Paris, entry #3

More Napoleon! Haha, but really, I did get interested in this guy, and especially his extra-sassy wife Josephine, by the end of this trip. On Wednesday, we met Karine (my great-aunt Nicole’s daughter, remember?) for lunch and then she took us on a special journey into the heart of France’s Napoleonic history. But first, let me of course tell you about lunch. Karine brought us, with her two kids (age 13 and 15) to a restaurant called EntreCote. It seemed very popular, even for an early lunch at noontime, and we soon found out why. The restaurant has a set menu of only a single dish that each customer receives (and then gets seconds!) – some kind of beef strips with mustard sauce and deliciously greasy French fries on the side. We of course had wine with lunch and then dessert, obviously my favorite part: vanilla ice cream puffs under chocolate syrup. And the conversation, despite our supposed language barrier, was so nice and we were able to learn a lot about French culture and customs sitting there with Karine and her kids. She told us about the terrible school system there, where kids go to class from 8am until 5pm at night, with no gym class or sports teams, and then do a few hours of homework afterwards. It made me appreciate recess and Medfield’s 20-minute breaks. These kids have it rough. I learned about how Karine grew up in Brazil and how different it is there from France, how she loves to vacation in Spain, how her children are geniuses at ping pong and love the American TV show “House.” It was so good to get to know Karine and her family, and the day wasn’t over yet! After lunch, she took us to Malmaison, the home that Napoleon and Josephine bought soon after they got married. She said that judging by Nick’s intense interest, this was a place we definitely had to see. And it turned out to be one of my favorite parts of this trip. Malmaison was off the beaten track and can’t be easily accessed by the Paris metro; Karine drove us there and led us up a long tree-lined walkway to the prominent mansion. It almost looks like something Mr. Darcy might have lived in, in Pride and Prejudice. The large house seemed modest compared to what we would later see at Versailles, and yet it was still remarkable. Inside, you can walk through the halls and rooms that Napoleon and Josephine lived in, slept in and ate in – with only a few other tourists around and almost no security. It was intimate and felt truly historic; you could reach out and touch the curtains Josephine had moved aside in mornings, or walk along the path Napoleon took to his bedroom. On view were her harp, dressing areas, a huge set of golden dishes from her previous husband, and the actual beds that each of them slept in. In fact, her canopied magenta bed was where Josephine died. It felt like walking through someone’s true home rather than a museum, and Karine was happy to show us one of her favorite places in Paris. It’s one of mine now too!

So after a fun day of more fun history, and I’m not being sarcastic about that, we went to the Les Halles area for dinner. I know I do a lot of talking about our meals, but honestly, it’s Paris. They eat there. Good stuff. So we voyaged to Les Halles, which is a huge park/market area that used to hold a famous meat market. Lucky for us, it still has an interesting meat-focused restaurant, called Au Pied du Couchon…meaning, “The Foot of the Pig.” For some reason I’m not sure I can fathom, Nick wanted to try out their specialty pig dishes. I have to say, I think I’m pretty good about going along with our food adventures, and so I went with this one. And when the meal came (not mine, I got duck and spaghetti), there was a tail, ear, and foot of a pig sitting – hair and all – on Nick’s place. Mid-dinner he said, “You know how a farm smells?....Well, that’s how this tastes…” I probably could have predicted that one haha! But apparently the ear actually tasted really good, and I think it was still a good experience. Now Nick can say he’s eaten almost every part of a pig and I can say, happily, that I stood by and watched. At least my crème brulee for dessert tasted like crème instead of a farm!

More to come for the next days in Paris! Pictures up soon too! There are a few up now…