Sensing--Simply Sensational...




We had the meal of the trip last night at a restaurant that just opened last month, somewhat neat the Luxembourg Gardens. It's the new project of Grand Vefour chef, Guy Martin. This is nothing like his three-star place. It has a contemporary, glass-and-alabaster look, with repeating video projections replacing art on the walls.

The first shock were the prices... much lower than we could have expected. The appetizers are priced at 5 euros, so we shared four of them--tuna tartare that was my pick for dish of the night, creamy raw tuna on five silver spoons perfectly bite sized; bouchee croustillante de legumes, which translates into vegetables transformed into puff pastry; chutney de fruits au curry with tender shrimp; and finally game bird served on a type of aspic. All incredible. For the main course I had beef with this incredible satay of frothed curry. Both the taste and texture combination was superb.

No bottle of wine was priced at over 50 euros. Considering the wine list at l'Ambroisie topped out at 3,000 euros, and you could tell this was Martin's version of casual. Ira's chocolate dessert was dense and perfect. All we could talk about after the meal was whether we could arrange another visit.

I've got to be quick about this...

La Nuit Blanche...

Contemporary art in public places all over Paris. The pictures of the carp on the wall of the Musee de la Chasse. That was our favorite part. We had seen this event in a Nuit Blanche listing in the newspapers, but we found it by accident just walking back to the hotel, so it had that element of surprise and fun. And of course, the picture pales in comparison to seeing the whole facade lit up with a video of the fish, complete with the burbling and bubbling from the audio.

Parc des Buttes-Chaumont

Not the typical pristin and fenced in French park, Buttes-Chaumont combines odd elevations from its origins as a gypsum mine with a fantastical waterfall to create a unique park popular with Parisians, particularly children. You have to walk over Suicide Bridge to appreciate the elevation.

Canal St. Martin...

I never knew there was a canal this lovely in the middle of Paris. Ira and I strolled along it and enjoyed the weather. Not all was pretty, as homeless tents line the beginning of both canal banks. I noticed Medecins sans Frontieres tents, along with a huge--almost circus-like--tent that a large and ironic welcome sign over it.