TWA Hotel

 Home at last, back to a real computer and keyboard! 

I don't recall where we were, but sometime last summer, we saw a segment on CNN about the TWA Hotel in New York City; https://www.twahotel.com/. It seemed like a fun place to stay, so when I was making our travel plans, I booked us a couple nights on our way back home. What a place it is! There are many activities for the whole family, including a huge Twister room, where kids of all ages can play the game. There's a recreation of a 1960's living room (James says it reminded him of his childhood), lots of old cars, uniforms, luggage, and other memorabilia. The bartender at the bar on the main floor works in a pilot uniform! And yes, we enjoyed an adult beverage in Connie! It was a fun couple days!

If you're passing through JFK, it's a quick stop just outside of Terminal 5. It's about the only place before security you can get a meal or beverage, unless you can make a meal at Dunkin Donuts...

And PS- Happy 23rd Wedding Anniversary to us- and they said it wouldn't last!

Wrapping Up Paris

Please excuse any weird words, spacing, etc. I brought my iPad instead of my Mac, and we aren’t playing nicely together…

How the time has flown by in Paris! We have enjoyed some fantastic weather, one day of rain! Anytime we could, we ate outside, and enjoyed the people watching. We stuck pretty much within walking distance and frequented the local shops, cheese, bread, produce, rotisserie chicken and potatoes. Two farmers markets.

A French wine class, French wine and cheese, French sauces, French bread, and lastly, a perfume workshop!

Our last night at our apartment/hotel is here. This is a concept we really like and appreciate. Need clean towels, go to the towel room and swap out for clean ones. Toilet paper- down by the towels. They clean once per week, and available for a fee for extra days. Dishwasher detergent, at the front desk. Espresso, hot chocolate, etc, in the lobby, just bring a cup from your cupboard. Citadines is the name, and a very small presence in the US, for now!

Our last week started off with some pretty lousy meals, like not good at all.  We didn’t want our last few meals here to leave a bad taste (pardon the pun), so we did a few repeats as sure bets! DON’T scroll down if you don’t want to get hungry.

Maison Thevenin Boulangerie; We enjoyed fantastic breads of all kinds here including a James favorite, chocolate croissants. No pictures cuz we ate them all too fast!

Le Bistro du Périgord. Small family run restaurant. Excellent traditional French food.  We went three times in total. French Onion soup, Escargot, Duck breast, Duck confit, crème brûlée….

Le Pre Brassserie; Caesar salad and Champagne. Nice fresh lettuce, nicely dressed for James, we returned today for lunch! On our way back from lunch, we ran across some street performers who provided some French entertainment. Enjoy the short video!

!

Fish la Boissonnerie; scallop carpaccio, swordfish, gnocchi, chocolate ganache with clementine sauce. Tonight was our last fancy Paris dinner here. Repeat of the scallop carpaccio, sea bass, and lamb. Everything was excellent.

Tomorrow we head to a hotel closer to the airport for one night to make our journey to fly out on Monday much shorter and less stressful. The room has a fridge, so we can take our remaining bits of cheese with us to enjoy for a late lunch!

Next up- the TWA Hotel at JFK, this should be a real change of pace from Paris! Au revoir!

Samaritaine

 Since this is not our first trip to Paris, and we have the luxury of staying for a few weeks, we have time to check out some lesser known spots. Yesterday was one of those opportunities. Doing a quick search on Google maps around where we are staying, I found a department store called Samaritaine. I wasn’t interested in it from a shopping perspective, but the architecture! 

Shopping wise, they carry only high end brands, with an entire floor for shoes! Closed in 2005 for structural issues, painstakingly rebuilt and reopened in 2021, it is stunning to say the least. Already decorated for Christmas, but we didn’t mind since it added to the beauty. Photos from the reconstruction were prominently displayed, and they show it was completely gutted and restored.

Definitely catering to the high rollers, at one of the Gucci areas, they had two customers roped off, and were serving them champagne! We did enjoy adult beverages on the top floor, I had champagne and James had some fancy cocktail, which he really enjoyed.

These pictures won’t do it justice, but trust me, it was spectacular!

Second week in Paris

 Our second full week in Paris has been relaxing yet full! Tuesday was a holiday, so most shops were closed including Ina Garten’s favorite fromage place, after we trekked there, oh well, on the list for next week. We wandered around the Marais, the high end of Paris, whose name translates to swamp. Also home to the worlds largest city hall.

James got a Paris haircut. His stylist caught Covid right before we left, so he was overdue for a cut. We found a place, scheduled an appointment and hoped for the best. It turned out really good!

 Friday was my French sauce class at La Cuisine Paris. Fun time making mayonnaise, vinaigrette, wine sauces, etc.  Ended the class sampling all our efforts. 

 Saturday was my French bread class at Le Cordon Bleu. Fun times, lots of good bread, and explanations about why my shortcuts are not so good. Lessons learned! I knew I was going to return with fresh bread to consume, so James went to the market and picked up mussels to recreate a dish from our cooking class in 2018. Still a winner, but better with my bread!

I’m starting to panic that our time here is rapidly ending! What else should we do? Where else should we go? I like that given this is my third trip here, I’ve seen the big stuff, but have barely scratched the surface. My French speaking has not significantly improved, but I am much better on pronouncing words.

Tomorrow we are walking across the bridge to La Samaritaine, a shopping building that was closed for 15 years, and reopened in 2021. It looks amazing, we’ll see if it is! Excuse the order of how the pictures show up, hopefully you can figure out what is what…

Weekend Update

So, this will be random musings, disguised as an update from the weekend.

