After Shawn's long anticipated, whirlwind 5-day visit back home (Aug. 28-Sep.5), which included hosting a bbq at our home for 16 people on the Saturday, a fun wedding that we had a blast at on Sunday (with Shawn being jetlagged a couple of those days) and a relaxing Labour Day to recoup, we were off again to Paris on Tuesday evening (I had to work that day). I had hyped up Air France to Shawn (as he had only flown Corsair there & back so far), but much to our dismay, we flew on a 2-tiered older jet without personal screens at our disposition! We got stuck with a woman beside us who was flying through Paris to Beyrouth & the whole time, she aggravated the stewardesses & all the passengers around us (including us!) by asking questions...the communication breakdown was horrible, as speaking French or English to her was useless - she was concerned about finding her connecting flight in CDG, but no amount of explaining the airport map to her could calm her down. There were not one, but two screaming babies on our flight (a few rows ahead of us!) but we were smart this time & used the earplugs provided & they actually did block out most of the sound & we both slept for nearly a couple of hrs.
After spending way too much time trying to locate where to buy the RER tickets to get on the train out of the aiport, we finally made it back to the apartment around noon. It was deja vu for me, as this was the time I had arrived last time! We were anxious to have lunch & decided on a restaurant called Norbulinga that we had had on our 'to try' list we had created earlier in the summer (on rue Amelot - Metro Filles du calvaire). It was described online as a Tibetan restaurant with many vegetarian options. We were suprised to arrive at a nearly empty restaurant. There was only one other woman dining there & she seemed to be working through her lunch on her cell phone with a bunch of paperwork on her table. We took quite awhile to go over the very extensive menu and decided against any of the lunch table d'hôte deals, cuz they were a little pricey & way too much food. Shawny finally decided on dumplings with beef in them & I chose a vegetarian dish on rice. The food was really great, I had enough for 2 plates but I sort of wished I had ordered something with protein in it, because the stir fried veggies & rice, although tasty, were not very filling. We both agreed that although the Tibetan chant music playing in the restaurant was interesting & different, it is not something that we could listen to for very long periods of time!
We set off to Monoprix to do the weekly grocery, as we wanted to avoid running errands on the weekend & wasting our Saturday like we did last time. I picked up 4 more bottles of wine to bring home - a Pouilly Fumé that I had my eye on since last visit, another rosé, & 2 reds - a Merlot & a Cabernet Sauvignon. We then headed back to the apartment to unpack & rest. As Shawn had recently joined facebook while he was back home, he spent a considerable amount of time online that afternoon - I actually had to beg him to use his laptop at one point so I could check my account! We took a walk over to Shawn's favourite Kosher supermarket close by to stock up on pita, hummus & eggplant in the late afternoon.
We decided to check out another restaurant on our list for an early dinner called Café du Marché on rue Cler (Metro Ecole Militaire). I had read about a raspberry codfish dish with egg fritatta at this place that I really wanted to try, but when we got there, it wasn't on the menu, so I am guessing that it was a daily special, as the special of the day that day was a white fish on a bed of lentils, which we both chose to order. It was absolutely delicious, with a slightly creamy red pepper sauce, and was quite light. We still had quite a bit of room for dessert & had a sweet tooth that night, so Shawn went for his favourite Parisian dessert - a 'mi-cuit au chocolat' which is a small chocolate cake with a melty chocolate sauce in the middle, served with real vanilla ice cream complete with tiny bits of vanilla beans in it. He had had it in a few restaurants during our last visit, but this time was definately the best. I chose the tarte tatin, it was made with pears & served with a pool of chocolate sauce (on the side - thankfully!). I normally cannot eat chocolate and cheat only on occaison when I am feeling ok & this sauce was heaven, it was similar to the sauce in Shawn's dessert & almost had a mild fruity taste to it. A young couple was seated next to us as we were ordering our desserts & we overhead them speaking English. I guessed that they had to be Canadian, as they had no trace of accent. I decided to ask where they were from & I was right - Torontonians! They were both really good looking & very nice & friendly - we found out that they had been travelling through Europe for the past few days & had been in Germany before arriving in Paris. They mentioned that they were starting back to school the following week, so they must have been in their very early 20's.We turned in early to catch up on rest, satisfied with everything we did on our first day back.
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