We arrived in Paris on a Friday morning, May 25th, after an overnight flight from NYC.
On time, bags arrived, and we're ready to go.
We're staying tonight at the Hotel Studia, in the 6th Arrondissement. It's a little 2 star hotel right on the Boulevard St Germain, and only a short walk to L'Isle de la Cite and Notre Dame. Nothing fancy, but it'll do the trick, and the price is really good.
After we settled into our room, we set off to wander around the neighborhood, meandering our way towards the Luxembourg gardens. A short jaunt from our hotel is the Pantheon. Soon after we pass by, Brendan decides it's time for our first official wine and cheese break of the trip. We stop at a cafe, order 2 glasses of Sancerre and une assiette de fromage.
We can feel the pressures of our daily lives dissipate as we sip and savor and watch the world go by. Sufficiently relaxed, we resume our petite pieton and head towards the gardens.
The gardens are beautiful, as we have come to appreciate from pretty much all the gardens we have visited in France. Having both read Paris to the Moon for last year's trip, we decided to find the marionette theater and carousel so often talked about in the book. As we stroll, we notice several art installations/sculptures built around the statues of the french queens that line the park. Some are more interesting than others. We find the theater and the carousel and notice that there are some really dark storm clouds looming on the horizon....
We decide to head back to our hotel, to change and get ready for dinner...but alas, mother nature had other ideas. Oh yes, the skies opened up and decided to dump giant buckets of rain on us. We sought refuge under the awning of the nearest cafe. Our only option was to stay and have some wine as we waited for the downpour to let up and watched Parisians and tourists alike dart about in search of shelter. In no time at all, the warm temps of the day dropped what felt like a good 20 degrees fahrenheit. We had no idea that this was a sign of things to come.....
Once the rain eased up, we decided dinner would be a good idea, so we wandered around and discovered one of those pretty 'hidden passageway' streets. The first restauarant that caught our fancy (specializing in cuisine from the Perigord region) was already booked with reservations for the evening, so we settled for dinner at Bistro 1900.
The interior was very pretty, and definitely evoked our idea of Paris in the 1900s (supposedly, it dates back to that time). We shared a Terrine du Maison to start. It was paired with a fig confiture spiced with ginger. For our mains, Brendan had Canard Roti with Potato Gallete in Confit du Canard and I had a Salade St Germaine. Our meal was very good. No fireworks (though the terrine was a standout for it's freshness) but exactly what we needed.
Sated, dry and happy, we made our way back to the hotel and to bed.
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