Wednesday Wisdom

Wednesday Wisdom: 

10 Tidbits We Learned Living in Italy -- 

X. Not every oil is extra virgin. 
IX. Slow simmer creates the sauce. 
VIII. People, not just pasta, make dinner memorable. 
VII. Cappuccino for the AM, caffe corretto at night.
VI. Grandma knows best. Always.
V. Quality takes time, care and high standards.
IV. Treat strangers like family you haven't yet met.
III. Cheese makes pretty much everything better.
II. Build you life around relationships, not money.
I. Say GRAZIE daily--it will sweeten your life (and those around you).

Fun Fact

FUNFACT: 
Traditional mozzarella, produced in Southern Italy's Campania region, is made from the milk of water buffalo--not cows 🐮🚫. Buffalo milk is thicker and creamier than its cow counterpart -- making for an extra addictive cheese.

Fun Fact

FUNFACT: 
The lemons of the AmalfiCoast are a unique variety-- long and at least twice the size of usual lemons. They boast an intense perfume and sweet flesh. Cultivated in terraced gardens along the coast, the fruit are picked from February to October. The Amalfi lemon is a key part of the cuisine of this coast: the juice, the flesh, the peel, and even the leaves are used in its cooking.

Let's Plan a Trip to Paris

Let's Plan a Trip to Paris

Lesson #5 (last lesson)

Day 9: Easy to Evolution

Morning

Have a chill morning. In good weather, go to the Paris Plages for Seine River urban beach-combing, take a bicycle tour or stroll the Latin Quarter. In poor weather, make tracks to the industrial-design-themed Musée des Arts et Métiers (60 Rue Réaumur, Metro: Arts et Métiers.

Afternoon

After lunch, proceed to the Natural History Museum’s Gallery of Evolution (57 Rue Cuvier, Metro: Jussieu). You’ve never seen a stuffed animal collection like this one. It’s a solid two-hour visit and literal jaw-dropper.

Evening

From the museum, go left on Rue Cuvier until it dead ends at Rue Linne. Take a quick left on Rue Linne, followed by a quick right on Rue Lacépède. Follow this road to Place de la Contrescarpe, a circle surrounded by bustling restaurants and cafes. Go left on to Rue Mouffetard, a classic Parisian market street that was originally a Roman road. Pick a cafe or brasserie with an ambience and menu to your liking.

***
Day 10: Meandering Montmartre

Morning

From Blanche Metro station in Montmartre, take a picture in front of the Moulin Rouge’s iconic windmill. Then walk up, and I do mean up, Rue Lepic until it hits Rue des Abbesses. Take a right. Get baguette sandwiches for lunch and pains au chocolat for now at Grenier à Pain – arrive by 8am. Yes, there will be a line. Yes, it’s worth the wait.

Devour those ridiculously tasty pains while walking down Rue des Abbesses. Cross through Place des Abbesses to Rue Yronne le Tac, continue to Rue Tardieu and on to Place Saint-Pierre. Ride the funicular (spare Metro tickets work) up the hill to just below Sacré-Cœur.

At the gleaming white basilica that’s been lingering in the distance your whole trip, tour the interior, then line up for the dome climb, located down the stairs to the left of the main entrance.

Afternoon

Enjoy the epic view and eat your sandwiches – made with baguettes named the best in Paris in 2015 – on the steps in front of Sacré-Cœur.

Take touristy, meandering backstreets down – first back past Sacré-Cœur then left at Rue du Chevalier de la Barre, left at Rue du Mont Cenis and right at Rue Norvins toward world-famous Place du Tertre (peruse paintings, have a drink) before descending Rue du Calvaire. Explore Montmartre’s side streets. Shop. Get lost. Head back to Place des Abbesses to ride the carousel.

Evening

Eventually make your way back to Rue Lepic – where it makes a big dog-leg turn – for dinner atLa Mandigotte (68 Rue Lepic), an authentic haven in Montmartre’s touristy restaurant scene. Return to Blanche station for the Metro home.

