{"id":188,"date":"2010-09-30T10:05:21","date_gmt":"2010-09-30T14:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.frenchbychoice.com\/?p=188"},"modified":"2010-10-01T02:06:34","modified_gmt":"2010-10-01T06:06:34","slug":"rainy-morning-becomes-beautiful-afternoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/?p=188","title":{"rendered":"Rainy morning becomes BEAUTIFUL afternoon"},"content":{"rendered":"

We woke late this morning to the rhythm of rain splashing on the balcony and against the windows. After our late night with Alex last night, sleeping in was a well-deserved indulgence. \u00c2\u00a0 By late morning, the skies were clearing and we decided to catch the Thursday street market near Place Bastille. \u00c2\u00a0It is a very large market, extending 4 or 5 blocks and carrying everything but the kitchen sink – from threads, kitchen supplies, fruits, vegetables, bread and bakery products, clothing, eggs, olives and spices, butchers, fish mongers, cheese makers, quilts, shoes, and on and on. \u00c2\u00a0Naturally, there were multiple vendors of each option; each displaying his wares in a tent – some small and some large. \u00c2\u00a0Since we’re moving to a smaller apartment Saturday, we just “window-shopped” checking out everything from frog’s legs to game and gorgeous fruit and vegetables.<\/p>\n

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Antique Musical Instruments in a shop window in the Marais<\/p><\/div>\n

The sun was holding so we strolled over to the Marais district to check out galleries and shops, restaurants, and people-watch. \u00c2\u00a0We walked up and down a few of Marais’ streets, peering in the windows at some very expensive and questionable art, looking at some of the “hip” or counter culture’s latest fashion trends, and checking out some very fashionable attire. \u00c2\u00a0We also decided one of these times, we’ll rent an apartment in the Marais on a future trip to Paris.<\/p>\n

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Queueing up for the King of Falafel in the Marais - but we sat at a table!<\/p><\/div>\n

Since we’re going out to dinner for Mike’s birthday tonight at Le Relais d’Entrecote, we knew we wanted to eat fairly light. \u00c2\u00a0We searched out the “King of Falafal” on rue Rosiers, picked an outside table for two, and ordered lunch. \u00c2\u00a0A cold plate of vegetarian delicacies like red cabbage, green cabbage, humus, tomatoes, cucumbers, roasted eggplant, fried onions, roasted red peppers, with warm pita bread hit the spot with a glass of rose.<\/p>\n

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A future lunch place - the Jewish deli on rue Rosiers in the Marais! It happens to be as old as me!<\/p><\/div>\n

Just down the block on the opposite side, we found a traditional Jewish deli\/bakery with bagels, poppyseed cake, knishes, pierogis, cheesecakes, gefilte fish, chicken livers – a whole host of Jewish items. \u00c2\u00a0Since we had just eaten, we marked this place in our map as a place to try for lunch one day. \u00c2\u00a0The sign on the door indicates it’s open every day but Tuesday and opens one hour later at 11 on Monday!<\/p>\n

We continued walking, sun still shining, and decided to slip into Notre Dame to check out the stained glass windows with the sun streaming through. \u00c2\u00a0Awesome sight! \u00c2\u00a0Outside, two workers were on a lift using soft brushes to clean the soot and dirt off the sculptures adorning the entrance to the cathedral. \u00c2\u00a0About time!<\/p>\n

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My favorite window at Notre Dame - with the sun shining through<\/p><\/div>\n

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Cleaning the statues with a soft bristle brush is tedious hand work<\/p><\/div>\n

We headed back to the apartment, to sit on our balcony in the sun with le Tour St-Jacques on the skyline and watch Paris go by. The tower is all that remains of church that dates back to the 1523 AD that was destroyed during the revolution; this particular church was a rendezvous point for pilgrims setting out on long journeys. it was used by 17th century scientist, Blaise Pascal, to complete barometric pressure experiments because of its height. The tower’s ground floor contains a memorial statue to him.<\/p>\n

At seven, we headed over to St Germain des Pres, rue St-Benoit for a entrecote and frites dinner accompanied by house red in Relais d’Entrecote. \u00c2\u00a0First course, of course, was a green salad with a vinaigrette dressing. \u00c2\u00a0The ingredients of the house special steak sauce are a house-kept secret, received by the restaurant as a green powder from the family, and mixed on site with butter and lemon. The frites were fabulous – among the best we’ve had in France. \u00c2\u00a0Dessert was either profiteroles with chocolate sauce or citron semi-freddo. \u00c2\u00a0We hopped the much less crowded metro and headed back to the apartment to wish Lou and Sandy adieu and enjoy our last evening in this apartment researching Jean Cocteau and Jean Marais, artists featured in the paintings, prints, ceramics, and glass art in our current apartment over a glass of red wine! Happy Birthday, Mike!<\/p>\n

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Enjoying our balcony!<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We woke late this morning to the rhythm of rain splashing on the balcony and against the windows. After our late night with Alex last night, sleeping in was a well-deserved indulgence. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paris-1st"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":189,"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions\/189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}