18. Paris - Passage 53

It's our seventeenth wedding anniversary on 3rd May, so Paul thought we should have a slap up lunch to celebrate.  He's good like that.  I'd just try to cook the chicken a different way.

So we got him all dressed up.

Jacket, new slim pants, he even wore shoes.

And off we went to Passage des Panoramas in the Palais Royal area, a brisk 15 minute walk.

Le Passage des Panoramas is bustling and looking prosperous.  We may come back another day for food from a hole in the wall with an enormous lunch-time queue buying freshly cooked Asian.  Follow the locals is always the best strategy. Never follow the tourists.

But back to today's lunch - you'd never find Passage 53 (two Michelin stars) unless you knew where to look.  Lucky for us we did.  We ate here two years ago and were expecting a great meal.

We began with a fabulous Bollinger champagne in the finest stemware I have ever handled. It was almost as finessed as the wine and I had to remind myself not to squeeze the glass too hard in case it shattered.  The 'amuse bouche' (literally, mouth amuser but more probably, taste tempter) was all carrot.  On the bottom carrot mousse, covered with almost-jellied whipped carrot with a tiny little cooked disc on top. In a porcelain cup so thin you could see through it. Lovely.

A very, very crisp rectangle of dark toast topped with crab meat dressed with subtle Asian flavours that I couldn't identify.  On the top, a quenelle of whipped creamy something flavoured with Spanish Jerez sherry vinegar, with micro-leaves.  The best crab I have ever tasted.

With the next two dishes, both asparagus, we had a pinot noir from Cotes de Nuits near Beaune in Burgundy. Two photos of the same dish here.  

This is fat white asparagus, so popular here, sitting on a lovely Compte cheese sauce with a crispy bit on the top.

Asparagus is currently in season and coming down in price every day.  The best dish of the day was the fish.  A fillet of Atlantic turbot topped with carrot salt and accompanied by green asparagus, green peas and tiny green broad beads in a mushroom foam. Beautifully cooked, beautifully presented with every item perfect. Delicious.

The meat course was chicken. A triangle of breast with crispy, salty skin was accompanied by delicious spinach cooked in clarified butter finished with a thin chicken gravy. The circular disk is chicken leg meat, cooked sous vide and flavoured with truffle.  Very nice, but too much like sausage for my taste.

Our wine was a Cote Rotie Madiniére by Yves Cuilleron syrah.  All of the wine was 18€ per glass - that is $25.70 AUD. Lucky I wasn't thirsty!

The waiter said, in his best English, 'Zees eez de straw berries foam with underneath the straw berries panna cotta you weel enjoy all very much ... and of course, zee shocolar pie'. 

I would have called it strawberry shortcake and dark chocolate tart, but what do I know. Both lovely and quite complex but I would have been happy with just the panna cotta.

The espresso was good and the madeleines were made with lavender honey - too sweet for me but Paul loved them.

From my seat I had a view out of the door into the passage.  I was fascinated by this young man eating his lunch at a table opposite.  Dressed in a very slim fitting three piece black suit with a wing collared shirt and narrow black bow tie.  He had very short hair and very long side burns.  I couldn't tell whether this was a 'uniform' associated with his job or he just felt like dressing up today.

Whatever, I hope he enjoyed his lunch as much as we did.

17. Paris - Our apartment

Welcome to Paris.

We have a lovely, old fashioned Parisian apartment in rue des Halles, across the road from where we stayed in 2013 and around the corner from our apartment in 2011. 

Les Halles is in the 1st Arrondissement, at the end of rue St Honore, and half a block from rue de Rivoli. It is really the best location we have found in Paris.

We are on the fourth floor on a corner, with six windows and a 240 degree view over the surrounding landscape which includes a fascinating industrial worksite - the eight year project to redeveloped Les Halles.  More of that later.

On the left is my lovely little desk where I am writing to you.

Paul is set up on the dining room table but has spent most of his time staring out the windows and moving from room to room and balcony to balcony to follow the progress of a concrete pour or the delivery of more steel beams or just watching the skill of the crane operator.  

We have a proper kitchen, very large by European standards and with its own little balcony and window box.  I'm growing herbs already! 

Because this apartment was formerly someone's home, as opposed to a modern apartment renovated and developed exclusively for short term tourist sletting, this kitchen is properly laid out and very well equipped.

Our bedroom with window and balcony.

The original bathroom, attached to the bedroom like an ensuite. This room has a bath with a hand held shower.  Not my preferred way to ablute - too chilly.  I prefer a steaming hot shower.

The original 'powder room' with a shower installed (behind the orange fishy curtain) where a cupboard probably stood, many years ago.

All of the rooms radiate off a curved, central hallway that curls around the shape of the central spiral stairway that forms the core of the building.

The elevator is located inside the curve of the spiral stairway, as it so often is in these old buildings. The lift, stairwell, security and entrance arrangements are excellent but we have yet to work out where the concierge is located so we can ask about rubbish disposal.

When looking in a real estate window today, we noticed that an apartment in this area, not much different to this ours, was on the market for about $1.35m AUD and had a $54,000 AUD annual body corporate fee. 

No wonder everyone in Europe is a renter.

16. Paris - It feels like home

We packed our suitcases in Milan last night, cleaned our tiny (less than 40sq.m), uncomfortable and over-priced apartment and went out for dinner.  

