Pintxos and Pouilly-Fumé

How or maybe more importantly why did I concoct a trip to a Basque Country beach side city with the City of Light?

It all started when mom and I decided we wanted to go to Paris for a week. We had been in Paris for a few days in 2008 and felt we needed to give Paris more of our time.

Once we decided we wanted to go to Paris it was time to discuss where to stay. Since we had rented an apartment in Rome last year and loved it we thought it was a no-brainer for us to rent an apartment in Paris. We like the extra room an apartment provides, along with feeling like we were part of a neighborhood, even if it is just for a week. Based on recommendations from the Fodors message board we decided to book an apartment with Paris Perfect Apartments (http://www.parisperfect.com/). We booked the Meursault apartment and were not disappointed, but more about that later.

After we booked the apartment and started looking at airfare mom tosses out the idea… what if we look at some of the Rick Steve’s tours (which we’ve done in the past) and see if the dates of any tours coincide with the apartment rental, this way we can get a real bang out of our airfare buck. As luck would have it, the 7 day Basque Country tour matched perfectly, it ended the day our apartment rental started. Plus I was very eager to explore the Basque Country…the food there being a very big draw, and we were not disappointed there either, but more about that later too.

The next step was to book airfare. Since we have silver elite status with Delta airlines I wanted to fly Delta or one of their partner airlines. We decided to fly into Bilbao and when I first queried the Delta website I was not getting any options into Bilbao, so I called Air France, a Delta partner, and was able to book reasonably priced tickets directly with Air France. Ultimately we flew from Savannah, GA to Atlanta to Paris and finally into Bilbao. After our week in San Sebastian we flew from Bilbao to Paris and on our return home we flew from Paris to Atlanta to Savannah.

Day 1: Thursday, May 13th

As happens in the airline industry, our flight times were altered slightly between when we booked the tickets and when we actually flew. So, my nice cushy 2 hour lay-over in Atlanta was changed to a 1.5 hour lay-over, do-able, but a little close for comfort for us. Yes, we are “students” of the “get to the airport early and wait” school of thought.

On the Air France website it stated passengers can check in 30 hours prior to departure. I think, “wow, that’s great”. At the allotted time I log on and begin the check in process, only to hit a snag. As often as I tried, no luck with the online check-in. My next thought was to call Air France. I spoke with a very pleasant agent who informed me that since the first leg of my itinerary was on Delta (because Air France doesn’t service Savannah) I could not check-in on line, I had to check in at the airport. OK, this puts me in hyper-travel mode and instead of getting to the airport at my usual 2 hours early I decide we need to get there 3 hours early to make sure everything goes smoothly. That’s just how I roll.

We arrive at the Savannah airport, approach the ticket counter, and begin the check in process. We are handed only the boarding passes for the Savannah to Atlanta leg and are told because the other legs of the ticket are with Air France the Delta agent cannot issue the boarding passes. OK, now I am just about ready to hyper-ventilate. Fortunately security is a breeze at the Savannah airport and we head to the gate to wait.

Since we are so early there are 2 flights going to Atlanta before ours. Try as I might (and I will say the gate agent boarding the planes was a pleasure to work with) I could not get on an earlier flight, but I was able to get our seats moved from the back of the plane to the front of economy (every minute helps). So we watch the 2 flights prior to ours board and take off on time. I’m starting to relax thinking this will be OK, we’ll make the connection and after all, I was able to get our Paris-bound seat assignments when I booked the tickets (or so I thought).

Our flight to Atlanta boards and we are ready to go on time, then we sit and sit and sit at the gate. Apparently there was a lot of traffic at the Atlanta airport and our flight was held in Savannah for 40 minutes, 40 valuable minutes ticking away. When we landed in Atlanta we rushed to Terminal E. We arrived at the gate and it was a madhouse, as I make my way to the ticket desk to get our boarding passes I hear my name being called over the loudspeaker ( I never like that!). I identify myself and the agent hands me our boarding passes. As I look down at the boarding passes I think, hold on a minute….these are not the seats I picked. In fact, these seats aren’t even together; I’m talking not even close. One in row 22 and one in row 61 and worse yet, only one is an aisle and one is the dreaded middle seat! I hoof it back to the gate agent and miraculously we are given seats, closer, but still not together and still one middle seat.

Being the good daughter I am, I give mom the aisle and I take the middle. By now they are boarding zone 9 and that is us. We get on the plane and get settled in. The plane has a 3-4-3 seat configuration. I have to admit after all this brouhaha my seat-mates were very pleasant to talk with and it ended up that I was in the middle of a mother and her teenage daughter. The teenager asked if I would mind sitting by the window so she could sit next to her mom and I jumped at the chance to switch, it wasn’t my coveted aisle, but they were great about asking me if I needed to get up and stretch during the flight.

Now settled on the plane the flight attendants continually walk up and down the aisle counting, counting, and counting. Finally the plane door closes and we back away maybe 2 inches (OK, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but it wasn’t much more than that) and we stop and we wait and then the door opens again. The pilot announces they are waiting for 2 passengers. Ten minutes later the pilot announces we are not waiting for passengers, the door closes and we really back away from the gate this time.

In the end, the flight departs about one hour late. I sit back, chat with my seat mates and when I look at the economy class dinner menu I had to smile…yes Air France serves aperitif, even in economy…hello glass of champagne…”Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore”!

The food and the service on the flight were good, and before I knew it I was dozing off and on for the entire flight.

Day 2: Friday, May 14th

The pilot did make-up some time in the air and we landed at CDG only 30 minutes late. After getting off the plane we found the Air France customer service desk to get our boarding passes for the flight to Bilbao. Interestingly I did try to use the computer kiosk to get the boarding passes but it would not print them, I had to go to a live human.

With boarding passes for the Bilbao flight in our hands we got in the short line for passport control. Passports were stamped and then we had the long walk through the terminal to the shuttle bus to take us to Terminal 2G. We went through security at Terminal 2G and waited to board the flight to Bilbao. I specifically allowed a 4 hour lay-over at CDG because I knew we had to go through passport control and didn’t know how long the lines would be. Fortunately from touchdown to arriving at Terminal 2G it was just over an hour.

The flight to Bilbao was delayed a few minutes but we landed on time. Since we did only carry-on bags we did not have to wait at baggage claim. We did walk through the construction site that was the Bilbao airport and found the stop for the Pesa bus (http://www.pesa.net/) which goes directly to San Sebastian. The bus comes once an hour and we had about a 40 minute wait, the weather was beautiful and it felt great to be outside and stretching our legs. The bus ride took about 60 minutes, the ticket price was €15.30 each and drops off at the bus station (and I use the word station loosely) in San Sebastian. There is a convenient taxi stand next to the bus station and we took a taxi to the Hotel Parma (http://www.hotelparma.com/) at Paseo de Salamanca, 10.

We had a very friendly, warm welcome to the Hotel Parma, the staff was wonderful for the entire time we were there and we really liked the location of this hotel, just a few minutes walk from all the pintxos bars of the Old Town. We arrived 2 nights prior to the tour beginning and we got a rate of €101 per night for a twin room with a view of the promenade and beach. The room and bathroom were very clean and comfortable and I would say spacious for European standards. Our room did face the street and there was some noise but it did not prevent us from sleeping peacefully.

After getting settled in, it was about 6pm. We went out in search of an open pintxos bar to have something light to eat. We found Atari, at Mayor 18 Nagusia. They bill themselves as a gastroteka. We had a couple tortillas (omelets), croquettas, and a ham & cheese plate and since we were in San Sebastian we had to start the trip off right with a couple glasses of the local wine, txakoli. The total cost of our first meal in San Sebastian was €40. We really enjoyed Atari and did go back a second time during our week-long stay.

After dinner it was a short walk back to the hotel and we were sound asleep by 9pm.

