Beinvenue: Paris in 3 Days for Less Than 100,000 Calories! (3/5) By Ruth

(1/5), (2/5), (3/5), (4/5), (5/5).

Day Two: The next morning we had wonderful fresh croissants and jams before heading out to St. Germain. The streets are lined with some of the most expensive vendors of anything one can possibly imagine. We stopped for lunch and had soup and salad with quenelles. I was pretty excited about the quenelles. While traveling in Patagonia, I had a salad that can only be described as an epiphany. After reviewing my likes and dislikes, the young chef announced what he would prepare for me. (He actually took the menu from my hands!) The salad was a smoked lake trout ice cream with greens and balsamic vinegar.

The smoked trout was processed and mixed with cream and spices before being frozen into a fantastic smooth demi-lune that literally melted in my mouth. When I saw the quenelles, which are demi-lune in shape, I immediately remembered the salad in El Calafate. The quenelles are typically made of boned pike, eggs, and spices. I thought these were tasty, but not brilliant. I would encourage the traveler to Paris to try these 'little gefilte fish' as my daughter characterized them. Dani and I then headed off to the most famous of churches, Notre Dame. It was beautiful and not too crowded. We examined the various altars, architecture, and the iconic stained glass windows.

As with most of the great Cathedrals in Spain, construction of this monument was underway for roughly 200 years.

Fun facts: the Louvre is the most visited museum in the world. The exhibition floor is about 652,300 square feet, and almost 35,000 works and objects of art are contained within the complex. One could visit the museum daily for several weeks before seeing all the offerings. Our tired feet were saying 'two hours max', so we bought 2 tickets for 9 euros each, and headed off to see Renaissance paintings.

Dani did not want to see the Mona Lisa; it's that thing about avoiding activities with long lines. We actually viewed the French counterpart of what we saw in Madrid - lots of religious art. I like Church Art because it's a 'common currency' in the art world.

We saw several renditions of the Last Supper. This subject is my favorite, because I can always compare 'apples to apples', and get inside the artist's head a bit. Stopping to examine the Apostles, we looked for Judas (who betrayed Jesus) in each one. Judas was consistently depicted as a redheaded Irish looking chap with a bag of coins in one hand. Interesting huh?

Continued ... next page (4/5)

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