Market, Mansion, Mexican

We began the day at the crack of eleven and visited Aude at her new apartment, which is located in the 15e near Invalides. We took the only metro line that goes above ground, and enjoyed a view of the Eiffel tower en route to Aude's place.

After a brief hello and goodbye, we set off for the nearby Motte-Piquet market which runs under the subway line for about 300m. The market was a venue for everything from the sale of handcrafted wooden furniture to cheap shoes to fresh meat and produce. We stopped at a paella stand for lunch (note to self - don't buy seafood paella which has been sitting in an open air market all day) and were disappointed, but a nearby Chinese restaurant saved the day with delicious dim sum and noodles.

Viv ordering Chinese food in French, even though she can't order it in Chinese

From there we took the RER to Versailles to see the palace and surrounding gardens. The Palace of Versailles is enormous and grandiose. Gold leaf covers most surfaces and many rooms exist only as a means of showcasing the opulence of Louis XIV's regime. Pictures and words cannot do it justice. Here, watch this Christian Dior spot for a sense of the place: 'Secret Garden - Versailles' | Long version

Returning to Paris exhausted, we walked into the first restaurant that appealed to us: a "Mexican tapas" place in Le Marais. Our rationale was a) for any restaurant to survive in Paris, it must be excellent, and b) this must hold particularly true for a Mexican restaurant. What a tragic lapse of judgment. This restaurant's survival either defies the odds in an epic, Apollo 13-esque manner, or our underlying assumptions are wrong. The first sign of trouble arose when we noticed that the kitchen consisted, in its entirety, of two microwaves. The head chef looked like a sanitation engineer who needed the extra money to pay off a gambling debt. The bathrooms looked like <redacted by editor in the name of decency>. In short, the meal left us craving the airplane food from our flight over. To make matters worse, Viv's after dinner Berthillon was gross (though mine was delicious).

Does this look like 8€ guacamole to you?!

Oh well, c'est la vie.

Dave

 

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