Travelogue - Paris

May 16, 2006

Back at work after a glorious weekend, although just barely! (back at work i.e. J). Feel like 106 and not 36 :), but the weekend was well worth it! Had a wonderful time and despite being more knackered that I can remember in a very long time, am all set to plan another trip back J. Next time though, we’re taking the eurostar and staying in town J. Although, to be honest, I’m kind of glad that we did stay at La Defense coz at least now I know what it’s all about – never would have gone in that direction otherwise. Basically, it’s like Canary wharf in London – a commercial/urban regeneration area outside the main city with all glass and chrome high rises, eclectic sculptures, hotels, restaurants, convention centre, movie theatre, shopping centre, blah, blah. The highlight is of course, the Grande Arche de Defense which is this huge office tower in the shape of an squared arch and you can take an elevator to the top for a panoramic view (which we didn’t bother with – we’d had enough of panoramic views by then from the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tour!). Aaaargh!! Perilous partner just snuck up on me – how does it do it every time?? It’s almost like he’s got some sort of homing device going when it comes to me doing stuff other than work! now he’s completely thrown me off my flow! Where was I???

Oh well, never mind, we’ll pick it up as we go along. The silly flight is only 40 minutes so it’s really pakaoing that you have to be at the airport so early, so next time, definitely the train. Anyway, by the time we got into La Defense it was 8 pm, and of course, we couldn’t find our stupid hotel!! After missing it a couple of times and getting really frustrated with the Hilton and the French and whatnot, our eyesight finally prevailed and we managed to check in without further incident. We had reservations at Aux Lyonnais at 9.45 pm, so had enough time, but both of us were sort of fading, and although I would have had liked to go, it’s probably for the best that we decided against it. We thought we’d dine at the hotel restaurant only to rock up to find it empty – and I mean no employees either!! So had to go downstairs, and just decided to dine at the first and closest restaurant, the Hippopotamus – a grill. Not really and ideal choice, but we were sort of beyond caring at this point. Although I have to say that during the main course, I was rather wishing we’d gone to Aux Lyonnais! The meal started off well, with a lovely crunchy deep fried platter of squid rings, cheese balls, spring rolls and something else and a big tasty Caesar salad. The main course was rather disappointing, but I guess that was to expected from a chain restaurant, and we were only too glad to leave and crash for the night.

After a sumptuous American b’fast – an indulgence for sure, but what they hey – we were on holiday, we actually managed to leave the hotel by 10 pm and headed straight for the Louvre, but via the Tuileries. Strolled around enjoying the sunshine and admiring the statues strewn all over the place – the first one that caught my eye (and for all the wrong reasons!!) was this majestic one of a centaur on the rampage with a buxom damsel caught up at his side in a most ravishing manner and oh! The ridiculousness of it all – the majesty and the sense of fury all belied by this extremely silly pigeon perched on the centaur’s noble head!! Talk about ludicrous imagery to a grand moment. The poor centaur looked anything but threatening from that angle. That’s when I looked around and noticed, believe it or not, that every statute we glanced at, had a stupid pigeon atop it!! If it just wasn’t so rude, it would have been totally hysterically (well, it was rather) rows of majestic statues, with pigeons on their heads, almost like little sculptures themselves. We strolled towards the Seine and took in the Museé d’Orsay, before meandering back to the entrance of the Louvre at the stupid Pyramid. What an eyesore.

