Paris, Day 2

Paris, France

After such a long day yesterday, we decided to sleep in this morning, finally waking up around 11:15. I took a quick shower then walked to Eric Kayser for a pain au pomme (apple croissant) and coffee – Matthew just went downstairs for breakfast (he’s not much for being adventurous at breakfast time!).

We met Jeffrey and Julie in the lobby and walked over to the train station at Musee D’Orsay to catch the train to Versailles. It’s an easy 30-minute-ish ride from Paris, and we arrived without any problems. Our week-long Metro pass allowed for us to go in a pretty wide circle around the city for no extra charge – I highly recommend going this route if you’re going to be in Paris for a week or longer.

When we arrived at Versailles, the weather was clearing up a bit – and the lines to enter the palace were enormous – so we decided to start in the gardens. Wow! We walked around for over 2 hours, admiring the symmetry of it all. Of course, we got hungry, so we grabbed so-so paninis from the vendor in the gardens and filled our bellies. We then walked down to the Trianon, past the sheep pasture, then back to the chateau. By that time, we were able to walk right in without standing in line! Great call on our part! As expected, the Hall of Mirrors was the highlight of the chateau tour – OMG!

We took the train back to Paris and got off at the Place de la Concord to find the Ferrari rental that Jeffrey had seen the day before. Matthew and Jeffrey negotiated with the guy there and struck a deal for Matthew to rent the car later in the week and to drive it out of the city so he could really open it up!

Since my parents were going to the ballet that night, the 4 of us took the Metro over to the 10th arrondissement for dinner at Chez Michel, a restaurant specializing in the cuisine of Brittany. Our server, Regis, was absolutely darling! When we sat down, there was some delicious bread on the table along with a bowl full of sea snails which I was very reluctant to try! Regis convinced me that I HAD to taste just one – I’m so glad he was insistent – the snails were amazing! For my dinner, I started with a ceviche appetizer then had a turbot (fish) dish that was so light and flavorful for my entree. Dessert was a traditional pastry with praline cream that was incredible. We drank 2 bottles of wine that night (that’s a lot for Matthew & me!), bottles that Regis recommended. After dinner, we took the Metro to meet my parents at Harry’s American Bar near L’Opera to listen to some piano music downstairs. We were all a little “tweaky” from the wine and I think we caused a bit of a scene dancing our way down the stairs and to our table!

We found our way back to the Metro station and were in bed some time shortly after midnight.