Another Deviation, Can You Have Too Much Chocolate, and Kids Pushing Boats

We slept well in our apartment and woke up ready to go. We stopped for a coffee creme (I never drink coffee at home but seem to have it daily here) and walked down our street to meet DG and TZ.

Our first stop today was the Musee Rodin. About eight years ago, I came to Paris with a friend, and we were disappointed that the garden at the Musee Rodin was under construction and closed. So I was anxious to go back. This time, we were greeted with the news the the museum itself was under renovation and so basically the garden was all that was open. They had a small exhibit area we could view, but it really wasn't much. So I told myself it's taken two trips there to see it both the garden and the museum; I just did it in segments. The garden is beautiful, but unfortunately none of my photos of the sculptures turned out at all. Plus, after reading about the sculptures, we decided Rodin was a pretty depressing guy.

Next we walked over to Rue Cler, the street that Rick Steves raves about in all his books as a wonderful place to see typical French food shops and restaurants. It is an area where you can buy breads, chocolates, meats, flowers - it's all there.

We found an eclair big enough for Greg...

And a great motto for our trip...

We found some wonderful sandwiches at a boulangerie and enjoyed them outside, all the while watching the sky look a little gray. Then we decided DG and TZ should really try hot chocolate while in Paris, so we walked across the street to a bar and ordered some.

This stuff is amazing, but I think I can only stand it about once every 5 years. It is incredibly rich. But wonderful.

We wandered over to the Luxembourg Gardens, and spent some time enjoying ourselves around the pond, watching the kids play with the boats. Plus it was a good excuse to get off our feet for a while.

Several weeks ago, I sent an email to Restaurant L'Ange 20 and made our reservation for the night. I knew it would be TZ and DG's last night in Paris, and I wanted to make sure we had a great meal together. After the previous night, I was afraid that nothing could compare. But somehow, this dinner managed to even surpass perfection. Again, the restaurant is small; we counted 10 2-top tables with several pushed together to accommodate 4 people. There's one waiter/manager and 3 chefs. We were seated right next to the open kitchen. I took this photo from my chair.

It's the kind of place you would walk right by and never know how special it is.

So to make up for my lack of food photos previously, here is what we had. Two different starters... one was shrimp wrapped in angelhair pasta and fried and served with guacamole.

And squid salad which we decided was the best squid we'd ever had!

Main courses. Lamb cooked for 7 hours!

And the two guys got duck. It's a duck breast but there's also duck meat shredded and underneath the potatoes. Greg and TZ were going to order the steak which I'm sure would have been wonderful, but the waiter nicely reminded them that they can get steak anywhere. You can't get duck prepared like this. It was the clear winner of the night.

(DG had veal but somehow I didn't get a picture of that.) We all shared a bourbon creme brulee for dessert.

I can't recommend this place highly enough. The portion sizes were perfect, and the price was very reasonable (about 60E per couple including wine). We weren't even done with our first course when Greg asked the waiter if we could come back the next night. He said they were booked solid for the next few nights, but that we could try to grab a table if someone didn't show up. Do you see the man in the glasses on the left of the picture above? He was dining alone, and as we walked out I heard him say to the waiter, "How about Monday?" "How about Tuesday?" He was desperate to come back too.

We didn't want the night to end, so after the Uber car (more on that later) dropped us off, we decided to have a drink somewhere and spotted the Wall Street Bar, appropriate for Americans, yes? The bartender explained the concept to us. You watch this screen...

The screen shows the current pricing for each drink, but the prices change every 90 seconds. You also see a screen that indicates whether prices are going up or down for a certain type of drink. Obviously, you want to buy when the prices are at their lowest. The guys were thrilled that cognac went from 5.00 to 6.70 and then to 4.30 which is where they bought it. And when the price went down again, they had to buy another! A great marketing gimmick, and a fun way to end our evening.

Safe travels, DG & TZ!

A note about Uber. Our apartment owner recommended we use them to get to the airport on Tuesday, so we decided to try them tonight as a test. Both times, they arrived within minutes, the cab was clean, and the price seemed reasonable. We will definitely use them again.