Moulin Rouge, Igor Stravinsky Fountain, waffles

Saturday, August 28, 2010 Day 59
After laundry and lazing around this morning, we struck out for Roger La Grenouille (Roger the Frog) restaurant. Roger has always been my Frog Prince, even from our dating days, and we felt it would be an appropriate end to our stay in Paris. Naturally, we ate frog legs, which were delicious. Mine were in a garlic and butter sauce, and I sopped up the sauce with my bread for a truly delicious taste! Roger ordered frog legs in a cream sauce. These frog legs were very different from those I have had in the states – much smaller. Our servings probably contained 15 legs each, although we didn’t count them. The frog legs I have had in Louisiana and Texas have had only about three or maybe four legs for a serving. We shared a molten-center chocolate cake for dessert.

When we left, we took the metro up to the Moulin Rouge on a mission to buy some special caramels. It was sprinkling as we exited the metro, so we stood under the Moulin Rouge overhang for 20 minutes or so. When the rain reduced to a sprinkle, we decided to risk it and head for the caramel shop. After we bought caramels and some caramel sauce in a jar, we walked down to Les Halles and Eglise Saint-Eustache area again. We were fortunate – the rain stopped completely by the time we exited the shop, so we had a dry afternoon. We had read that the organ in Eglise Saint-Eustache has over 8,000 pipes, so we had planned to drop in a take a gander. However, upon our arrival at the entrance to the church, we spotted a man in tux and boutonnière and a priest on the steps, looking streetward. As we watched, several nicely dressed people entered the church, so we parked ourselves alongside the steps to watch. Two women carrying flowers arrived, apparently bridal attendants, and more wedding guests as well. A short while later, a car honked pedestrians out of the way (unusual behavior in Paris) and pulled up in front of the steps. The bride and her father got out. They were met by the best man, and after a bit of fluffing up on the part of the bride and her bridesmaids, the party entered the church. We elected to forego the view of the organ out of respect for the wedding ceremony, although I am sure that there were plenty of other tourists who entered during the ceremony, unaware that it was going on.

We continued our stroll to Les Halles, which was formerly a huge market known as the “belly of Paris” because it fed most of the city. It dates back at least as early as the 12th century. In 1971, it was demolished and the market relocated to a Paris suburb. It is now a huge modern shopping mall. It was incredibly busy today. Apparently the combination of a beautiful Paris afternoon, the end of the vacation season and preparation for the onset of school brought throngs of shoppers to the area. We tried to look at FNAC for a case for our phone, but it was clear we were going to have to have help from the staff, and it was equally clear that such help would be a long time coming so we abandoned the idea. Someday we will get a case. Or not.

From Les Halles, we walked along a pedestrian mall. It was crowded with shoppers, many of whom were taking a leisurely break to be entertained by street performers. We went on to the Georges Pompidou Center, not for the museum itself, but for the Igor Stravinsky fountain located just outside it. It is a shallow rectangular basin of water which features sixteen whimsical moving and water-spraying sculptures which represent themes and works by composer Igor Stravinsky. We sat on the edge of the fountain and a few minutes later a little girl and her mom sat down. The little girl was eating a Belgian waffle with powdered sugar on it. We lusted after it, and asked the woman where she got it – clearly it had just been purchased. She pointed around the corner and said she bought it from a stand there, so we checked it out and sure enough, there they were. We ordered one and considered our choices for a moment before settling on powdered sugar topping. (We could have had Nutella, a couple of different fruits, whipped cream or several other options.) It was disappointing – these are never as good as they look, at least not when you are an adult. I’m not sure they are even as a child.