Museee d’orsay and Jules Verne.

Well it’s our last full day and since we are staying right next door to Musee D’orsay we planned to visit before our big planned lunch at Jules Verne (Alan Ducasse at 153 metres up Eiffel Tower) . Huge crowd outside museum - what the hell- it had been empty every other day. Why? , once  month free. That was cool, we waited in line which didn’t take that long since there were no ticket transactions going on. No need to go on about the contents - full of Monet, Manet, Pissaro and Van Gogh - Barbie trying to convince me she now has the perfect impressionist figure after all the french food..

After debating to walk or Metro to Jules Verne we walked - about 30 mins and it was interesting - considering France has a huge motor industry and with Germany next door, most of the cars in Paris were pretty ordinary. On Sunday however a new class of automobile emerges. Porsches, Renault Alpines old citroens as well of many american and italian muscle cars suddenly appear.

I note we have been in France 3 weeks and have wet to see any rain - except yesterday ( I forgot to put in blog) when in pissed down as we took a romantic stroll through jar dins Tuilleries . We were having a happy wander through Catherine de Medicis neat rows of trees when we felt our first drops of rain for the trip. A drip turned to a drizzle which was soon a heavy downpour - luckily when the trees lost their protective cover we found shelter under a coffee shop umbrella. There goes an hour that was not unpleasant. 

More unpleasant was Catherine de Medici who among other things instrumental in the study of toxicology having experimented on doss houses by giving differing amounts of poison in peoples food and thus developing the LD50 for various poisons. The LD50 being the lethal dose for 50% of the population - but I digress..

After the rain we headed back and walked around Saint Germain in search of a cheese shop I went to with the boys a few years ago. My memory was it was in a little busy street and they served the cheese in a clock like manner - say you had 8 cheeses, you would work your way around in ever stronger styles of cheese till the end. Alas, I found the shop had closed a year ago.

Now back to the lunch at Jules Verne - nice to avoid queues to go up the Eiffel Tower and we couldn’t believe we must have had the best table in the place with uninterrupted views up the Seine and directly facing Montmartre. The meal was magnificent, expensive and memorable. I kept the menu so will take a picture and post it.

amuse bouche

view

I'm thinking the lens needs cleaning

One of 2 desserts

petit fours

wheels in motion

Marais Food tour

Saturday Barbie had booked a Marais for walk for both of us. I’m thinking this is a bit expensive for a walk with someone showing us some boulangeries and fromageries, but being the compliant husband I trotted along. We hadn’t really explored Marais before, so got there early to identify our meeting point and generally have a look see. 

A superior croissant after a surgical cross section cut

Meet up was 10:30 and we were hungry as we weren’t sure if we’d get a ton of food on the walk. Marais is a cool area so an hours wandering was fun and interesting. Less interesting wwas when Barbie realised the meeting point was at number 124 and not 24 which meant a sprint to meet the little tour group of 6, four Americans plus us plus Catherine the Paris by Mouth blogger and tour guide. Armed with a degree in anthropology and masters in food history plus years in Paris reviewing and eating its food, we felt pretty confident.

First stop was a boulangerie which had just come in top 10 baguettes in Paris. We were told this was a really big deal and pushed elections and the like off the front pages of the paper. We were on a hunt and gather bought baguettes, croissants and sour cherry tart (barbies idea) and went to a park to eat. He also had prizes for the croissants. We learnt good croissants weren’t crescent shaped, croissant bueurre is made with butter vs margarine and the top ones always have a standard butter of special provenance . If you cut it with scissors, you will see craters rather than continuous layers.Of course a top croissant doesn’t need anything with it. I could write more but you may need to go to your bakery with a pair of scissors to do a test.

Next is the humble baguette , first,it should’t bend - you should be able to club someone with it. Another important attribute to look for is the bottom of it should be slightly rough, not like braille. The former has dough resting on linen, the latter is machine made.