We’d already planned a couple of thematic trails, and the first one went off just fine before Aashish and I got into a fight and went our separate ways. I spent the time in a lovely arched area with the sun pouring in through the skylights, surrounded by the most impressive sculptures sitting under a fake tree (at least I think they were fake – or rather I’m just assuming they’re fake) reading my library book. Aashish eventually joined me and we kissed and made up and then decided to have lunch at one of the café’s at the Louvre. Since the weather was pretty good, we opted to wait to be seated at the terrace where we enjoyed a glass of white wine along with our light lunch – a duck confit terrine with a smashing salad while Aashish had a potato cheesy bake – yum. We lingered over tea and coffee before hitting the master pieces trail – I wasn’t going to go for that initially, but thought I’d give the Mona Lisa another chance – and yep – she’s still got to be the most highly overrated painting in the world, and of all of Leo’s creations, the most mediocre!! The man was a genius and all that everyone can think to rave about is this silly painting. We finished off in the afternoon, and decided to stop for a spot of tea in the Jardin de Tuileries and found ourselves a café with seats under an awning right next to a lovely little lake with statue and lush purple irises (well, horticulturist I’m not, so you’ll just have to take my word for it….i.e. that’s what I believe Irises ought to look like!). of course, the silly menu had to offer crepes as well, and as I’d refrained from dessert with lunch, I decided to indulge myself with a chocolate crepe (no that wasn’t the indulgence…) accompanied by a dollop of chantilly. Of course, the dollop turned out to be this huge half plate covering 3 verrry generous squirts of cream! Such decadence – but can you think of a more appropriate setting?

Dinner was at L’Os a Moelle and we decided to stroll by the Seine to the Invalides metro and take the train from there rather than the Tuileries where we were. It was at the Place de la Concorde that we realised that the Louvre, Pl. de la Concorde, Arc de Triomphe and get this, the Grande Arch de la Defense were perfectly aligned along the Champs d’Elysees!! Talk about the triumph of town planning! Most impressive. Of course the walk to the Invalides took longer than we anticipated, and then the train refused to show up – and there we were glancing at our watches every few minutes hoping for divine intervention and wondering how far the restaurant was from the tube once we got off and if they’d hold our table!! Typical isn’t it and of course, while we were waiting, 2 trains for the opposite direction came by and mocked us!! Eventually, at five minutes to nine, the stupid train rumbled up (to match the 3rd going in the opposite direction!!) and despite being 7-8 stops away, we reached our destination in a little over 10 minutes. Luckily the restaurant was just a few steps away from the metro, so we got there at a quarter past nine (and all this after Aashish kept complaining about why I’d made such a late dinner reservation!!). Then of course, the woman at the reception couldn’t find my booking which I had to point out to her (solely going by the fact that it was the only contact number with a UK country code!! Since the name was unrecognisable!!), and were seated squished amongst two other tables and all the patrons had to re-jig their belongings to accommodate us J. The menu is written out most neatly on theses blackboards which they come an plonk at a space near you JJ and as the review said, for an infamous price of €38 (which includes service charge!!) there were more ‘et’ (and) than ‘ou’ (or) on the menu! A total of 6 courses to choose from (not counting the cheese coz the only choice there was eat it or don’t eat it!). Aashish and I chose all the alternates possible and just went head to head on the fish course, but apart from that we were able to sample everything (well, almost) on the menu.

The feast began with amuse bouche. Sadly, I didn’t catch what it was, but it was delicious – even more so given how hungry we were but it did help take the edge off. It had teeny chunks of what tasted like lamb (but could have been beef) as the bottom layer and a lovely creamy, cauliflowery soupy thing on top with a little froth cap and a faint flavour of cumin??? The first course was the soup, and all I could think of was Rahul’s most likely shocked expression when the soup plate with only the croutons was placed in front of him, and his most agonized ‘Mim!!! Where’s the soup?!?!?!’ LOL!!! Aashish and I had quite a laugh about that – all through the soup course as a matter of fact. For the uninitiated, let me explain. Mimi and Rahul had been here (well, at least I think this is where it happened), and the soup plates are brought out with just the garnishing, with the soup tureen being carried out subsequently and the soup then ladled atop the garnishing JJ. I had the tomato which was served cold and very tasty, but was outshone by the fish soup. Sounds most plebeian, but the dollop of cream just took it to another level and it was more lobster bisque than fish soup! An excellent opening gambit! What followed was even better, with Aashish again picking the exotic – 3 oysters with cheese while I enjoyed a duck terrine with melba toast and mixed lives with a tart dressing. Muuaaah. We had asked for white wine, which so far escaped us, and Aashish was optimistically positive that their plan was to serve it with the fish (B@*%%@#) – but the silly receptionist woman just plain forgot! The service was excellent and these guys were being run off their feet – not surprising given the extensive menu and the fact that the place was packed, but they were doing a super job, and smiling throughout. Of course, the dimbulb was the only one who managed to break stuff and drop it and forget our order J. Where was I – ah yes, the fish, where both of us opted for the white fish lightly grilled served with wilted spinach and mushrooms (not sure what kind, but very small little baby looking ones). Very nice indeed, and by this time, we were getting quite full as well. The meat course was next, with Aashish opting of the beef while I had to have the lamb. Mine came with little bits of fried ‘konphal’ – the purpleply coloured veggie so thinly sliced that if you blew it’d fly away. By this time, I was feeling positively sick, and didn’t really want the cheese, but it came anyway, accompanied by tartly vinigered leaves – rather an interesting combo which I’ve never tried before, and of course, I couldn’t finish mine – I mean, what’s the point, coz it was only camembert and I wanted the dessert. No surprise there, I went for the chocolate option while Aashish went for the grilled ‘ananas’ both of which was accompanied by a tall glass of something piquant and lovely. Mine also had raspberries which was the perfect touch and yes, by this time, both of us were felling really REALLY sick and ready for the closest bed. Oh – in the midst of all this, we’d asked the waitress to take our photo and instead of clicking the shutter button, she managed to hit the on/off button instead J so we all had a bit of a giggle about that – her ‘blague’ as she insisted (little joke) Naturally, the daft one when she finally showed up with our bill had included the wine, and seemed to have completely forgotten that she hadn’t gotten us any!! Still, it was rectified with a minimum of fuss, and it was with great strength of mind that we managed to haul our carcasses from the restaurant back to the hotel and crashed straight away! Spectacular!!

