Rainy day in Paris

Good afternoon everyone! Or morning! Whatever! :)

I know you're all anxious to know how Phil's feeling. Well, last night he was a little better, but not well enough to really stray too far from the Hotel. So I did some Googling and found a restaurant in the 17e arrondissement, a mere 4 metro stops away from where we're staying. Now, as it turns out, the restaurant I had found was no longer there, but we found a wonderful Wine Bar/restaurant on our own called Le P'tit Canon which was absolutely wonderful. Too bad Phil wasn't feeling top form though, because we could have done some damage (no cheese plate for us last night!). Oh well...

Today was a rainy day in Paris, so rather than go to Montmartre, as I had originally planned, I decided to go to the Musée d'Orsay instead, which houses an impressive collection of impressionist paintings and art.

Monet, Degas, Cézanne, Van Gogh... they were all there. A very impressive collection, housed within a unique building (it's an old train station). Really quite spectacular, actually. I was quite impressed with the Salle des Fêtes, for instance.

I tell ya, these French don't do anything half-assed, do they?

I took my time, but was still done visiting the exhibitions and permanent collection by 12:30 today. I didn't really have anything specific planned for the day, so I decided to just wander around a bit (the rain had stopped by now) and see where the day would take me.

I crossed the Seine and wandered over to the Jardin des Tuileries, in front of the Louvre.


And that's when I remembered that I wasn't too far off from another legendary establishment that I had promised myself I would visit. Yes folks, it's the moment you've all been waiting for. I'm talking about...


La Droguerie! It's a really special, quaint little shop just across the rue du Jour from the Église Saint-Eustache. It's not a yarn store in the strictest sense, more of a craft store. You can buy yarn as well as ribbon, beads and buttons.

Now, I don't want you to be disappointed, but I didn't buy anything (!). First off, I've got enough yarn to last me until judgment day, so if I'm going to be paying Euro prices it's going to be for something unique and spectacular, you know? What I might have been interested in were the buttons, but there was already a very long line-up at the button counter, and I just didn't feel like waiting in line for 20 minutes if I didn't specifically know what I wanted, which I didn't.

So I made my way back towards the Louvre and had a delicious late lunch of Moules marinières with frites and a glass of beer. OK, this will only mean something to the francophone Quebeckers who are reading this, but I just about laughed out loud when I saw that they actually had Blanche de Bruges beer on the menu, just like in Cruising Bar!

OK folks, that's it for today. Tomorrow is my last day in Paris, and we're heading home on Saturday. I'm going to try to convince Phil to see the Eiffel Tower tonight, and tomorrow I'll either be visiting the Basilique Saint-Denis or Montmartre and the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur.

Happy Knitting Everyone!