A relaxed day today, the thing planned is a museum and to watch the Tour on Mont Ventoux. We had a simple breakfast, left over baguette for me with a pain au raison and a yucky fatty almond croissant for Paul. Paul has a walking itinerary in mind for today which, naturally, revolves around food. We walked in the direction of Notre Dame and passed the ruins of the base of the original Bastille. I didn't even know that they still existed. Then we crossed over to the island south of the island that Notre Dame is on. Paul was looking for the maker of a brand of sorbet here, Berthilon. We looked but could not find it, however there were several resellers of it in the street. Paul decided he would get one on the way back, after lunch. As it happened on the way back I found the makers store, but they were already on holiday, until September. We also stopped at Notre Dame, took some photo's but did not go in because there was a queue to get into the church as well as the tower.
The target of the day was the Medieval Museum in the Abbey Cluny. It was a bit of a navigational challenge for Paul but he got us there in the end. The museum is very good. It is best known for its tapestries of the Lady and the Unicron, there are six of them. The room is quite dark, to help preserve them. The art work is very good and they are in excellent condition. The museum actually has a lot of tapestries. We got the audio guide, included in the price, but there was no detail on the tapestries themselves.
After the museum it was time for lunch. Surprisingly Paul just happens to know a place near here that specialises in Croque Monsieur. But there was a bit of a queue so instead we walked on in search of Pierre Herme, a patisserie store that specialises in meringues. There was an even bigger queue here but today is the last day they are open so we waited in the queue. They have an excellent selection of cakes, including small ones. So Paul got three small ones and a box of 7 small meringues. (They gave us 8 for the same price.) It looks really delicious and covers our dessert for tonight :)
We then returned to the lunch place and went straight in. Paul got the Croque Monsieur but I chose a Salade Gourmande Foie Gras as I have not had one yet this trip. It was very nice, although more of an entree size, with a coke. Very nice. (Imagine I paid 3.70 Euro, about $6.70, for a 330 ml Coke and I thought it was reasonable for Paris!)
After a nice lunch we walked back, at speed because the Tour is on, to the area where we could get a Sorbet. We both got a waffle cone and 2 scoops (chocolate and raspberry). The sorbet was incredibly intense, the raspberry strong and fruit and the chocolate rich and dark chocolatey, very filling.
We got back to the hotel around 3.15, just as they were getting to the base of Mont Ventoux so we got to see the entire climb. Very exciting. After that we had time to relax and I think we both dozed off for a bit.
Of course I almost forgot to mention the highlight of the afternoon, while we were watching the Tour. Paul cut each of the three cake slices he bought in half and we ate them during the race. They were wonderful! First off we had the raspberry and rose cake. The raspberries were incredibly fresh and the amazing thing was the rose flavour from the cake itself. It smelt and taste like you imagine rose would taste. Next we had the lemon tart. It was very intense and the filling so tender it was almost, but not quite, runny. There was also a slice of candied lemon skin in the middle which gave it a bit of texture. Finally we had the chocolate slice. It was very rich, mouse like with thin chocolate slices on the outside. The outer layer was completely covered in a chocolate butter, very buttery and very chocolatey at the same time. Bloating :)
After a suitable rest Paul dragged us deep into the Marais area. Just as it happens he knew of a place that specialises in Galettes, as we had in Fougere in 1995. We had a very nice walk there through lovely little lanes, shopping and dining areas. I had a ham and mushroom for the main and an Apple compote crepe for dessert, all washed down with Apple Cider. We then had another nice wander back and stopped in a park for quite a while until it started to get a bit cool. Then back to the hotel where we watched Retour le Tour of course.
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