Our thoughtful neighbors were cleaning their kitchen earlier last night. The cleaning brigade was on duty from 11 to midnight night. I suppose that’s better than 3am! Or maybe not…
We make a plan for our last 6 days here in Paris. Today we are off to the Ille de Cité, the center of France and the center of Paris.
When we were in Portland, OR a couple of years ago, we found the Stray Boots tours. You sign up on your smart-phone and pay a minimal amount per person. The phone tours take you to places you never would have found! You answer questions as you find your way through the city and take selfies or other photos to show you have been in the places suggested in the tour. We loved the Portland tour.
Our Paris Stray Boots Tour is a disaster from the moment we start. The first 3 questions do not have accurate directions and the answer to the second question is wrong. We call it quits on the tour.
We stop back at the cooking school to purchase a few items. Cynthia and Bruce bought some cheese at the market last night and forgot to take it home. The receptionist at the school is happy we have their phone number. I get their VM and tell them about the cheese and that there are 2 slots open for the trip to Champagne.
The forgotten cheese was Mont d’Or. Chef Eric said to cut the round cheese in half crosswise; to the open side add garlic and a splash of white wine; put the top back on and wrap in foil; and cook until hot and serve with bread. He said there will be no leftovers even if 2 people share the rather large round of cheese. I hope Cynthia and Bruce got to make their cheese treat!
We decide to next visit a famous cooking shop, E. Dehillerin, in the 1st Arr. We have a bit of a walk ahead of us so we look for a cafe to eat and rest our feet. On the way we pass a taxidermy shop. The famous Paris taxidermy shop, Deyrolle’s, is on our to do list. This shop is not Deyrolle’s but we will try to get there before we leave.
We stop at the cafe we frequented on our visit to Paris in 2000, Le Comptoir Dauphine. Our server is very nice and seats us at the window in very comfortable seats. Howard has a composed salad of smoked duck breast, duck confit, chicken gizzards confit, foie gras and warm goat cheese with toast (a heart attack on a plate) and I have Croque Monsieur (essentially a ham and cheese grilled sandwich). The lunch rejuvenated me. We move on to find the kitchen shop.
Dehillerins was a favorite of Julie Child. The place is incredible; we’ve been here once before. There are dimly lit hallways with items that have not see the light of day in decades! No items are priced; there is a big printed book with all the prices at the front desk. We find a small, heavy saucepan–we’ve been looking for such a pan. And Howard cannot resist buying a kitchen knife.
Our declare our work done today! We are ready to get home and put our feet up. It’s a good thing we are here for 2 weeks because we need twice as long as anyone else to get done what we want to do!