Vous avez vu la lune ?

We walked along the Seine twice today. We had only planned to do it once. After yesterday’s start-and-stop shopping rhythm, we were ready to stretch our legs. As we wended our way back to Montorgueil I spied a kitchen store … E. Dehillerin … But to call it a kitchen store is a bit understated.

I will let the pictures speak

Perhaps you would like a wisk?

or enough fish poachers to poach an ocean full of fish?

or a copper paella pan from which to serve 150 of your closest friends?

Then after a bit of a rest and some wrestling with our French cell phone (worthy of its own post) we headed off for a fashionable 9:00 pm dinner at a nearby restaurant. Again the regional focus was Perigord. My entrée salad was composed of mixed greens, walnuts, warm potatoes, grapes, bits of sausage and was topped with four thin slices of duck breast topped with duck liver. It was divine and went perfectly with my kir. The plat was a cassoulet Toulouse. We were tempted to try for a dessert since tarte tatin was on the menu and I have always wanted to try one, but decided since it was in the neighborhood we could come back any time. Also I had read somewhere that one must order a tarte tatin when ordering the meal … as you would do for a grand marnier souffle ... and that if the menu does not so indicate, you will only receive a pale imitation.

When we went out the door, I looked in the sky and saw that the promised lunar eclipse had already begun. We thought of the diners behind us missing out on this not to be repeated until 2025 event, and decided to stick our heads back in the restaurant.

“Vous avez vu la lune?,” Hunter asked the owners, and out onto the little street tumbled half of the restaurant’s patrons to look up into the Paris night. We decided to walk off our dinner by going back down to the river to take in the moon under an open sky. We were on the Pont au Change from which we could see the towers of Notre Dame, Chatelet, and the Eiffel Tower. The Bateaux Mouches made their way up the river below us. And ever so slowly the moon slid under its cover. It was amazing how few people took it in. There was one romantic fellow who called his girl on a cell phone. But mostly people were busy about their Saturday nights with few cares about the disappearing moon.

And so ended another magical day in the City of Lights.