Sunday, April 29, 2007

Paris in Transition - Part II









What a beautiful day! I took the metro from Shady Grove to Gallery Place and met Beth at Zaytinya, located on the corner of G Street, NW and 9th Street, NW. We sat outside to enjoy the perfect blue sky day. Temps were in the low 70s. We both enjoyed the mezzes, although I thought they were on the pricey side. We both enjoyed a glass of white wine from Santorini (my favorite Greek island) along with: Havuç Köftesi: carrot, apricot and pinenut fritters with pistachio sauce; Keftedes: ground lamb and beef served with avgolemono, dill; Spice Rubbed Sirloin of Beef: served with visne & pistachio sauce (pictured above); and Greek Feta Cheese: feta cheese, olives, greek oregano, sesame flat bread. Fresh baked bread was served hot. Everything was delicious.
After lunch, we walked to the National Gallery of Art (beautiful wisteria along the walls of the building)and met up with Carolyn and her husband Mark and Barbara, my cruise friends. We enjoyed the old photos from Paris, although we all wished there were more than what was on display.
After, we visited some of the other rooms in the museum seeing various works, including Monet, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, etc. One photo (didn't write the artists name down) made us laugh:










We call it the "Can you hear me now?" painting. This woman (certainly looks like a man to me!) looks like she's on the telephone.

After our time in the museum, we headed out. Beth went home, while I met up with the other 3 at Zaytinya. Mark, Carolyn, and Barbara enjoyed the mezzes and wine and I joined them for some wine too.

We all went our separate ways via the metro.

It was such a lovely day in Washington DC. Great company, great good, and wonderful exhibits.

Monica




















Paris In Transition

I'm heading out today to Washington DC to meet up with friends at the National Gallery of Art. There's an exhibit called, "Paris In Transition: Photographs from the National Gallery of Art" showing "19th- and early 20th-century photographs of Paris."

Should be quite fun and will get my senses ready for my trip in 9 days! (Yes, I am counting the days).

Thursday, April 26, 2007

12 days and I'm off to Paris!

I'm heading to Paris in 12 days! The last time I was in Paris was 5 years ago, so I'm ready for my Paris "fix." I'll be spending 9 nights in a small studio apartment in the heart of the Marais, which I understand is in a great location (on rue Vieille du Temple).

I've invited my friend Louisa to join me. She'll arrive 2 days before me and will meet me at my apartment the day I arrive. We'll have 9 days together before she flys home and I'll have 2 more days before I fly home.

We're planning to go on 3 day trips (Dijon, St. Germain-en-Laye, and Amiens). I even bought our train tickets on line, which was very easy to do. The rest of our time will be spent exploring (together and separate) Paris. I hope to see a lot of the markets in Paris, wander the various neighborhoods, and visit a few museums. Maybe a night Seine cruise too! Of course, we're both looking forward to having some wonderful meals in Paris.

I hope that I'll be able to "blog" often while I'm in Paris, so stay tuned!

Monica