We got up late on Friday and decided to skip breakfast and instead head straight to Place Monge to pick up the fixin’s for a lunchtime picnic. This plaza market has a great mix of vendors, and after perusing all the offerings, we settled on a rich little hunk of chevre and a couple of clementines (we’re trying to eat healthy here, after all). We picked up a baguette from a boulangerie around the corner and set out for Jardin des Plantes to find a spot in the sun where we could enjoy our mini-feast.
The cheese was amazing – creamy and pungent and perfect spread on a properly baked baguette. And for dessert, la piece de resistance…a Marie Antoinette from Carl Marletti. This was possibly the best bite of anything I experienced all week – light and crispy on the outside, chewy in the middle, filled with juicy raspberries and fluffy rose-infused cream, sweet, tart, lovely, mmmmmm…
We walked off about 2.5% of the calories we’d just consumed by taking a stroll through the park. The gardens are admittedly much prettier in the Spring, but still, the late-blooming dahlias were beautiful and the sunshine felt so, so good.
From Jardin des Plantes, we walked back across the river, stopping to admire the view of Notre Dame from Pont de la Tournelle, and then refueling with a noisette (espresso with just a splash of cream) at a little cafe on Ile Saint Louis.
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around St. Germain, popping into Saint Sulpice to take a look around and then visiting La Maison du Chocolat for some…’souvenirs’.
We rested at the apartment for awhile, but I quickly began to feel antsy (might need to cut back on that caffeine and sugar…), so I headed back out to catch the last rays of the day’s sunshine, walking along the Seine and enjoying the view of Pont des Arts in the warm, evening glow.
We ate dinner at Cafe Moderne in Bastille, loving the old-school brasserie vibe of the place. And for dessert? A vanilla tarte we’d picked up from Pierre Herme, paired with a glass of wine and a movie – we were due for some veg time. Really, I should have spent the evening on the treadmill to counteract the 6,000 calories I consumed that day, but when in Paris…
