Debra Does Paris

Le Tour Eiffel as Seen from Double Decker Bus

Monday was the start of a whole new chapter in the Eat,Play,Shop story. My friend Debra arrived from the Bay Area ready (well, almost ready) for some eating, playing and shopping of her own. It didn’t take long for us to get into trouble, as we were roundly scolded on the bus home from the airport for talking too loud.  (Imagine a woman with an exremely pained look on her face, using hand guestures to tell us to shut up.)

Monday and parts of  Tuesday were the ramp-up period, as Debra slept off her jet lag and got her bearings. Then we were off and running, talking too loudly everywhere we went.

PLAY and SHOP -Tuesday we rode  the hop-on, hop-off double decker tour bus around from the Louvre to Invalides, seeing all of the sights from great heights. We hopped off and had a great lunch on rue Cler, a street known for its fruit and veggie merchants, for one thing. (In her book My Life in France, Julia Child says she loved to shop for her produce on rue Cler.) It is just a fun place to be, with chocolate shops here, gorgeous fruit there and everything else you can imgine in a festive atmosphere. You can even shop for any little-parisian-doggie accessory your little Fifi or Fido might bark for at this store:

EAT -We had excellent salads and a couple of glasses of champagne at Cafe du Marche. I love their ceasar salad, which is not a ceasar salad at all. It has tandoori chicken, cous cous, green beans and all kinds of other stuff on it. Not an anchovy or a parmesan shaving in sight. But it is GOOD! And the weather was perfect for an al fresco lunch with a toast of bubbly.

Cafe du Marche on Rue Cler - a Personal Fav

Speaking of little-parisian-doggies, I had a great time stealth video-taping this little guy on the metro. We loved his little carrying case with Disney dogs on it. We thought of naming him Jacques, but decided he was more of an Henri. I’m getting pretty good at stealth shots with my little flip camera. Everybody should have one of these! It is so James Bond! It is tiny, it takes great videos, and you can create still shots from them. It is doing much better than my regular camera on this trip.

Metro Doggie "Henri"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PLAY and EAT -Wednesday was a day for a trip inside Musee Rodin and a visit to Paris Playground (colorful workshop facility of our friends and business associates – newleyweds Luly and Marco.) We had lunch with them at an exceptional Italian restaurant. The name? Il Ristorante on Rue Sarcouf. You don’t need a fancy name to serve AMAZING food. Our thanks to Luly and Marco. I so appreciated their grace and humor, especially when I whipped out the video camera without asking how tacky that might be. Tourists! But look at the shot I got of our appetizers! They were begging to be photographed for the record.

Antopasti and Proscuitto w/ Melon

PLAY – Here are we are pausing to recline and relax in the garden at Musee Rodin.

Loungin;

 

 

 

Also Loungin'

 

SHOP - As the lunch went on and the wine poured, we had lots of laughs with Luly and Marco. Alas, however, they had to get back to work and we had some warm-up shopping to do. After all, if I’m going to drag Debra into every shoe store in Paris, we had to get started. It was only a warm-up so there are no great finds to report.

Then, of course, we had to make a grocery run to the Monoprix on our way back home. Dinner was in both nights because I had to do a little bit of work of my own. My workday here starts at about 4 or 5. It ends about 10 pm. Debra got to hang out and knit, read and listen to her iPod while I talked to my clients. Thrilling for her, I’m sure!

It was on that Wednesday evening trip to the Monoprix that a major turn of events took place. Tune in to the next post to find out what transpired on that fateful stop… TO BE CONTINUED

Mwa-a-a-a - My favorite creepy sculpture - Laughing Man

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