Hanging out in Paris with the Ahlstroms

My cousins Nan and Jon Ahlstrom and Evely Ahlstrom Cohn arrived in Paris at the end of February and we had a fun 10 days. Evelyn and Nan arrived first on Saturday and we went to the local Marché for produce and a rotisserie chicken and potatoes for Sunday dinner.

Nan and Evelyn
View of École Militaire and Tour Eiffel
walking home from the Marché

I had to keep them walking so they would stay awake and get over the jet lag. So we walked to the Eiffel Tower and saw it from the Champs de Mars side.

Champs de Mars

And then walked past it and across the bridge to see it from the Trocadero side.

Trocadero

And then we walked around to the pedestrian bridge and saw it from that angle. Any direction you walk there is a great view.

We discovered my new favorite meringue shop on the corner of the rue Cler and rue Saint Dominique. It is a chain in Paris called Aux Merveilleux de Fred. Even the plain meringue is amazing. So light and not too sweet with a bit of a chewy center. Head and shoulders above the meringues from a boulangerie. We watched them make large flavored meringue cakes out of three discs of meringue and whipped cream that were then coated with white chocolate flakes. They also make small ones with flavors such as chocolate, caramel and cherry. Even the huge chandelier in the shop was amazing. I will definitely keep going back to this shop for a little airy treat.

Assembling the Meringue Cakes

Coating with White Chocolate

Aux Merveilleux de Fred

Plain Meringue

Flavors

Jon arrived Sunday and on Monday we had good weather for a change so we climbed the Arc de Triomphe. I love the view from up there.

Jon, Nan and Evelyn
Arc de Triomphe

Climbing the Stairs up the
Arc de Triomphe

I laughed watching them try to take a selfie with the Eiffel Tower in the background. It was quite windy up there!

View Towards the Grande Arche
at La Defense

Under the Arc

Eternal Flame at the
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

We went on to Montmartre taking advantage of the good weather and ate lunch in a café on Place du Tertre by the artists. The café had an excellent warm goat cheese salad with drizzled honey but the French onion soup was disappointing.

Evelyn, Nan and Jon at Sacré Coeur

Nan at the Café

Another day we had a lovely morning at the Rodin Museum and actually enjoyed a bit of blue sky. I almost missed Edvard Munch's painting of The Thinker in the museum. Very cool. Very Munch.

Evelyn, Nan and Jon with The Thinker
and Dome of Napoleon's Tomb

The Thinker
by Edvard Munch

Rodin's sculpture of the Burghers of Calais is always a favorite. It commemorates the Hundred Years' War in the 14th century between France and England. The French city of Calais was under siege for about 11 months. The English king offered to spare the people of the city if six of its leaders would surrender themselves to him, presumably to be executed. He demanded that they walk out of the city wearing nooses around their necks and carrying the keys to the city. Rodin captures them as they arrive at the city gates, willing to sacrifice themselves and resolutely staring death in the face. But their lives were spared by the intervention of the queen of England. She told her husband that their deaths would be a bad omen for  her unborn child and the king had mercy on the burghers.
I couldn't get enough of the dome of Les Invalides over Napoleon's tomb shining against that elusive blue sky.

Burghers of Calais

Les Invalides

We also went to the Marmottan to see the Monets and a special exhibit about Cezanne. The Cezanne exhibit showed the influence of Italian artists in the Louvre and elsewhere on Cezanne and his influence on modern Italian artists. Great exhibit!

Cezanne Exhibit at the Marmottan

We had hoped to go to Chartres and see the cathedral and town last week but the weather was not cooperating. We have been to Chartres one too many times in rain, snow or cold. So instead we all went to the annual Salon de l'Agriculture. It is like a state fair on steroids. The agriculture industry is a big deal in France. President Macron spent 13 hours at the Salon on the day it opened. It is a place for all the politicians to see and be seen.
We had seen ads all month on the buses and in the métro advertising the fair and the star this year, Idéale, a large white Charolaise cow.

Idéale

We loved checking out all the cows, sheep, pigs and goats.

Kelly with Idéale,the
Featured Charolaise Cow of the Salon

So many cows. And a milk bar!

Kelly and Evelyn at the Milk Bar

The Camembert Cheese Cam

Our Camembert Box

We had our picture taken at the camembert cheese booth.  The women cut the picture into a circle and put it on an empty camembert cheese box for each of us.






A man was busy giving his sheep a final clipping before he showed her in the ring.

Final Trim

We enjoyed sampling the foods from the different regions of France and its territories. We bought more of the little jars of caramel we purchased two years ago. The guy in the booth actually remembered us--and that we had come twice that year to buy more jars of his delicious caramel. People were dressed in regional clothing at the Salon. I'm not sure where the group below is from.
I don't think we heard anyone attending the Salon speaking English while we were there. This is a true French experience.

Lavender Honey from Provence

I love the lavender honey and we found the nougat seller again. We sampled every type of nougat before settling on the honey nougat with tons of almonds. Bakers from Île de France were busy making their baguettes.

Slicing off the Nougat

Freshly Baked Baguettes

We ate lots of good food while Ahlstroms were here. We each ordered the Vol-au-vent at Angelina's on rue de Rivoli and shared a pistachio Mont Blanc for dessert.

Evelyn with the Vol-au-vent

Pistachio Mont Blanc

Evelyn and Nan couldn't resist the giant artichokes at the produce stand and we just had to sample several pastries one evening.

Of course we had to do lots of shopping. Nan and Evelyn loved Merci. Everywhere we went we were dodging the rain showers.

Even Joan of Arc on rue de Rivoli required a life jacket to keep her afloat in all the rain!

Jeanne d'Arc

On Saturday, February 29th, France banned all indoor gatherings of more than 5,000 people because of the coronavirus. That meant the last day of the Salon de l'Agriculture was cancelled.

Evidently, the Louvre workers have a clause in their employment contracts authorizing them to refuse to work if they were in danger. They decided on Sunday that they were in danger from all the visitors at the Louvre who might be carrying the coronavirus and that they did not have sufficient protections.

The workers' union entered into negotiations with management causing the Louvre to stay closed on Sunday and Monday. People waited in line for several hours on Sunday, hoping it might open.

When the Louvre reopened on Wednesday (Tuesday is closing day and the Louis Vuitton Fashion Week show was at the Louvre that day), management agreed that the workers would not have to handle money, would be provided with plenty of hand sanitizer, and did not need to be in the crowded room with the people trying to see the Mona Lisa. Problem solved.

Nan and Evelyn at the Louvre
Passage Richelieu

In Front of the Louvre Pyramid

We are hoping for more days with blue sky as March progresses.

View out the guest bedroom window

Nan and Evelyn went to the Cluny in the rain after Jon left and caught the bus around back by the statue of 16th century writer, Montesquieu. He was known for legitimizing the essay as a form of literature. People rub Montesquieu's shoe for good luck.

Of course it was pouring rain again when they waited for the bus. Nan took this picture of the flooded sidewalk. It kind of sums the last few weeks!

A couple of hours after Ahlstroms left, we welcomed the Stotts to Paris. We were hoping they would bring the sunshine. It has been so fun to spend time with cousins in Paris!

Todd, Shauna, Greg and Jenny