p's birthday

today was p’s birthday. he took the day off so we could gallivant around paris together. we started off by starting late. we slept late, though i got up early to keep jj company, since she had to go to school. then i went back to bed. maynard, the dog is away so i didn’t have to walk him. it was grey out, but relatively mild. we went to cafe beaubourg (next to beaubourg) and had breakfast. cafe beaubourg is very “modern” in the relative “modernity” of the 60’s and beaubourg era. p mentioned that the outdoor chairs probably hadn’t been refreshed since then. the upholstery wasn’t in great shape. they do an amazing omelet which i had been craving for a while. i asked the waiter why it was that their omelets were so good. i said, it must be the butter and cream. he said that in fact, there was nothing in it like that. the “omelette nature” we had – natural, plain omelet, had only eggs in it. it all had to do with the “technique”. i was thrilled to learn there was no butter and cream. less guilt.

afterwards, we looked at “camper” shoes for p, but they didn’t have the color he wanted. they said to go to the store in saint germain.

then we walked to the louvre. we have not gone to the louvre since we arrived 18 months ago and this was p’s choice. so we spent a good part of the day there. not too crowded, being a weekday in january. i felt a little dizzy, i think i’m still a bit sick, or am having a reprise. but still, managed to do the hours walking in the louvre. we had a disappointing lunch in a louvre cafeteria. especially disappointing since i know they have a really interesting food court in the shopping area and “marriage freres”, a high end tea store with excellent lunch menu, plus “cafe marly” in a wing of the louvre which looks over the pyramid or the inner “marly court” of the louvre. anyway, we went through a lot of the louvre including the cliche “mona lisa”, “victory de samothrace”, and classics: david’s “napolean crowning josephine”, gericault’s “raft of medusa”, rubens’ “marie de medici cycle”, vermeer’s “the astronomer” etc. i thought it all would be tedious, but actually i quite enjoyed seeing all these paintings. we even saw the painting that i copied there years and years ago – “bethsabee” by willem drost, a student of rembrandt. (google it!). i still have the copy stored away.

we walked across the seine, over to the saint germain area. we were heading to the other camper store where p found the right color shoes and he bought them! this is exciting to me, because p rarely buys shoes and he really needed some.

then we stopped at the department store “bon marche” in the famous food department called “la grande epicerie” to pick up some sweet snacks. it WAS his birthday. then headed home to rest. had tea and sweets. jj got home. we had planned on going back to the restaurant that was downstairs from our apartment from 15 years ago, jj’s first home – across town near the bastille. we decided against it since i wasn’t at 100% and didn’t want to push it. so instead we went to our new favorite local cafe with very decent food, very decent prices and authentic french feel.

came home to have cheese course and nice st emilion wine. lovely. fun day.

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