10/27/2014
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| The cute courtyard of our vacation rental |
We woke up late this morning--10am--quelle horreur! Laundry, researching stuff and the blog took us to 3am last night, so I really, really didn't want to get out of bed this morning. But baby was a chirpy chipmunk and kept on tugging my wrist, to the point where my arm was gonna fall off.
Originally, today was supposed to be our museum day. BUT. Our research last night told us all the museums were closed on Mondays. Damn. Why do we never remember?! So we rearranged our Paris itinerary, and chose to spend what was left of the morning grocery shopping, our favorite hobby.
On our way to the giant Monoprix on Avenue de l'Opera, we had to go through Places des Victoires. Every time we come here, this rotunda has always been under construction, so it was nice to see it finally free of construction debris/fences.
Monoprix was jammed pack with people--I think because yesterday all the supermarkets were closed, everyone's doing their grocery shopping today. One wonders when anyone in Paris works, as everyone seems to be out and about. It was around lunchtime, and most restaurants were packed with friends talking and smoking.
At Monoprix, we bought croissants, Emmental cheese and ham to make our own croissant jambons. We also bought Italian grapes of the green variety. Ever since Dad discovered these grapes in Italy, he's been insisting we buy them everywhere in Europe. We bought them in Normandy and in Tours, and as it turns out, the prices are the same as in Paris. Around 2.99 euro/kg. Sometimes they go down to 2.49 euro/kg at the Carrefour. These grapes are delicious. Angel says the taste reminds her of lychee; I think it tastes very floral and honeysuckle. We all love them.
We dropped off our groceries back at the apartment, and when we went out again, I got rid of some change (man, the coins are heavy!) at Collet, our favorite boulangerie on Rue Montorgueil. Last time, we bought so many croissant amandes and croissant jambons from them. So to commemorate this, we bought a croissant amandes to snack on, though it's kinda a sticker-shock when you've been out in the countryside and you can buy 4 for less than 3 euros (Collet's is 1.90 euro, and we've seen some other boulangeries go for more).
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| Love the way they wrap the croissant! |
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| Almond Croissant |
We walked to Le Grande Epicerie on the Left Bank to hunt for our favorite truffle salt, as we'd bought it here last time. The upscale grocery market has expanded to double/triple its former size. They have aisles specializing in the products of different countries. Guess what we found in the US aisle?
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| 13.35 euro/can of Planters Mixed Nuts. Crickey! |
So, Dad, Mom, eat up at home! ^.^
Thankfully, unlike the foie gras, the truffle salt did not rise in price by all that much. Angel keeps saying we're being priced out of Paris.
Angel saw their macaron display (more like has tunnel vision and went straight for their display). She wanted to buy some, so I let baby get her way:
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| Pampelmousse (Pink Grapefruit) macaron |
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| Chocolate, Gingerbread & Orange macaron |
The grapefruit one was delicious. The ganache had a very nice, light grapefruit flavor and had a silky texture. The chocolate one had an overpowering gingerbread flavor, so not so much orange. Angel thought it tasted like Chinese 5-spice. She still has nightmares about chocolate and Chinese 5-spice, as I brought home a ho-ho one of my classmates made in class back when I was attending CIA. Baby thought it was just a chocolate ho-ho, so she took a big bite...and was grossed out by the nasty surprise of 5-spice that permeated the whole thing.
Le Grande Epicerie is near the Bonaparte location of Pierre Herme, one of his first locations. It's also Angel's favorite location, as they sell cakes and tarts here. Each store sells different things, though I think the macarons are all the same offerings. They also charge a mere 30 cents for a box, unlike the Opera location, which only offers a fancy box and charges 3.30 euros for it. >.<
The girl helping us was also nice enough to give us an extra bag as they're so pretty --Angel's contribution.
She also mentioned that the winter flavors would be coming out in 2 weeks...Foie gras and chestnut. Say what??? I asked if we could do a special order, but alas, it was a no-go. In 2 weeks, we'll be far, far away from Paris. Angel asked if we could make a day trip back to Paris from England, just so she could buy the winter flavors. Baby troll.
