Paris & Versailles - Early October 2022 - UK & beyond 06

October 16, 2022

Dear Friends and Family,

First of all, I've got to say, that was amazing tv theater last night, the last day of the Jan 6 hearings: Nancy Pelosi's cool under fire; the jaw-dropping actions of the Jan 6 insurrectionists invading Congress, whooping it up while hunting our Congressmen and women; shitting everywhere, literally shitting on the floors of the halls of Congress (unbelievable!!) - modern-day barbarians at the gates; Liz Cheney principled and so strong, whether you agree with her or not.

Now, back to our story.

The train from Cambridge to London arrived 1 hour before our Eurostar train was to depart for Paris. Same station, thankfully. The crowds waiting in line for the Eurostar were blocks long and snaked back and forth, packed with people. We had to clear customs, which was relatively quick, but the whole process took so long that we made it to our (reserved - Thank God) seats with about 2 minutes to spare. I’m certain some people were left behind, as there was a long line in back of us also.

We saw about four other people wearing masks. They all appeared to be Americans, probably from California. The other thousand or so were maskless. I think this is probably where Don and I got infected, but more on that later.

We are staying on Rue Ste. Anne, the area near the Palais Royal and that is how it is known, which turns out to be a street with a lot of small Asian restaurants and stores, many Japanese, so pretty tasteful (excuse my bias, please). We are also very close to the Louvre and Galerie Vivienne. Above Don is walking between the Louvre and the Palais Royal gardens (below).

Nice light fixtures.

We had lunch at a wonderful little restaurant called Eels. Unfortunately, we forgot to take a photo of the menu or any information, as we ended up meeting a curator from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, who was in the EU for a press check and stopped off in Paris. I noticed her as she came into the restaurant wearing a mask (unusual in Paris), had a lovely smile and manner, and ordered exactly what I had ordered - smoked eels and fish. So we got into a conversation.

The smoked eel dish was fantastically good. Sweet corn, diced apple, delicious sauce which I remember had some slight licorice flavoring. I probably would not have known if I hadn’t read it — very subtle.

Don's aubergine (eggplant) with delicious sauces. All sauces at Eels were delicious.

My fish. I think it was sea bass. Maybe Leslie can confirm or correct me.

Don's duck.

Dessert was a quince tart — a hard choice, but as Marisha has a very healthy quince tree we were curious to see how the restaurant prepared it. We had already tasted it when we remembered to take a photo. Very yummy.

Then we got back to our apartment and discovered that my old friend Deborah from high school, and my first traveling companion to Europe — we were only 17!! - was in Paris. So we ventured out once more and met her half-way. She was staying near the Canal St. Martin. It was great to see her.

We didn’t eat here, but we walked Deb to the nearest metro and Don snapped this photo. Over 50 years between trips; and many trips and life experiences since that time. How lucky we were and are! Boy, we had generous and understanding parents. Our other traveling companion in 1968, Erica, ended up marrying a French man and staying in France for a long time, although she is now in Sausalito.

The next day we went to Versailles.

This is about all we saw of the gardens on my first visit to Versailles, which I think was with Deb and Erica. If you wanted to see the vast outer expanses you had to walk.

Now you can rent bikes or board a sort of zoo train.

We rented bicycles which was so fun. As you can see, we got away from the crowds. Don said I only fell off twice, but it was more like I clumsily jumped off without fully braking and tipped my bike over. A bad habit from my days of riding a coaster-break bike as a kid.