Sunday was the Notre Dame and we left a little later and meandered across stopping and admiring all the little knick knacks for sale at the small shops. There was this one shop that was selling an orchestra of animals, and the horses with their instruments were truly worthy of acquisition – but alas the shop was shut!! The sign did say open all days, but from noon as was the gelato shop next door!! (and they even had something called black chocolate flavour and diabetic ice cream). since we had quarter of an hour to kill, we figured we just go on ahead and return here before moving out of the area. We strolled over the bridge enjoying the wafting sounds of the accordion before taking photos in the garden of the Notre Dame. Thought we’d have to stand in line to get in (not happening), but then discovered that was for groups, so managed to slide in without any trouble. Mass was actually in progress, and it was just so cool when they’d pick up the hymn and the notes of the organ would soar through the cathedral – really glad we were there on a Sunday and were able to catch it. The bishop (or whatever the gentlemen was) was black, as was this other priest who was sitting in a corner – he was ebony and looked like a statue – very evocative. Anyway, after that we strolled some more, and decided to mosey on to check out the location of the Tour d’Argent since we were in the neighbourhood – and well, neither of us were impressed with the view (at least from our perspective at the ground level to their top level where the restaurant is), although the tuxedo clad maitre d’ that we espied at the door was another story, we decided to use the money to buy silly gifts instead and eat at one of the little bistro/café’s that we had passed earlier. But of course, this was after we did a good bit of shopping for souvenirs strolled up and down the banks – oh! Which brings me to one of our highlights – Aashish was just resting his tired feet at this little garden while I went off to acquire some small make up mirrors with famous paintings depicted on top. I came back and joined him and soon enough there was this troupe of uniformed, booted girl guides or the French equivalent of something similar, clomping along with leader bearing a banner J. They went past us (of the girls had a scarf tied around her left ankle for some reason) and around one side of the grass centre, before deciding that this was not the best route, backtracked and went around all the away to the other side – basically to get to the same point. There they pondered over the signs and write ups and did some talking, before marching right back past us back whence they came JJ most bizarre!! By this time, our appetite was beginning to whet, so we decided to head back to the river crossing and see if the band had set up. On our way over, there was this comic dude doing stuff which we didn’t find all that funny so we moved on, but there was a trio that was setting up alongside, that looked most promising.

