Les Visiteurs

Earlier this week my parents dropped in to Paris for 4 days to see me. :-) They brought California weather with them. It was gorgeous! They stayed at a very nice hotel on l'Ile St. Louis which afforded them lots of views of the balustrades of Notre Dame, and me too since I walked over to pick them up every day.

Both of them have been here before several times so we avoided the main touristy things and checked off some things I've been meaning to do. Like eat soufflés at Le Soufflé.

And see St. Sulpice (which was the church highlighted in DaVinci Code where the monk tried to dig something out of the ground). The obelisk was cool because it was part of a "gnomon" (sun-dial of sorts). There's a brass line that runs directly North/South on the ground and up the obelisk which measures the height of the noon day sun (as it shines in through a stained glass window facing North). The day where it reaches it's highest point is the summer solstice.

Outside we enjoyed a Plenitude (chocolate cheesecake mound) and Millefeuille from Pierre Herme, checking another choc shop off of my Tour Du Chocolat list.

And that night we went to the house of a colleague of my dad for dinner. We enjoyed the typical French fare: nicoise salad to start(which was really fresh and delish), fish and pommes de terre for seconds, bread and a cheese board for thirds, then choc mousse and merengues along with fruit salad for dessert. Dinner lasted 3 1/2 hours :-)

On Sunday we tramped along the Champs d'Elysees and stopped at a modern art exhibit at the Grand Palais, which is beautiful BTW.


There were really cool works at the exhibit. Some favs:

Converging Territories #11 - Lalla Essayda

That's calligraphy all over the place - something the women are forbidden to do in that culture.

Long Shadow - Jaume Plensa

Other Side, Break - Clea Coudsi and Eric Herbin

Those are vinyl records composing that car track and as the car went around, there was a needle on its belly so it would play bits and snippets of the songs from all the different records. You could really hear it when it rounded the big corners with one big chunk from a single record.

Origine - Bernard Pras (only 8,000 euros, for the photo not the actual room)

I somehow didn't get a picture of the full photo of this, but they used clothes! (you can even see a teddy bear in the mix) to make up this work.

That night we took a boat cruise around the seine and I discovered a perfect little park (Square du Vert-Galant) that's tucked away beneath Pont Neuf on the tip of Ile de la Cite that is begging to be revisited when the sun peaks out again.

Tuesday was the visitor swap. Mom and Dad left for London and Rebecca came from London to stay for a couple days. The days of eating-well continued.

We happened upon a deelish cafe on my favorite street, Rue Montorgueil, called Cafe Marie Stuart. Rebecca's dish came with camembert cheese that was toasted in this little shell before being placed atop her green and delectable salad.

Wednesday we hit up a market in the 12th which unfortunately was sparce due to the rain, but the foodies were still there. We both got a bucket full of fresh strawberries for only 1 euro.

And then warmed our toes and stomachs at Angelina's for their thick-as-thick-can-be hot chocolate. It was undescribably good. We were surrounded by some pretty well-to-dos, which was fitting as it was a pretty upscale place.


And Monday after my work, we munched on a little baguette and some cheese, and then explored Le Bon Marche, including le Grande Epicerie. Our feet were a bit tired at that point and Velib was calling, but turns out it was a little frustrating and I had about 10 things to jot down in my "what not to do" UI book. Rebecca got to ride her bike for a block though before we parked and headed home (her to London actually).

It's always fun when friends (and family) come to town :-)