***

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Let's Plan A Trip To Paris

Let's Plan A Trip To Paris

Lesson #4

Day 7: In the Garden of Paris, Baby

All Day

Pack a picnic lunch and spend the day in Luxembourg Garden(Metro: Odéon or RER B: Luxembourg). Enjoy a relaxing, no-itinerary day – catch a puppet (“marionette”) show, ride the carousel, pop a bottle of wine, watch old-timers play "boules," nap in the sun.

After you’ve had your Luxembourg fill, walk into the adjacent Latin Quarter for dinner. Exit the park’s east side at a roundabout on Rue de Medicis. Walk across the roundabout to Rue Soufflot. Walk three blocks to Rue Saint-Jacques and take a left.

You’ll pass the Paris-Sorbonne University on your left, a reminder of how the Latin Quarter earned its name. During the middle ages, this area was the rare intellectual hotbed and scholars at the time spoke the only civilized, written language in the West, Latin. All that Latin-speak earned the nickname that persists today.

Just before reaching Rue des Ecoles, take a right on Place Marcelin Berthelot until it ends at Rue Jean de Beauvais. Cross this street, take a slight right, then an immediate left onto charming Rue de Lanneau, a narrow, atmospheric corridor. There are several quaint restaurants, cafes and brassieres in the area, but I like the rustic hole-in-the-wall, Le Petit Prince de Paris (12 Rue de Lanneau).

Walk three blocks north to Boulevard Saint-Germain to take the Metro home at Maubert – Mutualité station.

***

Day 8: Art Blitz II

Morning

Begin the day early at the Orangerie Museum (Metro: Concorde) for impressionist and post-impressionist heavyweights like Cezanne, Matisse and Picasso. But everyone comes here for Monet’s spectacular "Water Lilies."

Afternoon

Eat a picnic lunch in the sprawling former royal grounds, Tuileries Garden, designed around an unbroken central axis that runs right to the Louvre.

Walk to the overwhelming Louvre Museum and follow one of the museum's excellent audioguide tours and don't miss the obvious: "Mona Lisa" and "Venus de Milo." Art lovers should consider a guide-led group or private tour because this place is immense.

Evening

Did all that art make you hungry? Go to the Louvre’s basement for quite possibly the best food court in Europe, Restaurants du Monde au Carrousel de Louvre (99 Rue de Rivoli). Choose from crepes, Indian food, whole-roasted chickens all in a convenient and affordable food court.

After dinner, head back above ground to Tuileries Garden for after-dark amusement park rides and French carnival sweets. You've earned it. Take the Metro home at Tuileries station.

Let's Take a Trip to Paris

Let's Plan a Trip to Paris

Lesson #3:

Day 5: Art Blitz I

Morning
Start at Rodin Museum (Metro: Varenne) – don't skip the sculpture garden, especially if the weather's inviting. Explore everywhere – the mansion’s many rooms and the garden’s far end.

Have a delightful picnic lunch discreetly in the garden, eat at the garden cafe or walk a couple blocks to picnic at Esplanade des Invalides.

Afternoon
From Rodin, go right on Rue Varenne and then left on Rue de Bellechasse, which ends four long blocks later at Rue de Lille and the Musée d'Orsay. Impressionists and post-impressionists – think Latrec, Van Gogh, Renoir, Degas – dominate the Orsay, a gorgeously renovated train station. As much as I love the art, I enjoy the building even more.

Evening
For dinner, do a museum splurge in the Orsay’s aptly named, Restaurant du Musée d'Orsay on the first floor or the alluring top-floor brasserie, Café Campana. Take the Metro home at Solférino station. Better yet: Go for an evening stroll on the Seine River promenade or take the Solferino pedestrian bridge to Tuileries Garden.

***

Day 6: Overwhelming Opulence

All Day
Pack a picnic lunch and catch the 8am RER C train (leaving every 15 minutes) from Invalides or Champs des Mars to the Versailles Palace for all-day fun. It’s a 10-minute walk from the train station to the palace. After touring the palace, explore the expansive grounds – best done by renting bikes and rowboats. Find a quiet, shady picnic spot for lunch.

Stick around for fireworks and dinner at the palace’s Michelin-rated and expensive, La Veranda, or walk back to Versailles town to the exquisite, Les 3 Marches (22 Rue de Satory). Take the RER C train back to Paris.