Sunday 30 December - Mouffetarde

The weather forecast today was for 99% humidity with some drizzle. The streets were wet but the temperature was around +5 and it was pleasant walking around.

Place Monge Market

Large wall art

 We had lunch at the Cafe Bourgogne.

Mary had a very large piece of beef and an enormous potato. Both very good.

Mouffetarde was very busy but as usual, people were talking very quietly so there was just a pleasant ambient buzz.

After lunch we walked back up Mouffetarde and past the Pantheon with crowds of tourists and into the Jardins de Luxembourg where we heard a couple of parakeets,  The gardens were busy with many families with small children. Passing the donkey rides we exited close to the museum and made our way past St. Sulpice and took the metro back to Villiers.  With no wind and mild temperatures the walk was very pleasant indeed.

Saturday 29 December - Flaneurs

Still a couple of days till the New Year.

A normal Saturday on the rue de Levis.

Friday 28 December - Another pleasant surprise at St-Lazare

I went down to St. Lazare to see if the arrival of the 17000 class was a regular occurrence.  It seems that it is as a different locomotive from yesterday arrived.  In En Voyage livery I filmed 17053 coming in to a stand.

It later took its train empty out to the carriage sidings.

Taken from the rue Legendre overpass looking towards Pont Cardinet

There is a movie being shot in this area. Walk around a corner and one can bump into a bunch of lights and several vans containing equipment. Yesterday they were at the small plaza at the end of Levis close to the Villiers metro station.  They were filming a many sitting on the ground against a lamp post and begging.

This evening we went over to Gail's who prepared an excellent magret de canard with a pear sauce.  Alain was there also Delores and Peter from Amsterdam. Georgina dropped in briefly.  It was a good evening, mostly n English but with a lot of French.  Gail's two cats were pretty active at times and made some noise rushing around.  

Thursday 27 December - Pleasant surprise at St-Lazare and a great lunch

I found one of the BB 17000 electrics in use at St. Lazare this morning. It brought in a local train around 1035 and took it out empty stock at 1100.

17075, in original paint scheme, is obviously kept in good condition and away from taggers.

We had lunch today with Gail Bisclair and Georgina Weavers at La Refuge des Moines on the rue des Moines.

 

Kit, was very good indeed. She doesn't make a noise and just sits on a lap in spite of all the delicious food being served almost in front of her.

Soupe a l'oignon gratinee was made with a cream sauce

Escargots

Magret de canard wiith a black cherry sauce

Chicken with a foie gras sauce

Tarte tatin

Cafe gourmand - tarte tatin, pineapple, ice cream, mi-cuit au chocolate

We started with a glass of white wine and then had two bottles of an excellent red.  The food was impeccably prepared and the service was excellent. This is a very small restaurant with perhaps eight tables but well worth visiting 

We walked back through the new development and Martin Luther King Park. It is well used and it was surprising to see so many water birds as well as a heron fishing.

Petanque was in full swing at the Square des Batignolles

115014 running down into St-Lazare to take out a train.

I couldn't resist having a cuddle of Kit

Wednesday 26 December - Bois de Vincennes

The island, with its bridge is in the center

It was sunny but cooler today but we had a good walk through a small part of the Bois de Vincennes. We entered by the Porte Doree and walked around Lake Daumesnil as well as around the two islands in the middle of the lake.

There is a large colony of parakeets here and we could hear them all over and saw several

While watching this one we fell into conversation with two delightful ladies who lived close by. At certain times as many as a hundred will congregate and make a lot of noise.

There were a number of cormorants fishing. One surfaced with a fish in its beak and was dive bombed by several seagulls whereupon it immediately left the surface. Cormorants have to eat their catch under water.

There is a large number of swans as well as at least twenty peacocks and peahens. They seem free although they are weak flyers.

Many trees were festooned with mistletoe

Tuesday 25 December - Christmas Day

Christmas Day dawned with a clear blue cloudless sky

Square des Batignolles

Square des Batignolles

Parc Monceau

Parc Monceau

Fish and meat courses

Monday 24 December - Lunch at Le Train Bleu

We decided to have our celebratory meal at Le Train Bleu in the Gare de Lyon.  The room is amazing and the staff is proud of the restoration that has been carried out.

Everywhere we looked there was something interesting to remark upon - both walls and ceiling. These pictures were taken from our table.

We decided to go for broke and have the Train Bleu Menu which is a gourmet tasting menu. It looked to be a lot but the server assured us that the portions were quite small.  We started with a glass of champagne and switched to a Pomerol for the meat course.

Saumon d’Ecosse mi-fumé « maison »

Tartare de betteraves et Granny Smith, crème de raifort

Marbré de foie gras de canard, magret fumé et artichauts

Velours d’artichauts, éclats de noisettes torréfiés

Filets de Sole « bonne femme »

Moules, coquillages et racines d’automne

Éclats de citron de Menton confits, granité citron

Médaillon de veau Foyot, jus de veau acidulé

Fricassée de girolles et choux de Bruxelles, éclats de châtaigne de l’Ardèche

Fromages affinés de nos régions

Baba bouchon au rhum

Punch aux agrumes « maison », crème Chantilly

They left the decenter of rum with us in case we needed more for the Baba but we found it wasn't necessary.
The meal was well prepared and well presented and each course was excellent. The veal was nicely pink and we came away full but not over full. A memorable meal and well worth the price.

An American couple, mother and daughter, were at the table next to ours. The mother is here for three years and they have been exploring Paris in the way that we like. They fine there are lots of interesting aspects once you can get away from the tourists.

After our meal we walked along the rue de Bercy to Bercy Village then took line 14 back to St-Lazare and then line 3 to Villiers.

Sunday 23 December - Tramway T3b extension from Porte de la Chapelle

It was wet today and we decided to postpone our visit to rue de Mouffetard until next week. I took the metro to Porte de la Chapelle and rode the new section of tramway to the temporary terminus at Porte d'Asnieres.  The trams were running at eight minute intervals and they were full and standing with plenty of intermediate traffic.

Tram from Porte de Vicennes arriving at Porte de la Chapelle.

Porte d'Asnieres

Porte d'Asnieres

Leaving Porte d'Asnieres and about to pass under the railway from St-Lazare

Porte d'Asnieres. The entire right of way is grassed except for the platform areas in the stations which are concrete.

The line has been open since November 20 and is well used, probably because the connecting buses have been adjusted. Platform widths are good and there should be no problems with overcrowding.  The trams used are standard seven unit ones on lines T3a and T3b and the internal notices relate to both lines. The earlier metro lines went into the centre of the city This line is part of an orbital system that has been developed in the last ten years or so which gives people the opportunity to make a journey without coming into the city center,  Tramway T3a and b now run about three quarters of the way around the city. Tram T11, opened just over a year ago runs in a similar fashion although further our from the center.

A map of the railway lines in the area of the Porte d'Asnieres. The tram extension terminates at the bottom left.
Good job the tramway goes under the main line to St-Lazare.

We started our Christmas celebrations early with this buche de noel from Diva et Chocolat.
It was larger than we wanted but was the only one with mango flavor.