Paris

Our first day in Paris we had wonderful croissants for our morning wakeup.  I had tea and Jim had café au lait.   We then went to Place De Madeline to shop and lunch.  A trip through Faucheon’s left me $100 poorer, but with many items to enjoy at home.  They make the best macaroon cookies and you pay dearly for them.   Next we went across the square for lunch.  We had very good Croque Madame and Monsieur’s.  We sat next to an Egyptian woman from Boston and her architect father who now lives in Paris as did her sister.  She described her sister as a fashionista.  When she arrived she did not disappoint.  Paris is all legs and short skirts.  She wore it well.  After lunch we visited the Mustard Store and I got my mustard crock refilled.  We took a tea break and I bought Jim an éclair with Mona Lisa’s eyes all in chocolate on top.  That is the picture of the day.  We came back to the hotel and deposited our packages and then visited all those wonderful kitchen and modern furniture shops in the area.  This evening we have reservations at VIN sur VIN near the Eiffel Tower.  If you can only have one dinner splurge in life, this is the place.   Each course comes to the table looking like art and tasting like heaven.  After starting with a glass of champagne, Jim had a first course of crab.  I had a mushroom and crepe dish.  Next they brought an amuse of pumpkin.  Jim’s main course was veal fillet that had shallots flavored with ginger and orange, bok choy all wrapped in a thin potato.  It was surrounded by carrot sauce with green dots.  I had duck with three accompaniments that looked like a painter’s palette.   One was cabbage; the next was pate on a crouton and finally a warm fig.  Jim had a dessert of raspberries in a meringue shell with mint ice cream.   This restaurant holds about 14 people.  The owners do all the serving and there is only the chef and an assistant in the kitchen.  They have owned the restaurant for 20 years and there chef has been with them for 12.  The food is absolutely the best I’ve tasted since Felidia in NYC.