Day 3: Saturday, May 15th

When I opened my eyes this morning I did not have a good feeling when I peaked through the gap in the curtains to see cloudy skies and rain. But I did not let the glum weather dampen my spirits. I left the hotel while mom got ready, and I found the Bretxa Market. Wow…what a great market and all kinds of fish, meat, cheeses and several bars with delicious looking breakfast items displayed. I poked around the market and found a bar that looked promising for breakfast.

I head back to the hotel to get mom and we walked back to the market for our first breakfast in the Basque Country. When we got to the bar the crowd that was there 45 minutes earlier had moved on and we had our pick of bar stools. Mom had a great potato tortilla (omelet) and fresh squeezed orange juice, which was fantastic. I had an tortilla sandwich on a fresh roll with a slice of ham on top and a café con leche to wash it all down. This was the perfect breakfast and for €8.30 a great deal.

Feeling pleasantly full we walked about the market marveling at the gigantic hams hanging from what seemed like every vendor’s stand. We wandered through the fish section of the market, it was very clean. While wandering about the market there was a marching band playing throughout the market. All the musicians were in street clothes, I’m not sure if this is a regular occurrence or this was some special event.

There was also a table set up in the market where churros and chocolate were being given out for free. All of a sudden great memories of my college days traipsing through Spain and clamoring for this tasty treat came back to me. Mom had never experienced this Spanish liquid indulgence and I quickly scooped up a cup and had the pleasure of seeing the smile spread across mom’s face after her first taste of this chocolaty delight. It was so hot and thick and lip smacking good.

We spent the rest of the day walking and exploring the town between the rain drops. By the time we arrived at The Good Shepard’s Cathedral the skies opened and the rain began to pour so we dashed into the church to take cover from the rain. After about 30 minutes we decided to brave the torrential rain and dashed from the church across the street to the covered sidewalk. We made our way back to the hotel and spent a few hours catching up with emails, relaxing and watching the rain. By this time it was so windy it was raining sideways and I was glad we decided to take the afternoon easy in our dry hotel.

Earlier in the day we asked the front desk staff to make a 9pm reservation for us at Casa Urola located at Calle Fermin Calbeton (http://www.restauranteurola.com/english/index.html). We decided we wanted to try some pintxos hopping so we left the hotel at about 7pm. Our first stop was Bide Bide on Calle 31 de Agosto. It wasn’t too busy and the pintxos were OK. We each had a tart shell one filled with mushrooms and bacon and the other filled with mushrooms and artichokes. After one pintxo we were ready to move to another bar. We strolled over to Plaza de la Constitucion and the rain started to subside and we stopped to watch folk dancers perform. Then we made a beeline for Tamboril at Calle Pescaderia, 2.

At Tamboril we expanded our pintxos selections and each had 2 cold pintxos, toast with anchovy, hard boiled egg and shrimp and a tart shell filled with creamy/eggy concoction topped with shrimp. While we enjoyed these pintxos I noticed little menus scattered along the bar, this was the hot pintxos menu, so I took a gander. They had bacala croquettas that were hot and made to order, so we enjoyed some.

It was still raining off and on as we walked to La Cepa located on Calle 31 de Agosto. Here, we ordered more hot pintxos. Mom had the gavilla, which is cheese, lomo (fish), ham, and béchamel dipped in batter and fried. I had a mushroom and bacon skewer. Both were OK but not stellar choices. Hind sight being 20/20 we probably should have had a ham plate here because as I looked around at the other patrons who were having ham and it looked absolutely spectacular.

We ended our pintxos hop at Atari, where we had been the night before. The bar was packed and we decided instead of more pintxos (we still had a dinner reservation) we would just have a couple glasses of wine. We couldn’t beat the price here, for a glass of the house white we paid €1.00 for each glass, I think that may qualify as the best deal of the trip!

Just before 9pm we walked to Casa Urola for our dinner reservation. Dinner was good, but now looking back it was not anywhere near the best meal we had in San Sebastian. I am glad we had a reservation because although upon entering the restaurant at 9pm and finding half the tables empty, within 20 minutes every table was full and the waitress had to turn away at least 4 parties that entered without reservations. The dining room itself was pleasant, but nothing remarkably memorable, maybe about 15 tables.

We started with a bottle of white rioja. I had the spider crab Donostia style, which I had read was a local specialty and I don’t recall seeing it on any other menus. I had this as a starter, but it could have easily been a main dish. It was delicious, full of crab flavor. Mom had the local fish soup similar to bouillabaisse, I can’t remember the local name of this soup. The soup was good, but not spectacular. For my main dish I had the hake with clams in a green pepper sauce. It was very good, the fish was tender and the broth it was served in was very tasty. Mom had roasted leg of lamb with salad. The lamb was fall off the bone tender. With 2 espresso the meal was €82.

We waddled back to the hotel, it was almost midnight and as our heads hit our pillows we were fast asleep.

Day 4: Sunday, May 16th

We woke up to sunshine today! Yay! Being a Sunday there weren’t too many breakfast options and in hind-sight we probably could have made a better choice, but at least it was an experience.

While walking around the old town yesterday we came across a restaurant, actually more like a greasy spoon, called Santa Lucia. Typically this wouldn’t be a place on my “go to” list. The façade of the building had pictures of all the menu items along with a corresponding number plastered all over the entrance of the restaurant. However, there were lots and lots of pictures of churros and chocolate…in my mind I was thinking, “How bad could it really be?”

We opened the door and stepped up into a brightly lit dining room that could be compared to Mel’s diner (of the TV show Alice fame), as we took another step it became crystal clear that if we didn’t watch our step we would be sliding across the floor and make quite an arrival at the cash register/ordering area. I will say that since I did study the picture menu board outside I was able to tell the cashier exactly what I wanted, in Spanish, before he even had time to slide the laminated picture menu in front of me. At least this got a little smile out of him!

Even though the surroundings left a little to be desired, the hot chocolate was fantastic and the fresh squeezed orange juice mom had was excellent. I can’t recall the exact price of the breakfast but it was somewhere around €10.

We spent the rest of the morning walking along the Paseo de la Concha watching a children’s soccer championship, a sailing regatta and a rowing race. They certainly make the most of the beach in San Sebastian. I had never seen so many soccer fields set up on a beach and the children playing were all ages from the really little tikes to teenagers. And families were out in force to cheer on their soccer champs. The whole paseo was filled with families watching the games and just strolling enjoying the sunshine. Once we made our way around the big curve of the paseo we could also see there was a road race going on…it was a busy day in San Sebastian!

The walk along the Paseo de la Concha to the Palacio Miramar took about an hour and when we got to the palacio I headed up the hill to take some pictures of the grounds, the palacio is not open to go in, but the gardens surrounding it are lovely.

We walked back along the paseo tracing our steps from earlier and headed to the elaborate town hall building and then stopped at an outdoor café for a little lunch in the sunshine. Two egg, ham, and cheese sandwiches later we wandered back through the streets of the old town. We stopped to make a dinner reservation tomorrow night at a restaurant called La Fabrica. My pre-trip research did not turn-up this restaurant but we checked out the menu, liked what it offered and we also liked the looks of the place, plus on a Sunday at lunchtime the place was packed, it seemed like a good option.

I spent some time walking along the Paseo Nuevo and taking lots of pictures and got back to the hotel just before 5pm in time to meet with the group and our guide. I was pleasantly surprised to find there were only 10 of us on this tour.

Robert was our guide and he did a brief orientation walk of the city and then we went to a local gastronomic society for dinner. These societies have a very interesting history in San Sebastian and we were fortunate enough to be invited to one of the oldest societies in the city, and unfortunately I didn’t write down the name of it!

We had a great meal. We started with pintxos, mushrooms sautéed in oil & garlic, bacala croquettas and fried peppers with plenty of txokoli. Dinner was four courses and a digestivo. We started with a shrimp risotto that was delicious and perfectly cooked; the shrimp was nice and tender. The next course was hake with white asparagus, a steak and pepper course followed the fish and the peppers were the star of this dish, extremely flavorful. The dessert was a simple lemon sorbet & cava smoothie, very refreshing. We ended the meal with an anise and cherry digestivo. All was delicious and it was great way to get to know the others in the group.