We got there in time to get front row seats on the kerbside J (Aashish was a little reluctant, but since I had already most unceremoniously plonked myself down, he gingerly joined me. The band was just tuning up and they were a quartet – guitar, sax/clarinet, drums and double bass and soon enough they launched into a jazz rendition of bits and pieces of old favourites. Turns out to be an American band, and while they were certainly enjoyable on a sunny day in the middle of the bridge, not exactly what you would call brimful of talent J. Still, a most enjoyable way to spend part of the day. Of course, they had their CD’s on display and quite a few people bought one. There was this little kid though, who had a better idea, and toddled over to the display case and kept picking out the coins that were already deposited J and going back to mommy with a triumphant unsteady step clutching her booty!! JJ of course, mommy not only made her put it back, but gave her even more coins to add to the collection when she did unsteadily but with great consistency. Eventually, hunger asserted itself, and we decided to forage for our dejuner. But of course, got sidetracked by the cow store JJ and we are now the proud owners of, and I kid you not, the world’s first samurai cow!! And yes, you have to see it to believe it!! It’s utterly tasteless and digusting with it’s paunch and hanging udders, but it was calling our name. Sadly, the horse orchestra shop was STILL closed L so have nothing to add to our musical animal collection.

Unfortunately, the restaurant with the most interesting menu that we’d seen, was the tiniest and all the tables were full, and well, by that time we were too hungry and distracted to wait, and Aashish was doing an admirable imitation of a cranky 3 year old who couldn’t make up his mind, so we opted for a tiny creperie. Of course, our decision was led with our stomachs and instead of just choosing a crepe, we had to go whole hog and run with the fixed menu. Which means, I had a yummilicoius duck salad – loads of crunchy greens with a piquant dressing, topped with 4 slices of very lightly roasted still pink duck - superb!!! Aashish went for the hearty home made vegetable soup (which was my plan originally, but then, you didn’t really think I was going to say no to a duck salad, did you??). For the plat – just to clarify, in the French way, you start with an entrée, then move on the main course or plat and follow up with dessert, Aashish chose a crepe - a silly chicken and something, while I had the spinach and goat cheese tart and then wound up with a crepe au chocolat J while Aashish indulged with some apple pie. Yes, you got it again – we were feeling sick at the end of it all!!

We then decided to amble down to the Museé d’Orsay to check out the 3rd floor where the impressionist are and then have tea in the Tuileries. Of course, it was a far longer walk from the Notre Dame than we had expected, and by this time I was positively dying to go the loo, and couldn’t wait to get to the museum! Anyway, we finally get there, only to see this humongous line snaking all around the people separators! Gasp!! Incredible – there was no way in hell (even without my present affliction) I was going to queue that long for a gander and the impressionists, so we were toying with the idea of heading back to the hotel and setting out again for dinner, blah, blah. Anyway, crossing over from the Museé d’Orsay to the Tuileries, we enjoyed some lovely music from a one man band taking advantage of some stupendous acoustics under the bridge. I don’t know why it is, but all the musicians here sound so much better than in London. Could be because they all carry around their own amplifiers with them with recorded bits, so you always get the impression of a full band and not just a solitary musician. Of course, this particular chappie had more than one musical talent, and was really most impressive. Anyway, to recall myself to my narrative, things were getting too desperate to contemplate anything but a dash to the nearest café or hotel, and the Westin loomed to our rescue most fortuitously J. Makes you understand why our hotel had a security lock on the bathroom doors and you needed the access code to get into the loo JJ - these French!! Anyway, my equinamity recovered, we carried out plan for tea in the Tuileries in a different café this time, next to a couple of huge sculptures of a winsome turtle and an agonized looking female form. Thusly fortified, we carried on from the Place de la Concorde where there was utter bhasad happenning – turns out it was a group wedding (they looked Japanese) and there were all these decorated limos driving around the place, with the couples – I saw 3, looking confused in the middle, and general revelers just honking their horns for joy J. Heehee – so very French I say, to do all this in the middle of an extremely busy thoroughfare.

