Days 12 and 13 (2nd weekend in Paris)

We slept in, did little, but ate very well. On Saturday we went over to what’s getting to be one of my most favorite areas of town, Ile-St-Louis, to visit a restaurant we saw last week that had a great weekend lunch special. Café Med, a cozy tea room/restaurant/creperie with quicker service than most and a three course menu for 9.90 euro! I had the soup and a creamy risotto with mushrooms (so good!) and Kyle tried the quiche to start and penne with gorgonzola. We each had a buerre sucre crepe for dessert. Since the weather was a little chilly, it was nice to sit and have a delicious hot meal. Since we were full, we saved Berthillon round three for another day. Enjoying the cool air, we took the long way around and walked through the city checking out shops along the way. Later in the day we walked over to the Place Vendome, which boasts several incredibly pricy shops full of watches and jewelry, and a huge bronze pillar monument in the center, commissioned by Napoleon and made from captured enemy cannons. On the way home, we made our every few days stop at the Monop’ for groceries and, still pretty full from our lunch several hours earlier, decided on a small dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches. But, of course, the cheese was great. Mmm, try a Gouda grilled cheese whenever you get a chance. It’s really good(a). Hahaha.

As for Sunday, our fast paced lifestyle of the past two weeks finally hit. In addition, it was cold and rainy, most things besides restaurants are closed on Sundays, and that day (June 7^th) just happened to be France’s Mother’s Day (Fete des Meres) and a European election day. So, the prospect of trying to go anywhere or do anything was none too appealing. Eventually though, we made it out for a pita from Man-Ouche, and went over to Forum des Halles, the nearest mall, to catch a movie. Since the only thing open at this underground mall were the movies, McDo, Starbucks, and Waffle Factory, it took a couple tries to find an open entrance. We saw Angels & Demons, and we both enjoyed it! I thought it was better than Da Vinci Code. Kyle has read the books, but I still need to get around to that. The movie started at 4pm, but there were 25 minutes of stuff before the movie. Only a few trailers though, mostly it was just a ton of commercials. And pretty much no one had popcorn or candy. There was a huge concessions stand though; maybe it was just the wrong time of day. Definitely a lot quieter than an American movie theatre, without all the crunching and wrappers rustling. Just some interesting cultural differences. Oh, and the movie was in the original English, with French subtitles… which didn’t do us much good when there were a few lines in Italian, but that’s okay. After that we just kind of hung out some more, but once it got later we felt like we wanted to get out, so we went over to one of the cafes on our block, Cavalier Bleu, and had a drink and a late dinner. It was good, and some of the biggest portions I’ve seen yet in this country. It was nice to have a few low key days, since we do still have some grand plans ahead. Belgium this week! Stay tuned.

-Steph