Baby was so excited with all the cakes in Pierre Herme, she was running back and forth, looking at all the different offerings. She was super excited to find out that the Ispahan was still being sold, as she'd read that PH had stopped selling it for the year. She said, it's our 4-year anniversary of the first time we came to Paris, and we had bought an Ispahan that time, so we should buy one this time to celebrate this anniversary.
So we did:
We even took it to the same place we'd eaten it last time:
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| Eating on a bench in front of St. Sulpice |
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| Pierre Herme Ispahan |
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| My, it's bigger than a burger! |
Angel: It was easier to bite into rather than crack into it with the plastic spoons they gave us. Jen had a harder time of it - maybe she broke a tooth.
The raspberries were so fresh, the ganache was so silky smooth, and the rose... I could go on forever about the rose. I love rose in pastries! It's so light and floral, pairs wonderfully with the lychee.
This is St. Sulpice:
By this time, it was already 4:30pm. Somehow, we lost track of the time, as we'd planned to be at the Bastille around 4pm. Oops. Always an hour late on this trip.
We bought the carnet ticket down in the metro station, which is a booklet of 10 tickets for a discounted price of 13.70 euros--otherwise, a regular-priced ticket is 1.70 euro. We'd learned our lesson last time--the Bastille may look close on the map, but it soooo isn't. Metro's a better bet for your time.
Once we got out of the metro station, we saw the Opera Bastille, an ultra modern building where we'd be watching the opera tonight:
Less than a 2 minute walk away is Chez Papa, a chain restaurant in Paris known for its foie gras. We ordered two platters of foie. This one is supposed to be a trio of seared foie gras with balsamic vinegar, gingerbread and fleur de sel:
We didn't taste the balsamic or the fleur de sel, which was good because I like the pure taste of fatty foie gras. Look at that baby!
The other platter we got was seared foie gras, cold foie gras, seared duck breast (although we thought it tasted like pork) and prosciutto/salad.
Jen couldn't get enough of the potatoes. They had parsley, garlic, and were probably cooked in a vat of butter. =)
Angel: Overall the meal was excellent. I would've liked a little more pairing with the foie gras (i.e. Budapest pumpkin puree from Kispiac or truffle sauce from Voros), but even without that the foie gras was so tasty. I was telling Jen that next time if we go, I might bring my own can of fruit jam to pair with the foie gras. We ate early so we didn't run into the regular dinner crowd (aka smokers).
When we got to the opera, we saw a sign that indicated there were last-minute cheap seats available. Jen was super irritated because she'd stayed up until 2am to buy the tickets when they were first released. Oh well, maybe next time.
Inside the Opera Bastille, where they have a "panoramic" view of the Paris skyline. Though it's blocked by all these damn grids:
The Eiffel Tower lit up again! Like yesterday! We're guessing that it probably lights up on the hour, every hour after dusk, for probably 5 minutes, then stops.
The top row on the side is where the last-minute cheap seats are. Not bad, eh? Another quirk of the Paris opera is that right before the curtain rises, the ushers will let the people in the balcony level rush toward any open seats in the front of the balcony. There was a mad dash for the open seats on the right-hand side of the stage...something else to remember for next time.
Our seats were in the direct center of the balcony, and the seats in the Opera Bastille are pretty steep so you don't really run into the issue of seeing the heads in the row ahead of you unless the people are leaning forward.
Tosca was a really lovely opera. The staging production outdid themselves--it was really innovative, while keeping with the traditional historical set design. The acoustics in the Opera Bastille are awesome, though sometimes the music drowns out the singer (depends on which singer). The two leads playing Tosca and Cavaradossi sang beautifully--I shuddered at some notes, they were so good. I loved the way they "showed" Tosca's death--a black curtain fell and she walks toward the light, like darkness (aka death) falling and the soul ascending to heaven. I think, according to the original production, that Tosca leapt to her death, but they didn't do this. They did the black curtain falling, which was really innovative of them.
Angel listens to opera on her headset at work and she really likes a song from Tosca, E lucevan le stelle ("And the stars shone"). I'd never heard of this song before tonight, and I asked her to poke me when the song came on. When she did, I jolted up. It's a really nice song, though a bit slow for my taste.
Stupid frog.--Angel
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