Trip to Paris part two

Making up for the lack of photos in the previous post...

On Saturday morning we had breakfast at the enormous brasserie La Coupole which was very enjoyable. For 11.50 euros you get coffee, orange juice, a roll with jam and butter, a small croissant and a small pain au chocolat, which does the job nicely! The atmosphere is hushed with a handful of regulars sitting by themselves reading the paper or doing the crossword. I'm advised that loud conversation is a faux pas, not that I'd be likely to engage in loud conversation at breakfast at the best of times. We brought our own reading material - G had the New Yorker and I had Time Out - I enjoyed the irony.

After breakfast, we strolled down the Boulevard Raspail and turned left at the Rue de Sevres in order to reach our destination, La Grande Epicerie. I'd heard great things about this place, along the lines of "like Selfridges food hall only better" which indeed turned out to be the case.

Fruit display on the back of a vintage truck

Exotic spirits!

Fine champagne...

Other exciting goodies

Bridge of sighs between Bon Marche and la Grande Epicerie - happy sighs of anticipation I assume

We had a good mooch round but didn't buy much, except for 6 bags of Soisson beans which G had been commissioned to bring back for his pere - essential for cassoulet, apparently - partly because the booze section, although beautifully presented, didn't offer any exciting rarities or bargains. It was all quite standard stuff and not particularly cheap.

By now it was 11.30 so we had a wander round the area and checked out a possible lunch destination, then failed to find an acceptable pavement cafe for a pre-prandial. Several were considered and rejected and the one that would have been all right turned out to be full already, so somehow we ended up wandering down the Rue Chomel where we discovered a little wine shop, called Appellation and Co. It turned out to have some very interesting-looking white Chorey-les-Beaune and the owner, who speaks very good English, told us that it was made by some friends of his, so we couldn't resist.

Then we wandered around a bit more and got slightly lost - at one point the Eiffel Tower loomed over the rooftops surprisingly close by, I had no idea we were anywhere near it! - but G eventually navigated us to the lunch destination we'd identified earlier, Chez Germaine. This turned out to be a charming bistrot with a lot of elderly ladies having lunch and a good gossip. It was just the sort of place I could imagine myself going for a good gossip with a friend when I'm 80.

In fact we didn't go for this deal, as G wanted fish and asparagus and I wanted the scallop risotto!

These went down a treat along with a bottle of Chablis which sent me into something of a coma.

Fortunately we weren't in a rush to do anything, so an afternoon nap was indicated, followed by an ice cream from Amorino on the Rue Vavin. They had a great selection.

I went for coffee and pistachio - fab!

The Jardin de Luxembourg was looking verdant, especially since it was raining slightly.

On the way back to the hotel, I couldn't resist taking a photo of the window of my favourite cheese shop, Pascal Beillevaire on Rue Delambre.

Then G had to get ready for a wedding celebration that he was attending, which had provided the excuse for the entire trip. I wasn't going but was quite happy to stay in by myself reading and watching bad French TV, and I'm sure I waited at least three seconds after he'd left before I opened this packet of excellent French-style Monster Munch, ham and cheese flavour. They were possibly the highlight of the trip!