Food and a dental experience

I was way too busy juggling pots and pans on our two electric burners to take photos of both the kitchen (a mess of activity) and the table (nicely set by Chuck.) The food turned out to be very tasty and I was pleased with myself. Our guest brought a delicious wine and some dried fruit, which was not as dry as the same things we get in the U.S. Succulent dried plums, thick apricots, and soft figs dusted in powdery sweetness. Chuck didn't expect the pit in the plum and ended up chipping a piece off of this front tooth, which he told me about much later in the evening. This morning, we walked over to the Surgery of the dentist that I'd visited last year, two years ago,whenever. I was thinking we'd have to make a rendez-vous, but no! He took Chuck as a walk-in client, not "my" dentist but his brother, and did an amazingly fast and excellent bonding repair of the tooth. The cost: 45€. I'll say no more.

Sunday #2 (Dimanche) at the Bastille Market

The market was crowded, which is not my kind of place to be. I forget and think I'll be okay, but after awhile, I'm like OKAY, done with this. We walked to the end of the stalls and back, threading our way through the people, benches, and dogs. We bought a baguette. We decided to walk back along rue Franc Bourgeois and see what new shops were along the street. Shops were just opening up, people were strolling, and then little white flakes came out of the sky. Surprise! It was snowing, not a lot, but definitely snow flakes. We got a bag of pistachios nuts from the shop at the end of the street with all the falafel shops. Yum, did that street smell good! We came back to our studio, however, and ate leftover soup. We were glad to be in and warm. Now it's raining, windy, and probably very chilly. A good night to stay in and entertain, which is what we're going to do. Hope our guests don't mind coming out to join us on a night like this!

Sunday #2 (Dimanche)

Chuck took some photos of a building detail this morning as we headed out to the Bastille Market. It was chilly and grey but we were somewhat dressed for it. I got this clearer view of Notre Dame from the window this morning because of the leaves being almost totally gone from the trees out front and the sun sort of appearing. I had to post the cakes here. They made the grey day a lot more cheerful.

Today's lunch.

Two kinds of spreads, stuffed grape leaves, tiny tomatoes, Comte cheese, cherry yogurt, and organic bread with sesame seeds...Add some wine...and Voila, today's lunch!

Today, Vendredi #2 (Friday)

We had a mission to accomplish today, but it didn't quite work out, however, our walk over toward the Jardin du Luxembourg made it possible for us to have a lovely lunch out. The brasserie Luxembourg had seats near the window for us and I was able to catch some sun, for the little time it was out. Chuck had a Cesar salad with chicken and shaved parmesan cheese. He loved it. I had a spinach salad with blue cheese and nuts. It was quite good. We added a plate of our first pomme frites for this trip. Next to the restaurant, Delayau, a shop with very artistic looking desserts.

This evening, because we'd had a bit of sun today, the sunset was actually visible. The sky was so nice but my photo doesn't do it justice, only gives you an idea of it.

Later, before dinner, we stopped at a little restaurant on rue Charlemagne, just a block away. We saw a display of hats in the window there last night and wanted to see what was going on. We poked our heads in, but the display was just being set up. Two sisters from Germany (Köln) were selling hats that are handmade. I got a nice green one that has little sparkles on it. I was surprised that Chuck liked it, but he said the sparkles looked like rain drops. Here I am, looking to me, like someone in a 1930s photo, with Gabriela, Marguerite, and Francoise, who owns the restaurant. Check out their site here.

Jeudi #2 (Thursday)

Last night, Thursday, We went to the vernissage (opening) of a show at Philippe Gelot gallery. Philippe's wife, Marylene, helped Chuck with the printing of his photographs last year while we were here. It was a nice show of photographs in the urban environment. Marylene stopped by and we were standing with her across the street from the gallery when I took this photo. On the right, by the corner, are two of their friends, whom we got to meet and speak with (one woman spoke Spanish so I had the chance to practice.) The view up the street is towards the Hotel where friends of ours stayed. We pass it frequently and look at all of the film memorabilia and knick-knacks in the window.

As we wandered home, we passed through the courtyards of the Village St. Paul. Some galleries were having openings and this scene was so quaint. Did they do this for tourists? It didn't seem like there were a lot of foreigners there, but how cute, a woman in a red beret singing chansons, a man with an accordian! Oh mi oh mi how Parisien and weren't we fortunate to happen on it.

The last two images are interesting to us. Tour boats pass on the Seine in front of us, with bright lights blazing onto the building and into our studio. We love it. The buildings across the way are lit up and a light show appears on our walls. Chuck hurried up and turned out all the lights. Of course, without the movement, you hardly get the effect but just imagine it, the lights moving along the walls....tres tres tres marveilleux.

Mercredi (Wednesday)

The rainy night scenes are actually from Tuesday night after we went to the opening of the Patrick Mimran show. I waited outside of Franprix while Chuck was getting some wine. It was lovely with the reflections. Yesterday, we went shopping for groceries. Here's what we got. Notice that we got 3 packets of cookies and chocolate bars. Chuck loves those LU and Bon Maman cookies. Also, notice that I used my KootSacs for the produce. The clerk thought that was bon. I got a Comte cheese and a thick slice of Boucheron. The latter is SO creamy and not terribly expensive. I had intended to make an omelet for us after hearing a concert.

The concert was performed by Kiyoko Lerner, in honor of her husband, Nathan Lerner. He's the man whose exhibit we'd seen at MAHJ the other day. We were pretty happy that we'd gotten the information in time to get tickets for the concert. Maya, who is in my French class, and is a pianist, came with us. We really liked the concert very much. The program included Mozart, Beethoven, Messiaen, and Dvorak. We hoped to speak with Mrs. Lerner afterwards and happily, we did. We were all invited to the post concert reception. There was champagne, wine, hors d'oeuvres, desserts. We were very surprised and pleased, of course. We got to speak with Mrs. Lerner (who invited us to see her Bob Nickle print - he was our Prof at U of I, Navy Pier-when we were in Chicago next) and Maya got to speak with her, and her sister, who'd just arrived from Tokyo. There were also many other Chicagoans there and we exchanged e-mails. We finally headed home about 11 p.m. feeling very uplifted by the entire experience. And I didn't have to make dinner!