Wednesday we woke up to some drizzle and grey skies. Deb and Sarah forged for breakfast pasteries and breads. Today is a major holiday so most of the stores were closed (fortunately Eric Kayser was open and the line formed outside for a reason).
I discovered a delicious fig and walnut ficelle.....excellent breakfast.

After breakfast and an early morning nap (Marc), we ventured out in the drizzle. We had some difficultly charting the metro route to the L'Orangerie and when we did finally make it to Concorde (after the dreaded changer at Chalalet) we couldn't find the museum, had to ask a woman in a bookstore in the Tulleries, only to realize we were standing right in front of it. The line should have been our first clue. The wait was about an hour but the longer we waited, the less we felt we should leave since we had waited that long already. The girls waited on a bench nearby while Marc and I stood in line (see photos of bench waiting) We were also getting hungry again. It was 1:30 and we didn't want to eat lunch too late because we had dinner reservations at Le Dome for 8:00. By the time we entered the museum it was after 2:00, so we thought we would eat in the museum cafe first....alas, no cafe. So we saw the exhibits hungry. Downstairs are wonderful Picassos, Cezannes (a lot of still lifes of food Emily noted.....fruit, bread....and the girls were hungry), Renoir....upstairs of course are Monet's Water Lilies. A beautiful room.

We left the museum and went in search of lunch. We weren't picky, just hungry. We went into a place on Rue de Rivoli and had a quick and overpriced lunch. Nothing special Sat next to a group of obnoxious, loud Americans. This is who gives Americans a bad name. Next door was an English bookstore with a great collection of kids/young adult books etc and Sarah bought two (one was a new Urusla Le Guin, Ellen) and she has already finished one of them. We decided to find our way home via metro, which wasn't too hard, but because of the holiday, fewer trains were running and it took awhile. We were home after two changes by 5:00 and we all slept until 7:00 (all except Sarah who read in the loft).

We headed out to Le Dome (two metros with a change at Odeon). We are shown to a "non smoking" table. True, no smokers in sight but after years of tobacco, it's infused into the surroundings. Emily has been feeling sick since the metro ride and now we are wondering if we should stay.

Emily writing:

yes, I was feeling quite sick. I was in so much pain that I couldn't even sit down or talk. Mommy and I went outside and I got a breath of fresh air. It did nothing for my searing pain in my solar plexus. We went to the bathroom, I didn't feel any better. Then we remembered something...

I had felt the same way when we had gone to a Jackson Browne concert. We were wondering if we should leave and not go to the concert when mommy had one last thought... Heartburn=rolaids. We got some rolaids (Mommy happened to have the leftover rolaids in her purse, leftover from that June concert...she is so well prepared) and I felt much better.

I took them and minutes later I felt much better. I had some water and it was clear that we could stay.

To start mommy and daddy sarted with a split of champangne. Then they brought us our amuse bouche. It was grav lox with toast. It was very good. for our appetizers mommy and I both got the same dish: thinly sliced cured tuna on toast with an egplant tampanade. I thought this dish's flavors were out of this world. Sarah got small fried white fish with an incredible tarter sauce. They were still whole, so daddy, having taken anatomy, disected the fish and carefully took out each skeleton. Daddy got grilled sardines with artichoke hearts, onions and peppers. Then we moved on to the main course. This time it was Sarah and I who got the same dish: langoustine and a homemade pasta with with tomatoes and basil. It was amazing. The langustine were like butter, so delicate, and the pasta was like I had never had before. Mommy and daddy shared a dish: grilled bar with fennel in a creme sauce on the side. It was like butter acording to daddy. They brought the entire fish first for them to inspect, with the skin on and then brought it back all prepared. On to dessert: We had tried to order the apple tart recommended by Bob in advance but there was only plum tart that day. We ordered that for mommy and daddy along with a flowerless chocolate cake with chocolate creme sauce and chocolate gellato for Sarah (it was called "Le tout Chocolate". I got a fresh peach sorbet and a lime (citron vert)sorbet. They were both so good. Mommy called the lime sorbet "a hostile act". The tart was amazing even though it was plum instead of apple. The crust was so light and flaky and the plums were those tiny yellow plums you only see in France. Sarah's dessert was good to but it was very rich. That concludes my Le Dome dinner rewiew. Write comments! bye!

Back to the apartment via a crazy cab driver with some sort of death wish. We made it back safely, but had him leave us off as soon as we spotted our neighborhood. We were all pretty wound up and didn't end up going to sleep until about 1:30am. The girls had their nightly ritual of an episode of I Love Lucy before bed. The only downside of this fabulous aparment is that the downstairs neighbors (never seen, only heard) somehow wake up just as we are going to sleep (around 1am) and watch movies or TV very loudly. We are usually so tired we can sleep through it, but it's odd.

Tomorrow is Sarah's day.....