Paris IV

I'm sad to say that I can now count my remaining full days in Europe on one hand. I would have thought that the trip would have flown by, but it doesn't feel that way at all. I can imagine that if I were in New York, the same amount of time would have gone so fast I’d not have noticed it—I hear that it has been cold? Gosh, it’s been quite warm Paris.

It was nice to have Andrew here--he left last Wednesday. Paris is really not that big of a city; while we were walking around we discovered that every day we unexpectedly ended up somewhere we’d been a day or two before. One day we went to the Luxembourg Gardens, I looked up the rue, saw a grand-looking structure, and said, "Should we go look at that?" We decided against it. The next day we set out for the Pantheon and when we got there found ourselves looking in the other direction down the rue at the Luxembourg Gardens. We had some good meals and a lot of crepes. I managed to make chicken stock from a left over roasted chicken I bought one night, and the next day for lunch I made a successful caramelized leek risotto. (Stay tuned: I've been on a risotto kick ever since.) We saw a fun movie called "Paris, je t'aime" one night. Unfortunately Andrew got food poisoning from some shady Chinese food he insisted on eating and was ill for most of his last day here. But he's home safely now.

I went to the Picasso Museum on Wednesday, which was pretty fantastic. Thursday I went to the Père Lachaise Cemetery and saw the tombstones of Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Isadora Duncan, Chopin (ok, I couldn't find Chopin, but I must have been really close), and others. It was darkly funny, trying to find Jim Morrison’s grave, which is completely tucked away and hard to find; there was a crew of us going up and down the isles of the section where he was supposed to be, and when someone finally found it, he shouted "Ici!" and we all rushed to gather round and stood there very awkwardly; it was definitely anticlimactic. Friday I had expected to go to the Musée d'Orangerie to see the Water Lilies, but the line was a mile long and so I opted for the Musée Rodin instead, which was very nice. Yesterday I went out on a mission for the perfect wooden spoon, which I found, along with a battery-operated scale I'd been thinking about for a while. I wandered around the Île St-Louis, where I found some lovely olive oil and truffle oil, and the Marais and les Halles. This morning I got myself out of bed by 9:00--this has only happened once or twice while I've been here--and went to the market at the Bastille, where I bought some wonderful cheese, fougasse olive bread, and amazing fluer de sel.

When I haven't been sightseeing or shopping I've been cooking and thinking about food. I just love shopping for food here. I will sorely, sorely miss the heaps of endive everywhere, and the cheese shops, and the baguettes--oh, man, the baguettes--and the thick asparagus spears... One could almost juice the asparagus, they're so succulent. I made a wonderful risotto with them last night. One day I found some amazing Basque bleu cheese, which I sprinkled over endive, and dressed with very expensive olive oil, a few grinds of black pepper, and a dash of fleur de sel. Amazing. I had the same thing for lunch today, except that I threw in the chilled leftover asparagus. I also made beef stroganov one night, which turned out pretty well.

I'm not sure how I'll spend my remaining days here..... I'm a little tired of museums. I hope to go to either Versailles or Rouen on Tuesday or Wednesday, and am even considering leaving for a night to visit Nice. We'll see.