Letter from Paris 3 May

We had a very leisurely morning enjoying coffee and homemade bread while looking out onto another gorgeous day in Paris.

our "home" metro stop

 Once outside we made our way to the 5 at Campo Formio to the Bastille. Leaving the Metro we found our way to 40 rue de la Roquette and Alain Ducasse's new chocolate shop and production facility.

With chocolates in hand we returned home briefly to drop our package off and then turned right around and headed to the 5 to Bastille where we switched to the 1 to Champs-Élysées-Clemenceau and the Petit Palais. Several of our favorite statues are here:

De Gaulle striding down the Champs Élysées

Churchill in wartime near the Petit Palais

The Grand Palais was closed for an event but it was the exhibition of Dutch painters in Paris at the Petit Palais that drew us to this part of the city.

The exhibition focused on  Gérard van Spaendonck for the late 18th century and Ary Scheffer for the Romantic generation; Jacob Maris, Johan Jongkind and Frederik Kaemmerer for the mid-19th century; and George Breitner, Vincent van Gogh, Kees van Dongen and Piet Mondrian for the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Also included for comparison in this very well curated exhibition are French contemporaries including Géricault, David, Corot, Millet, Boudin, Monet, Cézanne, Signac, Braque and Picasso.

After exiting from the exhibition we strolled in the main hall enjoying some incredible artwork.

From the Petit Palais we made our way to  the Passages Panorama, Jouffroy, and Verdeau spanning across the the 2nd and 10th arrondissements before ending at the galeries Vivienne and Colbert near the Jardin du Palais Royale. as we strolled through the jardin we stopped to watch a game of boules played.

At Palais Royale we got on the 1 and transferred to the 5 and home for an afternoon break.

That evening about 7pm we left home and walked to the 5 and switched to the 2 at Stalingrad (the Metro stop not the battle) and got off at the chaos of Pigalle for dinner at Bouillon Pigalle. This was another recommendation by Clothilde Dusoulier as the quintessential Paris bistro experience.

Indeed, while the food was good -- we both had steak frites washed down by a half bottle of Cotes du Rhone -- it was the ambience that was truly spectacular. From the lively and whimsical wait staff to the very feel of the place as it filled up, and nearly everyone near us spoke French. When we left there was a line out the door and almost onto the street waiting to get in.

A quick observation about the wine at the restaurant that we thought rather unique. While many bistros in the city offer house wines, and in some cases only house wines, Bouillon Pigalle puts a unique spin the concept. You could order a glass of the Rhone or Luberon (only two reds listed), for example, at about 3€, a half bottle for 6€, a bottle for 13 a magnum for 18€ or a jeroboam (3 ltrs) for 38€ all served in generic carafes. The young French couple next to us, for example ordered a magnum of red wine so 3 ltrs for a large table probably made good sense. Fascinating.

Leaving the restaurant we walked across the street to the Metro and line 2 back to Stalingrad, then 5 to Campo Formio and home.