Paris: Pantheon, Crepes and Dinner in the 16th

After a leisurely morning enjoying our gateau from last night and cafe, we made our way to the metro with the Pantheon as our destination. I must say I do believe Google Maps is perhaps one of the most essential apps for travelers.  While I do like the old school way of navigating around the countryside in most places, using a map will walking the streets of cities is quite cumbersome and quickly identifies you as a tourist.  With Google Maps, you are not futzing around with a large paper map and standing under a flashing neon sign that says "I'm not from here".

The Pantheon was completed just before the French Revolution and was originally built as a church in honor of Saint Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris.  With the French Revolution at its peak, the church was turned into a secular building honoring the "Champions of French History"...Voltaire, Rousseau, Descartes, etc.  While they may have changed the usage of the building, the Revolution ended before the cross on the top and much of the Christian artwork on the walls and ceiling could be replaced.  

After the Revolution, the Pantheon, became a church again, then a secular building, then a church and finally, a secular building for eternity with the decision to place the remains of Victor Hugo in the crypt. Now the crypt houses the remains of many prominent Parisians and Frenchmen (and women)...including Madame Curie.  There is a  special exhibit on Marie Curie taking place until March 2018.  A few of the very interesting things we saw were her two Nobel prizes, first X-ray and degrees from university.

Also at the Place du Pantheon, is the University of Paris, Saint Genevieve Library and Saint-Etienne du Mont Church. With the university in the place, there are a lot of picnic tables and benches for the students to hang out as well as some interesting gargoyle faces.

By the time we finished at the Pantheon, we were famished and fortunately there was a creperie a block away. We had 2 savory crepes...one with chicken, mushroom and goat cheese and one with bacon, potatoes and raclette cheese.  And of course, we had a sweet crepe of banana and Nutella for dessert.

A stroll around Luxembourg Gardens was the perfect apres lunch activity. After the gardens, we made our way back to the hotel to relax before dinner with Olidie and Pierre.

We arranged another VizEat dinner for tonight but this time in the 16th with Olidie and Pierre.  Also joining us this evening was Sophie from Australia who is currently living about an hour outside of Paris.  Olidie and Pierre have a lovely apartment and were very gracious hosts.  As we got to know each other, we enjoyed a wonderful Bordeaux and you guessed it, cheese (we are somewhere around 8 or 9 of the 365 cheese in France on this visit).  For dinner, we started with a wonderful salad of roasted duck, endive, walnuts, legumes and a very tasty lettuce.  The entree was a ever so yummy cheese souffle...honestly one of the best things I think I've ever tasted.  For dessert, Olidie made this delicious creation of Swiss meringue (different from French and Italian meringue), chocolate mousse and sponge cake.  It was like heaven on a plate.

Paris: Old Friends and New

After a crazy and hectic year, it is time for another AOH adventure and time to celebrate my 50th birthday!  So Julie and I headed to Paris for a week of fun and exploration.  Unfortunately, we were not able to fly over together but fortunately, our flights arrived at CDG within 30 minutes of each other so we met up at Passport Control and we were off!

We dropped our luggage off at our hotel which looks directly in to the Louvre and headed to Eglise Saint-Sulpice for mass.  Saint-Sulpice is most noted for its organ, Le Grand Orgue, and its 7,000 pipes.  After their 11:00am mass, there is a concert which is the perfect background for exploring the church. 

How can we have been in Paris for 3 hours and yet to  visit a cafe?!  There was a cute cafe directly across from Saint-Sulpice so we popped in for some onion soup.  Today was a cold and drizzly day in Paris with the temp around 26 degrees so the soup was perfect!  Neither of us slept much on the flight over so we decided to head back to the hotel for a power nap to ensure we were lively for our dinner this evening.   

This fall I discovered a really cool site, VizEat, where travelers connect with locals and have dinner (or other meals) in the home of locals.  This sounded like the perfect thing for Julie and me as we so enjoy meeting people and learning more about daily life when we travel.  Dinner did not disappoint as Martine and Didier were the perfect hosts and have a lovely apartment in the 11th arrondissment (arr.).  Paris is made up of 20 arrondissments with each having its own distinct style and personality.

Upon arrival, we were offered an aperitif of champagne and lovely olive bread, chips and tomatoes.  Martine and Didier are in their early 70's and just the cutest couple!  For dinner, we started with a vegetable soup, followed by a lapin (rabbit) stew and as no French dinner would be complete without a cheese course, we had a selection of 3 very different cheese.  For dessert, we had an early birthday celebration with a tasty dark chocolate cake (my VizEat profile mentioned I love dark chocolate).  We had a lovely red wine from the Upper Loire region where Martin's daughter lives and more champagne. 

