La premiere Journee du Patrimoine!

I decided to sleep in this morning, and so I woke up around 10, and leisurely had my usual breakfast of cereal and yogurt. I finally put up a few pictures on my walls -- well, on the metal bars of my loft bed, but basically the same. And after puttering around for a bit, I decided to make another attempt on the shortbread front...which proved to be successful! Or more so than the first time. I decreased the proportion of cake flour to regular flour, and I also spread the dough out more so that the pieces would be thinner! Much better -- very flaky, melt in your mouth shortbread (coated in superfine sugar of course).

After my baking, I headed out with Katie to find some lunch, which we did not far from chez moi at a cafe/restaurant. I finally found whole wheat bread! Which here, is called "cereale" bread. Inside my "cereale" bread, I had some chicken, bacon, tomatoes, and a cream cheese type spread -- we tried to figure out what it was, but it was difficult to tell....

From lunch, we took the metro to the 12ieme arr. to the Cinamatheque Francaise which is one of the largest film archives in the world and also has a museum in it as well. It was an odd place -- about 5 or 6 rooms total, filled with old film equipment, costumes, posters, photos, etc. It was also clear upon arriving in this arr., that we were in a very different place than what we were used to...lots of Asian food restaurants, newer buildings, dirtier streets -- probably not my preferred arrondissement.

We decided to visit one more thing today, and after seeing the massive line at the Assemblee Nationale (which is only open to the public today and tomorrow), we tried the L'Hotel des Invalides. Much less crowded -- and really incredible place! Not only is the building amazing (and enormous), it also holds ancient armor, canons, Napoleon's tomb, etc. It was busy, but not overwhelmingly so, which was nice!

I saw Katie's apartment after that (which is incredible), and we searched for a dinner spot! We ended up chosing "Cesare Pizzaria" (or something very similar to that), which wasn't far from her place -- just off of Blvd. St. Germain. The menu was in Italian and English which seemed interesting, but the food did not disappoint for our first meal out in Paris! I ordered the Trio di Pates which included a little bit of each of the following: fresh linguine in a delicious red sauce with tomatoes, homemade raviolis in a pesto & cream sauce, and incredible gnocchi (which were like little pillows) in a gorgonzola cream sauce. Absolutely delicious. And of course the bread was pretty darn good, too! Anyone looking for good Italian food (and generous portions), should give this place a try!

Not too much after that -- we picked up a little dessert on our way back in the pouring down rain. I got a little chocolate cake that had a gooey (kind of like a molten chocolate cake, but not warm) center, which was heavenly. And I successfully made it home on the subway all by myself! The subway at night is NOT my favorite thing in the world...but I suppose it's better than walking!

Photos of the day:

A tout a l'heure!