Day 5: Monday, May 17th

We started the day with breakfast at the hotel, which was included with the tour. It was a basic breakfast we’ve found in other European destinations, bread, fruit, yogurt, cheeses, coffee and juices. It was just enough to get us going in the morning.

Our day got started around 9:30am with a walking tour of the San Sebastian with Augustin, a local guide. We spent about 3 hours with Augustin and he was a good guide and it was interesting to hear a local’s perspective on living in San Sebastian.

At about 12:30 we left the hotel and boarded a mini bus for a 30 minute drive to the fishing village of Getaria. It’s a very picturesque village and we did a short walk around and had a fantastic lunch.

Earlier in the day Robert (our guide) asked us if we were interested in trying hake cheeks, a local delicacy. Mom and I jumped at the chance to try this and we went to lunch with Robert and a few others at Iribar in Getaria. This lunch was a favorite of the trip. We had the hake cheeks, a mixed salad and grilled squid. All were fantastic. We also had a couple bottles of the local cider, which had a nice light flavor.

After lunch we drove to the town of Guernica. This town is significant to the Basques, not only because of the events during the Spanish Civil War but also because this town is the seat of Basque government. The Basque Assembly House in Guernica is definitely worth a visit, not only to the see the Guernica oak tree but also to see the beautiful stained glass ceiling windows and the assembly room.

We left Guernica at about 6pm and were back in San Sebastian at about 7:30pm. Mom and I decided to go to Astelena Taberna for pintxos. We decided to start stepping out of our pintxos box and ordered a couple hot pintxos here and they were excellent, as a matter of fact all the hot pintxos coming out of the tiny kitchen looked incredibly delicious. The 2 pintxos and 4 glasses of txokoli were €12.50. At 9m we walked to La Fabrica for our dinner reservation. The restaurant is located at Calle Puerto, 17.

Being a Monday night the restaurant wasn’t too crowded, maybe because it was a Monday night. But we had an excellent 3 course meal with a bottle of wine for €49.22, that’s total for the two of us.

I started with the mushroom risotto and mom had the goat cheese salad. Both were very good. I had the cod for my main dish and mom had another fish dish, which I can’t remember the name of. The cod was absolutely delicious. For dessert I had cheesecake with blueberry compote, it was creamy and not cloyingly sweet. Mom had the cheese plate and was not disappointed.

One of the things that drew us to this restaurant was not only the menu but I just liked the atmosphere. There were exposed brick walls, light wood furniture, hard wood floors. I believe at one time it may have been a factory of some sort, hence the name La Fabrica (I think.)

We completely enjoyed this meal and we would recommend this place to anyone visiting San Sebastian and looking for a budget conscience good meal.

Day 6: Tuesday, May 18th

It was the perfect day to see Bilbao, sunny and cool. The drive to Bilbao from San Sebastian took about an hour and when we arrived in Bilbao we started with a walking tour of the Old Town area. I have to say I was really impressed with this area, actually with Bilbao as a whole. I was not expecting such a charming city. The Old Town has some beautiful buildings and I really got the feeling people lived and worked in this part of town, it wasn’t just a touristy-kitschy neighborhood. The cathedral has lovely stained glass windows and is also one of the very many places of worship along the Camino de Santiago (which we will explore more later in the week).

We meander our way through Old Town Bilbao with Robert giving us some of the history of not just the city but the Basque culture and customs as well. After a few hours we wind our way into the new part of town and I must say the city of Bilbao (at least the areas we were in) was very clean.

Now it was lunch time and we had about 3 hours before our appointment at the Guggenheim Museum. During my pre-trip research I had come across a restaurant that was noted for the Joselito ham they served. According to the recommendation I had it was supposed to be the best ham in Bilbao, mom and thought…let’s give it a try.

We found La Vina de Ensanche located at Calle Diputación,10 in the new part of Bilbao (http://www.lavinadelensanche.com/index.html). As we walked up the street we found a covered eating area with about 15 tables in front of the restaurant on the pedestrian walkway. There was a table free and we took a seat. The servers were very friendly, only spoke Spanish and the menu was not in English. All around us the other customers were speaking Spanish.

We opened the menu and decided to reward ourselves with the most delectable plate of Joselito ham. I have never had ham this good…honest, it was so smooth and creamy, if ham can even be creamy. Now, since I’m not completely proficient in Spanish I mistakenly thought I had ordered the €13 ham plate and not the €26 ham plate. But after seeing the plate that was presented to us I had no misconception that this had to be the more expensive plate, and it was the best €26 I have ever spent. We also ordered salads, which were huge; this was beginning to be the biggest lunch I had eaten a long time! Mom had duck & foie on a bed of beautiful greens.

I had the most incredible version of a caprese salad I have ever had. On a bed of greens with sun-dried tomatoes and pignoli nuts there were four small-ish balls of mozzarella each sliced in half and a layer of tomato basil marmalade in between each, it was like 4 mozzarella sandwich balls. This was easily the best salad I have ever had. And I know I’d chosen well when a table of 2 women sat down near us and as they placed their order they turned in our direction, pointed to my salad and held up 2 fingers, they each got the same salad. We enjoyed a couple glasses of house wine and ended the meal with espresso. It was the perfect 2 hour lunch on a beautiful day enjoying the sunshine in Bilbao.

Near 3:30pm we met the group at the entrance to the Guggenheim Bilbao and went in for our 90 minute guided tour of the museum. I found the building itself to be very interesting to look at, but I’m not a huge fan of the modern art inside. There were a few exhibits I found mildly interesting but everything else was kind of lost on me.

We arrived back in San Sebastian just before 8pm. Tonight we decided to walk across the bridge into the Gros neighborhood and check out Viento Sur at Calle Zurriola, 4 and have a couple glasses of wine. This is a restaurant but they have a nice bar area with good cocktails and wine. The restaurant looked great, but we decided to move onto a different place for dinner. We walked back to the old town and settled on Urbano Restaurant located at Calle 31 de Agosto, 17 (http://www.restauranteurbano.com/en/index.html). This restaurant is owned by the same people as Casa Urola and I have to say that enjoyed this meal even more than the one at Casa Urola.

It was about 10pm and the restaurant had tables available so we were seated quickly, without a reservation. We started with a really nice bottle of local Rose wine and a shrimp and scallop pintxo. Mom had the turbot with potatoes for her main dish and I had the roasted lamb with an emmenthal cheese chip. Both entrees were excellent. And as a side note, the kitchen and restaurant were staffed by all women, I’m not sure if that was just for this night, but it was something I noted. With 2 espresso to end the meal the total bill was €60.

We had a short walk back to the hotel and were in our room by midnight.

Day 7: Wednesday, May 19th

We woke up to a partly cloudy day in San Sebastian and headed south to the Camino de Santiago. By the time we got to the starting point for our walk on the trail the sun was out and there was a wonderful cool breeze.

We walked for a little over an hour and took a short break in a little village. There were several pilgrims on the trail and they were very interesting people. We met a Dutch couple who were biking the Camino, an Australian gentleman walking and a French couple who were on a burrow!

After our short break we continued on for about another hour to a small church on the trail. We spent some time there exploring the interior and exterior of the church and taking lots of pictures. We even stopped at the little house next to the church and got a stamp saying we had been at that church, apparently all along the Camino when pilgrims stop at the various churches they receive a stamp indicating they were there.

The section of the Camino we walked had some slight hills, some gravel and dirt as well as paved pathways. We walked through some absolutely stunning scenery. As we walked with the breeze at our backs the fields of grass were blowing and it looked like an enormous sea of flowing green.

At the end of our walk we got back on the bus for the quick drive to the winery where we were having lunch. Adolfo, the winery owner met us at the door and showed us his small winery and talked about his wine production process. Then we sat down to a great homemade lunch his mother prepared for us. It was delicious. We had pepper tarts and mushroom tarts, endive salad with a fantastic blue cheese dressing, potato tortilla and wonderfully tender chorizo. To cap it all off we enjoyed the excellent wine from the winery.

