Hotel Kaiserstein

Hotel Kaiserstein* proudly welcomes Eden and JP, our current overnight guests, as well as Louis' mom and Cathy, dinner/sightseeing guests.

*Open 24/7 between September 1st, 2009, and May 31st, 2010, Hotel Kaiserstein is a cozy, family-run establishment welcoming travelers from all over the world. Sleeping up to four at a time, we offer fine tea and coffee, spirited tours of the city, and fancy-pants, homemade dinners. Our competitive rate (0$) includes a comfortable air mattress or convertible love seat, turn-down service, and the company of an inquisitive, affectionate, ultra-soft dog.

References available from the nine happy customers we've already served. Book now, as our calendar is rapidly filling up!

Hope to see you soon!

A Very Jewish Christmas

As far as tourists are concerned, Paris is mostly closed on Christmas day. Of the major sights, only the Eiffel Tower and the Centre Georges Pompidou remain open. Some corner cafés are open, but outside of Belleville, most shops and restaurants are closed. (As you might expect, all the Chinese restaurants on Rue de Belleville were open.) Luckily, one museum was not only open but also new to Maggie and me, so on Friday, we joined Jake and Joy for a stroll through the Museum of Jewish Art and History.

Located in a 17th-century mansion in the Marais, the building itself is very beautiful, and everything inside is polished and new. (Pictures are not allowed - this picture of the museum's courtyard was taken outside a security window. Notice that the left-side wall is a façade, as the building behind it is not part of this hôtel particulier (private mansion).) 

Audioguides were free, and there were lots of objets d'art and paintings to ogle, as well as texts to read. I enjoyed some of the maps showing how various waves of Jewish diasporic movement affected France, and the Dreyfus Affair was given a thorough treatment. On the other hand, I felt like the museum tried too hard to juggle explanations of Jewish rituals and theology, history and culture, past and present, and ended up unfocused and a little detached.

Part of the problem is that the museum's chronology only goes up to the Second World War - for the rest, Paris has a separate museum called Memorial to the Shoah (Holocaust). After having been to Jewish Museums in Prague and Berlin, it's unsatisfying to see Jewish history chopped up into pre- and during/post-Holocaust. The best thing to do probably would have been to go directly from the Museum of Jewish Art and History to the Memorial to the Shoah, but that wasn't in the cards.

What was in the cards after our museum visit was lunch. For that, we walked to the nearby Rue des Rosiers and sat down at Chez Marianne, one of many Israeli- and Yiddish-style restaurants on the street. (I vetoed straight-up falafel, as I've eaten too much recently.) We shared a sampler plate that included tarama, feta, Turkish salad, falafel, kefta, tuna salad, hummus, tabbouleh, tzaziki, and pastrami. With some white wine and pita, it was delish! And that concluded our Very Jewish Christmas, since that night, Maggie and I made carbonade, then we all went out to check out Christmas lights.

Our Very Jewish Christmas inspired me to think about Parisian Jewish geography (real geography, as opposed to the American social networking kind). All of the major monuments to Judaism and Jewish history are neatly located in or near the Marais, which traditionally includes the distinctive Jewish quarter of Paris. In the map below, this geographic logic is clear: the Museum of Jewish Art and History (top) and the Memorial to the Shoah (center) bookend the Rue des Rosiers, the epicenter of Jewish life in Paris (cluster), and the Memorial des Martyrs de la Déportation (bottom) isn't far away in a park behind Notre Dame.

One night in Paris

Alyssa and Michelle could only stay for one night in Paris, so even though they were very jet-lagged, Louis and I somehow managed to drag them out of bed after a brief mid-afternoon nap (well, Panda helped, too). We had made plans to meet up with Joy and Jake at Galeries Lafayette, one of the big department stores that we have visited twice before.

It was nice to get out of the cold, go inside, and see the grand Christmas decorations.

As we were walking around, Joy saw a dress she liked. It cost only 1400 euros, and even though we all thought she looked great in it, she decided not to buy it.

We passed through the "épicerie," which is really a giant gourmet supermarket, and marveled at the huge table whose multicolored spices filled the whole floor with delightful scents.

Back outside, we walked a block over to Printemps, another grand magasin (epic department store). They didn't have a central area with amazing decorations, but they did have a "Russian" theme going on. I especially loved the larger-than-life nesting dolls.

To give you a sense for just how big the store is . . .

Through careful study of this complex map, we figured out that the real highlight of Printemps is its rooftop deck, from which you can see the whole city in all its amazing shapes and colors . . .

