Luxembourg Garden – my favorite place in Paris

Today I went to Luxembourg Garden to read. I brought the Stephen King book that Michael got me for my birthday this year.

It’s about the fifth time I’ve managed to find a few hours to go there, sit, read and watch people stroll by. I just love this place. Even though my current apartment isn’t at all close, I either walk 45 minutes or hop on the Metro to get there.

The last two times, I’ve gotten lunch from a nearby place and have taken it to the park to eat it. Here was my lunch today.

 

It was a ham and gruyere sandwich, with butter spread so thickly on each side that the butter peaked through the holes in the bread. You can see it in the photo. I got a couscous salad, as well, and the dessert in the little box is a tart citron meringue, or a lemon meringue tart. It was amazing! Our tour guide on one of our Paris Walks tours showed us the shop (Gerard Mulot) and recommended it for picnic lunches. It’s a little pricey but well worth it for the quality and it’s only a few blocks away, at the corner of rue de Seine and rue Lobineau, on the way from the Odeon Metro stop.

Michael even came to the park with me today,

 

Why have I loved this place for so many years? I guess because it’s peaceful and lively at the same time. There are ALWAYS enough green metal chairs to sit on–no matter how busy the park is. There are running, shrieking children and people of all types walking by on the light beige gravel. There’s always a bit of shade to catch, like under these little trees along the path.

I also just love the little cafe tucked way under the trees.

I usually get a cafe or a chocolate.

Except on nice Sunday afternoons, there always is a chair available at the Pavillon de La Fontaine.

 

For a few days I went to the Tuileries Garden, outside the Louvre, and that was very nice too. But Luxembourg Garden is still my favorite and always will be. It’s the vibe, it’s the memories, it’s the peaceful feeling.

 

 

In foie gras heaven

One of my favorite things about traveling in France is all the foie gras.

You don’t have to be at a fancy restaurant to see it on the menu; it’s pretty commonplace. And it’s so much better in France than in the U.S., where it always seems to be fried or ruined in some other way.  In France, it’s sliced and put on the plate or on a salad. I think chefs in the U.S. cook it to cover up the fact that it’s not pristine. In France, it’s pristine. Perhaps they keep all the good foie in France and ship the crap to the U.S. (Just like the Japanese do with the best sushi fish. Ever hear of blue fin tuna? No? That’s because the Japanese sushi eaters want it all.)

Why do I love foie gras so much even though I know that some find its production morally repugnant? I love it because it’s a taste like no other. It’s like meat butter, or meat frosting. If meat could be chocolate, then it would be foie gras. It’s meat chocolate.

I order it whenever I see it on a menu, and by the time I leave France, I’ve had it so often that I’m glad to lay off it until the next time I return. I also do this with poke in Hawaii. I eat both until I can’t take it anymore.

So here’s to foie gras, uncooked and served the French way.

Paris, the City of Walking

Forget the City of Light business. Paris is the City for Walking. Michael and I are about 5 days into our 5 weeks in Paris and we have walked our feet off. It’s been great. The health app on my iPhone must wonder what the hell is going on. We’ve been logging 5, 6, 7-mile days.

This first bit of our trip has been a lot of orienting ourselves. It’s so great not to have to make it a forced march through one week of precious vacation. Instead, we get to take our time, do one or two things each day, relax, walk aimlessly if we wish, avoid the crowds (like the huge line that we see everyday outside St. Chapelle.) We’re also trying to save the attractions for  when our friends come, as they’ll no doubt want to see things like the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Versailles, etc.

Here’s what we’ve seen so far of our neighborhood. To the north is a busy/chaotic immigrant neighborhood, very diverse, filled with recently arrived Africans and barbers and little convenience stores. To the west is St. Michel, a street that I believe used to be a red light district. Even today, prostitutes all in black stand in doorways with cellphones in hand. The prostitutes looked older than I would have expected; looked like they’d been doing it a long time. And their all-black outfits with boobs on display looked like a uniform of sorts.  Rue St. Michel also has a lot of restaurants and it’s interesting how the respectable restaurants mingle with the “Sexy Shops” and peep shows also on the street. But it doesn’t feel dangerous or seedy. Everybody/thing seems to co-exist.

To the south of our apartment, is a neighborhood full of shops and restaurants that stretches to the River Seine. It’s great to be able to walk to the river, to the George Pompidou center, the Marais — even to the left bank and Luxembourg Gardens if we’re up for a long walk.

Yesterday we walked to the southeast of our apartment and soon found ourselves in a quiet, rich area. We walked to the Tuilleries Garden, where I’d never spent much time before. It’s the huge garden that progresses out of the Louvre and, it being a Sunday, it was filled with families and children and strolling Parisians and tourists. We sat there and read books. I think we’ll go back there today. It’s a lovely, sunny day in the upper 60s.

The view from the balcony of our apartment.

I feel very comfortable here and Michael is starting to feel so as well. I’m loving this living-in-Paris-thing so far!