With two days left to try and squeeze in a few more visitations, Tuesday became a little busy – but in a good way.

Jan and Dave headed off on a tour of Giverny and Monet’s house and gardens. It’s a beautiful place to visit and you can really feel Monet’s motivation as you walk around.

In the meantime, Sue and I visited the Hotel des Invalides and the Army Museum. If you know Sue’s passion for all things Wellington, I swear she just wanted to visit to taunt Napoleon Bonaparte one last time. Unfortunately, they were having a Memorial Service in the main courtyard, so we had to hurry up our visit a bit.

Sadly, the section with the Napoleon and Musketeer paraphernalia was closed for renovations. We saw a lot of interesting things, but not exactly what we came to see. As we always say…next time!

We made our way back to the hotel and just decided to relax for a while. Sue and I were going to Restaurant Frenchie tonight and Jan and Dave ended up going to a restaurant close to the hotel called Au 35.

Frenchie is still one of the hardest table reservations to get. I ended up online at 2:30 am just before we left for France and was very excited to get a reservation. They have two seatings per night: one at 6:30 pm and one at 9:30 pm and only seat about 30 people at each.

We had been there once before back in 2018. Since I’m not a believer in coincidence, we were pleasantly surprised when we were seated at the same table. The hostess said they keep it just for us.

Dinner was a five course Chef’s Tasting Menu and we went with a wine pairing with each instead of getting a bottle. The Sommelier was excited to tell us about the wines and how he tried to get the best match.

Our waitress showed up with amuse bouches in hand and we were off.

Yes, it was delicious. I was enjoying myself so much that I forgot to take a picture of dessert, but it was also good! As was the tuna and pre-dessert that I don’t have a picture of. It’s almost like I was distracted by something – probably the Sommelier!

Our wines were: a glass of Champagne, then a white Puligny-Montrache, next an Austrian Reisling, followed by a red Aloxe-Corton and finally a glass of Eau De Vie. They were all very good, but I could have done without the Eau De Vie (think: a French grappa or ‘moonshine’).

We met a wonderful younger couple who were sitting next to us. We were chatting in between courses and they were asking about the wines we were drinking. Hope they had a great time the rest of their stay. Sante ! – Christian and Leesa.

The meal truly was a highlight. The food, the wines and the staff made it an unforgettable meal.

We took the Metro back to Saint Germain des Pres and then strolled back to the hotel. It was a beautiful evening.

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For our last day, we had plenty of art planned. We started by all going to the Musee Marmottan Monet in the 16th arrondissement. We had 10:45 am tickets and the route there was a longer one. We had to take two different trains, then walk about ten minutes to get there. We arrived just minutes before our entry time.

The museum was Mr. Marmottan’s Parisian townhome. The Monet paintings were given to the museum to display to the public, but they aren’t allowed to sell them. There are three floors to the museum: two of the floors feature paintings from other impressionist artists. They had some beautiful pieces there – quite lovely indeed.

After all that art, I needed some nourishment. We stopped at La Rotonde for a light lunch and a beverage.

Sue and I then headed to the Dior Gallery. She was going; I was just chilling while she was there. The Dior Gallery is a tribute to Christian Dior, who really brought classic, elegant fashion to the forefront after the deprivation, darkness and hardship of World War 2. His designs from 1947 to 1957 were highlighted, as well as subsequent designers for the House of Dior following his untimely death in 1957. Sue said it was incredible to see all the dresses and accessories. They had many original dresses, plus an area where they showcased the fashions in a rainbow of colors, but in miniature form. Mr. Dior’s original office was recreated, with his original sketches and fabric swatch boards for each dress of a collection. (Yes, Sue is adding some details to this paragraph and encourages anyone interested to watch the latest version of ‘Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris’).

The timeless elegance of Dior.

And for our final dinner, we went to Le Procope, a restaurant that has been around since the 1600’s. Luckily, the waitstaff wasn’t held over from those days!

We had delicious dinner of Coq Au Vin for the ladies, while the men both chose the Beef cheek Bourguignon. We had Rhone Wines from St. Joseph that went perfect with everything. It was a wonderful finale to an awesome trip.