Maxine took a special tour of the reception rooms at the Hotel de Ville. This is the Paris City Hall but, its much more elaborate than the usual city hall in a U.S. city.
An excuse to stay up all night sponsored by the City of Paris. We don't actually understand French modern art. Or maybe we don't understand anyone's modern art... One night a year the city of Paris runs the event called Nuit Blanche, which I (Tom) attended 12 years ago and we've been looking forward to since before we arrived. We accept that we don't "get it". But, that's ok. It's fun. And one of the areas where they were concentrating this year was less than a mile away. But, first, lunch. We picked up sandwiches and macarons at what had been one of our favorite bakeries in 2006 when we lived down the street. With the weather remaining great, we had a picnic in Luxembourg Gardens. Now, Nuit Blanche... Nothing says French Art like outdoor roller ball Or tall women posing next to statues of DeGaulle Or soccer under black light in glow-in-the-dark, neon rain jackets. But, Paris at...
We moved from Los Angeles to Portland just over 2 years ago. We'd been coming to Portland for 20 years and always felt a strong bond with the place. It simply has a LOT of the things we value in where we live (I won't enumerate them here -- this blog is about Paris). During our time (this time) in Paris we kept noticing ways in which Paris and Portland were alike or at least similar to us. Here's the list we came up with: 1. Guys with man buns 2. People are polite: "no after you" 3. Both cities are food oriented 4. Geographically, everything is close both in distance and transit times 5. Similar weather -- not a good thing! 6. Liberal/progressive 7. Both are among the most attractive cities we know. With Paris, it's from the hand of man -- buildings, architecture, public spaces. With Portland, it's the setting -- green spaces, the trees. 8. Both cities have an anti car attitude 9. Guys can wear scarves and not feel silly 10. ...
There is one restaurant that has been on our Paris must try list for over 4 years -- Septime. TimeOut Paris calls it "the hottest table in the world" and also says that "getting a table is like being a contestant on the Hunger Games." So Maxine has been on a quest since we arrived in Paris. Seats are released at 10am, 3 weeks and a day in advance. After several unsuccessful attempts, we got a lunch reservation (easier than dinner) for yesterday. Yes, there was a lot of anticipation! Lunch service started slowly and we were afraid we'd been forgotten. We were feeling disenchanted until Tom spoke to someone -- major apologies and complimentary glasses of champagne to make amends. And then we had a great lunch! With our champagne, we enjoyed a melted gouda dip with homemade breadsticks Raw scallops with squash and squash broth infused with black cardamom served with a Sicilian orange wine Tom doesn't eat fish/shellfish so his first...
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