After lunch we walked through the town of Puente La Reina which had a couple of nice churches and one very picturesque bridge. This is the bridge of the queen, hence the name of the town.

Today was absolutely pure bliss, if I had been able to special order the weather we had, I could not have asked for better.

We arrived back in San Sebastian just before 6pm and took a short rest. At about 7:30pm we started our evening of Pintxos hopping. Our first stop was La Cuchara de San Telmo on a side alley off of Calle 31 Agosto. Believe me, it is worth seeking out this place…we LOVED it! Do not be shy about walking in, you will not see any cold pintxos set out on the bar, all the pintxos here are hot (made to order) and you order from the blackboard menu behind the bar, or whatever looks good to you that the people around you are eating.

We looked at the menu board and the first words that jumped out at me and I could comprehend were foie and croquette and that is what we ordered. I ordered and we were given a little basket of bread and a couple sets of utensils. The barman poured our txokoli and we waited happily among the other diners for our food to arrive.

We received the most incredibly delicious morsels of food. We think the croquette was either duck or goose liver inside and the foie was absolutely without a doubt “to die for”. Imagine the best part of grilled steak being the slightly char-grilled piece of fat; that is what this foie tasted like only better. We ordered a second glass of txokoli and through pointing and my limited Spanish; we took the barman’s advice and ordered the queso and vegetable dish. Wow! A mini sized wheel of brie or camembert cheese with warm peppers, and carrots baked into the top, it was delicious. For 3 pintxos, 4 glasses of wine the total cost was €19.70. Very well worth it!

Our next stop was the pintxos bar Fuego Negro located on Calle 31 Agosto. For as old school as some of the other pintxos bars we went to were, this place was modern on the cusp of being flashy. I really wanted to try the gazpacho served in an orb that I kept hearing this place served, but it was not on the blackboard menu this evening…bummer. However we did sit back (yes there were open stools at this place!) and have a nice glass of wine.

Just after 9pm we walked up the street to see if we could get into Kokotxa for dinner, no luck without a reservation. That was my bad for not being on the ball and making a reservation at this Michelin starred restaurant…but that just gives me a reason to go back to San Sebastian!

But with disappointment there is also happiness…we found ourselves walking down into Bodegan Alejandro instead (http://www.bodegonalejandro.com/es/presentacion/). This restaurant is located on Calle de Fermin Calbeton, 4. When you enter from street level you will walk down a flight of stairs into a lovely dining room that is all wood and tiles.

Since we hadn’t yet tried a tasting menu in San Sebastian we decided the one here at Bodegan Alejandro looked very good. There were 6 courses for €38.

The amuse bouche was a cold asparagus soup which was delicious. The first course was marinated anchovy cold lasagna. Mom loved it; I wasn’t as big a fan. The second course was a roasted tomato stuffed with squid and served on black ink risotto. I enjoyed this, once I swirled the dollop of cream into the risotto it was creamy and rich. This dish wasn’t a favorite for mom.

The third course was hake served on potato with iodized salt and mussel juice it was excellent just the right amount of salt, we both enjoyed this dish very much. The fourth course was Iberian veal cheek it was so tender we didn’t need a knife to cut it, we both deemed this course a winner too. The fifth course was vanilla ice cream with French toast; not a ton of flavor and the French toast was crispy but seemed kind of ho-hum. The sixth course was gnocchi with coconut ice cream this was the winner in the dessert category, it even had a slight lime flavor. We had a bottle of local Rose wine and the dessert was served with an incredibly delicious and smooth orange wine. Two espressos ended the meal. The total cost of the meal was €104.

We happily waddled back to the hotel. Another memorable meal in San Sebastian.

Day 8: Thursday, May 20th

Bon Jour! Today we are heading to the city of Bayonne in the French Basque region. We did a brief walking tour with Robert and then had a guided tour of the Museum of Basque Culture (www.musee-basque.com). I really liked this museum with very interesting exhibits including a large room full of pelota equipment and lots of furniture that would have been in a typical Basque country home. The guide we had here was terrific, so enthusiastic it was infectious; I could have listened to her all day long.

After the museum we were on our own for lunch. We checked out the local market and the cheeses looked fantastic, but I had other plans. While doing the walking tour with Robert we passed an Italian restaurant, I know, I know, we are in France, I should be scoping out French Basque restaurants, but the aroma coming out of this little restaurant could not be ignore and ironically enough the name of the restaurant was Piccolo Ristorante!

We sat outside in the sunshine and between our shattered French and Italian we figured out each item on the chalkboard menu, as our server rattled on in rapid-fire French explaining each item to us. We knew which ones she was recommending by the change in her tone and excitement in her voice!

Mom started with a goat cheese, tomato, basil, olive, fig, hazelnut and raisin “tartine” it was served layered in what I would call a rocks glass. It was very tasty. I had the eggplant “cannelloni”, the eggplant used in place of pasta and the filling was delicious but I’m still trying to figure out exactly what it was! There was a hint of lavender in it for sure.

For our main dishes, mom had asparagus pasta topped with salmon and we think there was saffron in the pasta since it was very yellow, the asparagus sauce was perfection. I had the lamb lasagna served in a round baking dish and it was melt in your mouth delectable. With 2 glasses of wine and 2 espresso the total cost was €39.

After lunch we walked to the Musee Bonnat. This museum admission was included in our tickets to the Museum of Basque Culture and it was well worth the trip. The collection is not huge, but it was interesting and worth the 30 minutes it takes to see this small museum.

We also did a little shopping in Bayonne and since this city is well known for its chocolate we had to stop and get some. After we got home and tried the chocolate the only thing we were disappointed with was the fact that we didn’t buy more!

At about 4pm we drove to St. Jean de Luz, a seaside town in the French Basque Country. We wandered into the Eglise St. Jean Baptiste where the marriage of Louis XIV and Marie Therese took place. Although the church seems plain from the outside, inside is an incredibly beautiful altar.

We had plenty of time to wander about in St. Jean de Luz and then we found an outdoor café and decided it was time for an aperitif. We had a couple glasses of Izarra, which we were told is a local digestive. With the fluorescent green color it seemed electric, it wasn’t bad, but I ‘m not sure I would clamor back for another glass!

Tonight we had a group dinner in St. Jean de Luz at Le Kaiku, located at 17, rue de la Republique. This was a great meal. It all started with a kir, and I’m thinking it can only get better from here! Mom and I both choose the charcuterie plate and it was fantastic. We both also choose the pork with mushroom dish and it was perfectly cooked and flavorful. Both red and white wines were on the table and we ended the meal with a trio of crème brulee. The desserts were, in my opinion, the weakest point of the meal.

During dinner I had the pleasure to sit across from our bus driver. He was practicing his English while I was trying to practice my Spanish. I think he was “winning” but he was kind enough to say that he wished he could speak English as well as I spoke Spanish…I’m pretty sure he was just being kind to me!

Ending the meal on that high note we had about an hour drive back to San Sebastian and we were at our hotel by 10:30pm, an early night for us!

Day 9: Friday, May 21st

We had nothing on our agenda today except our final group dinner this evening. We had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel and then took a walk around the new town and did a little shopping.

I went to the bus company ticket office to buy bus tickets to go back to the Bilbao airport tomorrow. I have to give myself a pat on the back here, because I was able to ask for our bus tickets in Spanish and, more importantly, the woman behind the counter understood what I said!

We did a little pintxos bar hopping for lunch and went back to Tamboril for their hot mushroom special, which I think wasn’t all that special. We did have another bacala croquetta and it was as good as it was the first time we had one. Then we headed over to our favorite pintxos bar, San Telmo and had the queso and vegetable pintxo again, and it was as great as the other day.

We then braved the chalkboard menu and just picked a couple items.

