May 14 Les Ombres

We had lunch at the rooftop restaurant of Quay Branly, Les Ombres. The room is totally enclosed in glass, so you had a marvelous view of the buildings on the rise beyond the Seine. And, of course, the Eiffel Tower dominated the view. Our waiter was flirty. He wanted to read my tattoo, asked if I had others. We got great service because we were good sports about it. We started with an amuse bouche of mushroom soup with dried black olives crumbled on top. My first was a mixture of asparagus, a soup with a spear as a stirrer and then a baked spear covered in a pistachio crust. You can't go wrong with asparagus. Ira had the foie gras, which was silky and tasty, with some sea salt on top to really bring out the flavor. The best part of his dish was the melon accompaniment, along with an apricot jelly. They went perfectly with the foie gras, the clear fruit flavor cutting into the creamy richness of the liver without overpowering the aftertaste. It was a well-chosen combination, one that may make an appearance in Sonoma this year. Ira had the riz de veau, which was lovely, but too much. I had to help him with it! I had langoustines in a rich sauce composed of fennel and cream. There was a crusty decoration made of light bread that really did little else but adorn the plate, though it was attractive, so I snapped a photo of it. We split a dessert of incredible chocolateyness, ice cream, a "froth" of chocolate in a thin chocolate cup and a dark, rich cake. We managed to crawl out of there without too much difficulty because we chose portions "a picorer" that is, to peck at, rather than the full size portions.

We then went in search of the Monument des Droits de l'Homme, information on which was hard to find. That is, information about where it was located. It was easy to find out how it's part of the Masonic/Illuminati/New World Order plot. We had to rush a bit after some difficulties adapting to the cuisine, but once we located the facilities, lo and behold, there was the monument. It's a quirky thing, not at all monumental, but rather human in scale. It's a Mitterand creation, but far from one of his Grands Projets.

Then we came home and rested and had another quiet evening. I explored the neighborhood a bit, going in the other direction from the river. I saw La Perle, a trendy cafe bar/bistro where Galliano ruined his career. The Marais is wonderful. I walked down a random street and was met with trumpeters playing a New Orleans tune. I was out for La Nuit des Musees, which meant that all the museums were open late, some until midnight. My goal was the Musee de la Chasse. I'll talk about it later because I'm dragging Ira to it tomorrow. It was so much fun, both elegant and kitschy at the same time in some strange way. More on that later... For the nuit des musees, this particular museum had young people reading poems about hunting. You'd be standing next to someone, admiring a polar bear, when they would suddenly break into declamation and read a short poem. Great fun!

I'll leave you with some pictures of the Tour Eiffel. I took about a million.