Friday night Steve and I had dinner at a delicious Vietnamese restaurant. We intended to try a fondue restaurant but when we arrived we noticed the restaurant serves all its drinks in baby bottles and that we would be far older than the college aged crowd so we were lucky to find the Vietnamese restaurant across the street.
Saturday we took an hour train ride south to Fontainebleau. The famous business school, Insead, is located in Fontainebleau, as is a beautiful chateau and huge forest. We toured the chateau and walked for a bit through the forest, then ate a few snacks (crepes with Nutella, what else?) and walked around the town. We went to the cheese store and brought home the most delicious goat cheese called Pave du Gard. I have never heard of it before, but it was outstanding and I intend to eat a lot more of it. We had it with our dinner Sunday night, on a baguette. Buying a daily (at least) baguette is a national pastime, as is taste testing the baguette on the walk home. Everyday I see Parisians carrying heel-less baguettes with a content smile on their faces.
Sunday morning I woke early and made my way to the Musée de O’rsay. I was there ten years ago and have been anxious to return. The impressionist paintings in the collection at the O’rsay are so outstanding – Monet (my favorite), Manet, Degas, Van Gogh. It was a real treat to spend some time there and I can’t wait to return.
I made my way from the museum to a street market in the 2nd arrondisement. I only had about fifteen minutes so I made a quick loop, but it was a good market with a lot of hustle and bustle. Most of the street markets have a fish shop, a few butchers, a few cheese stores, a few vegetable stores, and a few restaurants. I always enjoy walking through to see what’s available that day and see what the real French are eating.
From the street market I made my way over to the Grand Palais where I met Steve and two new friends. Peter and Aubrey moved from Boston to Paris in September and we have a mutual friend who introduced us over email. We had a good lunch and walk – it was a gorgeous sunny day and everyone was out enjoying the sun. Not my typical Super Bowl Sunday, that’s for sure. I hope everyone ate a lot of chips and dip for me!
Steve and I are dealing with what feels like endless apartment issues. Our apartment in Paris has a broken stove. As I make my way though my soup cookbook we await anxiously for the repairman. For anyone who has read A Year in Provence, you know how difficult it be to find a repair person in France (and if you haven’t read it you should, it is a very entertaining book). We have an American landlord who is also from Boston, but has lived here for 30 years. She is currently spending most of her time in Morocco so she’s hired a local management company that is somewhat responsive, but we are certainly not holding our breath for home-baked goods. Steve’s condo in Cambridge is facing a bed bug infestation which is more expensive and time consuming to deal with than I ever imagined. And, last week there was a natural gas leak on the block of my Cambridge condo and the gas people had to break into my unit and rip up one of my walls to access the gas pipes. The management company lost my tenant’s contact information so he had quite a surprise when he got home from work. Knock wood that we have reached the end of our apartment woes.
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