Eating well

 

Paris Arrondissments

Above is a map of Paris showing the arrondissements (districts). We have recently formed the goal to visit all of them before the end of our trip.

Already Visited: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 12, 14, 18, 19

To Visit: 2, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 20

So we are half-way there, and less than half way through our trip, so I think it will happen!

 

We were a bit decadent this week. We had the new babysitter on Tuesday and she came again on Friday. On Tuesday, Ken and I went out to lunch at a cute restaurant near our apartment whose name translates to “the cafe that speaks,” a rather unusual restaurant name. The food was amazing and we were able to have a French-style 2 hour lunch. After that we needed to walk off lunch a bit, so rather than taking the metro, walked for about an hour through the 18th and 19th Arrondissements to Parc des Buttes Chaumont. The walk was not very scenic, but it certainly made us appreciate what a scenic area we live in and helped us get a lay of the land, which can be a bit hard to do when always jumping on the Metro. On the walk we got to see the locks that they use to bring boats from the Seine into one of the canals. The Parc des Buttes Chaumont was adorable. It is all fake – a fake grotto, fake waterfalls and streams, fake cliffs, but it was all done in the 1860s, so even if it seems a bit Disney-esque, is is still quite old, settled feeling, and much older than Disney. We were hoping to stop for hot chocolate, but we lingered at the park too long and had to get back. Sonja loves the babysitter who she calls “Ana.”

Wednesday, Sonja and I went over to the 6th to check out a consignment store to get some nouveaux* clothes for her. I was feeling a bit bad that the kid didn’t seem to have much winter clothing and was wondering why I hadn’t packed her more. Then I remembered that it was because she didn’t have any. The last time it was winter she was a lot smaller. 

Thursday was my last class at the language school. While I think it was really valuable in the beginning, the lessons were becoming repetitive, and listening to the other students’ terrible pronouniation wasn’t helping! Next week I’ll start lessons with a private tutor, which will actually be cheaper and (I hope) more effective.

On Thursday we also got to try the crêpe place a few doors down from us, with the odd name “Le Crêp’uscule.” It was very simple place, but good, and Sonja more or less sat through it all, which was awesome. 

We hadn’t originally planned for another French style (2 hour) lunch for our second day out, but our babysitter’s fiancé works at a well-known restaurant, “J’aime Jean”, and her enthusiasm for the food led us to go out for lunch again on Friday. Wow. What an amazing meal. Both Ken’s and my appetizers involved wild rabbit. Game is a specialty on their menu in the fall and winter. My main course had all kinds of wild mushrooms and chicken and Ken had duck and lamb. The Pièce de résistance however was dessert. I had the rice pudding recommend by Ana and Ken had the “chocolate tasting.” Each dessert was enough for about 6 or 8 people. We did the best we could! As delicious as the first two courses were, we’d really like to go back and just have dessert so we can give it the attention it deserves. After lunch we walked through Les Invalides to get over to the Metro and attempted to go to the Catacombs, only to find that the line was very long and there was no way we’d get in before closing. (I guess we weren’t the only ones with the idea to visit on Halloween. Additionally it’s school vacation here this week.)  So, despite the crummy weather, we took a walk around the Montparnasse Cemetery. When we got too cold, we took the metro toward home stopping a few stops before ours to get hot chocolate. And we would have had some too if the place (which still proclaimed on its sign to be a “salon du thè”) hadn’t recently turned into a gift shop. Oh well, I guess cute little bags are more lucrative than hot chocolate and tea. 

Today we took Sonja to the Natural History Museum. It turned out to be very kid friendly, and she had a great time. We were very surprised that her favorite part seemed to be the hall of extinct animals, which was very dark, moodily lit, and full of snarling taxidermied animals. Go figure. She also seemed to like the giant minerals. And pointing out any animals she could identify: “FISH!”, “BIRD!” , “BUG!”, etc.

November will go by in a flash with all we have planned: Linda visiting, going to Germany, Glen visiting, Peter (our cousin from Belgium) visiting, and going to Madrid. It’s going to be busy.

~Rachel

* Footnote by Ken:  French has two different words corresponding to the English word “new”. Nouveaux/nouvelle (that’s masculine/feminine) refers to something new to you.  Neuf/neuve refers to something that has just been created and is new to the world.  For example, in English if you say you bought a new car, it’s not clear whether or not it’s a used car.  In French, a “voiture neuve” is clearly a new (and not used) car, while a “nouvelle voiture” is a car that you just bought (used or new).  Confused yet? There’s also corresponding versions of “old” for each meaning.