. We all had a wonderful time and ate some of the best food in Paris. I had their famous Casolet which was voted to be the best Casolet in Paris. Even the president of France said this was one of his favorite restaurants. Also one note, Thank you Barry and Ping for our dinners. It was very generous of you. After dinner we all parted ways and went back to our apartments for a well earned sleep.

Third Day in Paris (Kensie’s Day / Epernay)

Today we split up CJ, Anne, Shirley, Tamie, and Brandon went to Epernay to enjoy a Day of Champagne tasting ” and Darryl, Kensie and I stayed in Paris and dedicated this day to Kensie.

*** Kensie’s Day ***

We asked Kensie what she wanted to do and she said “Shopping!” So off we went. We first walked down to the local shopping mall and went into a few stores here and there but found them to be very expensive. So we stopped by the Post office to get some stamps and then to the Orange cellular store to see if I could get a French SIM for my new phones but unfortunately when the person at the store plugged in the SIM and the phone came up in a strange language that nether the Orange agent or I could figure out what to do. Well so much for cheap phones calls. So we ventured out of the mall and down the streets of Paris. We shopped and shopped all day passing by interesting stores along the way. Kensie even tried her hand at bargaining. She purchased a hoodie and some coasters that was selling for a total of 30 euros and bargained it down to 25 euros. A saving of 5 euros! That’s about a $7.00 in savings. Not bad for her first time! It’s lunch time so we headed to a nice little restaurant up the street form the mall where we had some real good Spaghetti Bolognese and of course Kensie had a cheeseburger.  We passed by the modern art museum and a strange looking modern art fountain on our walks including a bunch of pet stores along the seine river where Kensie wanted all of the doggies in the windows. Jokingly we told her if you can pack the dog in your suitcase then you can take them home. She didn’t seem to like that idea. J It was getting around 5:00 pm so we headed back to the apartment. When we got back CJ texted me and told me that Anne friend had suggested a restaurant that was somewhat near by called  “Aux Bon Crus” we decided we had some extra time so we walked down to the restaurant to check it out. We met the owners who were real nice and told me about the restaurant and we told him we would be back around 8:00. We walked back to the apartment to wait for everyone else to get back from Epernay. Once the group was together we all walked down the street to “Aux Bon Crus” for dinner. This was a small Restaurant but the food was fantastic! One of the owners sat us down and explained the whole menu down to the smallest detail. He was real nice. I had a started of Rabbit and my main was Duck Confit. It was the best Duck Confit that I ever had. Wow it was great! We ended the night with everyone going to their apartments and CJ, Anne, Shirley and I finishing the night with a real good bottle of champagne.

*** Epernay ***

Brandon and Tamie met Anne, Shirley and I at the Gare de L’est.  Shirley made some phone calls and our tour was updated to include Brandon.  Getting off the train we headed to the visitor center and found which Champagne Houses was doing tastings.  The streets were clean and wide.  Moet and Chandon seem to own much of the town.  We have a tour scheduled with them later so we went on to Collard-Picard.  We agreed to share our tastings – as it turns out a good plan!  A tasting was a complete glass of champagne.  So it was a delightful start to the day.  We shared six glasses of champagne among the 5 of us.  Yum… really yum!

We then went to Moet and Chandon for their tour.   Very stately and very established.  They provided some history of the family and the dignitaries and royalty that have come through their estate.   After a brief video – we began our tour of the cellars.  It literally goes for miles and miles.  When asked the number of bottles – they would not say – but did allude that it would provide a bottle a day for every person on the planet for a year – or some such claim.  From what we saw – I believe it (or it may have been more than that – and there would still be bottles left in the cellar)

We learned about Dom Perignon and how he discovered and refined the process of Champagne – thank you Dom!!

The tasting was very much an eye opener.  The imperial Champagnes were very approachable and ready to enjoy now and over the next few years.  The Vintages were much bolder and we all agreed would be very good with food pairings.  On their own however, they were not our favorites. 

The highlight of the trip was up after a quick lunch at a local brasserie.  So, while waiting for the tour guide – Nathalie -- Shirley decided to wander around a garden.  Anne, Tamie, Brandon and I wanted to head back to Collard-Picard for some wonderful champagne glasses.  As it turned out they were late opening after lunch so we ended up with an extra tasting. 

Nathalie showed up and the real adventure began. What a wonderful hostess – she took us to the vineyards and explained their process of working in the fields – 9 months of the year.  They harvest for two weeks and bottle for 3 days.  At Domi-Moreau they have 6 hectares of grapes in 35 locations. They sell the juice of the grapes from half their harvest and bottle the rest under their own label.  The two weeks of harvesting and bottling will produce 30,000 bottles.  Only available locally.

Nathalie delighted us with stories and humor and really walked us through the process.  It was a wonderful experience!

Tamie and I were quite taken with the tasting glasses at Collard-Picard and decided we wanted to go back for them. The shop closed at 6.  Time was of the essence.  We raced into the shop to see that they were very happy to see us and in no rush to close.  Nathalie had told us that the shape of the glass was the newest style that was meant to enhance the experience of smell and taste of the Champaign.  So we were now on the cutting edge for stemware!

Happy with our new purchases – we headed for the train… of course… I still have to figure out how I will get 6 new stemware glasses home… but will see how that adventure unfolds later…

Note: I’m sorry it’s taking me so long to get the blog entries out. We have had a lot of very full days going to bed at Midnight or 1am. I haven’t had much time for blogging but I’m having a lot of fun. Stay tuned for some pictures.

Second Day in Paris (Notre Dame Cathedral)

Tamie, Darryl and the kids showed up at our doorsteps bright and early this morning. We decided to head off the Paris Catacombs today. But before that we headed down to the open-air market and picked up some food for dinner tonight. It was a fantastic local market with fish, meats, veggies and a large assortment of other things. Everyone enjoyed it.

Open Market near our apartment (Fish Vegetables, Meats…)

We went back to the apartment and dropped off the food then headed out to the Catacombs. We arrived at around 11:30 or so and found the line all the way around the block. The guy in front of us estimated it would take us at least 2 hours to get in. So we decided to do other things today.

Heading back to the center of town we stopped at the Notre Dame Crypt. This is an archeological site under the front part of Notre Dame Plaza.  This ruin was a part of the old Roman city of Paris (Back then it was called Lutetia), very interesting.

     Ancient Roman Ruins of Lutetia (Paris) under Notre Dame Cathedral

After that we headed up to the Cathedral where they were having mass so we got to watch them give communion. Wandered all around the cathedral taking in the wonderful building. This is one of the most spectacular cathedrals I have seen. It’s not as ornamental as some but it’s so massive, wonderful architecture and the stain glass windows are incredible.

After Notre Dame we ventured off to find some lunch. It was 2:00 pm and Kensie and Brandon were crashing form jetlag. We had a wonderful meal where Brandon tried some Escargot’s (snails), which I’m not sure if it was the though of eating a snail or just the taste but it seemed like he liked it.  After lunch we wondered back to our respective apartments.

Escargots (Snails) for the table

For dinner we all met up at Darryl and Tamie’s apartment, which was situated right next to a cathedral. You can see the whole side of the cathedral right outside of their balcony. Fantastic view. We had Roast Chicken, Shrimp, Bread and Pate. One big surprise, Kensie tried the pate and really liked it! After dinner we headed back to our apartment for the night.