Vendredi 20 Mai 2011

Off to the laundromat on the Left Bank to do the necessary, (but Merrel wasn't there this time) I don't think I mentioned our last washing experience, but a woman who was SO like Merrel Streep was at the laundromat when we got there & of course M had to put her teeth back in & all she could get out to the woman was "the devil wears prada", 'Merrel' was very gracious & nodded and in a very charming french accent, yes I am often mistaken for Merrel, cripes she even dressed like Merrel, all white linen, obviously very tres chic in a Parisian matronly sort of way. She showed us  how to use the washing machine (whilst staying in character the whole time) I said to M that if in a year or so there is a Merrel Streep movie in which she plays a Parisian lady, we will know we were right!
Then La Poste again for another parcel home for M - I told you she's a good shopper - the rather stern chap (one of the Parisian shop assistants who when you ask "parlez-vous anglais?" answers with "what do you want")  in La Poste on the Left Bank is getting positively friendly.
Quelle horreur, time for lunch already & so close to L'ecurie, had the menu again,  this time pate de compagne, steak & frites (spoke to the chef this time & he told us the aioli which comes with the steak is mayo & roasted garlic - lip-smackingly good) We both went for the tres bon chocolate mousse. The waiter was up to his usual, smoking outside & chatting up attractive young women, and a ready market freely available as this is the uni area, Sorbonne etc, he certainly seemed to know them all & vice versa. Quite a character & turned out not even French but from Abruzzo in Italy ... all is revealed! 

Italian waiter at L'ecurie, for once behind the bar

Decor L'ecurie showing stable origins

After lunch spent a good hour or so in the Pantheon, built 18th century as a church & has gone between religious & secular use several times since & is now used as a mausoleum for French people who have contributed to the nation, the tombs are in the crypt, Mme Curie, Louis Braille, Victor Hugo (hunchback of ND) Voltaire & Emile Zola were the ones I recognised (& can remember)

Crypt below the Pantheon, where the bodies are buried

Quick cup of tea back at the garret & then headed for Pompidou Centre over on the Right Bank, alas did not make it again, got as far as Forum Des Halles, a huge subterranean shopping centre, & well named as it really was hell -not sure how many floors it went below- but we did manage to find something to buy in a sports shop, I got some Billabong (can you believe it!) tops for M & T.  We got lost several times as the whole thing is escalators all over the place, nightmare stuff, luckily we had to get out at 8pm when they closed so followed the crowds