While Andy was out taking the scenic route for his run, I took advantage of the opportunity to sleep late. It's helping me fight off this little annoying cold that's been nagging at me for a couple of days.
After he had returned and had recuperated a bit, we decided to go to the Jewish quarter for lunch. We walked up to Rue des Rosier - crowded with kosher felafel and schwarma cafes and jammed with people. A couple of the places had long lines. I got a kick out of this store front:
It's hard to see, but in the upper right hand corner it says (in French): "all meats and food products are strictly kosher". The line for that place was too long - we got a table at another place a few doors down.
Awesome schwarma and felafel plate - with roasted eggplant and red peppers, carmelized onions, pickled cabbage, plus the usual pita fillers. Best schwarma since our trip to Israel last November.
After lunch we wandered a bit. We checked out the Judaica shop, but there was nothing interesting - everything was stuff we could get at home (or had gotten in Israel), or was 100% in French.
Shopping has been a bit of an issue so far - there's tons and tons of shopping, if it's designer clothes and shoes you're looking for. We're not. We're more into artsy/crafty stuff by local artists. We hadn't found anything like that up until that point.
So we decided to walk in the direction of a street where Andy had seen a market during his early morning run. Unlike the Jewish quarter, where all the shops and restuarants were open to overflowing crowds, the area where we walked now was pretty much closed up. People were still on the streets, but the shops were closed, with random cafes open here and there.
Wandering and wandering, still hadn't found the mythical market. We stopped at a cafe to rest up (and of course take advantage of the bathroom). We ordered a little chocolate something for a snack. We weren't really sure what it was till it showed up - a mini chocolate lava cake in its aluminum tin. We didn't think twice about the tin - just gobbled it down with the whip cream on top.
As we were paying the check, the server came up to us and said, "We apologize for the presentation of the cake - we have a new chef, and he's just learning the routine. It should never have come out with that tin - he should have popped it out and put the cake on the plate. So sorry, apologize.." He went on for a bit. Even after we assured him it was fine, he insisted that it was a poor job.
These people are real serious about their food.
We finally found the market - or at least where it had been. All the booths were long gone, though we could still smell the fish from the fish monger stalls. Good bet the market was done by early afternoon, and we were there after 5:00. So we kinda gave up for the day.
We made our way back to the hotel and collapsed for a bit. But soon it was 7:00 and if we were going to have dinner, it had to be soon. Tomorrow is an early day for our day trip to the Loire Valley to see some castles.
We asked for restuarant suggestions at the front desk, then headed to Le Precopio just a couple of blocks away.
On our way we spotted a little store that had kids' t-shirts and other novelty items a step up from the usual tourist sourvenirs. This is what we had been looking for! I spotted an elephant teapot - it's bright red. Been here a week and this is my first elephant discovery. Pretty slow start. We bought a few other things as well, then made our way to the restaurant.
Andy had a veal steak in some kind of wine sauce, and I had a lamb stew (at least that's what it looked and tasted like). Both were great, but Andy's veal steak was better. For dessert, Andy had tiramisu (had a hint of coffee flavor, boo), but I had the "dessert of the day" - some kind of chocolate cake that was too-die-for....yummmmmm.
So kind of a slow day. But it ended on a successful note.
Tomorrow: Loire Valley and Castles! {and I'm assuming 9,233 steps....}
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