Friday April 30th - Bon Marche Day

Connie and I headed off on a shopping adventure and the boys went to the Champ du Mars with Davey's new soccer ball. Connie and I went to the Bon Marche Epecurie. The Epecurie is a separate store and has some of the most exotic and interesting prepared foods, spices and cooking ingredients around.

When we arrived at the Epecurie, I took one photo before realizing that it was a big no-no. One loud "Madame" and a surly look with a wagging finger was all it took.

I laughed when I saw that Connie had bought guacamole. Then I realized she was right, David would love it. How thoughtful.

Since much of Paris is closed on May 1st for Labour Day, I decided to cook and looked for ingredients for Chicken Provence. Herbes de Provence, butter, sea salt, fresh pepper corns. We picked up a few goodies for the apartment as well. Mini blinis, caviar and creme fraiche.

After we finished up with the Epecurie, we walked across the street to the Bon Marche store and visited the housewares department. Lovely items at a high, high, price. That is why we saw the huge Ikea on our drive in from the airport.

Favid and I went to dinner at la Fontaine de Mars. Although the restaurant was packed, they were able to seat us fairly quickly. The staff was very attentive and dinner was great. We shared a fois gras appetizer, David had beef and I had duck. The restaurant was packed with Americans. This was probable because the Obama's dined here when they were in Paris. We had a nice walk back to the apartment arriving just in time for the midnight light show at the Eiffel Tower.

On our way to dinner I glanced into each of the Christian Constant restaurants (David's online map calls this area "Constant row" since he has 3-4 restaurants side by side). The Constant restaurants were all packed.

During our trip to Paris in April 2005, I had the pleasure of attending the inaugural cooking class provided by Christian Constant (and narrated by his lovely wife, Catherine). The class was very small and we spent the entire morning through early afternoon in the kitchen with Chef Constant at Le Violons d'Ingres (Constant's signature restaurant). After we finished the class, we went next door for a late lunch at Les Fables de la Fontaine, another Constant restaurant. Chef Constant was a wonderful teacher and a fabulous host during our 2-hour lunch. I am looking forward to another cooking class with Associate Chef Stephane Schmidt at Le Violons during ths trip.