Au revoir (almost), Paris!

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Bonjour!

Well, it’s not exactly au revoir until tomorrow, but today is our getting ready day! But first – dinner last night! We decided to try right downstairs at La Vauban. Got there about 7 and got a very nice table with a view of Les Invalides Dome. We both decided to do their set menu, which included a starter drink, starter, main course, dessert, coffee AND a bottle of wine! So…the starter drink was a sparkling kir royale; excellent and nice to look at all in one! Robert ordered their cold avocado soup with shrimp, which was amazing (and we’re going to make it at home after a little recipe searching…) and I had their millefeuilles aubergene – several layers of roasted eggplant on a thin crouton topped with a small round of goat cheese – served hot; wonderful! We both ordered the same main course – planked steak (cooked rare) with frites (French fries) – amazing…And for dessert, Robert was incredibly boring and ordered fresh fruit salad (!!) and I had an entremets of pistachio and raspberries – a pistachio cream layered between small rounds of raspberries -- wow! We washed all this down with a lovely Bordeaux, and were very, very happy as we waddled out of the restaurant and then up the STAIRS to the flat!













It was a difficult night for both of us – this neighborhood is very, very quiet (unlike the 5th, which is always crazy noisy!) but last night – being a Saturday night, there were definitely some passersby who had been WAY over-served and wanted to tell the neighborhood all about it! I was interested to see how the security guards protecting the antiques downstairs would react, but nothing untoward happened and they eventually either went away or quieted down. Robert was also having a difficult time with mosquitoes – although neither of us saw or heard much of them, he has always been a favorite of theirs, and was doing some itching…so…up around 7-ish, feeling like we could use a few more hours.

Down about 8:30 a.m. to head towards the Louvre AND find breakfast. We took the 82 bus over to Luxembourg (we have found that the closest stop to the flat is the 82, which stops across the street, so have decided to take that back and forth to the Luxembourg and then head down St. Michel on the 21, 27 or 85 to get where we want to go…easier than schlepping blocks and blocks from the 28 stop…) Entered the Louvre via Passage Richelieu (“members” and group entrance) and we were pretty early, so the crowds hadn’t started building yet. We got sandwiches and fresh orange juice at the café under the pyramid, then headed toward Sully and the Egyptian wing.



Can only say WOW, they’ve finally finished their renovating, and they have done a great job with their collection! (They have been working on it for the past several years…) Everything is now uncovered, and we noticed many new additions to the collection; some very beautiful and interesting things. In places things are a bit crowded together, but we’d rather be able to see more things than have a bit more space. As always, the Egyptian collection draws a pretty big crowd, but really not too much of a problem, except that when we hit the Denon wing, it felt like the a/c had been turned off, and the HEAT turned on! It got REALLY warm in there!





















I have included some photos of interesting things in the collection, and these are followed by “ceilings.” (Figured that if I could do “doors” and “houses”, ceilings would be the next best thing!) For anyone unfamiliar with the Louvre, it started life in the 1100’s as a walled fortress to protect the small but growing city of Paris. In the 1300’s the fortress and protective walls were transformed into a splendid palace, which was built and rebuilt and redesigned into the 1690’s until Louis XIV moved his residence to Versailles, and left le Louvre deserted. The Royal Academy of painting and sculpture then took up residence, and the Louvre became a museum. (This is obviously the Reader’s Digest version of a huge structure over hundreds of years; suffice to say that this one-time royal residence still shows many of the traces of its former life as a palace, and I’m including photos of just a small fraction of the ceilings that still shine over the collections below!)

























By this time (lunch time and the museum is getting VERY crowded!) we had a sit down and I had what may be my last Magnum Classic of the trip! We really were feeling the effects of a broken night of sleep, so decided to head back to the flat for naps and possibly some Roland Garros watching!




Now up and about. R has taken on the incredible job of repacking everything for us, and has somehow managed to cram everything (including the two heavy books we bought this morning at the Louvre shop) into the cases and close them. (Hopefully we’ll be all right weight-wise, as we off-loaded so much book weight when we got to Phil and Dan’s – which may even now may be heading through the post towards Tucson!) We’re actually thinking pizza for dinner…

So…everything packed, and we’re ready to roll tomorrow. We can stay here until 11:30 a.m., at which point we will make our way via RER B from Luxembourg to Charles de Gaulle (actually, 82 bus to Luxembourg, and then down into the bowels of the RER). As our plane doesn’t leave until 6:15 p.m. we’ll definitely be in plenty of time – but rather too soon than too late, I always say! With the hour time difference, we’re supposed to be at Luton about 6:30 p.m., at which point we will hop into yet another rental car and endeavor (Please…Emmy I!) to make it to Heathrow and drop luggage, and then head back out to Ascot where we are hopeful of meeting up for a late meal with Norm and Marg from Australia! Out early on Tuesday morning, London to LAX, then LAX/Tucson on Southwest, with our wonderful neighbors, Bob and Stew meeting us at the airport! Whew!!

Lots of love and more later!
m
xxx