Last day

Perfect last day.  We started at Musee D'Orsay.  With the summer crowds we had to wait in line for a half hour.  After walking around the museum, we headed to lunch at Cafe Trama in the 6th. Excellent food and wine.  Don and Ben had a croque monsieur made with aged comté cheese and truffle salt. Max had burrata salad with veal carpaccio and I had tuna filet with veggies.  We then spent the rest of the afternoon shopping in the neighborhood and getting everything ready for the journey home. Don and I had one last glass of champagne in our awesome apartment.   Dinner was at Bistrot Paul Bert where Don and I shared a cote de boeuf.  We all decided they served the best pomme frites!  Sad to be leaving Paris, but it's time to head home.

Bucket Hat

Don writing.  We arose on Monday, albeit virtually hungover, from the great time we had at the Tour de France yesterday.  Still, Holly had plans and we were off and running by 10 am.  We were in search for the perfect Croissant in Paris.  This proved to be a hard task as we traveled on subway, hunting down side streets for named bakeries on Holly's list.  Unfortunately, the French pastry chefs seem to be enjoying vacation, all at the same time!  Holly was undaunted and the search continued.  

Visited the Pompidou Museum.  Excellent layout and one where I never felt crowded by my fellow art aficionados.   Ben proclaimed it his favorite.   

On to lunch at Frenchie To Go.  Excellent hole in the wall with stellar sandwiches (I had roasted chicken), fish & chips (Ben & Holly), and pulled pork (Max).   It was a welcome change from all the heavy 3 course French meals we have been eating.

After lunch, we headed to my favorite mecca, E Dehillerin.  The kitchen supply store is over 190 years old and is incredible.  Sur La Table, William Sonoma, etc.-- whatever.  E Dehillerin is the place.   I did my part in helping the French economy, and look forward to using some of the tools that I bought!

We walked around in the neighborhood after, then decided to walk over to the 1st arrondissement for ice cream at Berthillion.  Then, we had got side tracked.

As we crossed the bridge over towards the ice cream shop, a gust of wind ripped Max's Tour de France bucket hat off his head.  We all attempted to dive for the hat, but all in vain as we watched it fly into the disgusting Seine River.   I decided to go down to the river and wait for it to hopefully get close to the steep river bank where I could snatch it.  Max wanted to jump in, but this would have left him with diseases and shards of glass in his feet.  Eventually with some patience, the hat got close enough to the slippery steep bank where I could reach it with a stick.  I thought for sure I was going to go into the river.  Alas, the bucket hat was saved and cheers from the onlookers were heard.  Now, we continued on to have some tasty ice cream, and a hand washing.

For dinner, we ate at Chameleon.  Perfect.   Definitely, in my opinion, the best of the current restaurants in Paris.  Every plate was licked clean.  Unpretentious service, top notch food, and great dining room made it one of my favorites.  Appetizers -- pork belly, sweetbreads, and octopus. Main -- pigeon, veal sirloin, line caught fish.  Dessert --- citrus with meringue, cherries with chocolate.

The conversation always seemed to veer back to the bucket hat...

bucket hat and Ben

So close, yet so far.  Seine River is toxic!

Bones & Bikes

Don writing.   Sunday early morning I set off alone for the Catacombs, about a 30 minute subway ride.  We had tried to see the Catacombs the other day and it was a four hour wait in line!  I was determined to be near the front of the line while Holly and the boys would come later.  The Catacombs are underground ossuaries. The ossuaries hold the remains of about six million people and fill a renovated section of caverns and tunnels that are the remains of historical stone mines, giving it its reputation as "The World's Largest Grave".   Doors opened and we were in within 15 minutes, underground surrounded by bones.  Pretty morbid tourist site, but historically interesting as we opted for the audio tour while Holly walked at a fast pace.  After about 1.5 hours we emerged from the underground.  Off to lunch.

Lunch was nearby our apartment Les Cocottes de Christian Constant.  Excellent food, service hot & cold. Shellfish bisque, country pate, roasted chicken, lamb stew, and dessert waffles were quite tasty. Next, off to the see the final stage of the Tour de France!

The rain was coming down pretty good, but we soldiered on towards the finish line.  We had seats in Place Clemenceau, 150 meters from the finish line--brilliant!  I brought every kind of plastic bag so that we could endure the rain without being too soaked.   Finally, the riders arrived for their first of 10 laps on the Champs de Elysee.  Really great because it is a circuit course where you get to see them pass several times back & forth for a solid 45+ minutes.  The rain let up as they riders came through which made it more pleasant.  Then, with 2 laps to go (14k remaining), the race really began.  The sprinters jockeyed and revved up the speed of the peleton.  Meanwhile the eventual winner, Chris Froome, and his Sky team soft pedaled in the back to stay out of trouble.  In the end it was a sprint in the last 350 meters which Andre Griepel took handily.  Super exciting and unbelievable how fast these guys can go, especially after the previous 20 stages.   Great race and super memorable moment with the family.

Next, we had a reservation at Le Rotisserie which offers grilled meats, and has been a long time favorite.  Had a pan-seared foie gras that was sensational.  Holly and I shared the grilled lamb shoulder and wish it was more cooked as it was a touch too rare.  Even so, what we had was pretty good, and it was nice to relax after a busy day.

Action packed next couple of days coming up....

Happy hour selfie

The Catacombs -- note bones left and right

Bones everywhere

Arc du Triomphe

Max finally got his Tour de France bucket hat he has wanted since Stage 1 where they were sold out (future blog story to come....).

Shellfish bisque at Les Cocottes de Christian Constant.  Excellent lunch/food, service meh.

Country pate at Les Cocottes de Christian Constant.  

Tour de France final stage!

View of finish line from our seats!

Holly and the bucket hat (story to follow in future blog)

snack time!

Chris Froome and Sky team on the Champs.  Sagan following in green.

the venue

Friday and Saturday

We've done a lot the past couple of days. Friday morning started at the Louvre.  I was a little bummed because some of the wings that hold the french paintings were closed due to renovation. We walked around some, got lost a bunch and checked out the medieval part of building.  We stopped for a quick, expensive coffee at Cafe Marly and walked down to Notre Dame.  It was packed. The line to get in snaked down the island with a 2 1/2 hour wait to go up. We passed.  Lunch was at Ellsworth, which was awesome.  The owner is an American chef who already has a successful Restaurant in Paris. This is his second and the food was great.  He's known for his fried chicken, so some of us tried it.  It was a piece of boneless fried chicken on a brioche bun with a tangy, vinegary cole slaw.  It was a great change after eating food out for 5 weeks.  Last night we did a dinner cruise down the Seine.
This morning we headed over to take a trip below Paris to tour the catacombs.  We got there 15 minutes after they opened and the line was already 4 hours long! We passed and headed to the Montparnasse building.  They have a viewing of deck on top with the best view of Paris.  Max didn't enjoy being up that high.  After, we wandered in the Marais neighborhood and dined at a traditional creperie.  The crepes were so good! We needed to make back home to watch the tour because the riders we doing the ride in the Alps that we did last week. After Don, Ben, and I strolled around, stopped for an apertif, and walked the neighborhood that I lived in 20+ years ago. We have late reservations tonight at a casual restaurant. The boys have requested escargots and steak with pomme frites. We're all looking forward to watching the cyclists come into Paris tomorrow.