Japanese in Milan is always going to be a challenge, but my prawn wanton soup was the star of the show, closely followed Paul's stir fried beef with fresh asparagus.  Hiro at Shiri Nui in Glen Waverley would have had a fit, but it was clean cooking and fresh with no wheat in sight.

The rain stopped long enough for a stroll to the newly renovated Milan canal area.  Originally designed by Leonardo da Vinci in the 1400s and redeveloped many times since, this was the most recent hi-tech, re-generation of the waterways in this inland city.

Sunday night at 9pm and it was packed.

This morning found us out on the main road, in the rain, at 7.20 am waiting for our taxi that never arrived.  Anyone who knows us also knows that 7.20 am is not a time we are even awake let alone standing in the rain waiving frantically at every one of the hundreds of taxis that passed us but did not stop (despite two calls to the booking number).  Finally, at 8.15 a young driver finally stopped for us and managed to get us to Garibaldi Station by 8.35 am.  We found our seats on the TGV to Paris with 4 minutes to spare.

My imagined very fast train trip to Paris was abysmally slow.  Milan to Torino was quick enough, but the following leg over the Alps to Grenoble took forever.  Not because of the mountains but because the train kept stopping in the middle of nowhere, for what seemed to be no reason, on many, many occasions.  

There was still a little bit of snow on the Alps as we went through the mountain passes near Frejus and then into Grenoble.  Up through Lyon and finally a good, fast run into Paris.
The trip took seven and a half hours from Porta Garibaldi, Milan to Gare de Lyon, Paris.  We transferred directly to the RER A and went one station to Chatalet-Les Halles followed by an upward hike of about four levels to ground level and arrived virtually at our front door within 20 minutes of getting off the TGV.  Paul had to do a bit of extra heavy heaving of the bags, when one of the escalators stopped, but all was well.

Here we are at the cafe at the end of our building, having coffee, using the loo and waiting for Simona to meet us with the key.

This is our third extended stay in the Les Halles area.  Here is our local Metro entry-exit.

Feels like home already!

15. Milano - Castello Sforzesco

Behind Milan's central fountain is the entrance to Castello Sforzesco.

Called the Castle of Milan or the Sforza Castle, it is home to the city's major historical museums. So we went to have a look.  It was so interesting we went three times.

Like many castles, it began life as a fortification of the city walls six hundred years ago. 

Over the centuries it was damaged, demolished and rebult and turned from fortification into grand residence of the Duke of Milan who hosted his sumptuous court here in the late 1400's.

Power changed hands and Milan was occupied by the Spanish, the Austrians, the French and the Austrians again over the course of 350 years.

It was only at the end of the 19th century, in a united Italy that it was restored and returned to the Milanese community.The two views above are of the main parade ground, behind the first ring wall and defences.

This is the secure and highly fortified inner courtyard of the ducal palace.

It is a very big castle and impossible to get it all into one photograph -so here is a representation.  The commentary on the sightseeing bus mentioned something about the Kremlin in Moscow being based on this same design.

It is inside the vast expanses of the ducal palace that the fourteen museums have been created. The ceiling decorations are particularly evocative.

A new gallery being developed, I think for books and literary items.

Beautiful big spaces with wooden ceilings in sections and luminescent floors.

Plus the occasional piece of good, modern design.

In the furniture museum they had these two fabulous painted chests.  This one is apparently extremely valuable and is called "The Three Dukes", but the light and lighting was so poor I could only photograph one end of it.

The colours in this chest were also quite spectacular.  Both chests were in incredibly good condition.

And here is the guy who gave his name to the castle, Francesco I Sforza, a great soldier apparently and Duke of Milan from 1450.  Love the hairdo.

14. Milano - Duomo di Milano

Milan Cathedral is the largest church in Italy, the fifth largest in the world and took nearly 600 years to complete.

Building began in 1386 on a site originally occupied by the most important Roman church of its time, the one opposite the forum.  Therefore, the streets around the cathedral all either circle it or radiate outwards from it.

The facade was finally completed in 1812 under the direction of Napoleon Bonaparte, who ordered the French Treasury to pay for it and who was crowned King of Italy at the cathedral.  The debt to France was never repaid.
Work on the intricate Gothic cathedral has been almost continuous and up close the external spires and statuary appear quite fragile.

While the outside appears to glow a warm shade of white, the inside is surprisingly sombre, but has beautiful highlights around the windows.

It also has an unusual row of windows above the column capitals.  This is because of the unusual way the roof is constructed.

And in some places the stone is quite dark.

This beautiful floor runs throughout and seems to be a pattern often seen in Milan.

This section appears to have benefitted from recent cleaning....

... which continues.  A very slow process with toothbrushes, tiny chisels and sponges.

And after a short ride in the lift and lots of stairs, we discovered the amazing roof terraces of the cathedral.

The terraces allow access to the whole roof area with tourists allowed on the long south side and the central forward sections.

The structure seems so delicate, I wonder how it withstands winds and storms.  We saw photos of frozen water spurting several feet out of the mouths of these gargoyle rain heads.  

On the highest part of the roof looking forward. The pitch is quite pronounced making it difficult for female tourists in high heels!!

The very front central facade.

The white stone is new, the coloured stone is old.  It has all been dismantled and put back together again.  TThis is happening all over the building - never ending task.

And the view down into the piazza, showing the massive sound stage under construction for the Expo.

Hanging on tight on my way back down the steps.