Paris, Lundi. Le Tour Eiffel, le Bon Marché, le Marais and a Roast Chicken

Stella rose ahead of all of us.  The little birdie must be fed.  With Maggie still fast asleep,  Chris and I set off once again to collect breakfast.  With yesterday's success, we opted for the same, but this time with the fabulous croissants and a baguette from the boulangerie around the corner.  The croissants were buttery buttery yet light and fluffy and the baguette delicately crisp on the outside and airy pillowy dough on the inside.  
It was going to be a hot and rainy day, so our plan was to find solace inside.  It was shopping or a museum.  The girls voted for shopping.  We once again picked up our Velib bicycles and road across town to le Bon Marché.  After the long bike ride and a couple of stops along the way, including le Tour Eiffel, we popped into a cafe for cold drinks and a little restorative.  We shared a plat de formage, salad de saumon and l'assiette de tout canard.  The duck plate included duck confit, seared foie gras, and roasted duck breast.  Trés bon!


After lunch, shopping was had along with a mouth watering trip to La Grande Épicerie de Paris.  No photos allowed inside, but it was food at its most beautiful state.  It reminded us of the Harrods food hall in London, which is mind blowing.  Part of the Bon Marche was under construction, so I think much was missing, but nonetheless worth the trip there. 

We eventually made our way to the Marais district for some more shopping, but the heat and rain took its toll and we headed back to the apartment.  We will make our way back another day.

We planned to have dinner in tonight and had thought we would buy a rotisserie chicken at our neighborhood boucherie, Boucherie Janois Duret.  
We had stopped there this morning to buy some ham for our breakfast and the chicken looked fabulous.  Unfortunately, we arrived too late tonight to get our hands on one for our dinner.  By the time we made our way back from our shopping excursion, they were closing up shop and consequently, I was forced to go to the market down the way to buy a chicken to roast.  It was now 8:00pm and dinner was still to be made.  No problem.  We are on Paris time.   Our only sadness was whether we missed out on some fabulous chicken.  Perhaps another time.

For an appetizer, we had a duck liver mousse paté from the Boucherie with a hunk of baguette.  We were smart enough to purchase the pate this morning.  It was the best paté I have ever had.  I mean the best!  The woman working there told me it was made in-house, as were the ham and the jambon de parme, boudin noire and other sausages and many other items.  The pate was rich, smooth, silky, buttery duck fat deliciousness.  Heaven.
We had a little difficulty figuring out the oven, but once Chris found the instruction book, we were off and running.   I roasted the chicken seasoned simply with salt and pepper and rubbed with butter.  A few garlic cloves were tossed in and mushrooms and green beans were added close to the finish.
I made a gravy with the juices from the chicken and dinner was served.  Excellent!
To bed once again.  No signs of jet lag.  Staying up the day before must be working.  If only the garbage truck did not come by at 6:30am.

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