L'Ambroisie to the Louvre...

Last night we enjoyed our first really grand French meal at l'Ambroisie, a classic restaurant with skilled service and some old-fashioned complicated French cooking. I started with the filets de rouget, a small fish with a strangely sharp taste. These tasty little creatures were split open and laid over a creamed eggplant sauce. My main course was a pigeon, cooked perfectly so that the flesh was still pink inside, smothered in mushrooms. I chose a Chateuneuf-du-Pape 1998 Beaurenard I believe) as a light red, because Ira was having the riz de veau. Everything was so delicious. They gave us an amuse-bouche of a lobster ravioli that was the perfect way to start our meal. I had a glass of brandy to finish the meal, and the waiter pressed me to have another glass, insisted really. So I did. Tonight we go to a modern place, so I'll compare old-fashioned to new-fangled.

Today we took the Metro to the Louvre. I managed to see a lot of old favorites, including Gericault's "Raft of the Medusa." I've got some fun pictures to share, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow. Ira and I looked out the window and noticed it was such an incredible day, so we wandered around the Tuileries and enjoyed the way Paris has spruced 'em up over the past few years. It's fashion week in Paris, and we saw tall, leggy people walking into the Chloe show. No visible cocaine or anorexia victims, though.

We ate a quick meal outside. The sun warmed my face and the pichet de vin rouge toasted up my insides. We looked over the preparations for Nuit Blanche, a recent yearly celebration where the city invites artists to reinvent spaces around the city. There'll be rock shows in squares, projections on old buildings, and lots of young people milling around. I'll let you know what we run across.

I'm running out of time here, so in lieu of pictures I'll wrap up and chat more tomorrow. A bientot!