We headed up the Champs d’Elysees, with the Arc de Triomphe as our goal, and boy, oh boy! Is it a long walk!! Especially considering we’d walked all the way from the Notre Dame already! J Still, it was fun checking out life on the Champs d’Elysees, stopping for a pulsating performance by a group of 4 young male street dancers – with loads of talent and a couple of aching heads and pulled shoulders I imagine! Mimi called in the midst of all this to grill us about dinner at ‘her’ restaurant J. We eventually moved on from the dancers to chance upon a group of uniformed vetrans gathering with flags and towards the Arc the band started pouring from the metro – late latifs! before making our way to the Arc. Hadn’t realised that it was open till 11 pm! Anyway, thought we were going to die, but made it to the top with hearts pumping precariously and breath coming in large audible gasps JJ and spent about 20 minutes or so reflecting on the city and it’s view. Of course, it turns out the vetrans and marching band were all headed for the Arc, so we were treated to the sight of them marching down the Champs d’Elysees, while the traffic behind them was held in abeyance all the way down to the Place de la Concorde, to the Arc de Triomphe. Really cool and totally unexpected. Anyway, the ceremony was still happenning at the Arc by the time we spiralled our way downstairs with relative ease and tremendous speed J and we took the circutious route back to the Champs d’Elysees to select a café for our diner.

We gave the side we came by a skip as according to Aashsih all the cafés on that side were full of American tourtists and got sidetracked by the Toyota showroom where they had the future car on display. That’s the one where the driver’s side is wherever you’r sitting and the steering can just slide from to either side J. They had an F1 demo upstairs where you could sit in an F1 car and run through a race simulation which I would have liked to do, but alas, my stomach had other plans. After rejecting several cafés and their menus, we finally decided to run with one which had the traditional ‘pot au feu’ on the menu, which literally means pot on the fire. After we sat down and were handed the menu, we realised it was a specialist beer place, with quite an ecclectic menu. We couldn’t resist the starters, which are colour coded, Blond, another type of blond but I’ll be damned if I can remember what it was called, Amber, Brun to refelct the groupings of the beer J. We went for a Brun platter which was simply delicous. A lovely melange of a seafood paste served with sesame breadsticks, a most unusual lentil salid with duck – believe it or not, the lentil in question was your silly ‘usal’ but my oh my – do they know what to do with their ‘usal’ – Maharashtrains, world over, please take notice!! This is how it’s meant to be eaten! The final of the trio was chicken with a melange of citrus fruits and mangoes – rather weird, but just went so well together!! Who’d have thunk it. It all came in a most asthetically pleasing long tray with the trio in square bowls. Very avant gardeish J and very, very edible. We were feeling really most pleased at having chosen this café to bestow our patronage upon. Sadly, they didn’t have the pot au feu, but since I was dithering about what to go for, i.e. that or the lamb with potatoes dauphinoise, I took it as a celestial sign and prepared to indulge my craving for dauphinoise and was I disappointed??? Ooho no!!! the potatoes were superlative! Such thin slices layered one atop another with glimpses of cheese in between and a brown top. Sheer bliss and I was totally rhapsodic. Of course, it was an obscene amount of potato to have to consume, but I did do my very best and left less than a quarter behind with most regret. If I really wasn’t feeling so sick, I’d have asked for a doggie bag!! And oh – the potatoes were an accompaniment to the lamb shank – which was great, but just paled in comparison to the sheer voluptousness and unparalleled richness of the potatoes. Aashish tried his first ever tagine, and enjoyed it immensely. It was a suble chicken with lemon tagine, but with the tartness of apricots and olives thrown in. Not really my scene, but he loved it. We did think about dessert, but were just ready to go home and crash, which we did with maximum haste, well, maximum haste possible at that point it time at any rate. A most satisfactory day all around J

