Boris and I are finally off on another adventure.  The past year has included a lot of adventure-including a move to the Texas hill country-just not a lot of travel.  This summer we are going on a river cruise in the Bordeaux region of France centered on the Gironde estuary.  In other words, lots of wine.  We will board our ship on Sunday, but are spending a few days in Paris before the cruise begins.

I highly recommend staying awake upon your arrival in France.  We have found that flights from the US typically arrive in the early morning hours.  It helps you adjust to the time change.  After a long one and one half-hour cab ride into the city (too much luggage for the metro), Boris and I didn’t follow that advice and napped.  We missed the afternoon, but we enjoyed a wonderful evening with a casual dinner and lots of people watching at a major intersection near one of our favorite Paris hotels.

We started in the hotel bar with Kir Royals (champagne and raspberry liqueur) before walking to dinner.  We liked to stay at the Maison Astor in the 8th arrondissement (administrative district).  It is a short walk from Palace de la Concorde, the Opera, Harry’s, and lots of shopping.  There is also great access to the metro.  We have been to Paris many times.  

The following morning, we had a nice breakfast and walked around before returning to get dressed for our very special lunch at Le Pre Catelan in the woods just outside the city. The restaurant is located in a former royal hunting lodge in the Bois de Boulogne, a public park since 1852. The park takes up the western end of the 16th arrondissement of Paris.  The three-star Michelin restaurant Le Pre Catelan features a fixed menu in either five (lunch only) or 12 courses.  You can enjoy the meal with or without the wine pairing.

We arrived in Paris just after my birthday, so this is a special treat.  Yes, it’s expensive but doable (at lunch) and oh so worth it.  We got to the restaurant just before opening so we waited in the lounge with views out onto the grounds.

When seated, we had a lovely table that took in the entirety of the main dining room.  It’s spectacular.  The menu is seafood heavy, and they easily accommodated one change for us, subbing in another item off the twelve-course menu.

The food was beyond excellent.  They made liberal use of foam.  Our menu included crab, lobster, salmon, and pigeon.  They even brought a second dessert for my celebration.  We started with champagne and did opt to include the wine pairing (two glasses).  I can highly recommend the entire experience.

After lunch we went back and changed and then had the afternoon to wander around Paris.  That night we found ourselves at Harry’s New York Bar, not far from the opera house.  Neither of us wanted dinner, but that did not stop us from enjoying French 75s (champagne and gin) at the bar where they were invented. “The Bar was born on November 26, 1911 on Thanksgiving Day, (a sign for an American bar). It is a bar literally dismantled from the 7th avenue of Manhattan and reassembled rue Daunou in Paris.” harrysbar.com

We met a mother and daughter from Sydney who were killing time before their late dinner reservations at 10:45. The daughter was in law school and doing an internship at an arbitration firm in Paris.   Boris likes to talk about how Hemingway and Fitzgerald used to come to Harry’s and sometimes write and he happily spent an hour talking literature with the women next to us while the tables continued to turn over.  

When Boris suggested yet another drink, I told him I probably needed something to eat so we shared the most expensive hot dog on the planet. That got the attention of several other patrons that asked us about them, and Harry’s sold lots of hot dogs that night.

We worked off the three French 75s we each had by walking back to the Mason Astor.  I will just call this conditioning for the cruise through the wine region of Bordeaux.

The next morning, we once again enjoyed the wonderful breakfast at the hotel before heading out for our day.  Notre Dame was severely damaged by fire on April 15, 2019, and finally in December 2024 it reopened for visitors.  We of course picked the most crowded day of the week for our visit, Saturday.  I blissfully stood in line to see the magnificent church.  The queue moved quickly.

It is obvious that there is still work being done on the outside of the church, but the interior looks wonderful. There is no cost to enter the church, you just have to brave the lines.  Hopefully, my photographs give you a taste of how it looks today.

