Today was another great, albeit wet, day.  We got up and the sun was shining, and I thought, my phone has got to be wrong.  There can’t be a 90% chance of rain.  We got going late again today, and headed off to visit the first of two apartments that are possible for our spring visit.  The first was on a street running parallel to the Champs Élysées facing the park near the US Embassy.  It was beautiful.  On the ground floor, with a perfect bathroom – large shower that I could wheel David into (if I wanted to, though he doesn’t need that), and they even have a shower bench.  Mathilde, who takes care of the apartment and showed it to us, had tea ready for us and Claire was already there when we arrived.  I think that the final selling point was, as we were sitting drinking tea, you look out the front windows, past the private garden, and see the French flag waving above the Grand Palais.  The park across the street is also delightful, and within a short walk are the Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde, the Tuileries and the Louvre.  oh, yes, and the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais are right across the park.  It is more money than we wanted to spend, but we are worth it, right?  And think of all the money we’ll save on taxis and cars!  Mostly it is the bathroom set-up that did it for me.

When we left, it started to rain, and just got heavier as the day went on.  We got on a bus to get to our next apartment visit, and I left a message for Jean-Pierre to see if we could get in earlier, and he said he would meet up.  We made it to rue Saint Andrés des Arts to meet him, and had to wait a bit.  When he arrived we walked in, and the location of the apartment is perfect, but the bathroom set-up is not perfect, but doable and it is pretty dark.  It is also on the ground floor, but in a courtyard, so, not much daylight.  Claire, David and I left and went to sit in a cafe to warm up and chat a bit.  We talked about the apartments, and while we would save some money on the second apartment, it isn’t a place that we would really want to spend a lot of time in, but in an area that is lively.  The first one is very comfortable and I could see us relaxing there, but still getting out to see things.  My gut is saying we should grab the first apartment.

When we left the cafe it was raining pretty hard, and we tried to get a cab, but where having no luck, so went to Uber and waited under the overhang at a Starbucks on Boulevard Saint Germain.  Got home pretty quickly, but had to turn around pretty quickly to meet Claire Lempress for dinner and then the theatre.  Got on Uber again, and I was surprised to get the same driver who took us home moments before.

We got to Boullion Chartier, which was relatively empty and waited for someone to acknowledge that we were there, and finally went up to someone who looked like he was in charge, and he asked if we were two, and I said we were three, but waiting, and he said we would have to wait.  I was a bit worried that this was either going to be a very strange unpleasant experience, or he didn’t understand me.  Claire arrived and we were seated, and it was an interesting and nice experience.  First, the prices were kind of shocking, and I mean that in a good way.  Their house soup is 1€.  Claire commented that it might be really bad.  Dinner was pretty good though.  Not spectacular, but good and hearty, and I think that we sat down at 6pm and the food was on our table by 6:10pm.  I got the distinct impression that they turn tables over here at an alarming rate.  I finally had my Choucroute Garnie, or as they called it Choucroute Alsacienne – sauerkraut with sausage and ham.  I liked it very much.  Overall, it was a very nice meal.

What I loved the best was how almost everyone – from waiters to patrons – looked like cartoon characters.  It was like we walked into a painting.  At a certain point I noticed that there were these drawers on the wall that looked sort of like post boxes, and Claire asked the waiter what they were for.  He said that in the old days, regular patrons would keep their cloth napkins there.  As we were leaving, the place was beginning to fill up, and the waiter was asking two patrons who had their bags on the seats next to them to move them to the racks above so they could seat people next to them.  From the stanchions outside, it was clear that they do indeed line up to come into this place and we just beat the rush.

Then, off to La Belle et La Bête.  It was a relatively short walk to Theatre Mogador, but we were pretty damp by the time we arrived, and as I am beginning to get used to, when we came into the lobby, there was a guy who was going to be our personal usher because of the wheelchair.  He took us around the line of people who were waiting to get into the theatre, and whisked us to our seats, then took the wheelchair and our coats.  He asked if we would be wanting to get up during intermission and we said no, but as soon as intermission started, he came back to check on us to make sure we were OK.  Then, before the end of the curtain call, he was back with the chair, and helped us out.  The show was great, and I loved Lumiere.  Very funny.

Claire helped us find a taxi, and then we said good-bye.  From the sound of it, she is having a great time in Paris, and it is doing her well!  Fortunately, it was dry on our trip home, so we were not soaked as we got in the door, then some blog reading and more of Hungry for Paris.  Tonight’s chapter was about Paris fashion and restaurants and the bad effect celebrity had on food from the 80’s through today.  The author thinks that the emphasis on seeing and being seen is waning in favor of good food again.