Paris from above!

Bonsoir!

It has been another busy day here in lovely Paris.  This morning brought a beautiful day!  I opened the curtains this morning to enjoy the sunshine and low and behold, building scrapers staring me in the face!!!!Goodness!!  Very nice looking but I'm sure I was a sight! 

Anyway, we have found out that to wash clothes in the french washer/dryer combo that is in our apartment is a day long ordeal.  We can place approximately 3 items of clothing in the machine and turn it on.  Two hours later we need to set the dryer to dry for another hour then voila! almost dry clothes :-))))).

So we start the machine then start our day.  Our days have been starting the truly American way.....Starbucks!  The first couple days I visited the cafe across the road and had Cafe Creme but those cost me 5 euro every time.  Starbucks much cheaper and I can have my froo froo drink.  Andy will even have a Chai Tea Latte.  So our days have begun at a different Starbucks each day and we review the map to see what we need to do to get where we need to go.  Today was the Archeological crypts of Notre Dame.  So we started quite low.  It was a wonderfully educational experience.  An entire area was uncovered and preserved below the Notre Dame. 

We then walked around the area.  Yesterday we stumbled over a side alley (there are many) and some very french, authentic local cafes that we wanted to try and find again.  Stubborness takes over again!  After we went the way Andy said we turned around and went the way I remembered and voila!  Again we find what we are looking for......so we go back the apartment to set the dryer again, then go back to the alley ( oh joy, gotta find yet again!) and have dejeuner at the Le Bistro 30.  I want to try the french frog legs while here and one of the cafes had on menu but the wait was silly so we ended up at Le Bistro 30.  I ordered my beloved goat cheese salad, duck breast in orange sauce with frites and profileroles with choc sauce for dessert.  The goat cheese salad was old tasting but the duck was good, although served luke warm.  The dessert, as always was marvelous.  Andy had French Onion soup which he said was perfect temp for eating right away and very tasty.  He had steak and frites which looked very tasty.  His dessert was once again creme brulee.  One of my all time favorites but I don't seem to be ordering it here in France....too many other choices.

The it was off on the RER to Arc de Triumphe again!  This time we made it!!!!  If you have never been, you cannot understand the feit it was to get up all those circular steps!  Everyone starts our energetic and have a pretty good pace, then.........oh boy!!!  Well, we made it!  What a view.  We saw all angles of Paris and even saw Sacre Coeur!  Absolutely breath taking and perfect weather for a seeing a distance.  I wish I could upload my pics so you can all share in the splendor!  

After the Arc we again let stubborness take over as we tried to find Tiffanys again!  Again no luck so we went back on the RER to the apartment.  Along the way we stopped for local chocolates.  Our new mission is to try a chocolate at several chocolate shoppes and decide which are best.  We are still trying to find a GOOD croissant!  Blackbird backery in Rocky River clearly spoiled me!  These have all been manufactured.  I found where the Gordon Ramsey chef is located and hopefully we can find the boulanger.  If not I found what can be a secondary pastry to bring back for Colleen, my fellow cook.

We are now in for the night, having stopped again for dinner.  Tonite's dinner consisted of gelato on waffles (AGAIN).  Big lunch makes it hard to have normal dinner.

Well, off to plan another adventure for tomorrow!  A bientot!!!!