We then ventured to a fromagerie and since I love all cheeses but have no real knowledge, she pointed out the more interesting facts that goats cheese in France is only made in breeding season and thus it is real mothers milk vs an artificially induced milk. What we cn never get in Australia is non pasteurised cheeses so will always have to travel to Europe to experience the more exotic cheeses

Famous bread/croissant shop

look for the craters

Spices

Oils

Not for the kosher

See price of Jambon $299euro/kg

Eating

Fromage

Jacques Genin chocolate shop

We then ventured to a ham and meat shop with one ham at $300eur per kg. Again foraged more food before settling at a wine shop with a booked room. This was really weird as it was all cask or boxed wine as they call it. With pictures of apparently many of Frances top winemakers we are asked to believe this was the new cutting edge trent in wine.

We sat down with a big carafe of Rose, vin blanc and rouge to eat bread, cheese and jambon. the equivalent of 3 quarters of a bottle of wine each plus he food we were all satisfied.

That was before our visit to a specialist chocolatier and soft sweet maker - I’m not really into chocolate, but the soft june things - especially the carrot flavoured ones were amazing.

We expect an email detailing where we went etc from Catherine so I may post it later for anyone travelling.

Afternoon of fun exploring other parts of Paris and dinner finally had snails..

Paris Day 2

 Today was a really early start as we had some business to do outside Paris. Our colleague, a local, met us at the hotel as he said the trip out was a bit complicated. Via Montpanarse we caught a train past Versaille about another 20 minutes. Although it was just some business it was great to spend time with locals other than shop owners and waiters.

Most people comment on how good the paris and french trains are, and I agree. The suburban ones though are quite expensive - about $20 return for a 40 minute suburban trip. The local guy said he pays 100 euro per month that covers all transport within about a 50km radius which given the quality of service is pretty good.

For lunch Barbie dragged me on a long walk to Cafe Coutume a coffee geek place half Australian owned. I am not really into the whole coffee snob bit and now we have switched to short blacks anyway, it's not as if it's wine with that much variety. Anyway, a good lunch - I had skewers with haloume, tomato and courgette (zuchini) with a pesto salad, Barbie had an amazing salad but I can't remember what it was. Coffee good..

A thing to note is that a short black costs from 1 euro up to about 3 euro (ave 1.20eur) but anything like cappuccino , latte etc starts at say 3.50 and up to 6.50 eur - that almost $10. 

Afternoon was spent wandering around the 7th arrondissement then up to Saint Germaine where of course drinks, cheese and jambon beckoned. By the time we got to hotel we were stuffed and missed a proper dinner - sort of on purpose, as we knew Barbie had booked a Marais food tour tomorrow.

Lots of Fiat 500's

Our hotel room - over the top Christian Lacroix design everywhere

Another wall in hotel room

Ligier very small car - Ligier was famous in racing once

Weird shop near hotel - downstairs was gardening supplies , upstairs the weirdest collection of stuffed and non stuffed animals

More stuffed animals

These French are innovative - electric share car..

Paris Day 1

Today we travel to Paris from Monaco by train.

By good management (or luck) our hotel was a short walk to the train and it was 9:15 train so very convenient. Monaco has a massive train station with walking tunnels snaking out all over town. There is also one SNCF track which meant we had no change needed to Paris.

Train trip was great, sunny day with excellent  scenery though I watched Zero Dark Thirty on my new MacBook Air. Anyway the 6 hour rip felt like nothing.

Arrived a bit late as train had problem en route but very happy with Barbies choice of hotel, Bellchasse which is right next to Musee D”orsay . Hotel done in Christian Lacroix theme which is really out there.

Arvo just spent acclimatising to Paris and I found a restaurant by luck hat matched the highly recommended list - called Latiere - small, family affair which French/Japanase cuisine - a Cote Rhone red from Vaucluse was incredible. They do really refreshing entrees - watermelon , mint, goats cheese and pine nuts with oil - zoo good. Barbie hankered for beef and she had boef and pommes de terre.

I forgot - we squeezed in a visit to Rodins Garden which was just up the road.

Rodins Garden - green hydrangias

Recognise him?

Monaco last day

I am writing this 3 days late so my it may not sound as exciting as it really was at the time.  After yesterdays big day at Cap Ferrat we decided just to have a quiet day in Monaco. As I have mentioned, I lived here in the early 80's and I had a recollection of a quiet village like area.

