Just got back from a wonderful week in Paris. Walked a lot, ate fantastically, shopped, cultured ourselves, and to top it off, had pretty decent weather (i.e. it didn't rain!).
Let's do the highlights: a very expensive lunch at Pierre Gagnaire, a wonderful ballet at the Opera Garnier, some successful shopping expeditions.
We arrived on the only day we had any rain to speak of. Met at the airport by Shuttle Inter, who got us into Paris and back to the airport efficiently. We used parisaddress.com to book an apartment on Ile St. Louis, and after coordinating with them on the cell driving into Paris, were met outside the apartment a couple of minutes after we arrived. Gabriel settled us in, and after we had done some unpacking, we went to the flower market on Ile de la Cite. Then it was about lunchtime. Went to Itineraires on Rue Pontoise just across the river in the 5th. Very good start to the trip; the meal was excellent, and capped off with a fantastic souffle for dessert (Cafe Jacqueline in San Francisco is supposed to have good souffles too; we were unimpressed when we went there, and there's no comparison to Itineraire's much superior version).
After lunch, we decide to have a nap. That turned out to be 5-6 hrs of sleep! But it's ok, because evenings in Paris are long, and everyone eats late. So we went for a walk in the 4th, following a route in our Lonely Planet guidebook, going through the St. Paul area, up to the Picasso museum, down back through Place des Voges. We decided on dinner at Le Bar de Huitres in the 5th, so made our way there. Sat next to a couple of American businessmen and talked a bit to them about Luxembourg, where they were planning to open a business, and where I'd lived for a while. Meal there was ho-hum, though the bulots were good. Back home by midnight, and slept well.
San Francisco, where I live at the moment, likes to think of itself as a great city, and while I like living in SF, it's only 1/4 the population of greater Paris in a similar area, so by definition, it's less lively. What I really like about Paris, which is shared by NYC, is the pulse of activity everywhere, all the time. One night on this trip, I woke at 4am and before falling back asleep, watched out the window for a while. Traffic, while light, was continuous. Pedestrians walked by regularly. SF closes up shop in most places quite early. Granted, not all of Paris is always lively (our apt in paris overlooked the 4th from Quai de Bourbon), but in SF, nowhere is lively at 4am.
Anyway, back to the trip. The next day was the 1st of our 3 big lunches. We had booked: Guy Savoy, Jules Vernes, Pierre Gagnaire. First up, Guy Savoy. I had read in other blogs that it is the service that makes Guy Savoy, and I have to echo that. It's not that at other restaurants, you don't feel welcome, but at Guy Savoy, it's at another level. We were the 2nd table seated in our space of potentially 6 tables (only 4 were seated at this lunch). Coincidently, we were the 2nd table of diners from the SF bay area (the other couple was from San Leandro). This was ascertained after the maitre d' asked us where were from. The main service personnel, the maitre d', and his 2nd, were really fun. Their delivery is very droll, full of conspiratorial whispers, and light-hearted banter. You can hear that they do it with every table in much the same way, but it doesn't lose it's impact: you feel the attention showered on you and it's quite special.
The food was very good too, of course. We actually got a lot more than we anticipated -- we had booked through the internet, and they have a special 100E menu with 1/2 portion of entree, a main dish, and a 1/2 portion of dessert for such bookings. But they did much more than that. We ended up very full!
More next post...
Let's do the highlights: a very expensive lunch at Pierre Gagnaire, a wonderful ballet at the Opera Garnier, some successful shopping expeditions.
We arrived on the only day we had any rain to speak of. Met at the airport by Shuttle Inter, who got us into Paris and back to the airport efficiently. We used parisaddress.com to book an apartment on Ile St. Louis, and after coordinating with them on the cell driving into Paris, were met outside the apartment a couple of minutes after we arrived. Gabriel settled us in, and after we had done some unpacking, we went to the flower market on Ile de la Cite. Then it was about lunchtime. Went to Itineraires on Rue Pontoise just across the river in the 5th. Very good start to the trip; the meal was excellent, and capped off with a fantastic souffle for dessert (Cafe Jacqueline in San Francisco is supposed to have good souffles too; we were unimpressed when we went there, and there's no comparison to Itineraire's much superior version).
After lunch, we decide to have a nap. That turned out to be 5-6 hrs of sleep! But it's ok, because evenings in Paris are long, and everyone eats late. So we went for a walk in the 4th, following a route in our Lonely Planet guidebook, going through the St. Paul area, up to the Picasso museum, down back through Place des Voges. We decided on dinner at Le Bar de Huitres in the 5th, so made our way there. Sat next to a couple of American businessmen and talked a bit to them about Luxembourg, where they were planning to open a business, and where I'd lived for a while. Meal there was ho-hum, though the bulots were good. Back home by midnight, and slept well.
San Francisco, where I live at the moment, likes to think of itself as a great city, and while I like living in SF, it's only 1/4 the population of greater Paris in a similar area, so by definition, it's less lively. What I really like about Paris, which is shared by NYC, is the pulse of activity everywhere, all the time. One night on this trip, I woke at 4am and before falling back asleep, watched out the window for a while. Traffic, while light, was continuous. Pedestrians walked by regularly. SF closes up shop in most places quite early. Granted, not all of Paris is always lively (our apt in paris overlooked the 4th from Quai de Bourbon), but in SF, nowhere is lively at 4am.
Anyway, back to the trip. The next day was the 1st of our 3 big lunches. We had booked: Guy Savoy, Jules Vernes, Pierre Gagnaire. First up, Guy Savoy. I had read in other blogs that it is the service that makes Guy Savoy, and I have to echo that. It's not that at other restaurants, you don't feel welcome, but at Guy Savoy, it's at another level. We were the 2nd table seated in our space of potentially 6 tables (only 4 were seated at this lunch). Coincidently, we were the 2nd table of diners from the SF bay area (the other couple was from San Leandro). This was ascertained after the maitre d' asked us where were from. The main service personnel, the maitre d', and his 2nd, were really fun. Their delivery is very droll, full of conspiratorial whispers, and light-hearted banter. You can hear that they do it with every table in much the same way, but it doesn't lose it's impact: you feel the attention showered on you and it's quite special.
The food was very good too, of course. We actually got a lot more than we anticipated -- we had booked through the internet, and they have a special 100E menu with 1/2 portion of entree, a main dish, and a 1/2 portion of dessert for such bookings. But they did much more than that. We ended up very full!
More next post...
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