Shopping, Dinners, and Art!

Yesterday we enjoyed a bit of wandering around and just admiring the city. We found an organic bakery right by our flat, which was very exciting. We then did some shopping and browsing of all the new Spring and Summer fashions that just hit the stores. The most popular colors were pastels - seafoam, sherbets, pale yellow - and bright candy colors - hot pink, orange, teal. It was actually a welcome change from all dark winter clothes I'm totally sick of. Now if it would just get warmer...


After shopping we went to the Pompidou and saw tons of amazing modern art. Ketch posted some pictures already, so I won't go too nuts. Personal highlights include Picasso, Dali, Louise Bourgeois, Modigliani, Marcel Du Champ, Warhol, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Jean Miro, etc. Towards the end there were more conceptual contemporary pieces that were just overloading my brain (in a good way.)

After the Pompidou, we went to dinner at a vegetarian restaurant called Le Grenier de Notre Dame. It was AWFUL! The dishes were all really boring and unappetizing, so we had difficulty choosing what to order. I ended up with a white bean cassoulet, which was basically cannelini beans in a mediocre tomato sauce with chunks of barely cooked soft tofu, squishy seitan, and soggy breadcrumbs on top. It had a gross texture and barely any flavor. Ketch's plate was just a random assortment of raw and cooked vegetables with a few pieces of fried tofu. There was no skill or concept and it was like something someone who had just become vegeterian in the 1970's would have made. Both dishes were outrageously overpriced. To shake off the disappointment, we took a lovely stroll and had coffees and a snack at a cute cafe in a hidden tiny winding street bustling with cafes, brasseries, and shops. 

It is just mind-numbing that there is no veg-friendly high end cuisine here. In the US we have Vedge (had Horizons), Blossom, Sprig & Vine, Millenium, etc. All of those places exhibit creativity and skill on par with any well-regarded meaty restaurant. I had this same experience in Rome and it's just so disappointing that no vegetarians have stepped up to the plate (pun intended) in cities famous for having exceptional cuisine.

For now we've given up on eating out, and made a lovely dinner at our apartment this evening. Quinoa with zucchini and carrots, seared smoked tofu, mustard dipping sauce, and fennel & blood orange salad on a bed of baby spinach. For dessert, vegan chocolate covered biscuits, berries, and chocolate pudding. Half the price of the crap-fest we had last night and ten times more delicious!

So pretty! This architecture fills my heart with contentment.


Organic bakery right by our house! So far the breads are just perfect. Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. It's so hard to resist gluten here! Oh, my poor tummy!

Outside the Pompidou. Modern architecture - pipes and tubes all over the place!

View from the Pompidou. Ketch in his new handsome cardigan!

View from the Pompidou.

View from the Pompidou.

Hotel de Ville - so grandiose and gorgeous!

Dinner at Le Grenier de Notre Dame. White Bean Cassoulet = barf city

Ketch trying to be positive about his overpriced boring meal

Dinner tonight! YUM!!!

Yay romantic dinners at home!