Monday, April 22, 2024

Paris Day 2: Alliance, etc

 

Monday

4/22

10am-5pm Delacroix Museum

1pm Alliance lunch (him, 5 rue de Poissy, 5e)

Things open: Conciergerie, Deportation Martyrs, Marche aux Fleurs

 

-Our first of 4 “boozy” lunches in Paris. Today was 1* Alliance on Rue de Poissy in a lovely area of St. Germain des Pres close to the Seine.

-We talked about going to the Delacroix Museum first but didn’t get up early enough to make it worth our time. So we did a wander about Passy. We walked down to Rue Raynouard close to Balzac’s house and took a little street called Rue Berton, cobbled between high walls, apparently one of the original streets in the area. Cute. Clean, no dog poop which was surprising. We came out and went into Parc de Passy and was that just gorgeous. Beautifully landscaped, with a nice playground for the kids, arbors with flowering plants, flowers planted all over. Kind of idyllic. Totally envious of the people living in the apartments with it as their backyard.

-We came out of the park, got a little turned around and wandered over to Musee des Vins which is a dead end. Figured out a different route to the Passy Metro station and started our journey to Alliance.

-We got off at Maubert-Mutualite and slowly made our way there. Pretty area. We were a smidge early and the restaurant was empty but 3 other tables arrived shortly. He greeted us with hand sanitizer. Very pretty restaurant and view of the kitchen. Lots of people working there—they kept appearing from out of nowhere, lol. Host had perfect English. They were very accommodating to my pickiness which I really appreciated.

-The host was exceptionally welcoming and helpful. We enjoyed everything we had and I had to tell him the chicken dish was better than at Core.

-Amuse: spring rolls, crumbly cheese brioche bread and spicy breadstick, lollipop of carrots, onion tart, foigras cane with port.

Main courses: lobster bread pop-wow!; French caviar; oyster in cream;  sorrel mushrooms and peas; crab ravioli; sorrel egg and asparagus; artichoke brulee; lobster croque monsieur; john dory with celery sauce and glass wort; lobster with morels mushroom and sauce; lamb rack with kidney (ok), peas, and lamb crackling on toast; chicken with fresh asparagus-wow!; cheese plate. Everything was paired with nice wines. Definitely would return!

-Left and headed toward the river and exceptional views of Ile Saint Louis, Notre Dame, Hotel de Ville (which now was covered in tents and security barriers), and into BHV’s Bricolage in the basement.

-It’s Lowe’s and Ace Hardware and Sherwin and a little Target all put together. Really cool. I lost husband for awhile so found a handy chair and hung out while he shopped. We walked around the main floors of BHV after but they weren’t quite as exciting as Bricolage, lol. Pretty store.

-Husband wanted to go to La Meurice, eventually, so we routed ourselves in that direction via Tour Saint Jacques. It’s in a pretty park and would be cool to climb. My uncle Blaise Pascal’s statue is in the middle of it. Through the Louvre outer buildings where classical music was being performed by a cellist, then in another section by a violinist (I think). Pretty low key at the Louvre it being a Monday later in the afternoon. We saw the Joan of Arc statue which always looks so impressive on TdF, but less so in person.

-Got to Le Meurice around 645pm. Very expressive black man on the piano accompanied by a man on saxophone. We were sat in the Dali restaurant area but eventually moved inside to the bar seating. Impeccable service and tasty cocktails made for a really nice time. We had 2 drinks in the restaurant area and 4 in the bar but weren’t charged for the ones in the restaurant. We brought it to the server’s attention and they seemed grateful for our honesty and then still only charged us for one drink.

-If money was no object, I don’t think I’d choose this hotel because of its very touristy location but it was sure nice to hang out there. And I really wish the restaurant would start offering lunch again.

-Metro back to La Muette, using the escalator to get us to the street, lol. Caught the 11pm sparkle show from my window.

 

Paris

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