Paris - Louvre and La Regalade

[Recount of a trip taken to France in February 2008]
Paris - Louvre and La Regalade
4th February 2008 Monday.

We spent most of the day at the Louvre. It was a Monday,
but it was still packed with people. Kavin and I decided to
rent an audio guide each, so that we could really know
what we were looking at within the museum. It was a good
decision and one that really helped me to appreciate the
art we saw a whole lot more.

As before (Musée Cluny) a lot of the art was inspired by
the events within the Bible, a lot of art depicted the Virgin with
child, Mary’s Annunciation, Christ’s cruxificion, his resurrection
and the various saints. There was so much to see.
Some of the ones that stood out: Cupid reviving Psyche with a
kiss, beautiful in the tenderness, the softness depicted, that moment
between life and death, the reaching downwards of Cupid to gently
life Psyche up from the throes of near-death. The intricate detail
in Cupid’s wings…such romance crafted out of an impossibly
hard material as marble. Beautiful.



We also saw the Mona Lisa, the huge painting of the
Wedding at Cana (saw a cute tabby cat depicted at the bottom
of the painting and smiled) Also saw a lovely painting by
Raphael of Mary with the baby Jesus and baby John the Baptist.









We took a break at the café within the Louvre, and shared a
butternut squash soup, a sandwich and a cup of coke. Interestingly
enough, all the restaurants we’ve been to in France don’t
serve ice in their drinks)

We went to see the Egyptian artworks after this, saw a lot of mummies
and mummified cats.




The most interesting part to me was the
exhibition of the scribes and the writing tools used to make the
hieroglyphs and to write the Egyptian language. To think that the
papyrus and the letters there on display were written by someone
thousands of years ago just astounds me.



We also saw the Code of Hammurabi Stele, one of the earliest
and best preserved law codes from ancient Babylon, made around 1760 B.C
and the magnificent ‘Winged Victory of Samothrace’ sculpture.
We didn’t manage to see much more beyond that…so vast is the collection
at the Louvre. The museum was scheduled to close at 6 p.m, but we were
chased out by 5.45 p.m, herded like sheep out of the museum, right after
we saw the ‘Tomb of Phillippe Pot’.





We walked in the dwindling light towards Rue de Rivoli and passed by the
Angelina Thé Salon, a tea salon and café famous for its chestnut-based
Mont Blanc dessert. We were hungry and tired by now and thought
about eating dinner at Angelina’s, but it was closing by then,
ie. 6.45 p.m

So anyway, I just went in and bought a huge raspberry macaron and
2 other rose macarons. Ah…the pastries were so pretty.

We took the metro back from Concorde station, went back to the hotel,
and got the concierge to help us make reservations for La Regalade for 8 p.m
I’d read that La Regalade was a good budget gourmet restaurant,
and I wanted to try it.

Taking the metro to ‘Alesia’ station, we got a little lost trying to
find the restaurant at 49 Jean Moulin, but thankfully, we stopped
at a Chinese restaurant to ask for some directions and got pointed
to the right direction.

The restaurant was a little place, with unassuming lace-curtains framing the
windows and inside, the wood fixtures and furniture added a nice
warm vibe to the place. The whole restaurant was packed and everywhere
I turned, I could see people laughing or talking heartily, and quite
obviously enjoying the food on their table. It was a good sign.

Kavin browsing the menu


The Menu


We got a small table by the window. The menu was quite
indecipherable, since everything was in French, but the waiter
was sweet enough to give us a rundown of the various dishes
in English.

I ordered the venison dish and Kavin had a pork dish.
Before that, I had the asparagus soup with foie gras and Kavin
had a basket selection of dried sausage with bread. We were
also served a pork terrine which tasted really good.



Venison dish


Yummy pork dish :)


The main courses were rich, very tasty and good. Kavin’s
entrée tasted exceptional, the pork tender and juicy,
and the dish came with a serving of mustard mashed potatoes.
The highlight for me was the dessert. I relished every morsel
of that mint sorbet over grapefruit segments in rose syrup.
Something about it just lingered sweetly on my tongue.



It was a good dinner. Budget-concious decadence.