It's time to head to Paris! We were picked up by the most lovely man in a Mercedes van and were dropped off in Rennes, about 1 hr. drive from Dinan. Unlike the other French train stations I have been in, this one is very modern. No train mishaps this time...just a comfy 2.5 hr ride in 1st class to Paris, during which we read, chatted, and munched on snacks we had bought at the train station.
Ron was shy about busting out his new flat-cap...I think it looks great on him. This one is light blue...now I think he needs to get a darker tweed on for fall/winter...start a collection!
A quick cab ride from Gare Montparnasse to our amazing apartment in the 3rd arrondissement. This is the view from our balcony:
Here is the link to the apartment...it is hip and modern inside. 3 comfy bedrooms, a huge living room with a giant sectional sofa, lovely kitchen, in a well maintained Haussman building. It's across the street from both a Monoprix (kind of like French Target with groceries, sundries, clothes, wine, etc) and a metro station (Remour-Sebastopol) right across the street. There are tons of restaurants in all directions. The location is really perfect! I highly recommend this apartment if you are traveling with a group!
We dropped our bags off in the apartment, but they were still cleaning it so we had some time to kill. We walked a few blocks to Gary's favorite street in Paris, Rue Montorgueil. This pedestrian only street is lined on both sides with restaurants, bakeries, cheese shops, produce shops, butchers, drugstores, and quaint little shops - everything you could want or need can be found on this street. We popped into a little cafe for a jolt of caffeine. It wasn't until after I snapped this photo, that I realized I captured the guy at the next table who kind of looks like Bryan (not as handsome though)!
I have had really good luck in the past using an app called The Fork to find good local restaurants, and I hit it out of the ballpark with the one I found for our first dinner in Paris. It was a 2 block walk from our apartment, and was called Poulette...I would highly recommend it! (Funny thing is, on our last day in Paris I was looking through things I had saved on Instagram, and I had actually saved a post about this restaurant, which I though was so pretty with the great Art Nouveau tile walls). I have no idea what the history of this restaurant is, but the murals clearly are old, and are beverage themed. I'm sure it has been a restaurant or bar for many many years! This iteration opened in 2013, but the tiles are much older than that so I'm guessing it has had several previous lives.
All the walls are totally covered in these amazing old tile murals! I love these old Parisian zinc bars. I didn't get a photo of the bar tender but he was great, shaking cocktails like crazy! (and he had the biceps to show for all that shaking!) This super busy, very small (very loud) restaurant was totally full the whole time we were there...and he was shaking cocktail all evening, I'm really not sure how I managed to snap a photo with him missing!
For a country known more for wine than cocktails, we sure have found some beautiful cocktails!
This one is called a "Giny Germain", and it is one we made frequently during the pandemic when we (the 6 of us) worked our way through David Lebovitz's French beverage book called Drinking French. It was fun to actually see it on a menu...and isn't it pretty?!
Ron had sea bass (I told you he was on a quest to find the very best one!)
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