King Louis the XIV.
the Château.
the Chapel.
the Apollo Salon.
the Hall of Mirrors. (Mom's favorite room.)
king's bedroom.
queen's bedroom.
view from Château down to the Grand Canal.
Mom with the pruned cedar-esque trees.
view from Grand Canal back to the Château.
one of my favorite rooms. in the Grand Trianon.
porch/breezeway at the Grand Trianon. I'll take one of these, s'il vous plaît.
me!
At some point amid the touring, we stopped for lunch at a nice cafe. We had salads and, of course, crème brûlée. Oh, so good. Since Mom has arrived, I noticed that either she is eating less than normal.. or I'm eating more... Certainly not! She must be eating less. But I have realized that it sometimes looks as if you are displeased with the meal if your plate is not clean. (Something I picked up from Marco and Thibaut's ever-happy plates.) I may have joked with her a time or two at this point.
After touring the Château and gardens for hours, my feet were dirty and Mom was ready to get on the first train to Paris. We came back to the apartment and freshened up. (We also ate the raspberry tart we bought from Ladurée yesterday!) We struggled to decided whether a dinner cruise was worth the money or not, and opted to try a restaurant recommended by one of my chef-teachers from last week. This may be the best decision of the trip. It was so, so, so good.
Dinner started off with an apertif - just a small snack before the meal begins. Thank goodness for the Californians at the table next to ours: they deciphered our menu for us and made recommendations! First course: Mom had the grilled white asparagus with a delicious cream sauce and a poached egg on top. I had an untraditional shrimp bouillon with spaghetti noodles; I can't really describe it. Second course: Mom had white fish over peas and mushrooms served with a light sauce. I had a veal roast that was oh, so tender, served with a garnish of olives and red peppers with basil mashed potatoes on the side. Since this was more closely our third course (add in the raspberry tart and pre-meal snack apertif), Mom was quite full and could only eat about half of the serving of fish. I was worried that the chef would notice and think we were not satisfied with the food. (The restaurant only sat about thirty five, and the chef's station was at the entry of the kitchen.) Needless to say, I finished my meal and coaxed Mom through four or five more bites.
And if that wasn't enough... The wait staff may have forgotten to tell the kitchen our meal was done, and we had to wait for our dessert to be served. However, it fabulous restaurants such as this, you cannot wait! The chef sent us two small desserts of vanilla cream pudding garnished with fresh strawberries. Minutes later, our real desserts appeared! Mom had the chocolate mousse with a praline-like crust and pudding, while I had the classic soufflé.
half eaten desserts. (don't worry, we finished them!)
At the end of the meal, this girl who was been drinking coffee nonstop for four weeks, could not bear to think of consuming anything else. We waddled our way home while planning tomorrow's ventures. It looks like we will hit an open air flower market, the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, some shops, and possibly the Musée d'Orsay!
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