Edna on the Road: Lost in Paris

When I got up this morning, I discovered that both of the WCs in our car had "Out of Order" signs, so I went to the next car, which only had one working WC. Again, I'm VERY glad I packed a roll of toilet paper (complete with a string through the middle to hang around my neck, as there isn't any place to put it down.)

We finally pulled into Paris over an hour late. Our train arrived at Gare Bercy, and the metro directions I printed online said to walk to Gare Lyon (rather than taking the 14 and changing trains there), so we consulted a map in the station and headed out. Eventually, we discovered we had been walking in the wrong direction--we found the Seine on the wrong side of us, so back we went. Poor Beth was waiting to use the bathroom at Gare Lyon, as the restroom at Gare Bercy had only one open stall and a loooong line. Once we arrived at Gare Lyon, we took the metro to Saint Paul, checked the map at the station, and headed out confidently. In the wrong direction. Again. Usually both John and I are pretty good at reading maps (we didn't take any wrong turns in Florence or Rome), but something wasn't working today! We're blaming the maps in the train stations--when we used the iPhone maps, we immediately figured out where we were.

Eventually we found our way to Ile St. Louis, where we are staying at a beautiful B&B. It's on the third floor (70 steps this time) of a 17th-century apartment building. Our hostess, Carol, had very thoughtfully saved some pastries from breakfast for the kids, which was really appreciated, as they hadn't liked either the croissant provided by the train or the other breakfast foods we had picked up the day before.

Our first tourist stop of the day was Notre Dame. The family has been debating the merits of the various churches we've seen this trip. John and I both like Notre Dame the best, Matt and Beth both liked Saint Mark's in Venice. Surprisingly, no votes for St. Peter's in Rome, although I think the kids were too exhausted to appreciate it. (Beth didn't even remember going there!) The interior of Notre Dame is too dark to photograph well, but it was gorgeous.

Here we are on "point zero":

Here is a detail of the basement ceiling at Sainte Chappelle, another gorgeous church we visited today.

The kids outside the Palais du Justice:

The men-at-arms hall in the Conciergerie (more Gothic arches):

We also stopped by the Archaeological Crypt. The models of Paris through the centuries were really interesting, but we were less fascinated by the history of the Roman forum and baths found in the area, having just come from Rome!

For our afternoon snack, we attempted to visit the original Berthillon ice cream place on Ile St. Louis, only to find that it's closed until September. We had to make do with Berthillon ice cream from the brasserie on the corner. It was delicious--as good as, if not better than, all the gelato we ate in italy. I had apricot, Beth had mango and pineapple, and Matt had white chocolate and dark chocolate, which tasted like candy bars rather than ice cream. (John elected to get first crack at the shower, so he skipped the ice cream stop). The double cones that the kids got were literally double cones:

Here is our master bedroom:

And the kids' room:

Since today is our twentieth anniversary, we dressed up (as much as our limited travel wardrobes allowed) and went out for a very nice dinner. We went around the corner to Auberge de la Reine Blanche, recommended by Carol. I apologize for the quality of the photos: the restaurant was rather dimly lit, and I didn't think the other patrons would appreciate flash photography!

We splurged on the three-course menu, and shared bites of everything. For the entrée, we began with house made foie gras with fig jam (John), house made duck terrine (Edna), onion soup with croutons and cheese (Beth), and frogs' legs a la provençcale (Matt):

Everything was delicious, and the various house-made garnishes were superb (John's fig jam, my little pickles and what we think were beets, Matt's zucchini).

For our plats, we had lamb stew with vegetables (Edna), boeuf bourguignon (Beth), and sliced duck with mashed potatoes (John & Matt).