Martine has quite the eclectic collection of music so we listened to everything from the Bee Gees to Jazz to Classical.  We also saw pictures of the 18th century country house her daughter Estella recently bought so she and Rafella (Martine's granddaughter) could move out of Paris.  Martine is quite tech savvy as she zipped around on her Mac showing us the pictures.  She and Didier actually met online 3 years ago!! It truly felt like we had been friends for a long time and the 4 1/2 hours we were there went by so quickly.  They sent us off with some of the cake to have with our coffee (cafe) tomorrow morning AND a bottle of the wonderful wine.  After saying our good-byes, we headed back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep.

Wine, Opry & Brunch with a Drag Queen...must be Nashville

Actually only one of those things was synomous with Nashville for me until my recent visit...and it wasn't wine or drag queen.  Claire and I headed to Nashville for a girls weekend.

Claire found us a nice place through VRBO in East Nashville which is pretty cool section of town that is up and coming.  We were a little early to check in so we walked over around the corner to Batter'd & Fried for some lunch.  Was so great to just relax and enjoy a nice afternoon dining alfresco (something we don't get to do much of in Charleston until the heat and humidity break). It's a good neighborhood spot that serves bar food and sushi...and pretty good beer.

Our original plan for the night was to take the Nashville Pedal Tavern around SOBRO but the torrential down pour that started an hour before the tour and lasted several hours made us rethink our plans.  Since we had already hit Kroger for wine earlier, we decided to order pizza and see what we could catch on Netflix.  Grease, Xanadu, She-Ra & He-Man and Austin Powers the Spy Who Shagged Me provided hours of entertainment.  We laughed as we thought about how we would have NEVER been caught at home on a Friday night when we were in college or even into our 30's...age definitely makes you wiser!!

Saturday brought sunny skies but cold temps...luckily we were prepared.  Around the corner from our place, was Marche Artisan Foods which we heard was a great brunch spot.  The reviews were spot on and clearly it was a local favorite as the place was packed.  

During our Netflix marathon the night before, we decided we should probably figure out our plans for Saturday afternoon and stumbled upon a wine & food pairing at Belle Meade Plantation. Luckily, they still had two spots available for Saturday afternoon so off we went.  Before the wine tasting, we toured the home and grounds.  Fun fact: every winner of the Kentucky Derby for the last 25 years can trace its lineage back to Belle Meade.

Here are some pics from the grounds as photography was not permitted inside due to most of the furnishings being orginial to either the house or period (18th & 19th century).

Original Belle Meade Plantation Home

In the original home, it was considered fashionable
to paint the wooden walls and stencil them.

Slave Quarters

Dairy House

If you are ever in Nashville, I highly recommend the wine & food pairing at Belle Meade.  The sommelier was fantastic and they offer VERY good pours and refills.  The winery brings in grapes from the best producing places in the country and does the production just outside of Nashville.  They have three really sweet wines that come from Tennesse fruits as well. We tried five different wines paired with meats, cheeses and chocolates.

No trip to Nashville would be complete without a little live music so we headed to Broadway for some BBQ and music before making the hike out to the Grand Ole Opry.  The Opry used to take place at the Ryman Theatre in the heart of downtown but in the 80's they moved it out to its current location which is about 20 minutes from downtown and the surroundings feel like you're in a theme park sadly.  The show was good but honestly don't think I would do again if I return to Nashville.

Lots of great finds occurred during our Friday marathon...though the wine could have had something to do with it.  While trying to find a brunch spot for Sunday, Claire found Suzy Wong's House of Yum Drag 'n Brunch.  We went for the show but to our surprise, the food was really good...both had chicken 'n waffles.  Though we were tempted by their version of a fish bowl punch (we had reminisced the night before about our the fish bowls at LuLu's Bait Shack in Atlanta...or at least what we could remember from those nights!), our better angels won out and we just stuck with coffee and Bailey's. 

Vanity was our performer and she was fabulous!  We were there for about 2 hours and she would come out every 30 minutes in a new outfit.  Each time she would pass, we would comment about her perfume which smelled so good.  After our pic, we finally asked her what it was and she told us it was Fairy Dust by Paris Hilton. "I know Paris Hilton, right?  But girl, I'm telling you I love it and my Drag Mom turned me on to it.  You can get it on Amazon for like $8."  Good food & company, a show and perfume advise...what more could a girl ask for on a Sunday morning?!