Paris Part Trois - Fin

Pierre Herme
I wanted to know where I could get excellent desserts and pastries. We're both so fortunate to have Vins as our personal tour guide. He said if I wanted very good chocolate and desserts I should go to Pierre Herme off St.Germain Boulevard. This boulevard is a major street in Paris and located on the South Side of the La Siene river. It has many shops like the shops on Champs Elysees but not as touristy. Anywho, Pierre Herme... its expensive but worth it. Its not just fancy dessert, its a work of art. I wanted to save the desserts for dinner with Vins later that evening. We walked around all day with a box of these desserts. The sad part about this story is the subway cars were so crowded as I hopped on, a swarm of people pushed me in against all the other people. I was still holding onto the desserts but my arm was fully extended now with desserts in hand and the box was squished between all the people... Sad day. We didn't have the desserts with Vins, we just saved the box scraping for the following day. We ate them at a park and even though they weren't pretty anymore the taste was still amazing.

Cafe Procope

I discovered this restaurant on the Moleskine site when I purchased my sketchbook for the trip a couple months ago. This is one of the oldest restaurants in Paris, opened in 1686. Some famous historians used to come to this exact location. Those such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamn Franklin and famous writer Voltaire. The rumor is Voltaire used to have about 40 cups of coffee each day! Anywho, this place was fancy and beautiful. Our coats were checked for us and we were seated immediately. Mike had the cream of mushroom soup with scallops and I had the french onion soup. Both way better than what we are used to having back home.
Escargot was on the menu (land snails). I have a rule when it comes to new food: Try everything once. We ordered 6 burgundy escargot and they were delicious. They're also high in protein and low in fat..Bonus! If I could compare it to any other type of food that tastes similar I'd say its almost like clams and I love those too. For dessert we had creme brulee. It was good but I still think Market Broiler (at The Block in Orange) has the best I've ever had. The second best would be the creme brulee I ate at Andy and Mary's wedding and third place would go to the Ritz Carlton.

Red Light District
We wanted to check out the Moulin Rouge but had no idea the prices for dinner and a cabaret show were so expensive. Shows were up to 180 Euros which converts to $243 US. That's for dinner + show + bottle of champagne. The lowest price is 80 Euros ($108 US) for just the show. Yikes! We went into a sex museum while we were there. Tons of fertility figures and other bodily figures from all over the world and from different times. I liked some of the art I saw and I saw some that I don't care for and the rest was humorous. There was a sketch book on every floor and I did a quick sketch while we were there.

We saw this place as we walked down the street... Is it really necessary for this store to have several stroies?

Dinner and a show?

St. Patty's Day

Our last night in Paris and we had to get to an Irish pub to celebrate at least with one pint of beer. We were supposed to meet with friends of Vins' at this pub called Connoly's but our day ran too long and by the time we made it to the pub we had just missed them. We still had our beer in the crowded pub. I wasn't wearing anything green to show my spirit. The bar was so packed, people were drinking in the street just outside the bar. We found a place to drink inside and even made a few friends. We were glad to celebrate in another country.

WRONG TERRITORY
We wanted to walk to La Siene and have some wine. It was quite a walk so we had a little journey ahead of us. We had to cross the street to get to La Siene, we found steps that led under that street so we went in that direction (there were too many cars to try and cross the street). Oh boy... there were big SHEATS on the steps and I thought to myself, "that's too big to be dog sheat"... Well I was right! It was human poo! And another big poo and another and next to one was a dirty t-shirt the human used to wipe! For some reason we continued on and found ourselves walking between bums and their tents. I just held tight to my baguette and hummed a little tune to find a happy place. It stunk down there. We made our way through to the river but walked back in another direction. That definitely was not our scene.

Random Shots
We had to stare at this add at every subway station... Not sure what its for but it must be a big deal. Sniff...sniff..... Do you smell bread?

Lunch is served for two and all for about 7 Euro!
In Paris, most everyone is pretty small. Mike was worried the airline would lose his luggage and he wouldn't be able to buy new clothes. Jackpot! We found a shop!

Taking the alley to Cafe Procope with my Pierre Herme sweets in hand and pre-squish.

Mike awaits his fresh street crepe!

The Soto's just outside Le Louvre .

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