We headed out on Sunday morning for the Monge market we had been to before (2018) with Fred, our chef from LeFoodist. About a mile uphill, but we found it, and it was as quaint as ever. We settled on some Brie and bleu cheese along with some fresh apples and pears. After the market, we walked over to Rue Mouffetard and checked out the local shops. We were looking at everything while walking to the Monge market, and made a beeline back to where there were rotisserie chickens calling our names for dinner. Fortunately, you can get half a chicken. Combined with roasted potatoes cooked in the rotisserie drippings, and a green salad, dinner was set!

Monday, we headed back on the Metro in search of Le Cordon Bleu ahead of my Saturday French bread class. We found it, and then headed over to see the Eiffel Tower. It was suppose to rain today, but it was sunny and beautiful, in fact, we’ve enjoyed nice weather so far, and are very grateful.

Except for lunch today, we’ve eaten every meal in our apartment. We’ve gotten lots of use out of the stove and dishwasher. Clearly, we have used the kitchen more than other guests, as when we asked for more dishwasher detergent, it took awhile to figure out what we were asking for! It’s been nice to enjoy a meal of exactly what we want, and enjoy it minus cigarette smoke, a shocking number of people smoke…

Tomorrow, we’re  going to check out some cheese place as recommended by Ina Garten, Wednesday, James has an appointment for a haircut! His normal stylist came down with Covid right before we left, and I convinced him it might be fun to try something new. He’d kill me if it doesn’t turn out, but I have all our travel info, and besides, his hair grows fast…

Apartment Life

Today we moved from our hotel to our home for the next two weeks; an apartment. From a small room, to a small apartment. We have a little over 500 sq feet, a separate bedroom, living room, and a kitchen with two burners and even a dishwasher.  The two burners only allow for one large and one small pan, so meals will have to be planned accordingly! No oven, so we’ll be forced to buy bread, or maybe take bags and take the extras from our breadbaskets home (Iris would be proud) 

There are laundry facilities here too, although we haven’t seen them, seems like we won’t have to haul our dirty laundry around the neighborhood! Big plus. They clean once per week, so we don’t have to clear out every day for cleaning. When you need clean towels, you take yours down and pick up some more. Need more tp, stop by the front desk and pick some up. Espresso, hot chocolate and tea available in the lobby. This will be a fun experience, we are on the boarder of Latin Quarter/Saint Germain.

We wandered to the Marche Couvert Saint Germain market today and gathered some dinner supplies. We have pots and pans but no food, not even salt and pepper- thank you Covid. I managed to whip up a nice pasta dish. So nice not to have to figure out where we were going to eat and how to get there…

Tomorrow we’ll check out a market we visited in 2018 and pick up supplies for a few more days!

Tourists

 The past few days, we’ve done more touristy type things. Explored the neighborhood, checked out the location of the apartment we will be moving to on Saturday. Walked through the church that’s next door to us Saint Severin (check it out on the internet). Found a good restaurant we are going back to tonight. 

We’ve been walking a couple miles every day, today was nearly three. Maybe I should have brought more newer pairs of shoes with fresh cushioning, cuz today my feet were killing me on the cobblestones…

We took a wine tasting class, learned about French wines, and tasted some really good wines. We learned how understand a French wine label, which wines come from which regions, and tons of other good information. Highly recommend Wine Tasting In Paris.

Today (Friday), hopped on Metro (subway) and ventured out. It’s fairly easy to navigate.  We made a return visit to one of our favorite spots- Angelina’s for the worlds best hot chocolate. The chocolate is amazing, and the whipped cream is whipped by hand in large copper bowls., some strong arms there! We were smart enough this visit to not eat beforehand, as it’s quite rich and filling. 

After our meal, we hopped back on Metro and went to the Champs-Elysees for a quick trip to Guerlain. I wanted a French perfume that you cant get in the US, and they were recommended. Beautiful store, and LOTS of choices. Lots of tourists in the area too, hence the reason we went on Friday and not Saturday.

Tomorrow we move from our hotel to our apartment. We are looking forward to having more space, and a kitchen. The staff here at Parc Saint Severin has been lovely and helpful, quite tolerant of our pathetic French, although I am getting better!

Off to enjoy a nice dinner at a small family owned French restaurant.

French Laundry

 Went to (the) French Laundry and returned with clean clothes.

We have always talked about French Laundry. How expensive it was. How much time it took. Completely fake news. We went to a French Laundry today, and in under two hours, had clean, dried and

folded laundry.

Quite an experience with no one there, and everything in French. Thanks to Google translate we quickly figured it out! They say the best way to learn is to teach, and no sooner did we get the wash going, a Ukrainian man came in and didn’t know what to do. Helped him out, and got some first hand reports of the conditions in his home country. Not good.

We hung out in the area around the hotel in the 5th today, getting acquainted with our new neighborhood. Lots of cheese shops, meat and fish markets. Quite different from the supermarkets of the US!

PDX to JFK to CDG

 What a fast week it’s been. Turned out to be much longer days than we anticipated, and we left tired. We left for the airport at 6:30am on Tuesday and headed to New York. We got in late, and by the time we arrived at our hotel for the one night, the restaurant was closed… Luckily, they had some frozen options, so we ate (not enjoyed, ate) our first “New York” pizza. 

While in NY, we took an Italian food tour with Foods of NY (highly recommend), which got the taste of that frozen option out our mouths, We walked around, and took two hop on hop off bus tours with TopView, which pretty much crossed all my must see sights. We were even able to get much closer to the Statue of Liberty than I thought we could. It is weird that the NY one is smaller than the replica in Paris…

We walked through several neighborhoods on our food tour and the Halloween decorations were impressive. I’ll post a few to give you some inspiration:

Today was a long travel day, our flight was delayed out of JFK by several hours, long ride to the hotel. Tomorrow is going to be low key, involving sleeping in and laundry. Found the self service laundry that the hotel recommended tonight. Everything was in French, but luckily I have Google Translate!