Festivals

Tel Aviv and I had planned to go to Paris almost a week ago and well, yesterday, we finally did. Had an absolutely marvellous day. I love days when they just keep flowing along smoothly without any hic-ups and well, not too much distortion to the way I would like them to be;-)

I managed my walk in the morning, managed to buy Tweedledum's tickets to Paris (he's in London till tonight) and when I got back, Tel said lets walk to the station. No problems till here - love the exercise.

But then....the only hitch with catching the 11 o'clock train is that it gets you to Paris when you dont know whether to have morning tea, afternoon lunch or first go see a museum. So we had to spend a good amount of time debating our next move. I really wanted to go to Sacha and had thought we would go in the afternoon. But since that was the only place we were sure of, we decided to head there right away. Now comes the beauty of the day as far as I am concerned. We're walking along and we come to this beautiful lane with absolutely charming restaurants, so then, there's a change of plans - lets have lunch first. 11e for a platter and a coffee. I had their tagliatelle, Tel aviv their roast chicken with oranges. But, well, I make the same mistakes again and again - should never order Italian in a french restaurant. It is the blandest food ever - had to keep adding salt and pepper. Felt like telling him to take it back and add a dash of curry powder. Could practically see him turning up his nose, which in the end, I did see, the turned up nose that is, when I asked for milk in my coffee. "Une noisette, n'est ce pas", he asks...no, a huge dollop, I answer.

But then there was Sachaaaaa. The vetruchka (i think thats what is was called) - lemon cheese cake for the unrefined;-)...heavenly!! Had two slices of cheese cake (and I dont even like cheese cake!) and a something else, which was supposed to be apple strudel. I generally love strudel but nothing could have stood its ground in front of the cheese cake. It was so so divine...I can practically taste it even as I type. Should have had some packed . Anyway, then we moved on to the rest of rue des rosiers. It is a jewish festival today and yesterday, they were selling something called the seven spices. Tel Aviv had a long conversation in hebrew with one of the sales persons. He had the cap and the beard et al and our woman in her jeans and jewels..it seems he told her you're not Jewish. She continued talking to him but then I had to listen to the subsequent harange. Fortunately, we chanced upon a really beautiful boutique and she decided to try on some of the outfits. Of course, our antiquated salesman went right out of her mind - thank god!

From there, on to the Opera. Very beautiful - will post the pictures when I get them. As usual, I had forgotten my camera. Will have to wait for Tel Aviv to post the pics. Since we were already at the Opera, I got it in myself to find the Japanese shop. Wont take readers through a detailed process. Suffice to say, one travel agent, 2 japanese restaurants and a french boulangerie later, we finally did find Kyoto - opposite the Starbucks. Now for my horse radish. Had no idea what its called in Japanese. Went up to a woman and asked in french - I need a sauce thingy which blows your brains out. And she looks at me, smiles and says - "Wasabi!"
Bingo!! The umeshu was 13 euros and I wasnt even sure of the brand - so decided to take a rain check in the drink department.

On the whole, a lovely day.

And before I forget, we took the wrong train (again) and ended up in Fontaine le Port. Haifa had to come pick us up:-/