I remember the grand prix was on and I just wandered up to Cafe de Paris, grabbed a seat and watched part of the race. Now, the Cafe de Paris is huge, expanded sideways, backways and seems to have a casino below it as well. The main casino has also expanded to the left and is triple its original size. Up the hill next to the Hotel de Paris there was a movie theatre and offices - now I think the movie place is still there alongside every major prestige brand of clothes. The streets are packed with Bentlys being the Toyota of Monaco.

The rest of town must have been a property developers dream, there are huge blocks of apartments with a whole new little town called Fonteville added (also tax free and part of Monaco).

That said, it is still a pretty town and we walked way up the top behind it (yep, really steep) and enjoyed looking at the quaint apartments and villas dug into rock. There are some electic stairs and lifts but never where you happen to be.

When we got back down to the harbour we booked a small boat trip to see monaco from the water and while we had a hour to wait sat down for drinks. Cool place on the water with a signer guitarist who clearly didn't speak english but tried playing many rock classics. Satisfaction, Hotel California and Stairway to Heaven were all very strange when sung phonetically. Barbie had a Melon Granita which I guess is a fancy word for a slushy.

Boat trip was great, we got closer to the over the top mega boats and got a better perspective of town.

Had a great dinner near hotel at Il Terraso which was a napoli restaurant , super fresh ingredients and great wine. Entree was simple but so  good - buffalo mozzarello, tomatos, basil and oil..

Monaco from above

Singer who can't sing

Barbie and slushie

On the Fonteville side of Monaco - I am sure this area must have been formed by a huge earthquake.

Apartments..

Monaco more pictures

Here are more pics from Monaco and Cap Ferrat and Ville Franche

Cap ferrat - 360 degree view villa

Note the helicopter

Lots of houses had hand painted designs

St Jen Cap Ferrat walk

Cool plant

View of Ville Franche sur mer

Another view - see aquaduct

My old apartment block - Casabianca - blvd du Larvotto

Another little boat

Saint Jean Cap Ferrat

After Cannes , we got to Monaco after a killer traffic jam - now I was wondering just how smart I was for swapping train for car, oh well..
Finally arrived and of course roadwork blocked the road to our hotel and was the part cause for the traffic into Monaco. All fine and we ditched car and checked into Novotel which somehow got raving reviews from Trip advisor. We are on top floor with great mountain views . People forget that Monaco is not just famous for tax dodging and the Casino, it is drop dead gorgeous too.

I lived here for a period in 1982 and so our first walk was down to my old apartment block at blvd di Larvottotto opposite the man made Larvotto beach. I am sure then number of apartments has multiplied by 100 and the tourists many more as my memories were of a quaint town and not one of hoards of people. So, like Byron Bay and Bali, 30 years reaps plenty of change.

It is still very beautiful with the cliffs and grand buildings as well as quaint shops and amazing boats and cars.

Being tired we found Gourmet express and had really great pizza and pasta + wine in the hotel room.

In the moring we set of on my planned excursion to Saint Jean cap Ferrat. This really was a treat, Cap Ferrat being a peninsula filled with huge villas and fantastic coastline. Drive was great, no traffic and we found a good parking spot. A wander around the lovely port where we saw original Riva boats, regular fishing boats and of course the billionares mini ships dotted within the harbour.

We were quick to notice Russian voices and restaurant signs in Russion - this must be where the oligarchs hide their cash.

We found the start of the 8km perimeter track (thanks Barbie) and had a fantastic walk around the whole peninsular. The limestone (I think it is limestone) around the coast plus the deep blue water make you think you are in paradise (I think we are). Along route we could see the huge (ridiculously) mansions and villas with equally amazing gardens. I am thinking lots of funny money here. At the end we found a beach Plage passable - with cafe where Barbie had coffee and I swam out into the harbour opposite Ville Franche sur mer, another favourite place.

Finished the day with a look at the Rothchild estate which was built early last century - looks more like a palace than anything else. See pics

cap ferrat walk

plage passable

nice pool

2 Teslas being charged

Me and my Riva

Old limestone (the rocks)