We had the tempura fried bacala and it was as light as air. Then we saw the barman write a new item on a separate chalkboard under the shelves were the glasses were. I suspect this chalkboard is where they list the nightly specials because there were only 2 items listed here. When we ask the barman what the second item is we are told it is baby pig…sounds good to us. Oh My God! I am so glad we listened to our gut instinct. This pork had unbelievable flavor, as I took my first bite I let out a big…”yum”! Well, that was all the man standing next to us needed to hear because the next thing we know he is smiling at us and ordering the baby pig too!

After lunch I took another walk along the Paseo Nuevo and took some more pictures. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and getting our bags together for our flight to Paris tomorrow.

Before our final group dinner mom and I had our last pre-meal aperitivo at Viento Sur, a couple glasses of wine and back to the hotel to meet the group. We had a 9pm dinner reservation at Restaurante Astelena (not the pintxos bar by the same name) located at Calle Euskalerria, 3 (www.restauranteastelena.com).

Robert, our guide did a great job at selecting this restaurant, it was fabulous! We had a private, glass front dinning room, perfect for our group of 10. We had a five course meal that was one of the best meals we had the entire time in San Sebastian. Red and white wine were flowing. The white was crisp and “grapefruity”. The bread here was the best we’d had the entire week, it was soft yet had a crunchy crust.

The first course was a salad topped with fresh tuna and the tuna was delicious. The next course was a fried squid ravioli served in black squid ink; it was tender inside and crunchy outside.

The fish course was cod that was so thick and tender, no knife was needed, it was almost the consistency of steak. And speaking of steak, that’s what the next course was, and it was cooked to rare perfection, it nearly melted in my mouth.

For dessert a tray of five different desserts were served, we had tiramisu, cherry cheesecake, mango cheesecake, French toast, coffee ice cream and chocolate ice cream. Then we had espresso and to finish everything off we had the local cherry digestive. We thoroughly enjoyed this meal; it was the perfect way to end our stay in San Sebastian.

Day 10: Saturday, May 22nd

Adios San Sebastian, Bon Jour Paris! Today we would be flying from Bilbao to Paris.

We had breakfast at the hotel and then took a taxi to the bus station to catch the 9am bus to the Bilbao airport. The bus ride was smooth, the bus was not crowded but it had more passengers than the 4 people that were on the bus a week earlier when we arrived.

We arrived at the airport absurdly early (about 10am) for our 1:05pm, but you know that’s just how I travel. We were so early the Air France ticket counter wasn’t even open yet. I was thrown for a bit of loop because the Air France ticket counter was not marked, but after walking by all the counters we eventually found the correct one. We waited until 11am when the ticket counter opened, and were second in line to check-in and get our boarding passes.

Security was a breeze and we waited for our gate to be posted on the monitors in the waiting area. We were bussed out to the waiting Air France plane, boarded and took off on time. It was a short one and a half hour flight. We landed 20 minutes early at Terminal 2G at Charles de Gaule. This terminal is a breeze to navigate. We walked to baggage claim and our bags were the first off the conveyor belt.

I called Paris Perfect Apartments to let them know we had landed and collected our bags and would be en route shortly. They said they would be at the apartment waiting for us. We walked into the arrivals hall and our driver was waiting for us. I booked a car pick-up with Inter-Shuttle prior to leaving home. Traffic was not too bad and it took us about an hour to drive into Paris, arriving at the apartment just before 4pm.

The Paris Perfect representatives were there at the apartment waiting for us and showed us the apartment. Our first response upon entering the apartment was a big “Wow…what a view”…the website pictures of the apartment were true…it was spectacular.

The apartment was on the 7th (8th by American standards) floor. It’s compact but has everything we need, including a washing machine/dryer combination unit. After we were shown how to work the appliances, TV, DVD player, etc we tossed in some laundry and ventured out to buy a few groceries.

Rue Clear is just a couple blocks away and that was our destination, and it certainly was a happening place. There seemed to be a flea market of some sorts set up all along Rue Clear and spilling out onto Avenue de la Motte Picquet. I’m not sure if this is a weekly or monthly event since the following Saturday this market was not set up.

We managed to find just what we needed, some cheese, fruit, bread, etc at the various shops along this street. During our walk to Rue Cler we found Le Florimond, where we had dinner reservation for later this evening. I stopped in to confirm the reservation I had made before leaving home and the owner could not have been nicer…”ahhh, yes, the call from the states, we have you for 8pm”…I was a happy girl!

I had selected Le Florimond for our first dinner in Paris for a couple reasons. First because I’d heard good recommendations for this place and secondly because it was just down the street from the apartment. I wanted to make our first night in Paris not only good, but also convenient!

Le Florimond is located at 19 Avenue de la Motte-Picquet (http://www.leflorimond.com/) near the Latour Maubourg and Ecole Militaire metro stops. The menu was only in French but the owner/maitre d’ was more than happy to answer our questions in English. At 8pm most of the diners here were speaking English, however later in the week when we went a second time with a 9:30pm reservation most of the patrons were speaking French.

The dining room has maybe 12 tables and there were about 4 tables set outside. This was a Saturday night and I am glad I made a reservation, every table was full. The set menu was €35.

We started with kirs for our aperitif. The amuse bouche of pureed eggplant topped with tomato sauce was wonderful, but then I never met and eggplant I didn’t like! For the starter I had a pork crepe but it was served layered, almost lasagna style with a fresh tomato sauce (it was called ketchup on the menu, but I’d never had ketchup that good before!). Mom chose the lobster ravioli for her starter, it was buttery and delicious, but if I’m being honest, my starter “won”, it was out of this world good.

Mom decided to ask about one of the items on the menu because all we could figure out was that it was “grandmother’s recipe”. It was stuffed cabbage and mom was very happy she asked about it because it may have possibly been the best thing she ate in Paris! The cabbage was stuffed with pork; this was the “winning” main dish. I had a veal sausage and veal skewer with delicious white beans and haricots verte. We both had the fromage blanc with raspberry sauce for dessert. With a bottle of Rose wine and 2 espresso the total cost of the meal was €105.

We happily walked the two minutes back to the apartment and stood in our window amazed at the view of the sparkling Eiffel Tower! It was a great way to start our week in Paris.

Day 11: Sunday, May 23rd

We got a leisurely start and had breakfast of cheese, fruit, bread, yogurt, coffee and juice at the apartment. At about 11:30 we took the metro to the Marais.

The Marais was crowded and my game plan was to go to the Carnavalet Museum and the Victor Hugo House. Both places were closed due to Pentecost. We wandered around the Marais for a little while popping into a shop here and there.

We continued walking and went to Il de la Cite and did some window shopping. The streets here were crowded but we found an empty table at a café near Notre Dame. After about an hour we walked over into the Latin Quarter and stopped at St. Severes Church. We had never been to this church and I was pleasantly surprised at the beautiful stained glass windows here, plus it was cooler in the church than it was outside. I think Paris was having a heat wave today. We then walked by the restaurant where the Fodors get together would be later in the week and then took the metro back to “our” neighborhood.

At about 8pm we tried to get into a restaurant for dinner, without a reservation we were out of luck. We walked a bit and came across La Terrasse du 7eme, a café just down the street from our apartment at the corner of Avenue Bosquet and Avenue de la Motte-Picquet. I was a bit skeptical about the food here but was very pleasantly surprised.

Mom had the house special, chicken skewers with basmati rice, this was unexpectedly good, the chicken was moist and the rice was perfectly cooked. I had the entrecote with frites, the quintessential French café dish; it was good the steak was very nicely cooked. We had a demi-carafe of pouilly-fumé and 2 espressos to end the meal and the total cost was €61. We enjoyed sitting outside watching the comings and goings of all the people around us. Being just a block from the Eiffel Tower there was a lot of foot traffic here and it became our “go to” place for evening aperitif all week long.