Afterwards, we stopped for a treat and sat at a sidewalk café to people watch and to enjoy an ice cream soda.  After wandering around the area for a while we went back to the Palace de la Concorde to walk around a bit more.  Boris offered to go into the shops to find me a birthday gift, but I don’t really need anything that high-end, especially now that we are living in the hill country.

At Palace de la Concorde, they were in the process of erecting stadium seating for viewing of the military parade that comes down the C-E and for other Bastille Day festivities that will take place on Monday.

In the evening, Boris took me to a cabaret show at Crazy Horse Paris.  It is one of the few shows that has not totally been transformed into a tourist experience.  The shows have been around since 1951.  There was a cabaret singer, female dancers with very little clothing, and a comedian. I recommend arriving 45 minutes before show time and no less than 30.

A bottle of champagne for two and caviar and crackers were included.  Boris got us VIP seats so we got the full experience-even a host dressed like a Mountie who personally escorted us to our seats from the lobby when we checked in.  About 30 minutes before showtime the singer warmed up the crowd with song and some seriously outrageous costumes.  (That horse tail!!)

The actual show was about 90 minutes long.  The lighter group numbers which opened and closed the show were comedic and the most fun.  I honestly got immune to looking at naked female breasts.  After the opening number, the host announced that photographs were not permitted. Boris and I have also been to the Moulin Rouge. The show at Crazy Horse is much more intimate. It is a smaller venue housed in a former wine cellar. It is also a more sensual show. The lighting is very strategic.

The women were seriously good dancers.  With all the breast enhancement and tattoos out there, I was surprised that neither appeared on any of the dancers. The names of all the “Crazy Horse Girls” who have performed there since its opening in 1951 are listed on the walls of the venue.  The most surprising thing of the night was the large number of female groups who honestly cheered the loudest.  (Lots of UK and American women celebrating birthdays and dressing as slutty as possible.). Overall, the audience was mostly couples.

It was obvious the show was meant to be fun, although there were a few serious dance numbers.  My favorite performer was the silent comedian who was really a contortionist. He was very entertaining.  There are three nighttime shows (at least on Saturdays).

Afterwards, we opted to stay in the area and enjoy a wonderful seafood dinner at Janette Bar de la Mer on Avenue George V.  They served an excellent crab dip with bread.  We over-ordered, getting grilled lobster and a shrimp risotto.  We were served the largest platter of fries that I ever saw; they were excellent.  Boris even got the chocolate mousse for dessert.  He got the single serving, the smallest of three sizes.  Honestly it was enough to feed five.  

It was after 10pm when we finished, and it was still light outside, so we had a nice view of the Eiffel Tower at twilight.  We took a cab directly back to the hotel.

On Sunday morning we had breakfast earlier than usual so we could head to the train station for our trip to Bordeaux.  Everything is well-marked, but we had a lot of luggage (which I don’t recommend for train travel) so we had to locate the elevator or escalators when available.

Boris said go for it on the first-class tickets, so we enjoyed very large comfy seats, Wi-Fi, a USB port and utility connection, a seriously large dropdown table, and luggage storage at the end of the coach, under the seat in front of us, and overhead for small items.  I really liked having an assigned seat.

The train station in Bordeaux, Bordeaux-Saint-Jean, was character-filled and smaller so it was easier to navigate.  Once we figured out where the cabs picked up, we went straight to the ship.  There were booths set up on the boardwalk along the river in anticipations of the Bastille Day festivities tomorrow.  It looked like the everyone decided to start a day early.  Despite this, the ship’s porter spotted us and came out to meet the cab and we were quickly aboard

We checked in and although our room wasn’t ready, we were invited to a late lunch.  By the time we finished eating, our cabin was ready, and our luggage was already inside.  We used the rest of the afternoon to unpack and relax.  Later we had cocktails in the lounge and a nice dinner.  We overnight docked in Bordeaux and begin our tours tomorrow.

Here we go…