La Madeleine, with la Grande Roue de Paris (Ferris wheel) just to the left

A Printemps turret bathed in red light, with the back of the Opéra visible to its left

Eventually we took 8 flights of escalators down from the roof to leave Printemps . . .

. . . and headed to dinner at Le Mesturet, another restaurant on Jesse's list that's very close to Louis' primary place of research. If Alyssa, Michelle, Jake, and Joy wanted to experience tasty traditional French cuisine at a reasonable price, they couldn't have done any better than Le Mesturet. Louis' three-course meal (just as an example) included:

Smoked-salmon-topped puff pastry, greens with fennel vinaigrette

Parmentier de canard - mashed potatoes over roasted duck, baked just a few minutes

Mi-cuit gâteau de chocolat (chocolate cake with a moist center), topped with cardamom ice cream

What a night!

Visitors Out The Wazoo!

Michelle and Alyssa - friends from Somerville - decided to fly through Paris on their way to visit another former Somervillian (Talya) in Israel so they could visit me and Louis. They only had 36 hours, so we tried to make the most of it.

Michelle, Alyssa, and I brave the cold for a great view of the Eiffel Tower from the Palais Chaillot

They lucked out - we had great weather all weekend. This made the view from the Eiffel Tower especially worthwhile for me and Alyssa after having waited in line to climb up, while Michelle and Louis walked around the Champ de Mars.

Can you pick out Michelle and Louis?

Despite their jet-lag, Alyssa and Michelle were real troopers, begging to be dragged around the city so they could pack in as many sights as possible during their short time in Paris. They took advantage of Métro and bus rides to catch a little shut-eye.

For lunch, Louis, Alyssa, Michelle and I met up with Jake and Joy around St.-Germain-des-Près and enjoyed a sumptuous feast of traditional French foods (notably croque monsieur [grilled ham and cheese sandwich, with the cheese on the top], croque madame [grilled ham, cheese, and fried egg sandwich, with cheese and fried egg on top], and croque chicken [no idea]).

Jake and Joy shared moules frites (mussels and French fries)

The brasserie, called Horsehead Tavern, was trying really hard to give the restaurant an anglophone flavor, but didn't succeed completely...

After lunch, Jake and Joy went for a long walk while everyone else retired to the apartment for some rest in preparation for the adventures yet to come that evening!

Christmas Traditions

We're trying to assimilate, and most of the time we're trying through food. So we were more than happy to adopt the French Christmas tradition of the bûche de noël, a super delicious log-shaped cake.

The pâtisserie where we got our bûche used a gold-colored chocolate piece for the ends of the log, but we've also seen cakes where the "grain" is done in frosting. We also chose a chocolate bûche instead of other offerings, like coffee and butterscotch.

Inside, the sponge cake that's rolled up into the log shape was soaked in rum and reminded us of tiramisu.

The top of the log was decorated with a Christmas tree, a shooting star, and - what else? - an axe. Well done, pâtissière, well done.

Served as a prelude to the bûche - our secord effort at carbonade.

Joy and Jake approved.

Merry Christmas, From Paris With Love

Paris takes Christmas decorations very seriously, and everyone benefits. From everyone here at Panda-à-Paris (all three of us!), we hope that your Christmas was every bit as bright and cheery as the Champs Elysées, Printemps and Galeries Lafayette (the big department stores), and the Eiffel Tower.

Christmas Eve Traditions

It's Christmas Eve here in Paris. Being away from family is difficult, but we're enjoying spending time with our friends Joy and Jake and creating our own holiday traditions. For example, we began the evening with a rousing game of French Monopoly.

We suspended the game to walk 10 minutes to the Église Notre-Dame de la Croix de Ménilmontant to attend the 11:00 p.m. Veillée de Noël service. The church is large, beautiful, and felt very much like a local parish (we had considered going to the other Notre Dame, but thought it might feel a bit too touristy).

The Veillée service consisted mainly of organ music, singing, and readings. We all liked it when the organist pumped up the bass, and didn't really like it when the song leader sang out of our range.

We left just in time to see the start of the midnight mass. It was cold, we're not Catholic, and hey, we had a Monopoly game to finish! Merry Christmas Eve!