It was still light outside just before 10pm when we were finishing dinner so we decided to take the short walk over the Parc du Champ de Mars and see the Eiffel Tower. As we entered the park the tower began to twinkle as the sun was setting, it was a picture post card moment. After taking more pictures of the Eiffel Tower than I probably should have, we walked the 10 minutes back to the apartment.

Day 12: Monday, May 24th

I didn’t realize Pentecost Monday was a holiday in France and my plan to stop at the SNCF boutique/office around the corner from the apartment to pick up the train tickets to Reims failed miserably. When, at 9:10am, I saw the office was closed I knew something was up, especially since the sign on the door said it opened at 8:30am. I walked over to the neighborhood post office in an attempt to buy some stamps, no luck there either, it was also closed. That’s when I realized it must be a holiday Monday since yesterday was Pentecost. I had to change to Plan B for ticket pick-up.

I walked back to the apartment and mom was ready to go so we were out the door by 10:30am and went to the Musee Orangerie (http://www.musee-orangerie.fr/) to see Monet’s Water Lillies. This was one thing that was on my “must see” list and I’m really glad we went. We had a short wait, not more than 10 minutes, to get inside. I loved this museum and not just the Water Lillies, although that was the highlight. We spent close to 2 hours there and really enjoyed it. I’ve seen plenty of pictures of the Water Lillies paintings but nothing does them justice then seeing them in this gallery.

After the Musee Orangerie we walked up to Place de la Madeline to see if the Maille mustard shop was open no luck there either, they were closed. We would make a return here later in the week. Since I wasn’t able to pick up our Prems train tickets at the SNCF boutique in our neighborhood I thought I would try going to a train station to pick them up. We took the metro to Gare St. Lazare.

When I ordered these Prems tickets on-line I was not given the option to print the tickets at home. I thought that was unusually but continued with the transaction. I was only given the option to pick them up at a ticket kiosk in France. After the purchase went through on-line a message came up that said some North American based credit cards could not be used in the ticket kiosks because a PIN would have to be entered to retrieve the tickets. I did have a PIN for the credit card I used, but since that card does not have a chip I wondered how this would all work.

We arrived at Gare St. Lazare and the SNCF office outside the station was closed, however there were plenty of ticket kiosks so I tried to retrieve my tickets there. I was able to pull up the reservation on the kiosk computer, but I was not able to print the tickets because my credit card would not be accepted. After several attempts I thought, “There must be a ticket window inside the station”, so in we went.

Yes there was a ticket counter open inside and I think half of Paris was in line! We got in the line and slowly moved to the ticket counter. We were in line for about an hour and fortunately when it was our turn the transaction was simple. I handed the ticket agent my credit card, she swiped it and our tickets were printed in less than a minute. We had our TGV tickets for Reims in our hands and were ready for another adventure.

Upon exiting Gare St. Lazare I realized we were not far from Au Printemps so we walked there and had a little retail therapy. Not only did a purchase my first Le Creuset pot but we went up to the 9th floor terrace to check out the much talked about views of the city. Wow! Now I know why people say to do this! The views were fantastic and being a beautiful sunny day we could see all the Parisian landmarks, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc di Triomphe, Montmartre…all right there on the roof. There is a restaurant/café here and we sat down, relaxed and had a cold drink…a terrific setting.

We did pop into Galleries Lafayette for a few minutes to check out the handbag section of the store, I was in heaven, however after purchasing the Le Creuset I decided to give my bank account a rest! I must say, these department stores are huge, one could easily get lost in them.

From here we took the metro back to our neighborhood and enjoyed the view from our apartment a little more!

We had an 8:30pm dinner reservation at 7eme Vin restaurant on Avenue Bosquet, kitty-corner from Le Terrasse. We decided to go to Le Terrasse for our evening aperitif of a demi-carafe of pouilly fume, for €18 this wine was very drinkable and provided us each with 2 glasses of wine. The waiter here was very friendly and applauded our fractured attempt at ordering in French.

Our meal at 7eme Vin was great. We had a bottle of the house white wine. When I saw the bone marrow starter on the menu I couldn’t resist and I’m glad I ordered this. Wow, one word to describe this dish…YUM! The bone was gigantic and the marrow was hot, hot, hot, it was perfect slathered on the toasted bread it came with.

Mom had the white asparagus in white sauce starter. The asparagus were huge and delicious. From my main dish I had the monkfish special of the day with rice and broccoli, it was very good. Mom (at the suggestion of the woman sitting next to us) had the scallops for her main dish and they were fantastic. With 2 espressos to end the meal the total cost was about €90. We walked home and watched the Eiffel Tower sparkle from our living room sofa.

Day 13: Tuesday, May 25th

We were up early today and off the Gare de l’est, arriving an hour before our train was scheduled to depart. We arrived early because I did not know how long it would take us during rush hour to get to the station on the metro.

This was my mom’s first time on a TGV. I had been years and years ago while traipsing through Europe during my college days. True to form the train left right on time. It was a very comfortable 45 minute ride to Reims and we arrived at 9:45am.

We walked from the Reims train station to the cathedral. There is a tourist office next to the cathedral where you can rent audio guides giving the history of the cathedral (http://www.reims-tourism.com/). We were very glad we spent the €5 (each) on these guides, they were interesting and gave us information we would not have known had we not rented them. This cathedral was impressive, of course with our luck, half of the front was in scaffolding, but we overlooked that! The stained glass windows here were fantastic, including one by Marc Chagall.

The audio tour took about an hour to do and as we made our way around the cathedral we came to a clock tucked away in a corner. At this time we were lucky because it was just 11am and every hour on the hour, the clock lights up, rings and the figures inside the clock come out and “make their rounds” in and out of the clock for a few minutes.

When we were finished with the audio tour we found a little café just behind the cathedral which had a nice outside dining area. We sat down and had two huge salads. Mom had the vegetarian salad that had heaps of all kinds of fresh vegetables served on a nice bed of salad greens. I had the Italian salad which had prosciutto, salami, mozzarella, olives and tomatoes on a bed of salad greens.

Once we had finished lunch we walked over to the tourist office and asked them if they would call a taxi for us to go to the Veuve Clicquot caves, which are several miles from the downtown area of Reims. The taxi came quickly and within 15 minutes we were at the champagne cave. Our tour was scheduled for 2pm. I paid the receptionist (€25 per person) and were asked to wait in the reception room until the rest of the tour participants arrived. http://www.veuve-clicquot.com/

The tour of the Veuve Clicquot cave lasted about an hour. We were on the tour titled “The Grande Dame” and heard about the history of how this champagne house began. The caves were fun to walk through. Each cave is named for a former employee and their name and dates of service are place on a plaque hung on the cave wall. Some people worked there for over 40 years.

The tour included a champagne tasting and at the end of the tour we gathered in a corner of the shop area and our guide opened a bottle of the Grande Dame champagne…nice and old and bubbly! I’ve been enamored with pink champagne for the last several months so throwing caution to the wind I purchased a bottle of the Veuve Clicquot Rose Champagne. I’m happy to report it made it home with me in my luggage without breaking…now I need a special occasion to drink it!

When we were finished with our purchase I asked the receptionist to call a taxi for us to take us back to the Reims train station. As we waited for the taxi the skies opened and it started raining buckets. When the taxi arrived we hopped in and were whisked off to the train station.

The train to Paris departed a few minutes late but it was a quick 45 minute ride back and we arrived in Paris just after 6pm. We were in our apartment by 6:30pm.

We decided to have an early-ish dinner and at about 7pm we walked into Café Constant at 139 Rue St. Dominique (http://www.cafeconstant.com/1.aspx). We were seated upstairs and even at this early hour all but 2 or 3 tables were full. By the time we ordered all the tables were full. All the menu items here are a la carte. At the recommendation of our server I had the shrimp on puff pastry starter and I am glad I heeded our server’s advice, it was delicious. Mom had the artichoke and mushroom salad and said the dressing was fantastic.

