To Bordeaux

The TGV delivers us to Bordeaux. A taxi delivers us to Hotel Indigo. We are too early for our room. A marvelous woman at the desk checks our luggage and recommends two possible nearby restaurants and provides directions. 

Loading and unloading the luggage on the train has taken its toll on CJ. He decides to have a good wine, a very good wine. Ordering it garners the instant respect and admiration of our server, Abdul.

Carol's huge confit duck leg with duck fat potatoes.

CJ's veal and mash.

And the star of the show, the 2019 Margaux du Chateau Margaux, the 3rd growth wine from Chateau Margaux after 1st growth and flagship Chateau Margaux and 2nd growth Pavillon Rouge.

Do we really need more food. The hotel has a rooftop restaurant with views. We have a dozen oysters and a couple of glasses of wine and call it dinner.

With scattered rain, the outdoor dining is empty except for smokers.

One of these is our cruise ship for the next week.

May Day

Its May Day, May 1. Most of the world celebrates it as a holiday. Carol ventures out on her own to return to Lafayette Galleries to shop. She finds it and all other shops closed. How un-American of the French. 

Later in the day CJ wants fresh air. His motivating excuse: a picture of the Opera, also known as Palais Garnier or Opéra Garnier. He thought it would be a short three block walk. In order to get the photo he desired it was a long walk.

We decided to return to the hotel through the alleys and side streets. Along the way we stopped in the Siena Restaurant for a drink. Its comfortable atmosphere beckoned us to take a proper lunch.

A beautiful vongole dish.

A marvelous risotto.

Beautiful atmosphere.

Oh woe is us! There is no foie gras this evening and after CJ consumes the final few drops of the white porto bottle he's consumed over the last two evenings, they do not replace it.

Notre Dame

Two of our earliest pictures from 1989 is standing on the bridge with Notre Dame in the background.

We watched in 2019 when fire ravaged the historic building. We watched documentaries and a theater movie on the restoration.

Today we visited the near finished project now opened once again to the public.

It is now bright and airy, colors are vibrant. They have done a magnificent job.

We stop at the nearest cafe for a morning coffee, and of course for CJ, tea. His tea is a delicious vanilla bourbon red rooibos from Africa.

We walk too Ile Saint-Louis. The destination is famous sorbet shop Berthillon.

Even though it has been 37 years since we last visited, CJ walks us to the location without hesitation. Bloody hell, it is closed for an undisclosed reason.

Not to worry, every cafe, bistro, and restaurant on Ile Saint-Louis serves Berthillon.

Cassis and Pineapple-Basil

Salted Caramel and Praline-Pine Nuts

Exiting Ile Saint Louis in the direction of Le Maris we view more 

In le Marais neighborhood we have a pizza and wine lunch in a small cafe, one of many, before a taxi return to the hotel where we hog most of the foie gras and CJ begins his assault on a bottle of white porto, a delicacy we do not often see.

 

First Paris

We have a disappointing flight to Paris on Singapore Airlines. The business class seats are uncomfortable. The seats must be reconfigured to lay flat meaning they cannot simply move between lay flat and sitting as on most other airlines. At 5'9" the seat lay flat position is barely big enough for CJ. All around a poor show for what is supposed to be one of the world's best airlines. For the 14 hour flight, there are also no jammies and no amenity kit. It's a very poor comparison with competing airlines.

The A 350-900 delivers us to Paris at half past eight in the evening. We taxi to the Intercontinental Le Grand, a block from the Opera.

Brekkie is in a luxurious concierge lounge with personalized service and Champagne. We are not into breakfast Champagne. It appears this lounge serves Champagne from opening to closing.

The hotel is one block from the Opera and two blocks from the large department store, Lafayette Galleries where we shop at the noon hour.

Afternoon tea is an ok event. Evening cocktails is much better with Champagne, wines, liquors, a selection of water, and canapes. The 'canapes' include foie gras. We have a lot more than our fare share. The waiter brings Carol a plate even once there are no more on the buffet.

Final Singapore

On this last day in Singapore, we have lunch with James and Mia on their day off. The restaurant is across the bay from MBS. We began our love affair with Singapore at the Mandarin Oriental 17 years ago. Back then we were upgraded to a corner suite. It had a balcony in the corner and CJ would sit there and count the cranes on the Marina Bay Sands building site. There were more than a hundred. 

The finished product sits across the bay from today's restaurant location which is across from the Fairmont Hotel and not far from Singapore's famous spitting lion.

We think we're having a light lunch with each of the four of us ordering a taco. Mia goes crazy and the table is soon blanketed with food; excellent food. CJ didn't expect a good black lager.

A photo commemorates the event.

It's James day off. Sammy is in New York. We pass our final evening at Wakuda with James' protoge, Amos, and his sidekick for the evening Ryan. It's a great time. We finally discover the contents of the huge ten or so liter bottle at the end of the bar: Cognac. In the three years Amos has been at Wakuda, the bottle has gone from two inches from the top to its present level.

Even though it has been going on twice every evening during our stay this is the first time we've seen the Gardens By The Bay light show. We catch the last few minutes of the first show and the entire repeat two hours later.

At breakfast CJ has his usual killer doctored laksa soup. This is his second one of the day doctored and served up in the Singapore business class lounge. Farewell Singapore, Paris here we come.