Clouds over Rue Cler

Pain au chocolat

Our day started with pain au chocolat (chocolate croissants) fresh from the bakery.  Rick loves going to the bakery in the morning and picking up breads and croissants for the day.  There are usually other customers in the bakeries first thing, which adds some extra pressure to the interchange.  I think for Rick it's the thrill of the hunt.  If he actually comes home with what he wanted it's a successful outing.  That's lucky for the rest of us, lounging around in our pajamas. 

The weather today was cloudy and rainy, so a trip to the outdoor market at Rue Cler might not have been the best option, but we need groceries!  The Rue Cler neighborhood is bustling with tourists, but it's the locals who buy their meat and fish there.   It seemed that the tourist-frequented businesses were used to dealing with Americans, and the merchants and clerks spoke english very well.  The clerks in other places, not so used to Americans, didn't speak english at all.  To me, that means it'll be a fun exchange of pantomime and plunking french nouns into english sentences.  I wish I could conjugate french verbs, but wishing doesn't make it so!  

We managed to buy some fruits and vegetables, rabbit and duck for dinners, and wine.  At the fish store Rick explained that he wanted to make a bouillabaisse for dinner.  The fish merchant pointed out a few fish that would work well.  We didn't recognize the fish, or the names of the fish.  They were displayed whole, on ice.  The merchant asked if we would like him to prepare them for us.  We said, oui!  Merci!! 

Cheeses and sausages at a market on Rue Cler

The fish market on Rue Cler

Back to the apartment we went with our groceries.  Lunch was leftovers from the night before, with some bread and cheese, and then we were off to d'Orsay. 

OK, so it's raining, right?  And there are thousands of tourists in town looking for something to do inside, right?  And the Louvre is closed because it's Tuesday, right?  So almost everyone decided to come to d'Orsay, with us!

Our Museum Pass gets us past the ticket lines at lots of museums in Paris, but the security lines are sometimes daunting.  It took us about 45 minutes to get through the line, but of course there were plenty of people to talk to while we inched along under umbrellas.

Orsay used to be a train station, so it has a wonderful, open gallery just as you walk in.  There are lots of smaller galleries off the main central one.  The most popular areas here are the Impressionist galleries, and they were packed with visitors.  We dutifully marched along with everyone else.  We recognized some of the paintings, and discovered some Impressionists we hadn't heard of before.

This clock is original from the train station days.  I love the view of the city through it.

Back to the apartment we went, since Rick needed some time to make the bouillabaisse.  He unwrapped the fish, and discovered the head and tail still intact.  We guess Parisians use the whole fish in their stew!   We had also bought some large prawns to use in the stew.  After cooking and simmering, we did pick out all of the heads, tails and bones.  It  was delicious!

Fish heads in our stew.  It may not look that great right now, but the finished product was wonderful!

The weather had improved by the time we were done with dinner, so we headed out for a walk around the neighborhood.  We stopped at Café Varenne for dessert or a nightcap.  I had read about a french dessert called café gourmand, which is an espresso served with 3 tiny desserts.  What's not to like about that?  Of course that's what I ordered, and it was very fun - a little brownie, a little slice of cake, and whipped cream in a little glass.  They may have been one dessert short, but it was plenty.

Back at the apartment I had an e-mail from the library saying that an e-book I had requested was ready for download.  I'm old enough to doubt that it's possible to do this from thousands of miles away!  It took about 5 seconds to download the book onto my Nook from Camano Island, Washington.  Amazing.