Monday (June 3rd) was my last full day in Paris. Sunday night I went back to my favorite little Chinese restaurant, Nénuphar on Avenue de Choisy. I highly recommend it. The food is amazing, the prices are moderate, the service is great, and the best thing is that nobody knows about it, so it’s never crowded. It’s usually nearly empty. If you’re in Paris, you should definitely go, because with that kind of business who knows how long before they have to close down.
Monday morning I was pretty sad, and in a funk from events of the night before, and not sure of what I wanted to do. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to do something I’d never done, or go do something again that I loved. I decided on sleeping in. Oops.
Anyway, in the afternoon I did eventually decide to go visit Shakespeare & Co., because it is kind of a Mecca for English speakers in Paris and I had never been. So I went there and perused the used books on the shelves outside, sitting down to read some of The Turn of the Screw and re-read the first story from In the Land of Dreamy Dreams.
Finally I went inside and looked through their new stock. I thought about buying a book about Paris, for when I miss it, but nothing struck my fancy. Jim showed me the second floor, too, with the reference books that you can’t buy, and the little carrel where people have left hundreds of notes, both scrawled on scraps of paper and typed on the tiny typewriter.
Afterwards Jim remembered that at one point I had said that I wanted to go see the Pont Mirabeau, because of the famous poem:
Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine
Et nos amours
Faut-il qu'il m'en souvienne
La joie venait toujours après la peine
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure
Les mains dans les mains restons face à face
Tandis que sous
Le pont de nos bras passe
Des éternels regards l'onde si lasse
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure
L'amour s'en va comme cette eau courante
L'amour s'en va
Comme la vie est lente
Et comme l'Espérance est violente
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure
Passent les jours et passent les semaines
Ni temps passé
Ni les amours reviennent
Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure
I’m so glad he remembered: I would never have thought of it. We took the 10 straight from Saint-Michel and went over to the bridge. It was nothing much to speak of, but it had a pretty nice view of the smaller French Statue of Liberty with the Eiffel Tower looming in the background.
Of course, now, writing this, I am sad that I didn't go back to the Lapin Agile a fourth time (one of the guys there sings that poem set to music). I know I will go back one day but I am sure the same people won't be there, and it was the people and the fact that they recognized Erin and me that I loved so much.
Earlier in the day I had said that I was interested in trying to cook something that I had never cooked before for my last night. Jim wanted to send me off in style, and he suggested we make a French dinner since I refused to have any sort of actual party. So we went on Allrecipes.com and searched through their recipes for French cuisine. Soupe à l’oignon was pretty much a given - we just had to pick a recipe. For the main dish we decided to make pork chops stuffed with bleu cheese, chives and bacon. It looked amazing. So I had written down the grocery list and after I had had my fill of the Pont Mirabeau I took my last trip to the mall in the Village d’Asie (Chinatown) which is where I like to do some of my grocery shopping because they have a massive supermarket.
Waiting for the tram for my last trip to Géant
We got all the ingredients, including gorgonzola as our bleu cheese, which was a nice touch because I have been trying to find gorgonzola in France without much success for most of the year. If I’d known I could have gotten it at Géant, I would have done so a long time ago.
On the way back with the goods
We headed home and chilled out for a bit before starting dinner. We were both pretty tired. We decided that Jim would make the soup and I would make the pork chops, mostly because I was pretty excited about learning how to make stuffed anything. Never done that before. I did have to have Jim butterfly the pork chops though, as I am not even handy enough with a knife to slice a bagel.
Taking over the kitchen!
Jim enjoying dinner
Delicious stuffed pork chops!
And next to it, Jim's French Onion Soup, which he was worried about but I thought was delicious
To make a long story short, the meal was delicious. If anyone wants the recipe for the chops, drop me an e-mail. As we were finishing up, Amy showed up with perfect timing. She couldn’t bear for me to leave without seeing me one more time (who could, really?) so she cut short a night out and brought her date over for pancakes and s’mores. We didn’t actually end up making the s’mores, but Amy did make pancakes even though Audrey had to leave before they were ready. So Amy and Jim and I had pancakes and Amy and I said our tearful goodbyes.
Amy
I have been known to sneak up very quietly
\Jim, and Amy's date, who Amy and I left alone together for a bit because we're kind of mean
I got to say goodbye to Mike...
...and Tim
Attempting to make pancakes from crepe mix
A little spaced out?
Pancrepecakes!
Bye Amy :-(
All in all, it was a good last day.
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