All Over Paris

We had a terrific day exploring Paris today.

After breakfast, we headed to the 8th for a violin-making workshop, at the atelier of Frederic and Anne Levi. Right in the middle of the musical instrument area, we had a fascinating look at the world of handmade, Cremona-style violins. Frederic is the violin dealer (his father was in the busiiness) and Anne makes violins in the back of the shop. She showed us how a violin is made, from pieces of seasoned wood glued together and gouged and scraped into curves, to the final fitting out with bridge and neck and button. We got to actually try out some of the tools (which she herself had made) and gouging the wood was surprisingly hard. We got to see inside the violin as she placed the soundpost using a special mirror. And at the end, we were each given a bridge blank to "brand" with the firm/s name.

After some window shopping at the many instrument makers on rue de Rome, we walked to a nearby park at the end of rue Vienna (where apparently lots of local high schoolers hang out during lunchtime), and enjoyed our sandwiches and delicious peaches from the rue Daguerre market. The we walked south to find Dehellerin, the famous cooking supply place near the Bourse. What a place ... packed top to bottom with every imaginable piece of cooking equipment.  No prices, just codes on each item, and mounted books where you could look up prices. We bought a tiny cooper pan and scraper, and enjoyed seeing everything from tiny silicon molds to enormous wooden paddles 8 feet long for I-don't-know-what-purpose.

Since we were nearby, we walked down rue du Louvre (a bout of rain again) to take a photo of the Duluc Detective Agency, one of the inspirations for the Aimee LeDuc detective series by Cara Black. Wandering through the newly-hip 2nd, we went by Lockwood (written up in the SF Chronicle recently) and then o to Frenchie, where we had some delicious afternoon snacks of a brownie and fruited pound cake with coffee, a wonderful pick-me-up. They are affiliated with both the coffee place across the street and a restaurant down the road, as cooks came by to bring things out of the kitchen and carry them down the narrow pedestrian street.

Then off to one of my favorite paces in the world, the Museum of the Middle Ages, aka the Cluny. They are doing some construction and renovation, so there are temporary construction stairs to the second floor where the glorious Lady and the Unicorn tapestries now live. Their new location is smaller and darker, but the tapestries surround you so you feel like you are living in a room with these glorious works. Some of the Lady and the Unicorn-themed stuff as on sale in the gift shop so I went a little crazy, but alas, they no longer carry my favorite watch. In the neighborhood, on rue des Bernardins, we stopped by Rockridge Paris, a shop for which I had purchased a gift certificate from the EB auction a year ago. It has interesting gift items, lots of clever paper creations, and I bought a pair of paper earring and a crystal necklace.

Back at the apartment on rue Lalande, we had a nice Skype session with Madeleine to say bon voyage before she leaves for 10 weeks in Italy on two archaeological digs. She seems to have everything under contro, though a bit if last minute packing was underway. We hope that she has a wonderful time.

For dinner, we had made a reservation at the one-star Champeaux, which was terrific. We had a lovely table against the back wall, with wide mirrors so Barney could see all the action on a busy Friday night.  We started with some champagne, Barney had a nice charcuterie board and I had a delicious octopus salad, grilled tentacles with three sauces in small dabs around it, pimento, basil, and a white purée. Barney then had a lovely entrecôte with Bearnaise and frites, and I had a Scottish salmon with super-thin sliced vegetables and Beaise also. Bearnaise with frites is a new favorite.  Finally, we a Carmel soufflé with pistachio ice cream, which the waitress recommended putting into the soufflé after breaking through the top with the first few bites. It was delicious. Overall, a wonderful, 3-hour French dinner. We took the Metro back to Denfert, and home for a good night's sleep. Except that the washer was ultra-loud and made a huge racket during the spin cycle, so we rushed to turn it off, hoping we did not anger the neighbors below.