Paris-Day 2

Welcome to Paris!!

Today is our second day here, though really our first full day since we didn't actually get to our apartment until around 7:30pm last night.

Let me tell you, 9 hour jet-lag is a bitch. Last night we went to sleep at midnight, which, for all intents and purposes was 4pm according to our body clocks. I slept until 5am Paris time, which is 9pm San Francisco time. Then we were out and about, eating breakfast and running errands during what was essentially the middle of the night for us. We ate lunch at the equivalent of 5am. After a while my body was just like, "Dude, what the hell, go to bed!!" and when I talked to Steve, I slurred my words, and my eyes went all glazed and wiggly.



Here is a photo, not of Paris, but of the pot au feu we had for lunch at a place near Place de la Madeleine. I include this photo to demonstrate that whomever started the whole European-portion-sizes-are-smaller rumor was a jackass. This was one huge friggin lunch, consisting of beef, leeks, turnip (or maybe it was parsnip; once it's cooked for 14 hours, who can tell the difference?), carrot, potato and cabbage.

Let me tell you, it was delicious, the beef so tender it literally fell apart when your fork touched it, but I only ate about one third of it, the plate was so huge. Steve and I easily could have shared it.

All around us, however, were gorgeous skinny French women, eating their entire bowl of pot au feu followed by a huge hunk of apple tart covered with cream. How do they eat like that and stay so svelte? HOW??? HOW???!!!!!

Oh, the meal also came with marrow bones. I am trying to be adventurous food-wise this trip, and so I thought I might try the marrow on a piece of bread, but once I touched it with my knife and felt that giggly/gelatinous consistency, I just decided it was a bridge too far.

I have vowed to try escargot at some point during our France travels, and I still plan to. Maybe even frog's legs. But that marrow, I just couldn't do it.

The macarons we had later at Laduree, however, those were a cinch to consume!!

One other exciting thing about our lunch today was the recycled wine. The waiter would bring over an opened bottle of house red with your meal, pour you a glass and then leave the bottle at the table. We only had one glass each, so half the bottle was still full when the waiter cleared our places.

He took the half empty bottle of wine, topped it up from a big jug or vat behind the bar, and brought the bottle to another table. We could have done anything to that wine: added a little mustard, some salt and pepper, a little arsenic, and they never would have had any idea. Well, they would have guessed something was up when the folks at the next table fell face-first into their pot au feu....