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Location: Los Angeles, California, United States

I write songs, I sing them... I play the piano and a little bit of the guitar.. I've released 5 albums of music, I love the scent of freshly fallen rain and the scent of lavender on bedsheets. I would drink tea all day long if the caffeine didn't keep me up at night. I hate driving in L.A traffic. I would love to one day catch the squirrel that steals the plums from my tree and make him a pet. I don't watch TV anymore. My 3 year old daughter is more entertaining than any TV show could ever be :)

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Saturday, July 12, 2008

Paris - Epicerie Rue De Sevres - Madeleine Place - Ille St. Louis

[Recount of a trip taken to France in February 2008]
Thursday 7th February 2008


Today was a day dedicated to food.
Well, it started off with me wanted to head to the market,
since I’d read that Parisian farmer’s markets were a pretty sight.
I decided that it would be good to see the Marché Raspail.
So we took the metro to ‘Rennes’ and walked to where the guidebook
had said the market would be, but we couldn’t find it.

Perplexed, I asked a man walking along the street about it and he
mentioned that there was no market today, but that there’d be one
tomorrow (ie. Friday). I was feeling cheesed with the guidebook
at this point, thinking that they’d made an error, but when
I went back to check the book later that day, I realized that
it was I, myself and Corrinne who had mistaken the days the
market was open.’ Tuesday and FRIDAY’ the book said.
duh….

So, we made our way to Le Grande Epicerie [38, Rue de Sèvres, Paris]
instead. It was absolutely delightful. A feast for the senses.
If one could go traveling around the world in a supermarket,
this foodhall would be the way to go. Not as finely decorated as
the Harrod’s foodhall in London, but packed with all types of
food from all over the globe. Kavin was disappointed that we couldn’t
find instant noodles. It was kind of funny that they had almost
everything but instant noodles. To their credit, they did
have some dried egg noodle. But nothing like Maggi Mee.

Kavin and Saucisson (ie. sausages)
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We then took the metro to ‘Madeleine’ where I’d read
they had a lot of good gourmet food shops.

Once at ‘Madeleine’, we walked along the crowded Place
de Madeleine till we came to Fauchon (26, Pl. de Madeleine).

There was a chocolatier, a pattiserie, with cakes and chocolates
topped with gold leaf, madeleines in various flavours, the ever-present
macaroons, gourmet rice bowls made out of lobster, foie gras and other
luxury foods. They even had a caviar bar….decadent!

Kavin and I bought some chocolates as gifts for Steve, Clinton and
Darlene and went on our way.

Next stop, Hediard. There, near the entrance of the store was a
beautiful display of fruit from all parts of the world. They even had
fresh rambutans! Lovely. And the man arranging the fruit in their
places joked that it would cost me 1 Euro to take photos of the fruit.
He was nice and said that unlike all the other stores we’d seen, Hediard
did allow photos to be taken of their store. I was delighted that I could
actually take pics this time around. Around the world via a basket of
fruit!

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I walked around the store, taking in the well-designed displays
of spices, chocolates, pastries and finger foods in the market.
Gorgeous.

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Next we walked into a Japanese patisserie store. It was eye-catching
in its use of paper decorations coupled with the sweets on display.
Kavin had the wonderfully brilliant idea of asking the Japanese
man behind the counter if he knew whether there were any good
Japanese food / Ramen places around. The man said ‘yes’ and told
us about Rue St. Anne where he said there were a lot of Japanese
food stores to be found.

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We got really excited about the prospect of having Ramen!
I guess the Asian palette in us never really dies away, no
matter how satisfied and seduced we are by the French cuisine,
or other type of cuisine for that matter.

We took the metro to ‘Pyramids’ station and walked to
Rue St. Anne. We didn’t have to walk far to spot the many
Japanese food shops that lined the street. We settled on eating
at Sapporo Ramen [ 37, Rue St. Anne, 75001 Paris], or as it
reads on its business card, ‘Sapporo Restaurant Japonais’

I had the Miso Butter Ramen (basically Miso ramen topped with a pat
of butter) and Kavin had the Char Siew Ramen. We also shared
an order of chahan (Japanese fried rice) and Karaige ie. fried chicken
Mmmm…..it was all so good. We were just grinning from ear to
ear, happy to find something familiar and good in Paris, our
first Asian meal in slightly over a week away from LA.

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Yummy Japanese Fried Chicken
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After lunch, we walked a little bit around the Opera district
and sat on the steps of the Opéra National de Paris Garnier to
people watch.

After this, I wanted to check out Ile St. Louis and the famous
Berthillon ice-cream shop, so we took the Metro to ‘Sully Morland’.
We would have gotten off at ‘Port Marie’ if not for the fact
that that station was under renovation and thus closed.

We crossed the Pont de Sully and saw some birds having fun
swimming in the river, we took some pics, then walked along the
Rue St. Louis en i’lle.

I wandered into the Eglise St. Louis en L’ile. Walking around the
church, I spotted a statue of St. Thérése, with a plaque bearing a copy
of her writing.

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Outside all along Rue St. Louis en i’lle were quaint little shops with
enticing window displays. Cheese a.k.a fromagerie shops, butcher shops,
all proudly displaying their goods.

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We got to Berthillon and Kavin got a coffee ice-cream cone
whiles I got the strawberry sorbet cone. It was a little sweet
and I wish I’d gone for something more milky instead, but
ah well, it made for a sweet afternoon.

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Ice-cream and a peace sign...hmmm
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We walked and crossed along the St. Louis bridge that connected île
St. Louis with île de la cite, then walked along the perimeter of the
Notre Dame and took our time to sit and rest on one of the benches.

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We also went into Notre Dame and took a few more pictures.
before heading back to the hotel. Dinner was crepes from a stand
along the street. It was good.

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There's not enough space to put all the pictures from this day,
so I've kept them here instead.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dear Corrinne,
Thank you for the wonderful songs.. I cannot tell you how often I found solace in them. I wish you all the happiness for your family :) and hope that one day, they are within my grasps too.
Cheers

Sunday, December 06, 2009 6:05:00 AM  

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