For her main dish mom had the veal with white beans and it was full of garlic, good thing she likes garlic! I had the roasted chicken with tarragon potatoes and it was moist and juicy. As we looked out the window we noticed it had started to rain and not just a light drizzling rain, but a deluge. We didn’t have umbrellas with us and we thought what better reason to stay a little longer and order dessert!

Mom had the cheese plate and I had the homemade profiteroles…they were perfection, even the vanilla ice cream (and I’m a chocolate ice cream kind of gal) was to die for. With a bottle of chardonnay and 2 espresso the total for this fabulous dinner was €98.

We walked home through the raindrops and fell asleep with a happy and full stomachs!

Day 14: Wednesday, May 26th

We woke up to cloudy skies today but that wasn’t a deal breaker for today’s activity…we were going to cook today! Mom wasn’t feeling great, so she decided to bailout of the cooking lesson but I went and had a great time!

I booked a morning market class with Cookin’ with Class located in the Montmartre neighborhood (http://www.cooknwithclass.com/). I found this cooking school through a post on Fodors and when I checked out the website I liked what I saw and booked the class.

I took the metro to the Jules Joffrin stop and met the chef and the other class members. I knew I was going to like Chef Pino when our first stop was a fromaggerie and we spent a good 30 minutes there, he certainly loved his cheeses (me too!). He explained a lot of the different cheeses in this shop, I really and truly could have stayed there all day but we had to move on. The next stop was the butcher, the fishmonger and the produce stand. The final stop was the boulangerie and what a boulangerie it was. Many years ago it served as the communal oven, where anyone in the neighborhood we needed an oven to bake their bread could come and use the oven. Now-a- days it’s not used this way, but this place is producing some of the best bread I have ever had!

Now that we had all the shopping done we walked to the cooking school. It’s a small storefront building that has a little reception area and then a commercial kitchen large enough for 6 students, one chef instructor and a helper. Our helper, Lena, was great, the minute we put down a dirty knife or needed a clean cutting board; there she was with exactly what we needed.

We prepared a great 3 course meal. We had a fish and shrimp starter with fennel and orange salad. The main dish was stuffed pork tenderloin, stuffed with Serrano ham, raisins, basil, and pine nuts. The side dish was a celery root potato mash topped with onion confit. For dessert we made a strawberry tart and had a fantastic cheese plate with 9 different cheeses! With 3 bottle of wine between 6 of us it was a great way to spend a rainy day.

I really enjoyed this class, especially since I am no where near describing myself as even a good cook. What I liked the most about Chef Pino was that even though my kitchen skills were not great, he never made me feel like I was a complete culinary klutz.

The class ended just after 3pm and I was back at the apartment by 4pm. Mom hadn’t eaten much all day, unlike me, so we went to Le Terrasse for a glass of wine and then to La Taverna at 22 Rue du Champ de Mars. Yes, we managed to find an Italian restaurant in Paris, and an excellent one at that!

Mom had the €33 formula menu. The eggplant napoleon starter and the veal main course were both delicious. Since I had such a big lunch I had the penne pasta dish with eggplant and olives. Mom’s dessert was the best tiramisu we have ever tasted. With 2 espressos and a half bottle of Orvieto Classico the bill was €72.

We walked home and I was asleep by 9:30…I think I had way too much food today!

Day 15: Thursday, May 27th

I was another cloudy start today, but that didn’t stop me from my morning photo tour with Sophie Pasquet of Better Paris Photos (http://www.betterparisphotos.com/). I came across Sophie’s name in a Fodors trip report when I was doing my trip research and after reading about the nice time others had with Sophie I checked out her website. I liked the half day tour of the Paris passages and contacted Sophie and we set a date and time to meet.

I met Sophie at 8:30am at Passage l’Arabbe and she was an absolute delight, and was very patient with my beginner photography skills! I really enjoyed my time with Sophie and I learned some great tips not only about my camera but also about composing photos. We wandered through some beautiful passages including passages Vero-Dodat, Colbert and Vivienne.

About half way through the tour we sat at a café and Sophie critiqued the photos I had sent her previous to the tour and we talked about how they could be improved. When we were ready to move on it started raining, but that did not stop us. We walked to the Palais Royale and I took some interesting photos, well, at least interesting to me! The tour ended at about 12:30 and I took the metro back to the apartment.

By about 3pm the rain subsided and we went to the Decorative Arts Museum (http://www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/). This museum is part of the Louvre but has a separate entrance. Thursday evenings they are open late. This was a great time to go because there was no line; we just walked right up to the ticket counter and purchased our tickets.

This museum is big and it is filled with fashion, furniture, and all kinds of china. I enjoyed the fourth floor which had sections staged to look like rooms in apartments, it was very interesting. We spent about 2 hours here, but you easily spend twice that amount of time.

When we were ready to leave the museum it was pouring rain, but I managed to find the way back to Gallerie Vivienne so mom could see at least one of the passages. It was about 6pm so we stopped and had a glass of wine at Le Grande Filles. This was a wine bar in the passage and we each enjoyed a glass of Corsican white wine. I can’t seem to recall where I heard about this wine bar, I think it was an article in the New York Times travel section but I’m glad I remembered the name when I saw the place.

After our “wine time” we hopped back on the metro and came back to our neighborhood for dinner at Thoumieux located at 79 Rue St. Dominique. This was the restaurant on Sunday night we tried to get into without a reservation. Tonight we did not have a reservation either, but it was fairly early and they were able to seat us.

The dining room here was all mirrors and crystal chandeliers. I read about this restaurant in a guide book and the book’s description made it sound more casual than I felt it was. We each began with a kir vin blanc and for my starter I had the pizza soufflé, which may sound odd, but it was delicious, served with arugula on top and on a bed of shaved parmesan cheese. Mom and I had the same main dish, pork perfectly cooked with carrots and pureed lentils. We had a half bottle of chardonnay and ended the meal with 2 espressos. The total for this meal was €97.

We walked over to Rue Cler after dinner and stopped for a gelato at Amorino, it was as yummy as always. While walking back to the apartment we stopped at Le Florimond to make a reservation for Saturday night. The only time available was 9:30pm so we took it.

It was an early night for us; we were back at the apartment by 9:30pm, just in time to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle at 10pm!

Day 16: Friday, May 28th

We woke up to sunshine today! It was the perfect shopping day! We left the apartment at about 10:30am and took the metro to Place Madeline. We were on a mission to get to the Maille mustard shop and I’m happy to say we were successful, VERY successful!

A whole shop dedicated to just mustard , the variety of flavors were staggering, it made it difficult to select just a few, well in our case more than just a few. On final count when we arrived home we had close to 20 jars of mustard. The most enticing, for me anyway, was the fresh chocolate mustard.

I saw on the counter there were 4 open jars of mustard with little plates of bread sticks next to them. I asked if I could sample and the salesgirl said, “Of course”…Oh My God! I never would have dreamed chocolate mustard existed, but I am so glad it does! The other 3 samples were vin blanc mustard, chablis mustard and chardonnay mustard. All were great. We decided we wanted to buy some but I didn’t see any jars of this around, so I asked the salesgirl. She asked me what size I wanted, small, medium or large, and pointed to 3 empty jars on a shelf, I’m still a little confused, but say medium. She then proceeds to take a medium jar and from the tap that is right in front of me, pours out this incredible fresh, chocolate mustard, mom got the chardonnay and chablis too! I don’t think I have ever had fresh mustard like this before, I know I would have remembered. As we are paying at the cash register we are told the fresh mustard can go for 2 days without refrigeration. Good thing we have an apartment with a refrigerator! By the way, the jars of fresh mustard were the last things to go into our suitcases before departing and the first to come out of the suitcases upon arriving at home!

After our mustard excursion, we got on the metro and went Bon Marche to check out the Grande Epicure, another Wow! What a supermarket and the prepared foods looked fantastic, like works of art. We bought some chocolate here as gifts to bring back home. By now our shopping bag was becoming enormous and we went back to the apartment to put our coveted mustards away.

