Au revoir a Paris

The rest of my Paris excursion was no less exciting. I am still fighting off a spell of jet lag, but all in all, I've covered just about everything I wanted to experience.

Day 2
Kicked off today by going to the market and getting a smoothie for breakfast. I walked down the street, away from the shops, to enjoy it in some peace and quiet. When you walk in a busy neighborhood in the morning in Paris, all the markets are abuzz selling/delivering food to the local restaurants. I didn't have to wait long to taste the best effect of that interaction.

Confession time. I really had only two motives for going to Paris. Those reasons did not included seeing the Louvre, or visiting Versailles gardens, or brushing up on my French. Those of course, were nice side effects of such a stop, but not the prime mover of re-routing my whole European stay. Nope, I made sure Paris was a stop on this trip for really two reasons. One was this place:

Last time I was here, my life changed forever. I had no idea food could taste this good. I had no idea a simple lunch could be such an epiphany. I wanted, nay needed, to come back.

This creperie only opens for about 3 hours a day, five days a week. It is run by two French men and one dude who I can only assume is the kitchen help. It opens precisely at noon and closes up shop around 3pm.  Some people only need three hours a day to change the world.

When you arrive (and observe the formalities like immediately extending a dignified "bonjour"), you are seated as soon as Ludvig (the extremely well dressed and to the point owner) has a moment to direct you to an open seat and pull out the table for you. Take a few minutes to try and decide what to order, and before you know it, you got your lunch.

I had debated to go with last time's pick of ham/cheese crepe but I decided to branch out and get the cheese/mushroom/cream/cumin one. I can't pronounce its name let alone spell it, but it did not disappoint. Afterwards I got dessert as a matter of necessity. This crepe was much lighter, but filled with caramel sauce, nuts and sliced pears. I took my time through this whole process, about 1.5 hours. In France, the term 'fast food' exists, but it is a base offensive swear word. If I could choose a few hours of my life to be played on repeat, visits to this place would be in the running.

I didn't have the heart to take a photograph of my meal and degrade my favorite Parisian creperie into a tourist attraction, sorry all. Some things are just left better to your imagination. After bidding a fond farewell to my favorite crepe masters, I headed off to Versailles gardens for a nap.

Day 3

After eating a buttery croissant drizzled with some prune-honey (way tastier that you imagine), I was off to the Louvre to cover what I missed last time around. I was the first one in line to get in actually,as I used ol' Rick Steves trick of using the downstairs metro entrance instead of the pyramid. Since I beat the crowds, I figured I would say hi to these two gals before I hit up Egyptian Antiquities and the Flemish Renaissance wing.

After 3 hours of bumming around the best museum on the planet, I followed my Louvre tradition of eat lunch at the highest rated bistro I could find in a neighborhood nearby. This time I went to the Marais section of town just east of the museum and introduced myself to the Cafe des Musees. This place was rated in the top five for fixed-plate lunch menu's less than 100$ by a fabulous Parisian travel blog I adore. I figured I spent about that much last trip on my previous post-Louvre lunch outing, and didn't need to repeat it.

When I arrived, there was only a small table with one seat left in the packed cafe. The handy French waiter quickly wiped it clean and put me to work figuring out what I wanted. No need to scan the menu when they have a fixed-price set lunch. Today's lunch was two courses:

A flavourful chicken-liver pate

Roasted duck-breast drenched in heaven sauce with mashed potatoes

and for dessert: creme chocolat!

Yep. There is the secret. The best style of vacation only has three ingredients: a walk around the city, cultural visit, and as much tasty food as I can find.

Au revoir Paris! I hope I its not too long before we meet again.