Good Day, Rough Night

Joy and Jake are here! Hooray! And thank goodness, because their presence turned out to be crucial during some excitement last night. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

After a fairly straightforward trip (no snow delays or cancellations, no luggage mishaps), Joy and Jake arrived chez nous around 10 AM yesterday morning. We chatted over tea, toast, and jam, then headed to Breizh Café for lunch. (We had attempted to lunch at Breizh Café once before, realizing too late you need reservations, so this time we made sure to take care of that. Also, "Breizh" means "Bretagne" in Breton.) Like Crêperie de Josselin in the 14th, Breizh Café specializes in savory Breton galettes (a hearty buckwheat "crêpe") and of course also serves dessert crêpes (lighter, made of white flour).  I got a complète (oeuf miroir - sunny side up egg; jambon et frômage), Maggie got magret de canard (duck breast), Joy got a complète with arthichoke, and Jake got lox, chives, and crème fraîche. We shared some rather bitter Breton apple cider, Maggie got a crêpe caramel-beurre for dessert, and we left very satisfied with the whole experience. Alas, we left our camera at home so there are no pictures, but my complète looked very similar to this:

I was surprised to see the squared-off edges, but I guess it's somewhat normal.

In what has become a typical walk with visitors, we perused the Jewish-quarter food offerings along the Rue des Rosiers (pausing to buy really intense rye bread at Sacha Finkelsztajn), walked through ginormous department store BHV on our way to the Hôtel de Ville (which boasted a jam-packed ice-skating rink and two carousels, one of which we hopped on for free!), crossed the Seine and walked through Notre Dame.

In contrast with previous walks, after exiting Notre Dame we crossed the square, descended a slightly sketchy-looking stairwell, and entered the Crypte Archéologique du Parvis Notre-Dame. It doesn't get any more "underground" than this: well-preserved ruins of Gallo-Roman settlements found under the square in front of Notre Dame, as well as a decent historical overview of Parisian urban development starting around the time of Julius Caesar (approx. 50 BC) through the early twentieth century. Apparently there are ruins like these just waiting to be found all over the 5th and 6th arrondissements - very cool.

Joy and Jake were meeting friends for dinner at 5, so we headed home, had a quick coffee, and they were off. Maggie and I finished watching season 4 of Entourage while enjoying leftover tuna-noodle casserole with (surprise!) sparkling red wine friends had brought over Saturday night. Joy and Jake got home around 9 (impressive), played some cards with Maggie while I talked with my mom on the phone, then we all went to bed. And that's the end of our good day.

Here's the beginning of our rough night: Maggie and I decided to watch Confessions of a Shopaholic, streaming from my mom's Netflix account (thanks, mom! and thanks, Harvard VPN!). Despite a ridiculous cast, this proved to be a terrible decision. The movie was just really bad. When we turned the lights off, I figured it was Isla Fischer's performance that had given me indigestion. Boy, was I wrong. (Warning: What follows may constitute TMI. Sorry.)

A few hours later I barely made it to the bathroom in time to be violently ill. Feeling gross, I showered, brushed my teeth, drank water to rehydrate, and went back to bed. Another hour of tossing and turning, and I knew I wasn't done, so I went back to hang out in the bathroom, and soon regretted having rehydrated. This time I only had a sip of water, and went back to bed. More tossing and turning, more feeling ill, but this time as I walked to the bathroom, I only had time to remark to Maggie, "I'm feeling a little light-headed," before passing out completely.

Here's where Joy and Jake came in handy. Jake is a third-year med student at KU and swiftly diagnosed dehydration. We didn't have any gatorade, so he concocted a tisane-sugar-salt solution and had me sip it, slowly, on the floor. Meanwhile, I have a feeling the moral support that they gave Maggie (just by being there) kept her as calm as could be expected.

Eventually Jake and Maggie walked me back to the bedroom (one in front, one behind, in case I fell again) and I only had one more episode before I finally managed to stop shivering and get to sleep. Today, while Joy and Jake hit up the Eiffel Tower and the Rodin Museum, Maggie stayed home and nursed me back to health. I'll be as good as new by tonight, promise.

Theories as to what caused this unpleasant turn of events: 1) The oeuf miroir I had on my galette at lunch. It turns out oeuf miroir isn't quite the same thing as a sunny-side up egg. The whole "miroir" (mirror) qualifier refers to the fact that you separate the white and yolk when cooking. First, the white fries very quickly, producing a sheen on top in which you're supposed to be able to see your reflection. Then, the yolk is added and cooks just a tiny little bit before being served. With the (minor) exception of the tons of raw cookie dough that I've eaten throughout my life, this was probably the rarest egg I've ever had. 2) The sparkling red wine we had with dinner. I don't think I've ever had sparkling red wine before, and I have to admit it was a little strange. 3) Confessions of a Shopaholic. Terrible, terrible movie.