Day Five: 26 Aug. 2002

Maybe yesterday was a bit too much. We both sleep hard and wake up after 9. It was apparently raining as we slept (which always causes us to hibernate), and it's grey and wet outside. Kathryn says it reminds her of London. Breakfast atop Samaritaine might be a little soggy, so we go for breakfast beneath Samaritaine - in the basement market. Quiche Lorraine and a Feuillette Chevre. We eat them in our hotel. We hang out for a while, Kathryn washing some of her clothes while I write, and then walk down the Quai de la Megisserie, stopping only briefly at an animalerie to see what French puppies look like, to the dreaded Chatelet Metro stop. We take two trains to the Passages Couverts on Blvd. Montmartre. The covered shopping blocks are long, but some of the shops are irresistible. There are not one but two dollhouse-supply shops, at one of which Kathryn buys a tiny French picnic for her work friend Alice. There is an antique camera shop, with a stereo camera displayed in the front window, which is unfortunately closed on Mondays. We browse through a bookshop concerned with all things cinematique, and I purchase a wonderful Amelie coffee-table book. We buy old stamps and postcards at another shop.

We stop for a lunch break on the Blvd. Montmartre, at Le Zephyr, which was a mistake. The smirking, goatéed serveur pretends he can't understand our French, and brings us a 4-Euro bottle of Evian when Kathryn asked for tap water. Her confit de canard is over-salted, and her potatoes soaked in vinegar. People on both sides of us light up their extra-stinky cigarettes, and we leave there as soon as possible. Luckily there's a soul-cleansing créperie across the street, with two non-smoking tables. Ahh. After a bit more shopping, we decide to take a break.

We take the Metro back to the Chatelet station and come home to rest, watch BBC (there's a show about insects, narrated by an intense Welshman), and research restaurants. We take a nap, and I wake up with the theme from Amelie in my head. K has assembled a list of 3 restaurants on or near Ile de la Cité, and we set out for the first one. It's dusky, cool, blue, and humid, nearly 21 o'clock. As we pass Samaritaine, we note that the dinner menu for the 4th floor restaurant looks good. The Bateau Mouche is sending beams of diffuse white light through the thick air. We cross Pont Au Change to Ile de la Cité, turn left, go past the Cité metro stop, and find our restaurant, Le Vieux Bistro, on the Rue du Cloitre, across the street from Notre Dame. The restaurant's open, and the maitre D mistakenly thinks Kathryn insists on sitting outside, so, with a petite huff, he sets one outside table, and we sit down to a thoroughly delightful meal. It is the complete opposite of our meal at Le Zephyr. This would be the Anti-Zephyr. Agneau grillée aux herbes and boeuf au poivre. Not only bread but also gratinée potatoes (the best we've had) are provided free with the meal. For dessert, an incredible Tarte Tatin flambée and profiterole avec chocolate chaud. Mon dieu! During the meal, K helps advise a white-haired American who was researching his next-morning RER trip to Versailles. The maitre d' seems to enjoy turning off the lights in the restaurant periodically, leaving the diners in candlelight so that they all go, "Ooooooh!", and then turning the lights back on. He does this probably 4 times, and after a while I think the diners were just saying "Oooooh" to humor him.

Afterwards, we walk across Pont St. Louis and have a pleasant stroll around the eastern tip of Ile Saint Louis, then window-shop our way down the center of the island. So lovely! We check apartment prices and they don't seem so insane. We inquire at a couple hotels about non-smoking rooms, then start fantasizing about buying an apartment on the island, living there for a few weeks in the spring and fall, and renting it out the rest of the time. Great non-smoking apartment on the Ile St. Louis, king-sized bed, perfect location, etc.... IT COULD WORK! We come back over the Pont Neuf to our hotel.

On to Day Six