Back from Paris

It has been a good four months since I've posted, and I apologize for my absence. But, little Ms. Iz and I went to Paris for five wonderful weeks this summer which took a lot of prep beforehand and a bunch of reorientation afterward. And, so, now that back-to-school mania has calmed down, I am back.

I did chronicle our trip on a separate blog, which you can access here  at Summer Jet Setter. There are a few days missing on the end of the trip, but all of Paris is there in all it's glory.

To the left, you will see the most amazing Baked Egg dish I have ever experienced.  We managed a lot of eating in Paris, but this was the best for me. Half a dozen eggs, half a pound of bacon, some cream and lots of potatoes, and you have yourself a fabulous dish. The pan it was cooked in was brought to the table. I managed to eat almost the whole thing myself, but in hindsight, I wonder if this was meant for more than one person.

My good friend Fred went to Paris a few weeks after me. Before he left, he asked for explicit instructions on how to find the holy grail of baked eggs. I gave him the info, he missed the restaurant several times, finally found it, and sent me a lovely picture of his meal. Worth going half way around the world for these eggs, we both agreed.

Here is a recipe from Epicurious for baked eggs in ham crisps. I have not made it, but wanted to include at least a guide for how it's done.

Paris was extraordinary and I am very much prepared for the new school year and all that lay ahead!!

She Is Hungry

We made our way through St Pancras station in London and looked around for something Isabella-friendly to eat. Alas, we could find nothing, and our reservations for high tea were not for several hours.

Dragging our suitcases behind us, we discovered a Burger King on Euston Road, which was en route to the Hilton. Thankfully, we chose the same hotel we had stayed  in on the way out so we knew the route back and had remembered some restaurants on Euston.

And, so, she is pictured at left with the world's smallest burger.

We did get a toy with the meal. It was an Undertaker doll from the WWF that makes quite a noise when his belly is pressed.

I guess our theme for both visits to London will be wrestling.

EuroStar Part Deux

The lovely Michelle took the time this morning to come to our apartment and get us. We walked all our luggage to the Chatelet Metro stop. It was raining and chilly, but the walk was as good as it could have been.

Isabella took the lead with one pink case and her backpack on her back. She has certainly gotten way more comfortable in the Metro, so much so that she mapped out the way based on her train trips to Parc Asterix. Becasue she knew exactly where she was going, she got quite a bit ahead of me and Michelle and had to be called back.

I, on the other hand, was carrying both pink cases up and down the stairs, with Michelle valiantly taking the new black one. Strong though I know I am, it was quite a feat to make it to the train. Once we got on the Metro, it was just a few short stops to the Gare du Nord.

When we arrived in the train station, Michelle was an amazing amount of help again, not only in helping with the bags, but also with finding the track and assisting me with the customs forms. I had one or two minor meltdowns, especially when I filled out the customs forms wrong and had to re-do them, but Michelle kept with me.

After we said our goodbyes to Michelle, we headed through Customs. There was a British guard who asked us some questions and then a bag x-ray. No mention of our Pate needing to be removed from our bags, we made it through and headed to the waiting area.

The train arrived, we found stowed our big black bag and got our pink cases above our seats. This trip turned out to be much quieter than the one on our way out. No show girls (see post from June 23rd), only lots of sleepy people. It was so quiet, Isabella said she felt awkward even talking!

Ugh...Packing

See those two little suitcases on the left? This is just part of what needed to be packed to get us back to the US.

While Isabella enjoyed Parc Asterix, it occured to me that I should pre-pack as much as I could. When I discovered we had amassed 11 bars of soap, 3 tubes of soap and many other items. I did manage to get everything into these two cases and one duffel.

The main issue though, was the shoes. Isabella got two pairs and I got three. Not sure how it happened, but I guess being somewhere with lots of nice things for a month got me shopping (hmm, had I re-read my previous posts, I would've seen how much we bought).

We leave tomorrow for London, and then have two more days to go before we fly home. So, it is going to be necessary to unpack at least some things when we get to the hotel and then re-pack. Not going to happen with the tight packing into those small cases.

Solution? We bought a nice big black rolling bag, with wheels that roll in many directions. Everything fits, and then some. Our final BHV purchase is a really good one!

London, here we come!

Shopping, Again?!!

That's us on the roof of Galeries Lafayettes. We spent today with Kristen helping her locate a dress for her bachelorette party and her rehearsal dinner.

She had already picked out a beautiful dress for the rehearsal dinner, but wanted our opinion. Isabella helped her find a lovely beaded bolero jacket to go over it. And then, she found something spectacular...

A Missoni-print dress for the bachelorette party. We don't know if it was truly Missoni or just inspired-by, but it was lovely. Mostly reds and oranges with some purple in the chevron stripe they are known for, it looked perfect on Kristen.

Isabella managed to find a shirt that fit her like a mini dress in the Women's department and I got a tank with some ladies embroidered on it. Overall, a good haul, on second markdown for some of  the items.

From there, we decided to take a look at Fauchon and were tempted to go to La Maison du Truffes for a truffle themed luncheon, but the heat and the lack of Isabella-friendly food (not to mention the cost) sent us back down to the Metro. We headed back home to the Marais, and found another Italian restaurant.

Pizza for Isabella, pasta with amatriciana tomato sauce for me and a salad for Kristen. Isabella tasted the pasta with tomato sauce! And, she liked it enough to have several bites and declared that she will now eat tomato sauce. A banner day for food diversity.

After lunch, we found another second hand store and bought some more scarves. Oh, if we had more time to sort through all the items in those shops!

What's for Dinner? BBQ Duck!

After Parc Asterix I met Isabella and Kristen at the plaza in front of Notre Dame. We were all starving and needed something delicious right away.

Kristen directed us to a Chinese restaurant, where I spotted the BBQ duck right away. Isabella loves all manner of Asian noodles, so we headed in.

Really succulent duck was served as well as a chow fun of some sort and lots of good spicy oil, Kristen got a wonton soup (though I couldn't believe it since it was still up near 90 degrees even though it was after 7pm).

Isabella at four or five portions of noodles and a very large amount of duck. Success!! Considering most of her recent meals, if you recall, involved hot dogs, pasta or pizza.

After dinner, it was back to Berthillion for ice cream. Along the way, we came across a street performer who did crazy balance tricks involving a bicycle and duct tape. No way for me to describe it, but we did video it. Of course, the soundtrack for Amelie was his background music, which always makes me cry, while Isabella laughs at my sentimentality!

What a day!

ParcAsterix

There is a very funny French comic book character named Asterix. That's his friend Obelix with Isabella and Kristin. See them here on Amazon.

The last time we saw Kristin I was we saw a poster for ParcAsterix and I mentioned how much I hated amusement parks and that there was no way I would take Isabella. Kristin immediately said she would love to go and maybe she could take Isabella.

Later that night, I emailed her and she was serious. And, so, today, she and Isabella headed out at 9am to explore ParcAsterix. It took the 40 minutes in two trains, and then a shuttle bus for another 20 minutes to get there.

They had a wonderful time, and I need more information from both of them to include here. I will repost as soon as I have a more descriptive account of their day.