{"id":1023,"date":"2009-05-27T08:01:58","date_gmt":"2009-05-27T12:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/?p=1023"},"modified":"2022-01-12T08:25:57","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T13:25:57","slug":"day-88-libraries-museums-etc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/27\/day-88-libraries-museums-etc\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 88–Libraries, Museums, etc."},"content":{"rendered":"

The guy we saw smoking the other day started chatting with me at the gym today. Turns out he buys and sells vintage Chanel, Hermes, Vuitton, etc. scarves. (He gave me the card for his boutique:\u00a0www.catherine-b.com<\/a>, if you are interested.) After 2+ months, a few of the gym “regulars” have become\u00a0reasonably friendly.<\/p>\n

There was no strike at the beautiful Biblioth\u00e8que Mazarine today so we had a wander around. One of the librarians showed me the 400 year-old Greek dictionary which he was cleaning. They didn’t allow photos but you can access their website at\u00a0www.bibliotheque-mazarine.fr<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jackie and Paul, with whom we had dinner it seems ages ago now, are moving back to England but we had a chance to have lunch with them at La Grille, 80 rue du Faubourg-Poissonni\u00e8re, in the 10th arr. Would return here in a second, especially as the charming\u00a0husband-and-wife owners have run this place for 40 years and, as Lobrano rightly notes,\u00a0undoubtedly will retire one of these days. I asked the mustachioed, chef-husband if I could stay and work in his tiny kitchen. He said, sadly, it’s too small for both of us.\u00a0If coming to Paris,\u00a0come here soon! (By the way, La Grille refers to the grill on the exterior of the restaurant not, as I had thought, a grill as in grilling steaks.)<\/p>\n

Can’t\u00a0visit Paris, especially for 3 months,\u00a0without going to the Louvre,\u00a0www.louvre.fr<\/a>\u00a0so we spent a few hours there before\u00a0going home for\u00a0une petit pause.\u00a0<\/em>The Denon wing was teeming with people.<\/p>\n

On the way back we picked up some new French commemorative postage stamps that have a\u00a0chocolate scent to them, like the chocolate on\u00a0LU\u00a0petits ecoliers\u00a0<\/em>biscuits. Only the French!<\/p>\n

Trying to fit everything we haven’t done into a few more days\u00a0of sabbatical, we went to a all-around, disappointing dinner at Casa Olympe, 48, rue Saint-Georges, in the 9th\u00a0arr.\u00a0They clearly sat the Anglos in the back room, at least that was my impression,\u00a0sitting next to a very nice couple from San Francisco and observing another Anglo couple in front of us. I heard nothing but French coming from the front room.\u00a0To boot,\u00a0la serveuse<\/em>, originally from the Pyren\u00e9es,\u00a0had lived in and disliked Toronto!<\/p>\n

Never mind.<\/p>\n

The Institute de France was luminous at the end of the Pont des Arts on the way home.<\/p>\n\n\t\t