Ah, Paris!

Friday, 15 March (the Ides!) 2013

Bon Soir!  Nous sommes en Paris!  Yipee!!

A Munich morning

In our compartment

Spring in Germany

So, to start.  We woke about 6 to another cold and slightly snowy day.  Down for breakfast about 7, and then rested a bit before heading to our 10:28 a.m. train.  As it turns out, about 9 it really started to snow hard, so we decided to make our way to the train station, “just in case.”  (One can never be too early for trains or planes!)  No problems getting there and, once there, we headed to the DB (Deutsche Bahn) lounge – it was for first class customers, and this was one time when I actually did splurge for first class train service!  The lounge was lovely and warm, with plenty of room to spread out, and we could watch the train departure board as things were posted.  About 10 our train track was announced, and down we went.  Lovely compartment, all to ourselves!  Not sure why, within the same car, there are first class seats and first class compartments!  At any rate, we were all alone in our compartment for 6, which was really great!  They were also doing service, so about noon, Robert ordered a salad, which he very much enjoyed.  

Lunch on board

At Stuttgart, we had to transfer to the TGV train to Paris – all in 8 minutes!  Fortunately, the TGV train was on the next track over, so we really just had to move all our belongings and find our new seats.  This train wasn’t nearly as comfortable as the Deutsche Bahn train, but we had two seats together on the upper level, which was nice.  This train was fairly crowded, but as it was only about 3½ hours, it wasn’t a problem.  All in all, we pulled into Paris about 10 minutes late – overall travel time was about 6 hours, and voila, here we are in Paris!  

It’s a wonderful surprise and totally unexpected, but it’s clear and sunny in Paris, unlike the forecast, which said we would have three straight days of rain!  Yipee!!  Out of the train and then to the taxi queue.  One of the first there, so not a problem and we shot out into traffic from the Gare d’Est.  We had a great driver – one who could carry on a serious conversation on his cell phone, use his hands to gesticulate, AND drive, all at the same time!  Took about 20 minutes to get across town, past Park Monceau, around the Trocadero and the Etoile (Arc de Triomphe) and over to Radio France, on the right bank of the Seine.  Our hotel, La Eiffel Kennedy is right next to Radio France, a nice 3-star that had good reviews.  

The view from our room

Our room

Guess!

Checked in; we’re in room 430; top floor, and we have a great view of the top half of the Eiffel Tower!  What fun!  The room is about the size of a postage stamp, and believe it or not the bathroom is almost as large as the room!  After all our lush and large accommodations for the past five weeks, this comes as something of a shock, but it is spotlessly clean and very comfortable!  We just need to coordinate movements so that we’re not both moving at once.  I had heard that the rooms were small, so when I packed in Munich this morning, I arranged things so that we only have to open one suitcase!  Certainly makes things easier!  This is one room in which one must stay organized or you’ll never find anything!

At Truffles Folies

Starters - Truffles and truffled goat cheese

Robert made sure that the WiFi worked, and then out we went, first to get some transit tickets.  We brought our Navigo cards, but they really won’t buy us much, as the weekly pass goes from Monday to Sunday.  So, bought a carnet of 10 tickets and we’ll see about getting day passes tomorrow.  There is an RER station just down the street, so no problem getting tickets.  Then on to a #72 bus, which we have always liked – it follows the Seine along the right bank to Hotel de Ville in the 1^st.  This time we took it to Pont d’Alma, and changed to a #92 taking us to the 7^th.  Our friend and neighbor, Stew LaCasce, had sent me a link to a newspaper article about a truffles shop -- Truffles Folies -- in the 7^th – which also includes a restaurant.  So…forever on the hunt for truffles, we found it with no problem.  It was about 6:30 p.m. and we hadn’t reserved, but the owner said that if we could manage to be done by 9 p.m. we could have a table.  So…we were in!  Fabulous meal!  Lots and lots of truffles everywhere!

Tomato stuffed with truffled goat cheese

Cepes soup

Tagliatelle with truffles

Shrim and scallops with truffles and leeks

Ice cream sampler

Cheese sampler

Eiffel Tower at night

We started with a plate of truffled goat cheese and truffles on bread – YUMMY! (On the house, compliments of the chief!)  Then for starters, Robert had a wonderful goat cheese (flavored with truffle) stuffed tomato, served on arugula; it was GREAT!  I had cepes soup with truffles, which was also good – just not as good as R’s tomato!  For mains, I had the truffles on tagliatelle – and we sprang for the Perigord truffles, which were amazing.  Robert had shrimp and scallops on a bed of sautéed leeks with truffles.  For dessert, I had truffled vanilla ice cream, and R had three truffled cheeses…WOW!  We’re going back for lunch tomorrow, as they are closed tomorrow night.  Can’t wait!!  I’ll probably dream about truffles tonight!

And it’s the Louvre in the morning…a wonderful day!

More later, and THANKS, STEW!

m

xxx