Paris, 6 (Thursday)
We tried, we really tried, to take it a bit easier today. We sort of succeeded. This morning, we went back to Notre Dame to see if we could have some more pigeon encounters, but the pigeons weren't there; a drone was flying around, scattering them (possibly intentionally, by the police?). We also tried to find the boquinista with the cat figurines, but none of them were open. So it was a slow start to the day.
We took a train to the Luxembourg Gardens, and had a snack of crepes while sitting in the sun. We tried to find the playground in the park, which I'd read was wonderful, but it had been completely removed; a sign said there would be a new playground in the spring. But it was lovely to walk around the park on a beautiful fall day. No more rain, just a bit chillier than other days this week.
We took a long walk around St. Germain, past Gertrude Stein's house, past lots of shops selling all kinds of foods, both enticing (pastries, breads) and alarming (a lot of unidentifiable terrines and head cheese). We went into Le Bon Marche, which had Christmas decorations already up, and browsed around a bit. On the floor with children's clothes and toys, we reluctantly passed up an adorable cat dress for Greta (180 euros), and instead let the girls each pick out a Calico Critter from the "Town Girls" series. The price of these individual critters was certainly...surprising, but the girls played with them for the rest of the day, and so the cost where kid-tourist happiness is concerned was cheap.
Lunch was a bit tricky--lots of cafes but they were all packed to the gills, and since it was an ordinary school day for French children, it wasn't like the cafes were full of kids or families. We were conspicuous. But we did finally find a nice cafe with a table inside and had a lovely lunch. Greta had a cheese crepe, and Lucia had a cheese omelette. Andrew had a chicken Caesar salad, and I had a warm goat cheese salad, and we shared a carafe of wine.
Of course we couldn't let a day pass without a museum; today's choice was the Rodin Museum. As we walked there, we passed a Nespresso store, where we found some special Paris editions of the pods, in versions called Macaron and Praline; we bought a few sleeves. By the time we got to the museum, L&G were, shall we say, better suited to the sculpture garden, so we stayed outside and meandered all around the outdoor sculptures, ending up at The Thinker. It's a lovely garden.
Then we took the train home for a brief rest. We had an ambitious dinner goal: Le Relais de L'Entrecote. Andrew and I have eaten at sister restaurants in London, Barcelona, and New York, and we were determined to eat at Paris's as well. There are no menus; only one dish is offered: steak frites. You sit down, the waitress asks how you want your meat cooked and what you want to drink, and then she brings a salad and wine and then the food. The really fun thing is that only half the food is served at a time, and the other half is kept on a warming plate on a table covered with wire racks and sternos. This is not a kid- or English-friendly place. And yet we went, and waited in a long line to get in at opening time, and ordered the kids a steak to share ("Les filles vont partager une entrecôte"--I looked it up beforehand). L&G valiantly ate a good bit of their steak and fries, and then we let them share a giant plate of profiteroles. They were pretty excited to be the only kids in the restaurant. They were admirably behaved. Andrew and I managed to finish our bottle of wine. We were pleased.
As usual, I'm passing out from eating too much and walking a million miles and am barely able to finish writing this post. Tomorrow's our last day. We're already talking about where we'll go on our next European adventure.
We took a train to the Luxembourg Gardens, and had a snack of crepes while sitting in the sun. We tried to find the playground in the park, which I'd read was wonderful, but it had been completely removed; a sign said there would be a new playground in the spring. But it was lovely to walk around the park on a beautiful fall day. No more rain, just a bit chillier than other days this week.
We took a long walk around St. Germain, past Gertrude Stein's house, past lots of shops selling all kinds of foods, both enticing (pastries, breads) and alarming (a lot of unidentifiable terrines and head cheese). We went into Le Bon Marche, which had Christmas decorations already up, and browsed around a bit. On the floor with children's clothes and toys, we reluctantly passed up an adorable cat dress for Greta (180 euros), and instead let the girls each pick out a Calico Critter from the "Town Girls" series. The price of these individual critters was certainly...surprising, but the girls played with them for the rest of the day, and so the cost where kid-tourist happiness is concerned was cheap.
Lunch was a bit tricky--lots of cafes but they were all packed to the gills, and since it was an ordinary school day for French children, it wasn't like the cafes were full of kids or families. We were conspicuous. But we did finally find a nice cafe with a table inside and had a lovely lunch. Greta had a cheese crepe, and Lucia had a cheese omelette. Andrew had a chicken Caesar salad, and I had a warm goat cheese salad, and we shared a carafe of wine.
Of course we couldn't let a day pass without a museum; today's choice was the Rodin Museum. As we walked there, we passed a Nespresso store, where we found some special Paris editions of the pods, in versions called Macaron and Praline; we bought a few sleeves. By the time we got to the museum, L&G were, shall we say, better suited to the sculpture garden, so we stayed outside and meandered all around the outdoor sculptures, ending up at The Thinker. It's a lovely garden.
Then we took the train home for a brief rest. We had an ambitious dinner goal: Le Relais de L'Entrecote. Andrew and I have eaten at sister restaurants in London, Barcelona, and New York, and we were determined to eat at Paris's as well. There are no menus; only one dish is offered: steak frites. You sit down, the waitress asks how you want your meat cooked and what you want to drink, and then she brings a salad and wine and then the food. The really fun thing is that only half the food is served at a time, and the other half is kept on a warming plate on a table covered with wire racks and sternos. This is not a kid- or English-friendly place. And yet we went, and waited in a long line to get in at opening time, and ordered the kids a steak to share ("Les filles vont partager une entrecôte"--I looked it up beforehand). L&G valiantly ate a good bit of their steak and fries, and then we let them share a giant plate of profiteroles. They were pretty excited to be the only kids in the restaurant. They were admirably behaved. Andrew and I managed to finish our bottle of wine. We were pleased.
As usual, I'm passing out from eating too much and walking a million miles and am barely able to finish writing this post. Tomorrow's our last day. We're already talking about where we'll go on our next European adventure.
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