Bouchées à la Reine

On Saturday morning Kathryn and I decided to visit the infamous discount store, Tati. We claimed to be looking for good deals, but honestly, we were hoping to see a brawl. I bought some toothpaste and soap, we walked around for a while, and we finally left having our personal space comprised enough for one day.

Dave wanted nothing to do with Tati, naturally, so we met up with him at the apartment and left together for Montmartre. It rained a little, but we still had a good view and nice walk through Sacre Coeur and the town. We tried to visit a Dali exhibition but it was already closed for the night.

So we came back to the apartment to meet Wally and Marion for dinner. Unfortunatly, they got stuck in traffic and arrived too late for cooking. So we opted to pop next door for late night Italian take out. While we waited we watched the lunar eclipse start.

Sunday morning I brought Kathryn to the market with me. While I waited in lines she ran around taking pictures ("I just saw a dead duck!"). At a butcher's booth I stood in the wrong line for at least 15 minutes waiting to buy chicken. I stood there spellbound, watching the butchers ruthlessly chop up rabbits, chicken, and turkey legs. The rabbits were the worst. By the time I was done I was ready to be vegetarian.

The fruit and vegetable stand was more pleasant (further proof I should be vegetarian) and the worker got a kick out of practicing his English with me. And he gave me a little kiwi as a present.

Kiwi always makes me think of my mom.

Anyway, after that we picked up Dave and went out to Musee D'Orsay for first Sunday free day. It was a beautiful building, great art, lots of famous works by Renoir, Monet, Toulouse-Latrec, and VanGogh. I love that the musuem used to be a train station.

We came back to the apartment for the second attempt at dinner with Wally and Marion. No traffic delays this time, and they brought a friend, also named Marion. Marion2 is a rock photographer and all kinds of interesting stories to tell.


Marion1 made a wonderful French dinner of bouchées à la reine, and even better, taught me how to make it. It is really complicated and time-consuming, so I'm intimidated. I think I'll probably use my parents as my first guinea pigs when they come to visit next month. I'll have to make sure the Italian place is open late that night for backup.