Monday was our lunch date at Chez Catherine. This is Catherin Guerrez, one of the premier female chef’s of the city and I was happy to cancel the Tour Eiffel lunch at Altitude 95 for it. We of course, got up late, and picked up breakfast at the station before heading for the Eiffel Tower – got there at about 11ish, but thankfully not too much of a line. Did the usual ooohing and aaahing and pointing out what we knew and even lamented the lack of our ‘durbin’ albeit being inspired by what felt like a remarkable large contingent of elderly, genteel maharashtrians J who seemed to be following us around – or was it the other way around?? For a while there, on our way up in the lifts, at the sight of the spectacular panorama, we actually contemplated giving Chez Catherine a miss, and just staying on here! Anyway, the restaurant was at a lower level, and started a little inside the frame, plus we had finished well in time, so we decided to stick to the plan and head for Chez Catherine, and am I glad we did!!! It took us a while to find the place, coz the stupid map we had didn’t even show the street it was on, so we had to tramp quite a bit, but we prevailed (ok, so it was after a couple of desperate phone calls to the restaurant asking for directions J), and the smiling, portly maitre d’ was waiting outside on the street, and looked as relieved as we did JJ. It’s not a large place, and the décor is a bit like Indigo. But the food…. Oh my!!! No wonder she’s one of their top chefs!! We decided to go for the 2 course menu for €40 (and this is great value for money given the kind of food!!) – entrée and plat, giving the dessert a skip. Since we were both eyeing the same things, we decided to get one of each and share. I started with the raviole of langoustine in creamy frothy soup, while Aashish went for the tuna and melon salad. Mmmmm – simply superb. Words literally fail me and I can still taste the velvety texture of my soup – which had just a hint of anise (which I loathe!! But here, it was something else altoghether) and the don’t stint with their langoustine either! I got about 5 good sized chunks that were sweet and slightly springy to the bit, but then melted in your mouth…just exquisite. Aashish’s dish was a simple yet unthinkable combination of melon slices topped with tuna shashimi served with a trace of soy. It feels a bit strange, but astonsinhgly enough, it somehow goes so well together! I really wanted to so desperately lick my soup plate, but that would have been just too de trop! So had to settle for scraping the last spoonfuls as discreetly as I could without making a total fool of myself, when all I wanted to do was noisly slurp, chomp and then lick the last vestige of the langoustine raviole!!! Aaaaah – heaven! Then we went to high heaven J. Since we were both eyeing the gambas and the calamari, we decided to get both and split. Of course, after having tasted both, I think the better decision was to have ordered a gambas and calamari each!!! Which is what I will do the next time around and I don’t care what kind of a glutton they think me!!

First the gambas – simple enough, 4 plump prawns with their tails intact on a bed of gravy with funkily carved bamboo shoot spears and asparagus tips for garnish was set down in front of me. The calamari was a lot more dramatic – why you ask?? Well, because for the first time in my life, they served the entire calamari!! Body with tentacles attached!! Just too cool for words!! The whole thing was delicately placed on a bed of artichoke mash and had a dark inky sauce (which I suspect is the squid ink) interspersed with a lighter sauce. I tell you, we just sat and ogled our dishes for quite a few seconds before we finally gathered our wits enough to give them a try! And then….. Mim – I know you love L’Os a Moelle and it IS good, but baby oh baby….THIS is my restaurant!! Chez Catherine is Chez Nous if I’m ever in Paris again. My plan is to work through their entire menu and go back for several helpings of the gambas and calamari and of course my langoustine, till I’m either sick of them or am out of money!! The gambas (by the way, in case I haven’t mentioned, they’re prawns) was poetic! If I had any inclidnation in that direction, I would have broken into a sonnet, a haiku or even a couplet J instead all I did was slowly chew like a cow, swallow and grin inanely JJJ. To thell with sophistication – while I didn’t stoop to licking the last of the sauce, I did do a thorough job of dunking the bread in it to the very last morsel, and well, ok, so I did use my finger to swipe off the last bits of gravy I couldn’t reach otherwise J. Mannaa, I say!! The asparagus and bamboo shoots were incidentally – well not true really – I rather liked the bamboo shoots, probably because the sauce had a touch of coconut milk, but it’s so subtle, that if Aahsish hadn’t reminded me, I woudn’t have realised, well, not consicously anyway. The calamari was a triumph as well, especially consdiering how stupid they are by themselves, but her sauce was phenomenal and it was so flavourful and went so perfectly with the calamari that it was epiphany!

