Mission accomplished

Note: I suck at spelling…and my computer doesn’t know French very well. So if you see things being spelled horribly wrong…bite me.

I woke up today around 10:30 am and I had absolutely no clue what time it was. I was worried initially that I slept way too long but thankfully it was just right. Damn I could have slept longer though. Bah.

I took a decent shower, gathered up some junk, and hit the town. My intention today was 3 fold…money, food, and wander. I think I accomplished all three damn well.

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Money.

Money sucks. Money absolutely sucks here. It took me a while to find a currency exchange place…so the first one I found I used, and perhaps that was a bit of a mistake. 500 dollars turned into 385 euros at the blink of an eye. And it’s not like 1 euro goes a long way…this town is expensive. I wasn’t totally let down by that though as I was just so damn happy to have some currency people would be willing to accept.

I did find that a bit saddening though. The American dollar just isn’t that strong right now…and if the “sale” signs EVERYWHERE are any indication of the French economy…we are in deep crap. Of course I was in quite the touristy area of town so that did jack up prices…but still, it worries me.

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Food.

Well as you all know I am here to study restaurants, food, culinary arts, etc so food is definitely going to be something I discuss often. That and cars of course (much more on that later).

I ended up at little street side café by the Lourve (which is HUGE by the way). There were something like 7 of them in a row, and this one was on the corner so I thought it would give me a better view.

Language was not at all a barrier this time and the menu was simply awesome. I’ve no clue if this is typical for simple street side clean restaurants but this place blew my mind. I’m talking fois gras, béarnaise sauce, duck confit, steak tartar…not even simple Chardonnay either…I was beyond impressed.

I ordered a “medium” beer (some cold German lager), a “medium” Coke (which was MASSIVE), and pan seared salmon filet with roasted tomatoes, olive oil, fine herbs and a side of rice (again with olive oil and herbs). DELICIOUS! Not a bone in the salmon, and cooked to absolute perfection (little crust on the outside, soft and moist inside), the tomatoes were rich and warm, the olive oil was of very high quality (didn’t leave that greasy feeling in your mouth or stomach). Even the rice was fantastic…best “restaurant” rice I’ve ever had (totally different than Chinese/Japanese style…grains all separated and firm). The total came to 29 Euros…which was painful, but worth it. Very worth it. I can’t wait to try out some more places a bit more off the beaten path.

By the way…it was called Café Pont Neuf. Pont Neuf is a cut of fries…a big cut, larger than Steak Fry. The story goes is that a restaurant by the Pont Neuf Bridge came up with the cut but no one knows exactly which place it was. Well, the bridge was right there…but I didn’t get fries. Alas!

Food wise it seems sandwiches are very popular. I’ve seen one McDonalds (and I walked a long distance through major tourist area…and that one McD’s I saw during the drive to the hotel). Not one Burger King, Jack in the Box, Taco Bell…anything. In fact I’ve yet to see any real sort of chain type places (Gap, Wal-Mart, 7-11 or their equivalents). Sure there are a lot of places that look similar but their names are different. I did see the largest Louis Vitton store in the freaking universe.

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People.

There are people everywhere around here (duh). I’m sure (and can honestly kinda tell) that a lot of them are tourists. But still as I walked around the Lourve I did see some people taking lunch breaks and busting out their sandwiches.

There are definitely different classes of tourists. The British can be spotted a half mile away…they are very pale and absolutely DYING in this heat. I didn’t want to be such a stereotyper so I would walk close to them or slowly past them…and yep, British accent.

Then there are the “backpackers”. These are usually younger folks with GIANT backpacks on, or small backpacks with a whole bunch of pockets and zippers and stuff like that. 90% had cargo style pants/shorts/skirts/whatever (sigh…and I wore my cargo pants…doh!). They generally looked uncomfortable.

I also saw the Old People (sun hats and shirts tucked in, always couples and usually holding hands…very sweet), and definitely people from around the world. Around the museum I’d say that only ¼ of the people were speaking French. Lots of cameras being clicked.

A note on Americans…we are LOUD. I always heard them before seeing them. Er…us. Before seeing us I guess. Hmmm.

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More on the French.

No berets…sorry to disappoint folk. And let me say this again…they are NICE. They are friendly and funny and just cool people. The ones that don’t speak any English are pretty shy, but sometimes they are just as full of smiles. I saw two guys in tiny little grounds keeping trucks playing bumper cars and laughing their heads off. One laughed something in French to me. I laughed too. I’ve no clue what he said, but he sure was happy about parking his micro-truck on the bumper of his pal’s micro-truck.

Some girl asked me for a cigarette…and was nothing but nice about it. She was speaking French but I understood enough of what she was trying to say.
“Merci” says she
“You’re welcome” say I.
“Ah! You’re welcome! Thank you! Very kind!” she beams at me.
Love it.

By the way a pack of cigarettes was 5 Euros. Ow. I’ll have to find a cheaper place…I hope.

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Cars.

I saw my first SUV today…a Range Rover. I’ve started keeping track of different cars that I find interesting to keep track of. Here are today’s statistics:
Honda- 5 Most were 2 door Civic hatchbacks but one was an older Accord 2 door and another a newer (and completely unknown to me) Accord wagon turbo diesel.
BMW- 1 M5…prior generation
7 others (mostly 3 series)
1 M3 (those get their own category)
Porsche- 2 911 convertibles, newer but not the newest
Pickup- 1 Nissan something

EVERYTHING else is a 2 door hatchback (well, mostly). Seriously, I couldn’t throw a rock without hitting a 2 door hatchback. From TINY (Mercedes Smart…look it up), to medium sized. And absolutely everything is a manual. Even the vans are. Awesome!

Drivers are pretty aggressive here, but that is to be expected in a city. Lots of turbos (I could hear ‘em spooling all over) but I only saw two “rice” cars (oddly enough both were Miata’s…one newer, one older…both actually very well done). Diesel is definitely the weapon of choice around here. That and the scooter-almost-motorcycle-but-not-quite.

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It’s about 3:30 here now and pretty hot outside. Yahoo says its 92 and I believe it. So I’m hanging out in the hotel room for a bit, window open, listening to Elvis Costello and typing this up. Sadly my internet connection is pure shit here in the room so I’ll have to sit on the stairs to post this and my pictures.

Thanks for the comments folks…I appreciate it! Keep ‘em coming and spread the word around.