For breakfast on this day we found a place called “Pret a Manger”, which could be like their Tim Horton’s because we saw several around town
already. I got a croissant with bacon,
tomato, and cheese, M1 got a slice of carrot cake, M2 got a chocolate croissant
and an egg salad sandwich, and M3 got a lemon loaf cake. I would say the bacon, tomato, cheese
croissant was the best thing I ate so far in Paris – better than yesterday’s
tart.
Our plan this morning was to attend a macaron-making class. It was an activity we had pre-booked back in
Markham already because one of M2’s favourite foods are macarons. I find them extremely over-priced for
something I can just inhale in one second.
So if we learn how to make them, we can save money in the long
run.
The class was an hour and a half and the instructor was very
nice. It actually takes 5 hours to make
macarons because you have to make the shells, let them sit for a while, bake
them, and then make the cream for the centre.
So the shells were actually pre-made for us and we just made the cream
centres. She did show us the whole
process but we didn’t bake the shells that we made in our class. (Perhaps we were using shells from a prior class and our shells would get baked for the next class.) The instructor demonstrated how to make the
shells then each person would get a chance to try. M1 and M2 did but M3 and I opted out. At the end we got to take with us the 4 macarons for which we made the cream centres – we would chill them and have them for dessert at night. They were very sweet, which was not surprising after seeing all the sugar we put into them.
There was another family where the kids were on their phone
the entire time and not paying attention to the instructor. When she asked for people to come up and try,
the teenaged son was the first to jump up.
But when he got to the front of the class, he said, “What do I do?” This infuriated M1, and she muttered, “Well,
if you weren’t on your phone the whole time, you would friggin know!” Then when another lady was going to have a
turn and was having trouble getting her phone set up to take a video, the
father of that family stepped forward and said, “Can I go first?” This prompted M1 to silently ask, “How old
are you?” If you know M1, you’ll know she
was complaining about this family the rest of the day.
Lunch was at a restaurant called Le Florentin where I got
the famous duck confit, M1 got fish and chips, M2 only got a French onion soup (in
Paris it’s just onion soup) since she had a big breakfast, and M3 got grilled
chicken. The duck confit was amazing and
took the title of best food I had in Paris – it was a short-lived reign for
that bacon, tomato, cheese croissant.
We got a pleasant surprise after lunch as we headed to the
Louvre – the second attraction of our Paris City Pass. The Bus Tour tickets from yesterday were good
for 24 hours so we were able to get on before time expired and rode the tour
bus to the Louvre instead of taking local transit.
When we got there, we made a beeline for the Mona Lisa. This was the recommended course of action
because everyone told us it would be so crowded, and it was. We were able to squeeze our way to the front
and take a selfie with the most famous painting in the world. M2 wanted to know why we didn’t take our time
and look at other exhibits on our way to the Mona Lisa. She asked me if I’d rather see the Mona Lisa
and nothing else or everything but the Mona Lisa. I said we’d rather see the Mona Lisa and
nothing else. You can’t go to the Louvre
and not see the Mona Lisa! That’s like going
to the Hockey Hall of Fame and skipping the Gretzky exhibit. It’s not like we really know how to
appreciate art anyway, we just want to say that we saw the Mona Lisa. If no one told me it’s a famous
painting, I would think it’s just an ordinary painting of some lady with an interesting smile.
The Louvre was about a 30-minute walk from our hotel so for
dinner we went to a restaurant half way in between so that we could break up
the walk into two parts. We went to a Japanese
restaurant called Lai Lai Ken (you may have heard of the affiliated restaurant - Truth Truth Barbie) on Rue St. Anne, a street known for good Japanese
restaurants. I had fried rice, M1 had an
omelette on rice, M2 had ramen, and M3 got stir fry noodles. None of us actually got traditional Japanese
food but it was still very good.
Today was a packed day with several noteworthy achievements - the best breakfast item, the best food item overall, a free ride to the Louvre, seeing the most famous painting in the world.
Big Oh
No comments:
Post a Comment