In case you were wondering, the restaurant does have a meat section, but were were just enamoured by the seafood and didn’t really wander any further, and I have to say, I see no reason to!! This was quite simply the best seafood I have ever had and that’s saying quite a bit considering that during our trip back home over Easter, I was convinced that only the Asians knew how to deal with seafood in a most satisfactory manner. Hmmm, perhaps it’s still largely true, but oh my!! Catherine does know indeed!! Speaking of the devil!! She actually walked by us in her uniform with a smiling ‘Bon Jour’, but I was so entranced by the food, that by the time I realised it was the great lady herself, she gone past and it was too late to say just how super her food was and how we wanted to lick the plates!! Of couurse, she’s got a cookbook out, but of course, it’s in French JJ. I was really most ready to over another round of the same, but Aashish persuaded me to move on, so after a wind down cup of tea and coffee with some petit fours, we left Chez Catherine, but not before I took a photo outside the door J. Since the portions weren’t heavy, I wasn’t feeling sick – wasn’t hungry, but I think I would have very much liked to have felt sick after eating another round (yes, yes, of the same!! ).

From there, we made our way to Pigalle and found our way to the Sacre Coeur, and did another cardio workout (guess it wsa a good think we stopped lunch when we did, otherwise, instead of a cardio workout it would have been a cardiac arrest!) climbing up to the bascillica. Incidentally, Sacre Coeur is sacred heart if you are interested. The bascillica itself is rather silly – doesn’t come near the Notre Dame which I really like plus they’re really uptight – women have to have their shoulders covered and you can’t wear hats, etc. We just sat and pretended to soak it all up, when all we were doing was trying to recover and cool down from the climb up ;-o. After our equilibrium was restored, I led the search for the Monmarte artist’s square, which we found without much effort – of course getting sidetracked to buy cheesy gifts J. Oh – and if you are planning to buy posters this is the palce to do it – the same stuff that you find along the banks of the Seine near the Notre Dame, etc. at much reduced prices!!! We strolled around the square taking in the various artists at work and the paitings displayed, before we got side tracked by the caricature artist, and I guess, the longing showed on my face, coz before you knew it, we were seated for couple caricature!! The artist, Bernard I think his name was (will have to check to see how he’s signed) chatted with us, well, me, and seemed to be impressed by my French ;-o and did rather a good job with the sketch – lots of laughter all around, and suggestions of aashish being the king of bollywood and what have you not J. I must get that laminated before any damage comes to it. Armed with our precious work of art, we found a café offering a strategic view of a couple of artists painting and parked ourselves for an indulgent late dessert of Poire Belle Helene for me – i.e. pears with vanilla and chocolate icream, chocolate sauce and chantilly while Aashsish went for the day’s special, huge fresh strawberries with ice cream, syrup and chantilly.

It was just such a treat to be able to come back here, this time around with money and do all the stuff I would have liked to have done 12 years ago, but couldn’t afford to! That was the time with Saraline and Tove, where a bunch of Japanese men wanted their photographs taken with Saraline, a true blue Nordic blonde blue eyed wonder J. It was so lovely to watch this elderly oriental origin artist start with a blank narrow pannel and turn it into a vista of the Eiffel tower with the bridge in front only using blue and white – of course, that was before he started on the second panel – EXACTLY the same thing!! And then when we walked around to see what he had on display it was all the same!! So much for wanting to buy an original work of art :P:P. There were a couple of intresting paintings of course, but nothing affordable that we really liked, so we just settled for a cup of tea before meandering back to our hotel to pick up our bags and head for the airport. The only thing left on the agenda, was for Aashish to eat ‘le Big Mac’, and the plan was to check in and do the needful. Except we had to go through passport control to be able to drop our bag off, and of course, all the restaurants were on the other side!!! Here there was only a pitiful café and an even more pitiful cafeteria, so I took the plunge and insisted we go back into the country for le Big Mac J. Immigration looked a little confused, but let us through without a demur, allowing us to enjoy the unusual experience of le big mac with a salad instead of fries :P, before we went back through passport control a second time. I have to say the French are most phlegmatic – not evne a raised eyebrow, but we have been in and out of France twice in the same day – now how’s that for jetsetting????

Needless to say, I was demolished by the time we got home – feeling every year of my newly acquired 36th year and dreading getting up this morning. But as you can see, I’ve had rather a productive day (well, not from the company’s perspective…. but then you can’t have everything now can you!) and I’m about to leave to head home. Need to pick up the tickets for the Clapton show and of course, get ready for Anaheeta and Farsheed’s arrival on Saturday, which means, mega house cleaning, laundry and grocery shopping all to be done by Saturday!!!