Day 9 , Saturday, Our day of culture

This weekend is the Journees de Patrimonie. Many museums and monuments are free. Some places are only open this weekend and we decided to go to the one that was the most special: The Elysee Palace. This is the French version of the White House – but they don’t do regular tours. We knew the line would be long, but realized that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Neither one of our husbands would be willing to endure the wait.

We got in the line around 10 am. It was already very long, but we met a very pleasant family from Brittany. (near Cancale – famous for oysters) We all chatted. The eleven year old, Timothy, tried out some English. (How are you? What is your name? etc.)





The 2 hours passed quite quickly. It seemed like no time until we reached the gate.





Went through the search like greased lightening.





And then we were in a beautiful garden. This is where they hold the “Garden Party” on Bastille Day.





We thought that we were home free. We should have known that we were in deep doo doo when we spotted 2 large screens showing a film about the palace and state dinners and other info.





The line was packed about 10 across and we were all jammed together for another THREE HOURS.


The guards were very nice and let small children onto the grass, but the adults had to stay in place.



Was it worth the 5 hours in line? Yes. It was FABULOUS!!! It was like visiting Versailles, but you could take pictures. Tables were set for state dinners, flower arrangements were in every room.




The library where many of the formal pictures of the presidents were taken:

Sarkozy’s desk:

And notice the ordinary ball point pens next to the gold writing set

We hobbled home about 5. Just walking was difficult after standing so long – our ankles, knees and hips had frozen.

We quickly ate a kiwi (the first thing since toast at breakfast) and took the metro to M & S’s. We had promised that we would help them make their phone ring in the USA. We had to turn on the computers and phones and then call Stewart so that he could give us the instructions on how to do the pass along. They had forgotten to do this before leaving and it cannot be done remotely.

We met Pascale for dinner. She asked where we wanted to go and we replied, “Any place close.” She chose Le Comptoire which is close to her publisher. It is very tiny and busy.

For starters I had snails
Marie had stuffed duck neck (in french it sounds much more elegant.)

And Pascale had a terrine of chicken in aspic:
For the main course, Pascale had tuna with green beans.
Marie had a lamb tagine
And I had stuffed cabbage. I expected rolls, but instead got a slice which had all of the stuffed cabbage ingredients.

We passed on dessert and had coffee and tea.

We limped to the closest metro, almost afraid to sit in case we wouldn’t be able to stand again.

Marie even took the elevator to the apartment. She normally runs up 4 flights. We both took Advil to help us sleep because our feet were throbbing so.