Paris!

This past weekend I went up to Paris for a night to meet up with some people who have known me as long as anyone could. I thought that they were going to be late arriving to their hotel, so I took a nice, long, 45-min stroll from Gare de Lyon to their hotel by the Louvre, right by Notre-Dame. When I arrived I was surprised to see Blogger extraordinaire already there! She decided to peace out on her late-arriving parents so we could begin the fun. She had in her hot little hands a blog written by a Parisian chronicling what she would do with 12 hours in her own city. Sounds like a great way to start a trip to me! BE (blogger extraordinaire) and I headed to a great food street with markets and fun restaurants and found the first destination: Rose Bakery. A nice little hole in the wall that doesn't strike one as being touristy, but simply deliciously good. I had a foccacia with fig, feta and thyme on it. BE had eggs and smoked salmon. We wondered across the street for ice-cream at the recommended Caramella.
After meeting up with the parents, we headed off to the Eiffel Tower and decided to take the elevator to the top. The first time I visited the Tower I climbed to the second level. The second time there was no ascending involved and the third time, well it was a perfect day to conquer the summit. by elevator. in approximately 2 minutes. But whatever. It was cool to see Paris from so high up and now it is checked off the LBL (life bucket list). Notice the shadow of the tower in the picture.

We had dinner reservations for 9:30, but were a bit hungry around 7 when we were finished at the tower, so we wandered over to Rue Cler and found a place to partake in 2 bottles of wine and a mixed plate of cheese and charcuterie. We got a bit of a late start heading to dinner, but we had a reservation, we thought we were good. Lesson #1 in France, nothing goes as planned. After walking to the circle on the map, it was discovered that there were actually TWO circles on the map and we walked to the wrong one. Oops. We hopped in a cab and showed the cabbie the map. He had no clue where the street was. I told him to get us close and we'd find it. When we were closed I decided to call the restaurant to get more specific directions and was promptly told we no longer had a table. It was 9:50. Jerks.

We wandered for a bit and then decided to head over toward St. Germain des Pres. There are a lot of great little places over there. We walked around the block and saw one seafood place that looked promising, but overhearing some people on the street talking after they had left the restaurant, I realized they were American. I asked them how the dinner was and got "Overpriced" and "I wouldn't go there again" as responses. Enough info for me to keep on a walkin. After some hemming and hawing about the next restaurant we decided to go into a place that was packed with people. Usually a good choice. We got a table right away and the waitress came over and asked us how we liked our meat cooked. We all looked at each other funny and then I asked her to explain. They had no menu, the meal of the night was steak-frites. Take it or leave it. It being 10:30pm and us being hungry, we stayed and boy am I glad we did. I would have never ordered steak-frites on my own and it was delicious. A great, fresh salad. Slices of the leanest and tenderest steak I have ever had covered with a peppers sauce and yummy fries.
Of course a bottle of wine was casually enjoyed and dessert consisted of a meringue tower of goodness, profiteroles and a pastry cup with custard and fruit. Delightful.

Sunday we visited the Orangerie and Rodin before heading to the Rick Steve's promoted and BE's French-friend recommended La Fontaine de Mars. We started off with some snails drowned in butter and garlic and then moved on to two bottles of table white wine. I had earlier in the day told my visitors that they should try a fish called John Dory or St. Pierre while in France, that I loved it. The special of the day? John Dory. Nice. I had chicken though. Go figure. I left the fam at the Orsay and headed back to the hotel to grab my stuff before making the return 45-minute walk to the train station. What a great 2-days, 1-night in Paris.