First Full Day and Old Friends

Arising fairly early, with another nice yogurt, fruit, and coffee breakfast, and off on a slightly cooler day, at last. We're going to see Catherine Godon and her daughter Anne. We met them almost 20 years ago, when Catherine was doing a year-long Fulbright fellowship in the US and lived in Rockridge; her daughter Anne attended Ecole BIlingue with Madeleine and they became fast friends. It was great to see them both, especially Anne who was traveling in South America and broke her leg zip-lining and was recuperating back in Paris. Catherine's friend Martine also stepped over and we had the chance to see her as well, which was nice (we have stayed at her place in the past). We went to see a friend of Catherine's who lives in the 14th and is thinking of renting her cute studio apartment on airbnb. Then off to Le Flibustier for traditional Breton crepes, followed by a trip to the BHV basement hardware section to get some Allen wrenches so Barney can do some repairs for Catherine. He says he will spend a month in Paris every year once he retires, fixing things for Catherine and her friends, and I think he would really enjoy that. Of course he'd have to learn all the words for various items in French, but the universal language of tools works well.

There is a cute shop in the 3rd called Goumanyat & Son which specializes in saffron, and we have gone there in the past to get saffron and the most delicious curry powder with rose petals. Unfortunately, we did not call first, and found that the store had closed and they are only available online. Darn. So we went to another spice shop we had been to before called Izraël in the 4th (near the old Jewish district), filled with huge sacks of nuts and spices and all sorts of delicious smells. We went there years ago with Madeleine, so it was fun to revisit this place. Catherine then headed out, and we went to the Louvre.

As always, the Louvre is huge and amazing, and 90% of the tourists head straight for the Mona Lisa. So we headed for the Italian paintings that were not the Mona Lisa and enjoyed them ... five Leonardo da Vinci painting all in a row, utterly luminous, and no one looking at them but us. We also spent some time with the Davids, Barney's favorite, the huge format paintings.

We left the Musuem, and the rain had arrived, so we dashed across the Point Neufchâtel to the Place Dauphine, where there are several small, old restaurants I had tried before. We went to Le Caveau du Palais, which looks out on the lovely triangular park there. We shared some paté, Barney has a nice steak and I had fish, with some good wines. By this time the rain had abated, and we headed back to rue Lalande for a good night's sleep.