Before launching into the cuisine we experienced in the City of Light, I’d like to share a little about how beneficial it has been to stay in places that have a pool.

My primary exercise, due to polio as a child, is pool therapy. I do walking, jumping, arm and leg exercises and stretches, and swim for about 10% of the time, at the end. This would be two or three hours a week when I am at home, and this regimen is much of what alleviates the pain and stiffness I experience from arthritis and tendon issues. Plus, I greatly enjoy being in the water.

It was remarkable to find a hotel with a pool in the 6th arrondisement of Paris. My husband, Richard, accompanied me down to the pool on the morning after our first night at Hotel Aubusson. It’s a beautiful pool, I had the pool to myself every time I used it in the eight days we stayed there. However, I was disappointed to learn that it was four-and-a-half feet deep in the entire pool, and since I am short, I was unable to do my walking. I improvised and did as many of my exercises as I could by standing on the steps or holding on to the side of the pool, and did my laps (this pool is twice as long as ours at home, so, a little challenging). It was worth staying there, but I couldn’t get in as many of the exercises I needed. I was thankful to get a little water exercise, especially with the newly realized stress of using my scooter under less-than-optimal conditions. (See Part I)

(We also experienced considerable rain while we were on our trip, and it’s a little awkward to use the scooter in the rain since I cannot hold an umbrella. On the few occasions when we were out when it was really coming down, we just took taxis and left the scooter at the hotel.)

On to culinary delights!

The first evening we simply crossed the street (rue Dauphine) to a bistro, Le Nesle, which was full of young people, which we took to be a good sign about the food and the prices. We weren’t particularly hungry so shared a salad and each had a bowl of onion soup, a dish served by nearly every café and bistro. This was one of the best onion soups we had while in Paris!

I should also mention that I had a glass of champagne every night. I don’t drink that much at home, but in France I was determined to try different champagnes, which I do love.

On Friday night, we were fortunate to get a reservation at Le Georges, at the top of Georges Pompadiou Art Center, a famous restaurant which was about to close forever, due to remodeling plans at the art center. (The Eiffel Tower photo in vacation blog # I was snapped by my husband that evening.) Le Georges was featured in the film “The Hundred Foot Journey.” We had a delightful young waiter, Marvin, who noticed that I spoke a little bit of French and encouraged me to chat with him, he in English and me in French and English. Our dinner that evening included an avocado salad, burrata caprese, seabass carpaccio, lamb chops, cod, and fruit sorbet and vanilla ice cream. (We generally shared a sorbet or ice cream for dessert after many of our Parisian dinners.) Everything we had was delicious at Le Georges! We had eaten there years before and were grateful we could get in during their very last days of operation.

One evening we went to a restaurant on a street nearby, rue Mazarine, Le Boutary, which had an extensive tasting menu, and was the big splurge of our entire trip. We ordered the seven-course, plus a caviar course (they specialize in this) plus dessert, and it was way too much food! Even though each course was a tiny portion (a friend called them “tweezer portions” after seeing our photos), we were stuffed at the end and wished we’d had the five-course. They bring little extras in addition; an amuse bouche at the beginning, and several extra sweets at the end, so we needn’t have ordered dessert at all. We found that many of the dishes were very good, and some were just so-so, which is often true of tasting menus. The lobster course in particular was strange; there were too many elements, this and that for flavoring or accoutrements, and this or that for decoration, so that afterward I didn’t even realize there had been lobster! But we did consume a lot of very good food there.

One of the local cafes we visited was Le Buci, on the corner of rue Dauphine and rue Buci. We learned later that it is one of the older cafes in the area. We had a very good typical French dinner: onion soup, a green bean and artichoke salad, a salmon Caesar salad, and roasted chicken with what we call French fries and over there are pommes frites. I was in the mood for comfort food, so the chicken was perfect, served with a delectable gravy, as were the fries.

The following day we lunched at the tea room Le Nelie at the Jacquemart Museum. No reservations; you just go stand in line and wait for a table. This is a very special place to enjoy a tea or a lunch, as you’ll see in the tiny photo I’ve included at the beginning.

The environment is full of gilt and ancient artwork, and the staff provides excellent friendly service. We dined on quiche, one of the best salads we had in Paris, and a couple of pastries which we were told were made by the best patisserie in Paris. I thought that title belonged to La Duree, but perhaps there’s another one!

Another café with very good food in the neighborhood of rue Dauphine was Colvert on rue des Grands Augustins. It’s crowded and popular so you need a reservation. The first time we ate there we had duck and cod and a tomato salad which was a little on the smallish side. When we asked for butter to go with the bread, they charged us $2.50 for it and it was a special butter mixed with pesto, which they said was the only butter they had available. Ok-ay… The food was excellent so we didn’t complain. The service varied depending on who came to our table; one of the waiters seemed to think it was a privilege for us to be waited upon by him. The second time we went we had the tomato salad again, paid for another green butter, and ordered the side of beef, which was almost the size of half a cow. At the end we asked to take with us the half we were unable to eat, and they simply said, “Non.” We were incredulous since every other restaurant we visited in Paris was amenable to our taking leftovers. At this place you need to know in advance how much you’re going to eat, and if you want the beef, you need a party of four!

Another restaurant we visited twice was Procope, the oldest still existing restaurant in Paris, on rue de L’Ancienne Comedie, not far from rue Dauphine. The entrees were very limited and focused mostly on beef, but we had sole meuniere and sea bass, accompanied by a green salad, all of which were excellent. For starters, we had egg mayonnaise and shrimp cocktail.

We did find that nearly everywhere we went, the vegetables on offer were always green beans, broccolini, sometimes spinach, and salad. For us Californians, this seemed extremely limited.

So, it was a big surprise when we had lunch at a small brightly lit museum café at Luxembourg Gardens called Mademoiselle Angelina and ordered the Mademoiselle salad. It was highlighted with broccoli which had been gently blanched, along with edamame, other delicious elements and a tasty ginger sesame dressing. I had begun to think that broccoli didn’t exist in Paris. We also enjoyed an avocado toast which looked like it was created by Marie Antoinette. I will include a picture of that here, although I had already cut it in half to share with Richard. So that café provided us with the produce we had sorely missed for eleven days.

There were lots of other good meals, including a lunch at Les Deux Magots, the famous sidewalk café which luminaries such as Hemingway, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Picaso and Camu used to frequent. I was surprised at how easy it was to get a terrace table as a walk-in. Our waiter was handsome and friendly, also!

Next time, some of the diversions we enjoyed in Paris, sans the food!