September 15 Monday Another lunch

I was greeted by Marie and exercise mats when I woke up this morning. Can you believe it? We are walking miles and miles and still exercising!! After the workout, we had our favorite breakfast – oatmeal with fruit (banana and peach).

Today we are being treated to lunch by the proprietress of the Brasserie Ile St. Louis. Naturally, we walked. Our first stop was at the Monoprix near M&S’s to visit with Olivier, the cavist. They were having a wine fair. Olivier chose wines for Marie, keeping within Bill’s price guidelines. He knows their taste quite well and kept choosing and choosing and choosing. We ended up with 13 bottles which he said he would put away till the next day. (I had visions of us lugging them along to our luncheon.)

Chuck and I have been eating at the Brasserie since 1981. It is just across the bridge behind Notre Dame, and is one that I recommend to everyone because it is so conveniently located for lunch. I ALWAYS have the same thing because I love it. I would have to eat there very often to choose something else.

Michele is just finishing a chemo session so is missing her hair, but she is so lovely and vibrant. She had delightful pictures to show us of her newborn granddaughter, Charlotte. (I took my pictures along also.)

We started with a glass of champagne. The M’s had a spinach salad with mushrooms and the plate du jour – roast beef and frites. I had the frisee with lardons (curly endive with bacon bits) and onion tart. We all had warm fig tart with whipped cream for dessert. We shared a bottle of red wine and lots of talk.
After 3 ½ hours we kissy faced all of the waiters, Michele’s son and Michele and went on our way.

We walked to the 2nd arrondisment near Les Halles to an area that carries restaurant supplies. Jef wanted a bottle of pear flavoring. I have found it before and managed to refind the correct store. In this same area is a famous patisserie, Stohrer. It was founded in 1730 and was a favorite of Marie Antoinette. (51 rue Montorgueil if anyone is interested.)
Michele told us to buy Puit d’Amour, well of love.
We happened across a photo store and had Jeanette’s wedding photo copied. We had tried scanning it, but didn’t really like the results.

This is also the area of the most famous French yarn store. I always make a pilgrimage to see and touch the lovely yarns. I rarely buy anything there because it is such a pain. First you wait in line at a counter (different counters for different kinds of things) to be waited on. When you have chosen what you want, the saleswoman writes a bill. Then you wait in the line to pay and with the receipt, return to the 1st line and wait for your stuff. I prefer to see what they have and go to the branch at Au Bon Marche (a department store.) I also didn’t take any pictures because they yell at me when I do.


We walked home (with yet another pit stop at M&S’s.) I bought stamps at the local post office. The postman was quite charming. He showed us some lovely ones, but we decided that the plain ones were better for postcards. He then quizzed us on our knowledge of Marie Anne (the face of France.) I think he was a little surprised that we knew who she was.

We went to the local Monoprix to buy some salad fixings and cheese for dinner. The young man who waited on us made us taste every kind that we thought about buying so that we could make a good selection. I wasn’t sure if this was normal, or just because the young man was really a butcher.

We had cheese, salad, bread and our Puit d’amour. We also finished the champagne with our dinner. It was good to sit with our feet up reading and working on the computer.