The stop at the apartment was a quick one because I wanted to walk to the Pont Alexander and take some pictures; it truly was a glorious weather day. This bridge is not far from our apartment and it made for a great walk. We passed by the Grande Palais and the Petit Palais and wandered up the Champs Elysees.

There were lots of people walking in the sunshine and we popped into a couple shops and then arrived at macaron mecca, Lauduree. We decided to treat ourselves and there was a table available in the outside café, so we had a seat and watched the world go by. We ordered 4 mini macarons, chocolate, vanilla, raspberry and pistachio. Mom had a café au lait and I had a Lauduree specialty (according to their menu), cold hot chocolate. Wow, this smooth drink tasted like I was slurping liquid ice cream. After our little coffee break we slowly wandered back to the apartment enjoying the beautiful weather.

For dinner we decided to go to Les Cocottes (http://www.leviolondingres.com/eng_cocottes.htm), another Christian Constant restaurant. I have to say, for as much as I loved Café Constant, I REALLY LOVED Les Cocottes. The concept is a bit different then other French restaurants. There is bar seating in the whole place and most menu items are served in Staub pots. This place was noisy and crowded, we were fortunate again in arriving just around 7pm and getting 2 of the last seats. As our starters were served to us the waiting line started to form.

We began the meal with a carafe of the house white wine. I chose the salad with poached egg, bacon and rocket for my starter and I was not disappointed, this salad was not only tasty, but it looked pretty too! Mom had the asparagus soup starter and was very happy with her selection. I had the beef with potato gratin and onions and mushrooms served in a cocotte, it was outstanding, there was no need to use a knife to cut the meat it was so tender. Mom had the steak with roasted potatoes; the steak was cooked beautifully rare. We ended the meal with 2 espressos and the total cost was €81.

When we were ready to leave the waiting line had grown enormously and we hardly had our feet on the floor before someone was sitting in our seats. No reservations are accepted here, I would suggest arriving early to get a seat without a wait.

Day 17: Saturday, May 29th

It was a cloudy day today and I’m glad we got a great walking/picture taking day in yesterday! We spent a good part of the morning getting ourselves organized for our departure tomorrow; I can hardly believe the trip is almost over.

In the afternoon we take the metro to the vicinity of Notre Dame. When we were near Notre Dame earlier in the week it was a mob scene so we decided not to go in then. It was still crowded today, but the line to go inside the cathedral moved quickly and before we knew it, we were inside.

The inside of Notre Dame is as dark as I remember it being, but the stained glass windows are incredible, maybe I should have titled this trip report “the stained glass windows of Europe” trip! There was some event that was just ending because there were a lot of men in tuxedos and capes and women in stylish dresses with the same capes as the men were wearing. I couldn’t get near enough to them to hear or decipher what was going on, but it seemed like it was a ceremony of some sort.

We emerged from the church and the weather was improving slightly and we took a few pictures in front of the church. We then headed off in the direction of the Latin Quarter and stopped in a Starbucks along the way for a cool drink and then walked up to the Luxembourg Gardens.

At 5pm we arrived at Bouillon Racine at 3 Rue Racine in the 6th (http://www.bouillon-racine.com/) for the Fodors get together. It was great fun meeting up with fellow travel-loving Fodorites and there was lots of travel-talk going on. Some of us were at the end of our trips while others were just starting their time in Paris so lots of restaurant and “things to do” recommendations were floating all around. We gathered in the bar area of this beautiful restaurant and although we did not eat there, I will put this place on my list of places to go on future trips to Paris.

Mom and I stayed at the get together for about an hour and then took the metro back to our neighborhood and had our last aperitif at Le Terrasse. Before we even had our bottoms seated in our chairs “our” friendly waiter acknowledged us and we didn’t even have to order, he brought us our demi-carafe of pouilly fume right away. I guess we had really become a fixture here now, because not only did he place the wine carafe and wine glasses down, but he also gave us glasses of water without us asking.

We sat savoring the wine, and the comings and goings along the street for about one and a half hours and then went back to our apartment to freshen up before our 9:30 reservation at Le Florimond.

We left the apartment just before 9:30pm and arrived at Le Florimond at 9:33pm, yes, we really were that close. The restaurant was still full, so we were asked to sit outside for a few minutes and they gave us complimentary drinks and an amuse bouche of pureed cauliflower on top of tomato puree. Shortly after we sat down another couple with a 9:30pm came in and they too were asked to sit outside. We were served a second, fairly larger amuse bouche of salmon risotto, both were delicious.

We waited for only about 15 minutes and then were seated inside. The clientele at this time of night was noticeably different than when we dined here earlier in the trip, this time the only other English being spoken was the Canadian couple next to us.

We ordered a bottle of rose wine and it must have been a popular choice because the 2 French women sitting on the other side of us had the same wine. I enjoyed the pork crepe I had during our first visit that this time both mom and I had that for our starter. Mom chose to have the stuffed cabbage for her main dish again and I had the duck which was also terrific. For dessert we both had the chocolate royale praline which consisted of 2 types of chocolate, one a milk chocolate cake and the other a torpedo shaped scoop of dark chocolate mousse with a praline crisp served as a garnish. The mousse was the best part of the dessert. We ended the meal with 2 espressos and the total cost was €98.

A couple cute occurrences happened while dining here this night. When mom and I finished our bottle of rose wine the 2 French women next to us who had the same wine still had a small amount left in their bottle and they offered it to us, we declined, but thanked them profusely. After they left the owner/maitre ‘d was taking away their wine bottle and noticed there was some left and he deftly poured the remains into each of our glasses. We were surprised but thought it amusing. I don’t think we would ever see that done here in the states, at least no any place I’ve been.

Another nice touch in this restaurant was that around 11pm the chef came out of the kitchen and greeted each table and chatted with the patrons, besides me and mom and the Canadian couple he seemed to know all the other diners.

And lastly, I can’t remember having such a warm and friendly good-bye from a restaurant owner. When we got up to leave we thanked the owner very much and told him how much we enjoyed both meals we had here and I went to shake his hand. Instead of reciprocating with a hand shake he kissed both me and mom on each cheek and said “now we are family…see you next year”…I just was tickled that he would say this. Who knows, maybe he says this to everyone, but it just seemed like a great way to end not only the meal but the whole trip.

Day 18: Sunday, May 30th

Today was departure day and I was battling a cold, which eventually won the fight. When we walked out of the apartment the driver from Inter-Shuttle was there waiting for us and we loaded into his mini-van and were whisked to the airport. Being a Sunday morning there was very little traffic and I think we made the drive to CDG in 30 minutes.

We checked in for our flight and this time our seats were together! We sailed easily through airport security which surprised me because I thought for sure they would want to go through my bag since I had a big, heavy Le Creuset pot in my carry-on, but the security agent barely gave my bag a second look. On our way to the departure gate we passed an outpost of Lauduree and stopped to buy 6 macarons for the flight home, they made the perfect dessert!

The flight left about an hour late and I have to say it was a pretty uncomfortable flight home, not only because we were crammed in our seats but there were some other passengers that seemed to never be happy and complained about a variety of things. One being their 3 year old child was too large for the bassinet and had to sit on one of the parent’s laps for the entire 10 hours, the mother was not happy about this, but there wasn’t much to be done. I watched in disbelief as prior to take-off the mother began screaming at the flight attendants…ugh…it was going to be a long flight! With this atmosphere you can imagine the flight attendants were not in pleasant moods.

Even with the delayed departure we landed in Atlanta on time and got through passport control quickly, there were few people in line at 8pm and they were well staffed with agents. Our suitcases came off the baggage carousel pretty quickly and we re-checked them for the flight to Savannah and then went through security and found our connecting departure gate. It took us less than an hour from touch-down to arriving at the connecting flight’s gate.

The flight to Savannah was on time and we landed at 10:45pm and the happy ending was that our bags (with the coveted mustard) were the first 2 on the baggage carousel! I grab the bags headed to the car and was off towards home to get the mustard in the frig!