Paris, December 27th

The boulangerie was closed on Mondays. Booooo. We planned on seeing the France 1500 exhibit at the Grand Palais, so we walked over to the right bank and went to the first restaurant we saw near the Louvre. It was crappy craperton... also my cappucino was literally 9.5 euros... they said it was the best cappucino in Paris... reminded me of the movie Elf... also it was not the best cappucino in Paris. It was utterly forgettable. As we made our way towards the Grand Palais, we noticed that the line for the Ferris Wheel was not very long. Despite wife's objections to Ferris Wheels (I hate the ones where the seats rock), we bought two tickets. "Do you want to switch sides of the car?" husband asks midway through t

he ride, as he stares at the paralyzed with fear wife.... "um... no, you can look over your shoulder at the other side.

After the Ferris Wheel we headed to Laduree for some macaroons and champagne. God I love Paris.

The France 1500 exhibit was interesting. It was all artwork (mostly religious) from various parts of France that was produced around... you guessed it.... 1500. Tons of illuminated manuscripts, bibles, prayer books, etc. I have to say, I wasn't all that blown away by the exhibit. Not shockingly, everything produced in or around 1500 was religious and theme and, as it turns out, there isn't exactly a vast body of "events" to choose from to depict in artwork. I'd say that 95% of the exhibit was Annunciations, Baptism of Jesuses, Nativities, Crucifixions and Manifestations. They are pretty, no doubt, but it gets a wee redundant. There was an interesting Nativity where the cardinal of the day had himself painted into it as though he was there... that was a stretch of the time-space continuum, amongst other things.

For dinner we headed to Le Comptoir, recommended to us by Tony Bourdain. There are NO RESERVATIONS so we sat outside under badass heat lamps and shared a bottle of wine before they seated us inside. Oh, I know what you are thinking - how romantic... sitting french style outside an adorable bistro in Paris drinking wine...... YET... the French still smoke. Like Marlboro reds and like chain-smoke style. The couple sitting next to us had two cigarettes before their appetizer and another two in between the appetizer and entree and then another one before coffee showed up. Seriously people, smoking is bad for you... really bad for you. Stop already! Dinner, however, was pure awesomeness. We shared a plate of thin sliced Iberian ham for an appetizer and then husband had beef and I had the most amazing pork I've ever tasted.